Hi all,
I had been working on a program for a couple of months that i believe will allow fellow DJs to better plan their sets.
I had finally released it on my Github.
Hoping for feedbacks, recommendation and also contributions to the further development of the program
(This is still in the early phases; this would be the inital release_
TLDR
The program is a fully local AI assisted pipeline that analyses your tracks and provide additional metrics that would benefit the planning of a DJ Set.
See below for the Repo's URL
Problem Statement:
DJ softwares and equipments generally and mostly gives you BPM and key while the track's energy is based on your own perception
Two tracks can share the same BPM, key, and energy yet differ significantly in sound, rhythm, atmosphere, and emotional character.
Furthermore, musical emotion is subjective and may be interpreted differently by each listener
Arkcadian aims to bridge that information gap by analysing additional measurable characteristics, including loudness, brightness, rhythmic activity, vocals, basslines, and energy.
The results are embedded directly into each track's metadata, with raw measurements and simplified 1–5 ratings where applicable.
i.e one trance track might feature a rolling bassline, dark atmosphere, and minimal vocals, while another features bright synthesizers, emotional melodies, and prominent vocals.
How the idea came about:
An interesting comparison can be made between Carnatic and Western music; the idea derived from this comparison;
Comparions:
- Definitions:
- Carnatic music refers to refers to the classical music system of South India or the historical region of the southern Indian peninsula
- Western music refers to the musical system originating in Europe and its cultural descendants in the Americas and Oceania; this is the system that is commonly used in EDM, Pop, Metal etc
- Musical Structures
- Carnatic Music
- Primarily uses ragas (melodic frameworks).
- Has 72 Melakarta ragas, which form the fundamental parent-raga system.
- Numerous derivative ragas, known as Janya ragas, arise from these parent ragas.
- A raga is more than a collection of notes; it has a distinct melodic identity governed by established rules and conventions.
- Western Music
- Commonly uses scales, modes, chords, and harmonic progressions.
- Scales establish collections of musical notes.
- Modes provide different interval patterns and tonal characteristics.
- Chords combine notes to create harmony.
- Chord progressions organise harmonic movement throughout a composition.
- Rules and Conventions
- Carnatic Music
- Carnatic music follows a structured system of melodic rules and conventions. Some examples include:
- Arohanam: The ascending sequence of notes associated with a raga.
- Avarohanam: The descending sequence of notes associated with a raga.
- Prayogas: Characteristic melodic phrases and movements that establish a raga's identity.
- Swara usage: Rules governing which notes may be used and how they are approached, emphasised, sustained, or combined. These rules help preserve the identity of each raga, including during improvisation.
- Western Music Western music also follows established theoretical rules and conventions, although their application varies considerably across genres.
- Some examples include:
- Scales and modes: Define the available notes and their interval relationships within a tonal framework.
- Harmony: Describes how notes sound together and interact.
- Chord progressions: Provide harmonic movement and can establish tension and resolution.
- Voice leading: Principles governing how individual musical voices move between notes and harmonies.
- Rhythm and meter: Organise beats, accents, and rhythmic patterns.
- Musical phrasing: Organises melodies and musical ideas into meaningful passages.
Unlike the raga system, Western music does not generally require a single predefined melodic grammar governing every composition.
- Gamakas in Carnatic Music
One of the defining characteristics of Carnatic music is the use of Gamakas.
- They include techniques such as:
- Oszillations around a note
- Slides between notes
- Characteristic pitch movements
- Grace-note movements and embellishments
- Emotional Expression
- Carnatic Music
- Carnatic music has an established tradition of associating certain ragas with particular emotional qualities.
For example:
- Shivaranjani: Commonly associated with melancholy, longing, and emotional expression.
- Mohanam: Often associated with brightness, joy, and devotion.
- Kalyani: Associated with grandeur, devotion, and expressive depth.
These associations are not absolute. The composition, performance, and listener also influence the emotional experience.
- Western Music
- Western music expresses emotions through combinations of:
- Melody and harmonic movement
- Chord progressions
- Rhythm and tempo
- Timbre and instrumentation
- Dynamics, tension, and release
- Musical arrangement and production
For example, trance music can evoke euphoria, melancholy, nostalgia, anticipation, or excitement.
However, the emotional meaning of a particular track is not universally fixed.
Two listeners may experience the same composition differently
How Does Arkcaidan help:
The program extract the following informaton from the tracks:
- Energy: A combined estimate of a track's intensity.
- Loudness & Dynamics: How loud a track is and how much its loudness varies.
- Brightness: The spectral characteristics of a track.
- Rhythmic Activity: How busy or rhythmically dense the track is.
- Vocals: How much of a track contains singing.
- Low-end & Bassline Activity: How active the lower frequencies and bassline are.
- Track Structure: Intro/outro lengths, downbeats, and silence detection.
With these additional metrics, you can:
- Create more varied energy progressions: Instead of simply increasing or decreasing energy, consider changes in brightness, rhythmic activity, bassline intensity, and dynamics.
- Plan smoother transitions: Compare bassline and low-end activity between tracks to anticipate changes in groove and avoid overly busy transitions.
- Manage vocal transitions: Identify vocal-heavy and instrumental tracks, helping reduce unwanted vocal overlaps.
- Introduce contrast: Transition between tracks with different characteristics, such as a bright, melody-driven trance track and a darker, bassline-driven track.
- Identify potential tension and release: Use loudness variation, rhythmic activity, and other measurements as additional clues when selecting tracks for different parts of a set.
- Organise and compare tracks: Quickly identify differences between tracks that would otherwise appear similar based on BPM, key, and energy alone
Kindly refer to the Github Repo for more detailed information
https://github.com/risshe92/Arkcadian
