Mutual Information Based Framework of Quality Parameter Formulation for Similarity Index between Two Musical Notes

Abstract

Thepaper presents an approach of formulating a parameter to access the relative quality of a musical note with reference to the standard musical note. The tonal quality perceived by an individual is prominently subjective. The work in the paper focusses on the objectivity of this comparison. The objectivity introduced essentially will be helpful to come up with at least basic conclusive step regarding the relative tonal quality. The proposed parameter is also evaluated against the rating given by the raters to the tonal quality of a musical note with reference to reference note to prove its effectiveness and agreement with raters. Harmonium and flute are taken as the instruments for experimentation. The approach proposed can be applied to any two musical notes produced with different instruments with one instrument reference. The quality parameter is proposed by evaluating different parameters of musical note and then using the technique of minimum redundancy maximum relevance (mRmR) technique of feature ranking. The Empirical way is formulated to develop the quality parameter which is also put to test against rankings of raters. Thus the paper provide a systematic way of deducing the quality parameter which will be in agreement with the tonal quality perceived by human ears.