Web-based Music Lecture Database Framework with Aligned MIDI Score and Real Performance Audio

This paper presents a framework for authoring, storing, retrieving, and presenting music lectures on the Web. For a synchronized presentation between score and recorded performance audio, we propose a dynamic programming-based algorithm for MIDI-to-Wave alignment to explore the temporal relations between MIDI and the corresponding performance recording. With rapid advances in music transcription technology, it had become more possible to align MIDI and wave in a symbolic domain. However, transcription errors usually occur when transcribing polyphonic music or multi-instruments music because the complex harmonic of different instruments. The proposed alignment algorithm works in the symbolic domain even if many transcription errors have occurred. The aligned MIDI and wave can be attached to many kinds of teaching materials. With a synchronized presentation, learners can read music scores and get instructional information when listening to certain sections of music pieces. We built an evaluation system for doing a subjective evaluation. The percentage of bars which were regarded as aligned perfectly and aligned within acceptable limits is 97.08%. The questionnaire in the evaluation system also reported positive opinions from both engineers and musicians.