publication on sentence boundary detection

My first publication was on
Automatic sentence boundary detection in German broadcast news, done as a result of my master thesis in the Fraunhofer institute for applied research.


Abstract:
In this work we aim at enriching the transcript of an automatic

speech recognition system with punctuation by automatically

detecting sentence ends. We make use of a

simple word-based language model and combine it with

a decision tree for the acoustic features of speech. The

focus lies on selecting robust acoustic features that reflect

the prosodic characteristics of the German language in a

most optimal way. We arrive at a Sentence Unit Error Rate

of 54 compared to the state-of-the art rate for English of

61, by applying a comparable detection system. This is a

sound indication that prosody has a stronger cue on perception

of sentence boundaries for German than for English.

Our work is, to our knowledge, the first system developed

for sentence boundary detection for the broadcast news domain

for German language. Our results can therefore serve

as a baseline for further studies in this scenario.

the most ambitious project in the history of Music Retrieval

Anybody willing to contribute to the most ambitious project in the history of Music Retrieval?

Please help by providing us access to your music, we will analyze it!

Millions of works by researchers and businesses will be based on this audio.
So if you want your music (own compositions or rather rare artists) to become a benchmark, go for it!   

What is it and how to help:

http://mtg.upf.edu/node/3128

Magic with Music

I have not been recently posting. The reason was that I fulfilled my dream to be a magician - the domain of magic is music and the circus which hosts me is mtg.upf.edu in Barcelona.

I did some inspiring work with analysing drums:


Towards a Drum Transcription System Aware of Bar Position

Georgi Dzhambazov
Department of Computational Perception, Johannes Kepler University, Linz, Austria

and singing voice:

Automatic Lyrics-to-audio Alignment in Classical Turkish Music

Dzhambazov, G., Şentürk S. & Serra X.
Music Technology Group, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain

The first challenging leading of pitch

I remember well the day in which I lead my first challenging route outdoors. I have been leading before, but somehow i was decided to experience this new type of rock - conglomerate. I cnnvinced some couchsurfers of mine to join me in this experience and I opted for Montserrat - an amazing bulk of conglomerate formations. It was a challenge for several reasons: First it was a type of rock, which I touched for the first time. The first ten meters felt easy - the rock was saying "welcome". Secondly the bolts were old and far away from each other. In the middle of the route a slightly more vertical passage came on which, the distance to the next bolt was almost three meters. I held my breath and very carefully опипвайки the surface of the sun-warmed rock and choosing pinstaikingly my steps among the bigger stones sticking away, I managed to slide rope in the quickstep. I felt so much relief. The last 5 meters, I thought it would be easier, because the slope got less steeper, but I did not take into account that stamina is a crucial factor - my legs were "telegramming" so intense, that I thought they are swapped for somebody else's legs. I pushed this very little last control I still got over them and with a sigh stepped over the last bulk. After I was standing up there, for the first time my calves hurt more than my forearms. This was a sign I was starting climbing with the right technique. It is so different outdoors, so much aspects are unknown - facing the unknown was the real challenge.

is music more than the melody?

Recently I have been reading a fresh book that gives insight on the perception of music:
the music instinct by Philip Ball
Chapter 11 going in and out of style: 
 An interesting thought considers the importance of the originality of the melody. While pop music can be distinguished by a catchy and lush melodic charms, classical music sometimes even lacks an emphasized melodic line. What is captivating more often in it are the global structures  and instrumental arrangements.
The music expert Aaron Copland noted:
A theme is after all only a succession of notes:  Merely by changing the dynamics ... one can transform the emotional feeling of the very same succession of notes. By a change of harmony, a new poignancy may be given the theme; or by a different rhythmic treatment the same notes may result in a war dance instead of a lullaby. 
I share this opinion because it partly explains of the questions that do not let me sleep:  is popular music more popular than classical or more esoteric one because of its easy to remember melodies or?
In my opinion a beginner music listener will be more attracted by the catchy melodies than other aspects like the harmonic depth or the originality of rhythm. Well this is true since we develop an ability  how to read the melodicity of human voices already as kids. Advancing in our listening experience lets us appreciate gradually the music as a whole - rhythm, harmony, dynamics, structure.
Therefore like all other areas in lives - our music taste evolves with the experience as we are able to more and more "read between the lines" .
At least it happens to me: I find myself doing an in interesting experience. Sometimes I listen to some favourite songs, which I have not heard for a couple of years. Then distinguish new things that I like, as if they were never there before: it is not only the melody, now I hear the drum patterns. the groovy bass guitar riffs, the flowing piano chords. It is like seeing an old friend and spotting new inspiring traits in his character.  Then I say to myself: This explains  why I have loved the song before - I have maybe known even long ago that there are more implicit messages inside which I have not been ready to decode... but I have known it is more than the melody.  
Does that happen to you?

Winter Hiking in the Alps

I have always admired the imposing but charming Alps. In the summer or 2008 I had the chance to give them a short walk. Four years later I finally had the chance to explore their wintery majesty in two consecutive journeys.

 On the 17. November I went with my hiking partner Mariana to the Lechtaler Alpen in Tirol, Austria. We climbed up from the picturesque village of Schnann in the area of Arlberg up a fantastic gorge to the Ansbacher Huette slept there and went back to Schnan on another trail at a very steep hill hanging above the village. What was new for us was the option to use the so called Winterraum which is a not-catered small room in the hut left during winter unlocked on a purpose as a shelter. One can make use of the herd, melt snow, cook. In one word a nice scout experience ;)

 Pictures can be found here: Lechtaler Alpen

On the first of December restless after the first winter experience, we did carry on the experience with a hike in the Swiss alps in the region Saentis. We started at Appenzell and climbed in almost one-meter snow to the cosy hut Hundsteinhuette. Next day we did our bravest uphill to the Zwinglipasshuete in very demanding wintery conditions. Despite the heavy snowing and wind we did as well descend successfully to Wildhaus the next day.
 What was amazing was that one could enjoy electricity due to solar panels at 2000 meters in snowy winter. Further some of the huts are equipped with telephone for emergency cases. Isn't it a luxury? 

Pictures can be found here: Santis Alpen

biking in switzerland

I once had a dream to visit the land of the most amazing mountains and presumably the land of perfectionism - Switzerland. Recently I fulfilled the dream visiting a one not less amazing girl who lives in Bern.  Except for the mountains what really astonished me though were the developments in the road infrastructure for bikers.
Among some of them were:

 

-bike lanes so wide that TWO BIKERS can bike parallel to each other.

- TWO TRACKS separating bikers turning right or going straight on traffic lights.

- bikers wait not next to, but IN FRONT OF cars on traffic lights,

- one can borrow a bike FOR FREE ( GRATIS ) for  some amount of time

A new musical composition!

On the occasion of completing one more year of my life,
I am proud to announce my second musical composition:

Variation on a theme by Ensiferum:
Opus 2: TavernChant in A moll.

Check it out here:
http://soundcloud.com/georgi-dzhambazov/tavernchant

Enjoy... and please comment!

Metalfest West Review

This June I was happy to attend a new for me metal festival:
Metalfest West

The bands which inspired me are worth being commented: 

Ensiferum  - usually if one has seen a band live already, the second time is not that thrilling. This was not the case for me with Ensiferum. The Finns showed terrific scene performance in every aspect: instrument mastery, dynamic show, contact with the audience - the audience was literally humming continuously the folk refrains of their songs. Ensiferum are one of the masters of the atmospheric Kantele spirit. The balance between the instruments - they complement each other to build a diverse harmony. Interesting is that their bass player is by far the only metal bass player that plays only with fingers and further I bet that even Steve Harris would be inspired by his technique. As well interesting is that all band members (except the drummer) sing along and this way build a choral ambiance.

 Dark Tranquility  - Although their music is dark, they did quite a lively performance. The vocalist was crossing the stage and clapping the fans' hands ceaselessly. I was surprised by his rich timbre, when I heard him sing with clean vocals on the piece "therein". The sound was brilliant.

In Extremo - Not only aurally but as well visually a performce to remember - a show of original sound, light effects and fire. Like a mediaeval fair - exhibition of awkward instruments, the approapriate clothing,  dancing and marching artists. The setlist was very well balanced - alternating between slow and fast pieces, hard and soft, a wide diversity - as is actually their repertoire. Amazing is how they manage to synchronize 7 insturuments (like a mini symphonic orchestra) without a conductor while moving at the same time around the stage.

Heidevolk - Melodic, mystic, magestic - so is not only their music, but as well as the atmosphere of their concert. I dare to say they were the mostly-well acceoted act on the second stage for the last day of the festival. The small tent-covered-stage was overcrowded with fans. Very good contact with the audience. Two monolitic vocals and two guitars simultaneously created a pagan harmonic journey.
The style of Heidevolk is like a  well-spiced dish of heavy, pagan, folk, viking ingredients that has unique taste. Once you taste it, you are addicted and want more.  Finer than Amon Amarth, more harmonic than Tyr and more monolitic than Finntrol.

My first musical work

Ladies and gentlemen,
I announce my first musical work:

An arrangement of a pop song for guitar and block flute.
(Melanie in D moll, opus. 1) 

Check it out at
http://soundcloud.com/georgi-dzhambazov/melaniec-northernstar

Enjoy! ... and please comment!

Acoustic return

In the cold gloomy winter days forced to spend substantial amount of time inside 4 walls, I felt enthusiasm to do journeys... I did one in my guitar chord notebook and decided to revive some old acoustic favorite songs.
So check it out... You might know some song and sing along... And please comment!

http://www.youtube.com/user/jorodzhambazov/videos

кауза: събиране на речев корпус

Айде да правим речев корпус за български език. Кой ще ми помогне?

Целта е да запишем колкото може повече българска реч.
Защо го правим? Защото за да бъде възможно създаване на система за разпознаване на БГ реч е нужен речев корпус. Такива има - само  2-3 - и струват твърде много.  Такава система ще улесни работата на много българи - журналисти, юристи, студенти, хора с увреждания. Без този корпус тя никога няма да стане факт.

Как да помогнете?
В един джава аплет изговаряте няколко изречения по даден текст. Просто е. Ето тук:
http://voxforge.org/bg

Колкото повече хора запишат, толкова по-добре. Може да записвате и повече от веднъж

New useful software for music fans

I decided that it is high time to spread the news about two products that I find very cool. 

1) If you are trying to learn a musical instrument and do not have time/money for lessons by a professional teacher, then ...
why not just use software:
A workgroup lead by a colleague of mine in Fraunhofer Institute in Ilmenau, Germany has created this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVeGLOOTBC4&feature=related

They recently launched a demo. Check it out. Could be useful for you:

http://www2.idmt.fraunhofer.de/de/projekte_themen/s2s/Songs2See_web.htm

 

2) Since the spread of of the idea of services offering online radios with social elements, there has been a plethora of similar ideas:
Part of them are for free  only in USA or a couple of western european countries. These include songza, last.fm, spotify.
Others are still free - my favourite here is jango.com.However they have pretty small range of musical bands and are therefore not yet rich on content.

What is taking, however, an innovative approach is organizing music based on mood. Seems awkward, but is pretty logical - the gloominess of the day or the positive feelings after meeting your old friend influences  a lot the current musical wishlist.
Well they did it! We now have a mood-based online radio:

http://musicovery.com/
Try it out!

Concert Album

I have a christmas present to all music lovers. I summed up all the recordings from interesting concerts which I attended recently into a playlist.

You might note that I like the style world-folk-jazz. Some songs are pretty rare and cannot be found in online media :) 

You can point your browser here:
http://77.78.1.147/jinzora-3.0/

Just select under albums the concert.
for example TheodosiiSpassovBand...
Then press play for the piece you want to listen. It will create for you a m3u file that can be opened with any music player.

 

P.S. I am working on making the song description (metadata) better. 

Enjoy!

BEGLIKA 2011 reflections

podcasts - Livestream make.tv

Beglika is a gorgeous lake in the Rhodopi mountain in Bulgaira.
There takes place one very extraordinary festival.
This is my quick reflection on the festival for creativity and understanding the environment in which I took place this summer.

Browse to the last podcast using the arrows forward and backward on the left and right side of the screen.  Enjoy!

гибел грядуща (гламава главобъсканица)

...Гудел се глас,
глъхнел гудок.
Годявка на гребло и гондола -
гастролираща гостенка гола.
Грамове глъчка.

Гукала гиздава гайда,
галено гъделичкала.
В гизнещи гребени
гаснел грехът.

WACKEN - резюме

Бандите, които си струва да отбележим от тазгодишния 

WACKEN Open Air

Moonsorrow -
Клавир, китара и соло китара - 3те свирят отделни части от хармонията.  
Представям си как народа поведен от Аспарух напредва в безкрайния си поход.
Завършена звукова атмосфера,  разнообразна мелодика, идеална за фон на злокобните пагански заклинания на някакъв странен език.  Като удещане ми напомнят на старите неща на Korozy.

 subway to sally - макар, че от малък слушам класичесла музика и че съм опитвал да свиря на цигулка, никога не съм харесвал скрибуцането на този инструмент. Откакто открих тази банда това се промени. Дисонансните контрапукти на цигулката предават още напрежение  към иначе доста мистичните композиции.  Те бяха последната банда на фестивала и охладиха (нажежиха) емоциите.

Suidakra - идеалната комбинация между мелодиката на паган метъла и напевните скандинавски фолк мотиви. Перфектна група за начинаещи и в 2та стила.  По принцип всички банди, които имат гайди, ми звучат интересно. Може и да съм тенденцеиозен, но  при Суидакра гайдите пасват несъменно добре на концепцията.

Children of Bodom - Като последен хедлайнер, те бяха длъжни да напрявят фурор. На фона на  изливащия се от небето порой, съпътсвани от многоброийни светлнинни ефекти концерта беше титаничен.  С безкомпромисен звук и с типичната за тях мрачна хармония бяха идеалния завършек на мероприятието.

Triosphere - едно от откритията на фестивала. Хеви/траш метъл с женски вокал. По заряд  ми напомнят на Аrch Enemy, но вокала е чист а компоцизиите - по-лирични.

Ensiferum - епично откриване на петъчния ден. Келстко свежо настроение с келтски поли на раета. Думата за тях е епични химни, но в бързо танцувално темпо. Единствената банда от стила, която няма средновековни/класически инструменти.  За сметка на това - клавирите са определящ фактор в хармонията.


Van Canto - след идеята на Тобиас Замет за метъл опера и вес по-нашумелите комбинации на класи§ески оркестър с жица, едва ли можеше да се появи нещо по-оригинално. Ето че ван канто изобретиха метъл акапелата - единственият музикант в бандата е барабаниста - всички останали "просто" пеят. След като чух bards song и fear of the dark на живо се убедих, че няма китара, нито бас, а само вокали :)

skindred - Метъл реге. нямам какво повече да кажа. слушайте ги.

И за десерт - някои песнички, които чухме на вакен:
http://grooveshark.com/#/playlist/Wacken/57551338

awk script to find min and max value in a text file

awk 'BEGIN {min=100};  { for (i=1; i< min) {min = $i; print $i } } }; END {print min} ' $filename

print tokens in all lines:
awk '{for (i=1; i<=NF; i++ ) print $i}'

bash script to replace all spaces with +
ls > blah;
while read line; do a=`echo ${line// /+}`;
mv "$line" $a;
done < blah;
rm blah;

bash script to upper to lower case file names
for i in `ls *`; do echo $i > blah; g=`tr '[A-Z]' '[a-z]' < blah`; mv $i $g ; rm blah; done


bash script to give info about all wav files in a dir
for i in `ls *.wav`; do soxi $i  ; done


bash script to resample wav files in a dir to 16000 Hz
for i in `ls *.wav`; do tmp=${i}tmp ; mv $i $tmp ; sox $tmp -r 16000 $i ; done

bash script to change all wav files in a dir to mono
 for i in `ls *.wav`; do tmp=1${i} ; mv $i $tmp ; sox $tmp -c 1 $i ; rm $tmp ; done

bash script to process all wav files in a dir with jaudio: For files A.wav, B.wav returns, A.arff, B.arff

cd /Applications/jAudio/;
for i in `ls /Volumes/SAMSUNG/COMPARISONGDB/testDatabase/newQueries_SUN/*.wav`;
do
a=`basename $i .wav`;
b=/Volumes/SAMSUNG/COMPARISONGDB/testDatabase/newQueries_SUN/${a};
  java -Xmx1024M -jar /Applications/jAudio/jAudio.jar -s /Applications/jAudio/settingsRMS.xml $b $i ;
done

for i in `ls *.arff`; do a=`basename $i .arff`; tail -n +5 $i > ${a}.RMS ; rm $i; done

% parse stm files and generate matchesGT files
for i in `ls *.stm`; do a=`basename $i .stm`;   awk '{if ($2==1 && NF == 7) print $4"\t"$5 }' $i > ${a}.matchesGT; done

My rock radio playlist

Dear friends,
On the occasion of my last day of the first year of the second quarter of one hundred years in my life, I decided it is a good idea to leave something behind me.    
I have compiled a playlist of some of my hard and heavy top favorites.  So if bored at work, on the road or at home, tune in and rediscover the rare rock pearls.
It is easy: click the link below and select play all:
http://grooveshark.com/playlist/Rare+Hard+And+Heavy/56095608

Dream Theater Concert - when my dream and day united

The concert took place in Loreley castle, on a picturesque cliff above Rhein, Germany.
So it was a dream theater in the Loreley's amphitheater.
It was a multisensory show -  cosmic music, subtle effects,  lights, video background-screen, black clouds and ... you name it. 

Total playing time was 1:h 50min
The algorithm for the setlist this year was : pick a piece from each album so far and add some more for the last 3 albums.  And the setlist was:

Under a Glass Moon
These Walls
Forsaken
Endless Sacrifice
drum solo
Ytse Jam
Peruvian Skies
The Great Debate
On the backs of angels
 Caught in a Web
Fatal Tragedy

-----------

The Count of Tuscany

The performance of Jordan Rudess was eye-catching (ear-catching is clear :). He seemed not to be satisfied by gravitation and was systematically tilting and rotating his keyboard sideways, up and down as it was on a movable stand. In the solo of "Endless Sacrifice" he came afront with his groovy ZenRiffer vertical keyboard and dueled with Petrucci. Whether he is comparable to Kevin Moore is an unending discussion, but he is surely one the geekiest keyboard players. It struck me as well how he was operating simultaneously on his manual and a hardware synthesizer in the synesthetic piece "The Great Debate".

On purpose Mike Mangini, the new drummer who replaced Mike Portnoy recently, did a compact but astounding drum solo. Well, I confess - DT's drum-set is the most versatile and complex I've ever seen.   
That was my first progressive metal festival and I was impressed by the high frequency of seeing fans that weared "Rush" T-Shirts. Keeping an eye on the distribution of names on the T-shirts on such events one can track the popularity of bands. Well, seems that the good old canadian classic is still popular, although of course DT-T-Shirts predominated.

podcasts : Sonata Arctica

podcasts - Livestream make.tv

Подкаст втора част е вече факт.
Моля не си пестете коментарите.
До скорошни подкасти - вероятно следвашото издание ще е за Dream Theater поради задаващия се техен концерт :)