Emotional Equalizer: An Emotion-Based Real-Time Music Arrangement System

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Department of Computer Science and Engineering


PhD Thesis Defence


Title: "Emotional Equalizer: An Emotion-Based Real-Time Music Arrangement 
System"

By

Mr. Yu HONG


Abstract

Many famous film music pieces are composed from a recognizable theme with 
different arrangements. However, it is time consuming for composers to fit the 
mood of the music to the desired mood. In this thesis, we propose a real-time 
music arrangement system, which allows the user to modulate the mood of the 
music in real-time while retaining the underlying melody (i.e., theme). In 
order to know how to achieve the target mood in music arrangement, the mood 
distribution among the Valence-Arousal model and the relationship between the 
music parameters and the mood categories are carefully studied by conducting a 
series of listening tests. In the system, the target mood is used to modulate 
the music parameters (e.g., tempo, mode), and then the melody is modified while 
the harmony is automatically created. Modulation of the opening joyous music 
from the opera Carmen with the moods Scary, Sad, and Romantic is demonstrated. 
Whether the target mood can be expressed by our system and the musical quality 
of the generated songs are also evaluated in this thesis. The system makes it 
easy for composers to produce film music from a theme, and it could also be 
integrated into interactive games to allow the music to follow the action of 
the game.


Date:			Wednesday, 21 August 2019

Time:			2:00pm - 4:00pm

Venue:			Room 3494
 			Lifts 25/26

Chairman:		Prof. Bertram Shi (ECE)

Committee Members:	Prof. Andrew Horner (Supervisor)
 			Prof. Wilfred Ng
 			Prof. Pedro Sander
 			Prof. Richard So (IEDA)
 			Prof. Ricky Kwok (HKU)


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