Scalable audio processing across heterogeneous distributed resources: An investigation into distributed audio processing for Music Information Retrieval

Al-Shakarchi, Ahmad 2013. Scalable audio processing across heterogeneous distributed resources: An investigation into distributed audio processing for Music Information Retrieval. PhD Thesis, Cardiff University. Item availability restricted.

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Abstract

Audio analysis algorithms and frameworks for Music Information Retrieval (MIR) are expanding rapidly, providing new ways to discover non-trivial information from audio sources, beyond that which can be ascertained from unreliable metadata such as ID3 tags. MIR is a broad field and many aspects of the algorithms and analysis components that are used are more accurate given a larger dataset for analysis, and often require extensive computational resources. This thesis investigates if, through the use of modern distributed computing techniques, it is possible to design an MIR system that is scalable as the number of participants increases, which adheres to copyright laws and restrictions, whilst at the same time enabling access to a global database of music for MIR applications and research. A scalable platform for MIR analysis would be of benefit to the MIR and scientific community as a whole. A distributed MIR platform that encompasses the creation of MIR algorithms and workflows, their distribution, results collection and analysis, is presented in this thesis. The framework, called DART - Distributed Audio Retrieval using Triana - is designed to facilitate the submission of MIR algorithms and computational tasks against either remotely held music and audio content, or audio provided and distributed by the MIR researcher. Initially a detailed distributed DART architecture is presented, along with simulations to evaluate the validity and scalability of the architecture. The idea of a parameter sweep experiment to find the optimal parameters of the Sub-Harmonic Summation (SHS) algorithm is presented, in order to test the platform and use it to perform useful and real-world experiments that contribute new knowledge to the field. DART is tested on various pre-existing distributed computing platforms and the feasibility of creating a scalable infrastructure for workflow distribution is investigated throughout the thesis, along with the different workflow distribution platforms that could be integrated into the system. The DART parameter sweep experiments begin on a small scale, working up towards the goal of running experiments on thousands of nodes, in order to truly evaluate the scalability of the DART system. The result of this research is a functional and scalable distributed MIR research platform that is capable of performing real world MIR analysis, as demonstrated by the successful completion of several large scale SHS parameter sweep experiments across a variety of different input data - using various distribution methods - and through finding the optimal parameters of the implemented SHS algorithm. DART is shown to be highly adaptable both in terms of the distributed MIR analysis algorithm, as well as the distribution

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Status:	Unpublished
Schools:	Computer Science & Informatics
Subjects:	Q Science > QA Mathematics > QA76 Computer software
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Music, Audio, MIR, Pitch, DSP, PDA, BOINC, XtremWeb, Pegasus, GRID, EGEE, EGI, Network, Networking, "Audio Processing", "Sub-Harmonic Summation", "Distributed Computing", "Music Information Retrieval", "Pitch Detection"
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	30 March 2016
Last Modified:	19 Mar 2016 23:20
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/47855

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