Report on copyright implications of digital audio transmission services : a report of the register of copyrights.

Accompanied by "Appendix--comment letters, docket RM 90-6" (ix, 615 p. ; 28 cm.).

Victor records.

General catalogue, issued May and November.

A plasticidade acústica de uma população de Boto - Cinza, Sotalia Guianensis (Van Banédén, 1864) (Cetacea, Delphinidae), na região Nordeste do Brasil

The environmental characteristics can modify the acoustics of a species due to habitat, time of day and year. Therefore, this study investigated the relationships between seasons, tide, daily cycle of tides, times of day and different habitat and noise emission of S. guianensis. Sound recordings occurred in the Curral’s Cove and Lagoon Complex of Guaraíras (CLG) in the municipality of Tibau do Sul/RN. Whistles are emitted with lower frequency during rainy season and spring tide while clicks are higher; whistles, clicks and calls have higher frequency during ebb tide. These modifications can be related with turbidity and prey availability. The whistles and clicks occurrence are higher at night probably because luminosity is lower. Furthermore, the whistles and clicks frequency reduction overnight allows the sound to travel longer distance and helps the view which is limited; but the minimum frequency increase was needed to catch the prey. The low occurrence of calls could be related to the small group size. The acoustic changes at night may be partly influenced by light levels as prey availability that is larger in this period. Whistle frequencies and click initial frequency are higher in CLG than Curral’s cove that permitted good precision. However, click central frequency is lower and may be connected to tracking the area. Several factors may be associated with such modifications as background noise, bottom and others. This study supports the hypothesis that S. guianensis presents an acoustic plasticity according to the local conditions where the species is embedded and adapts to the environmental changes.

La musique acousmatique et le documentaire : vers un art sonore informatif

Ce mémoire rend compte de la création du « documentaire acousmatique » Littorale, une œuvre musicale à visée informative, élaborée au moyen de prises de son in situ, d’extraits d’archives sonores et des témoignages de sept informateurs. En tissant des liens entre les deux disciplines médiatiques que sont la composition acousmatique et le documentaire, l’œuvre retrace l’histoire d’un impressionnant corpus de chants folkloriques récoltés en 1918 par l’ethnologue Marius Barbeau, dans les villages côtiers de Sainte-Anne-des-Monts et Tourelle, Haute-Gaspésie. La démarche de composition s’élabore ainsi en trois axes communicants : la mise en lumière de liens préexistants mais sous-exploités entre le documentaire et l’acousmatique, la recherche de terrain entourant le répertoire de chansons et sa résurgence dans la population actuelle de la Haute-Gaspésie, ainsi que la composition des trois mouvements musicaux constituant Littorale. À travers l’investigation d’enjeux identitaires qui découlent de la redécouverte du répertoire et la mise en lumière de certains flous historiques qui y sont reliés, cet alliage de deux genres médiatiques vise l’émergence d’une démarche de composition informative et socialement pertinente.

La musique acousmatique et le documentaire : vers un art sonore informatif

Ce mémoire rend compte de la création du « documentaire acousmatique » Littorale, une œuvre musicale à visée informative, élaborée au moyen de prises de son in situ, d’extraits d’archives sonores et des témoignages de sept informateurs. En tissant des liens entre les deux disciplines médiatiques que sont la composition acousmatique et le documentaire, l’œuvre retrace l’histoire d’un impressionnant corpus de chants folkloriques récoltés en 1918 par l’ethnologue Marius Barbeau, dans les villages côtiers de Sainte-Anne-des-Monts et Tourelle, Haute-Gaspésie. La démarche de composition s’élabore ainsi en trois axes communicants : la mise en lumière de liens préexistants mais sous-exploités entre le documentaire et l’acousmatique, la recherche de terrain entourant le répertoire de chansons et sa résurgence dans la population actuelle de la Haute-Gaspésie, ainsi que la composition des trois mouvements musicaux constituant Littorale. À travers l’investigation d’enjeux identitaires qui découlent de la redécouverte du répertoire et la mise en lumière de certains flous historiques qui y sont reliés, cet alliage de deux genres médiatiques vise l’émergence d’une démarche de composition informative et socialement pertinente.

Music copyright in the digital age: creators, commerce and copyright - an empirical study of the UK music copyright industries

Copyright markets, it is said, are ‘winner takes all’ markets favouring the interests of corporate investors over the interests of primary creators. However, little is known about popular music creators’ ‘lived experience’ of copyright. This thesis interrogates key aspects of copyright transactions between creators and investors operating in the UK music industries using analysis of various copyright related documents and semi-structured interviews with creators and investors. The research found considerable variety in the types of ‘deal’ creators enter into and considerable divergence in the potential rewards. It was observed that new-entrant creators have little comprehension of the basic tenets of copyright, but with experience they become more ‘copyright aware’. Documentary and interview evidence reveals creators routinely assign copyright to third party investors for the full term of copyright in sound recordings: the justification for this is questionable. An almost inevitable consequence of this asymmetry of understanding of copyright and asymmetry of bargaining power is that creators become alienated from their copyright works. The empirical evidence presented here supports historic and contemporary calls for a statutory mechanism limiting the maximum copyright assignment period to ten-years.

Motion pictures & sound and video recordings in the National Archives.

Mode of access: Internet.

Expressive concatenative synthesis by reusing samples from real performance recordings

Here we describe an approach to the expressive synthesis of jazz saxophone melodies that reuses audio recordings and carefully concatenates note samples. The aim is to generate an expressive audio sequence from the analysis of an arbitrary input score using a previously induced performance model and an annotated saxophone note database extracted from real performances. We push the idea of using the same corpus for both inducing an expressive performance model and synthesizing sound by concatenating samples in the corpus. Therefore, a connection between the performers’ instrument sound and performance characteristics is kept during the synthesis process.

Animal sound : què se sent quan s’és una cabra?

Aquest projecte treballa sobre la possibilitat d'aplicar tècniques d'enregistrament binaural en animals, en concret, en una cabra domèstica. Mitjançant uns micròfons col·locats dins les seves orelles i una petita càmera de vídeo muntada sobre el seu cap, s'obté un material audiovisual que permet fer-se una idea aproximada de com és la seva percepció del món. En base a un estudi de cognició comparada, es pretén trobar maneres de transformar els enregistraments obtinguts per tal d'adaptar el marc psicoacústic humà al de l'animal. L'objectiu és que una persona pugui sentir com ho fa un animal, encara que sigui d'una manera aproximada. Els materials obtinguts al llarg dels enregistraments són el punt de partida per a la construcció de paisatges sonors i peces audiovisuals diverses. Així doncs, el treball s'inicia amb el disseny i construcció d'un micròfon binaural, continua amb enregistraments de camp en animals i acaba amb l'edició, el processat i la composició dels paisatges sonors finals.

Investigations into Velocity and Distance Perception Based on Different Types of Moving Sound Sources with Respect to Auditory Virtual Environments

The characteristics of moving sound sources have strong implications on the listener's distance perception and the estimation of velocity. Modifications of the typical sound emissions as they are currently occurring due to the tendency towards electromobility have an impact on the pedestrian's safety in road traffic. Thus, investigations of the relevant cues for velocity and distance perception of moving sound sources are not only of interest for the psychoacoustic community, but also for several applications, like e.g. virtual reality, noise pollution and safety aspects of road traffic. This article describes a series of psychoacoustic experiments in this field. Dichotic and diotic stimuli of a set of real-life recordings taken from a passing passenger car and a motorcycle were presented to test subjects who in turn were asked to determine the velocity of the object and its minimal distance from the listener. The results of these psychoacoustic experiments show that the estimated velocity is strongly linked to the object's distance. Furthermore, it could be shown that binaural cues contribute significantly to the perception of velocity. In a further experiment, it was shown that - independently of the type of the vehicle - the main parameter for distance determination is the maximum sound pressure level at the listener's position. The article suggests a system architecture for the adequate consideration of moving sound sources in virtual auditory environments. Virtual environments can thus be used to investigate the influence of new vehicle powertrain concepts and the related sound emissions of these vehicles on the pedestrians' ability to estimate the distance and velocity of moving objects.

Multi-microphone recordings (EigenMike32) inside a WFS system (Iosono) through Ambisonics techniques using Matlab

El audio multicanal ha avanzado a pasos agigantados en los últimos años, y no solo en las técnicas de reproducción, sino que en las de capitación también. Por eso en este proyecto se encuentran ambas cosas: un array microfónico, EigenMike32 de MH Acoustics, y un sistema de reproducción con tecnología Wave Field Synthesis, instalado Iosono en la Jade Höchscule Oldenburg. Para enlazar estos dos puntos de la cadena de audio se proponen dos tipos distintos de codificación: la reproducción de la toma horizontal del EigenMike32; y el 3er orden de Ambisonics (High Order Ambisonics, HOA), una técnica de codificación basada en Armónicos Esféricos mediante la cual se simula el campo acústico en vez de simular las distintas fuentes. Ambas se desarrollaron en el entorno Matlab y apoyadas por la colección de scripts de Isophonics llamada Spatial Audio Matlab Toolbox. Para probar éstas se llevaron a cabo una serie de test en los que se las comparó con las grabaciones realizadas a la vez con un Dummy Head, a la que se supone el método más aproximado a nuestro modo de escucha. Estas pruebas incluían otras grabaciones hechas con un Doble MS de Schoeps que se explican en el proyecto “Sally”. La forma de realizar éstas fue, una batería de 4 audios repetida 4 veces para cada una de las situaciones garbadas (una conversación, una clase, una calle y un comedor universitario). Los resultados fueron inesperados, ya que la codificación del tercer orden de HOA quedo por debajo de la valoración Buena, posiblemente debido a la introducción de material hecho para un array tridimensional dentro de uno de 2 dimensiones. Por el otro lado, la codificación que consistía en extraer los micrófonos del plano horizontal se mantuvo en el nivel de Buena en todas las situaciones. Se concluye que HOA debe seguir siendo probado con mayores conocimientos sobre Armónicos Esféricos; mientras que el otro codificador, mucho más sencillo, puede ser usado para situaciones sin mucha complejidad en cuanto a espacialidad. In the last years the multichannel audio has increased in leaps and bounds and not only in the playback techniques, but also in the recording ones. That is the reason of both things being in this project: a microphone array, EigenMike32 from MH Acoustics; and a playback system with Wave Field Synthesis technology, installed by Iosono in Jade Höchscule Oldenburg. To link these two points of the audio chain, 2 different kinds of codification are proposed: the reproduction of the EigenMike32´s horizontal take, and the Ambisonics´ third order (High Order Ambisonics, HOA), a codification technique based in Spherical Harmonics through which the acoustic field is simulated instead of the different sound sources. Both have been developed inside Matlab´s environment and supported by the Isophonics´ scripts collection called Spatial Audio Matlab Toolbox. To test these, a serial of tests were made in which they were compared with recordings made at the time by a Dummy Head, which is supposed to be the closest method to our hearing way. These tests included other recording and codifications made by a Double MS (DMS) from Schoeps which are explained in the project named “3D audio rendering through Ambisonics techniques: from multi-microphone recordings (DMS Schoeps) to a WFS system, through Matlab”. The way to perform the tests was, a collection made of 4 audios repeated 4 times for each recorded situation (a chat, a class, a street and college canteen or Mensa). The results were unexpected, because the HOA´s third order stood under the Well valuation, possibly caused by introducing material made for a tridimensional array inside one made only by 2 dimensions. On the other hand, the codification that consisted of extracting the horizontal plane microphones kept the Well valuation in all the situations. It is concluded that HOA should keep being tested with larger knowledge about Spherical Harmonics; while the other coder, quite simpler, can be used for situations without a lot of complexity with regards to spatiality.

Mozarabic Chant anechoic recordings for auralization purposes

The Hispanic Rite is the liturgy celebrated by Christians of the Iberian Peninsula before the imposition of the Roman Rite in the mid-eleventh century. As in other early Christian liturgies, music was the core of the Hispanic Rite. This music, known as Mozarabic Chant is one of the richest musical repertoires of the Middle Ages. Currently, a research project is underway involving the restoration of the Hispanic Rite sound, using techniques of acoustic virtual reality. The project aims to perform the auralization of the sound of Mozarabic Chant in his primitive environment, that is, taking into account the acoustic characteristics of the pre-Romanesque churches in their original state. For this purpose, anechoic recordings were made for a number of musical pieces representative of the Mozarabic Chant repertoire. In total eight (8) musical pieces have been recorded and interpreted, each of one, by six (6) different singers. The recordings were made using a spherical array composed by 32 microphones. This paper describes the more relevant aspects related to the recorded musical material, the technical specifications and installation details of the recording equipment, the data processing, and a summary of the results.

Virtual restoration of the sound of the Hispanic Rite

The virtual acoustic reality techniques are powerful tools for the recovery of acoustical heritage of historic buildings. Through the acoustic modeling and auralization techniques it´s possible to reconstruct the sound of disappeared buildings or the ones with significant modifications over the years, knowing the original geometry and the acoustic characteristics of their surfaces. This paper shows the results of a research project whose goal is the virtual recovery of the sound of the Hispanic Rite, the rite celebrated by Christians of the Iberian Peninsula before the imposition of the Roman Rite in the mid-eleventh century. For this purpose, acoustic models of a series of Pre-Romanesque churches were made. These acoustic models represent the churches in their original state, following the reconstruction hypothesis proposed by leading researchers in medieval liturgical archeology. Multichannel anechoic recordings of several pieces of the music of the Hispanic Rite have been carried out using a spherical array composed of 31 microphones. Finally, static and dynamic auralizations have been developed, involving the different liturgical configurations which were usual in this rite.