Program sorts music based on beat, tempo

KAOHSIUNG, Taiwan, Sept. 1 (UPI) -- Computer scientists in Taiwan say they've developed a neural network computer program that can classify computerized music based on its beat and tempo.

Mao-Yuan Kao and Chang-Biau Yang of National Sun Yat-sen University in Kaohsiung and Shyue-Horng Shiau of Chang Jung Christian University in Tainan said their system could assist music archivists with an automated approach that assigns a genre to each tune.

They said their artificial neural network is a type of computer model that mimics the behavior of clusters of brain cells. The researchers "play" the music file to the neural network, which analyzes the beat and tempo and outputs a general musical genre.

The team said it has so far tested the program on a collection of several hundred ballroom dance music files. They said their system classified different music styles, such as cha-cha-cha, jive, quickstep and tango, with varying degrees of success. The cha-cha-cha was the most accurately categorized. Paradoxically, the researchers said the neural network could successfully classify a Viennese waltz, but not a standard waltz.

The research appears in the International Journal of Intelligent Information and Database Systems.