Non-uniform time-scaling of Carnatic music transients
This addresses a domain-specific problem for musicians and researchers in Carnatic music, offering an incremental improvement in tempo adjustment methods.
The paper tackled the problem of tempo scaling in Carnatic music by analyzing how gamakas (continuous pitch variations) and other segments scale with tempo, finding that transients do not change duration significantly. They developed an algorithm for slowing down Carnatic music, validated through listening tests.
Gamakas are an integral aspect of Carnatic Music, a form of classical music prevalent in South India. They are used in ragas, which may be seen as melodic scales and/or a set of characteristic melodic phrases. Gamakas exhibit continuous pitch variation often spanning several semitones. In this paper, we study how gamakas scale with tempo and propose a novel approach to change the tempo of Carnatic music pieces. The music signal is viewed as consisting of constant-pitch segments and transients. The transients show continuous pitch variation and we consider their analyses from a theoretical stand-point. We next observe the non-uniform ratios of time-scaling of constant-pitch segments, transients and silence in excerpts from nine concert renditions of varnams in six ragas. The results indicate that the changing tempo of Carnatic music does not change the duration of transients significantly. We report listening tests on our algorithm to slow down Carnatic music that is consistent with this observation.