Music technology highlighted at INESC TEC

International event organised by INESC TEC brings hundreds of experts to Porto

Sound and music computing was the main theme of the ISMIR Conference - International Society for Music Information Retrieval, which brought hundreds of experts to the city of Porto. Organised by INESC TEC, the event, which took place between 8 and 12 October, is proof of INESC TEC’s capacity to catapult its quality research, bringing to Portugal international high caliber events.

Catapulting science made by INESC TEC

Technology at the service of music - this was the motto for the ISMIR Conference, organised by INESC TEC in partnership with the Teatro Nacional São João (TNSJ) in Porto. The ISMIR featured the relationship between music and computers and the goal was to present the best of what is currently being done at the level of music search engines and automatic recommendation systems, demos and other applications in this area. The growing interest on this component is confirmed, according to Fabien Gouyon, a researcher at INESC TEC’s Telecommunications and Multimedia Unit (UTM), because in the first ISMIR Conference in 2000" there were only a few dozen participants from the United States, while the 2012 ISMIR welcomed close to three hundred participants from Europe, North and South America, Japan, Russia, Turkey, Israel, Korea, among others", he states.

Research in this area is motivated by the desire to offer music lovers, musicians and music industry professionals, robust methods and effective and viable tools to help them locate, retrieve and experience music. The presence at the meeting of researchers linked to companies like Google, Shazam or Last FM also helped confirm the importance of this area. For Fabien Gouyon, interest in research has therefore "accompanied the growth in the music business, with cases such as iTunes, and the increased online music sales". And the result of this conference could not have been more positive: by promoting discussion on scientific work in an area of study that has been driven by the revolution in the storage and distribution of music made possible by computers, INESC TEC managed to promote and bring to the forefront an area that is acknowledged worldwide.

When a computer is a music "artist"

The Mosteiro S. Bento da Vitória in Porto was the venue for the event which received about 260 participants from such diverse areas as musicology, cognitive science, information or computing science. With a broad and diversified programme, there was also an opportunity to highlight the dialogue between music and sound computing, which is revolutionising the way music is produced, stored and listened to. Several poster presentations were also part of the programme, as well as keynote speaker presentations. One of the keynote speakers was José Carlos Príncipe (professor at the University of Florida, USA, and president of INESC TEC’s Scientific Advisory Board). A set of concerts where music artists were accompanied by computers were also part of the programme.

Organised by Fabien Gouyon and Carlos Guedes, also a researcher at UTM, this scientific event highlighted one type of music that exists because computers exist. According to Carlos Guedes, "now instead of thinking of music in traditional forms such as melody, harmony and rhythm, we try to organise 'noise' that is generated by a computer or recorded and later expanded and articulated in time. Music is about this articulation of sound in time", he stresses. One of the most recent challenges of these techniques is the computational hearing or audition, which means that "computers are taught to listen to music similarly to humans", the researcher states. The systems are 'trained' to hear humans play and can then respond musically and impromptu, an aspect highlighted in this event.

Have your say

• José Carlos Príncipe (Keynote Speaker, University of Florida, USA)

"I enjoyed very much the conference venue, the topics and the audience. I particularly enjoyed the instant gratification of hearing the results of different signal processing methodologies applied to music pieces or music retrieval. This is a huge improvement versus the tables and graphs that I see in the conferences I normally attend. I therefore congratulate the organisers and thank them once again for the invitation. It will not be the last time I will attend ISMIR!"

• Fabien Gouyon (UTM / INESC TEC, organising committee)

"I think the conference was a success. We received about 260 participants from all over the world. I would like to highlight the presentations of the three invited keynote speakers who discussed very diverse issues. I would also like to highlight the panel on a topic that is extremely important, which is algorithm classification. In fact, initiatives in this area are multiplying and in this panel we gathered a very representative sample of the state of the art in this area, a theme that is very 'hot' with this community and in many research fields.

I must also emphasize the initiative that marked the end of the ISMIR 2012 Conference, which was the Late-breaking news, organised as an 'unconference' or 'barcamp'. This means that while the programme of a conference is normally defined in advance, here the program was created at that time. The researchers just got there and spoke of whatever they wanted, with several sessions running in parallel. At the level of organisation, this was a quite chaotic time, but it went very well. This was the time and place to discuss more spontaneous issues that typically arise in informal conversations.

Finally, a word for the conference venue, which was very nice. I would like to thank the TNSJ for opening their doors to a scientific conference."

• Emmanuel Bigand (Keynote Speaker, University of Bourgogne, France)

"New music technologies are likely to play an increasing importance in our society because they offer new perspective for educational and healthy challenges encountered in our society. The ISMIR conference is a fascinating window about these technologies and their potential development. The congress was organised in a very efficient way, alternating plenary sessions with interactive poster sessions and discussion with participants. The location was very appropriate for informal communications and the ambiance was friendly but serious.”

• Oscar Celma (Gracenote, USA)

"I've been attending ISMIR for almost the last 10 years. To me this is a very special event, where I can see not only the cutting-edge research on Music Informatics, but also hangout with long-time friends and colleagues, and have some interesting discussions about the future of the music industry.

Also, at Gracenote we are very happy to support this community. That is why we've been sponsoring the event since 2009. We strongly believe that there's a lot of potential on some of the work published at ISMIR. From the technology transfer point of view, some research papers could be adapted by the Industry in the upcoming years.

On a personal note, one of the highlights was the "Demos & Late-breaking news" session. It was organised as a Barcamp, unconference type of event. I feel attendees really enjoyed it, and I'm looking forward to see more events of this kind in the next ISMIRs.

Last but not least, I would like to congratulate the organisers (Fabien, Carlos, and the rest of the team), as they did a wonderful job hosting ISMIR at Porto. Well done!"