Title
Active learning of intuitive control knobs for synthesizers using gaussian processes
Abstract
Typical synthesizers only provide controls to the low-level parameters of sound-synthesis, such as wave-shapes or filter envelopes. In contrast, composers often want to adjust and express higher-level qualities, such as how \"scary\" or \"steady\" sounds are perceived to be. We develop a system which allows users to directly control abstract, high-level qualities of sounds. To do this, our system learns functions that map from synthesizer control settings to perceived levels of high-level qualities. Given these functions, our system can generate high-level knobs that directly adjust sounds to have more or less of those qualities. We model the functions mapping from control-parameters to the degree of each high-level quality using Gaussian processes, a nonparametric Bayesian model. These models can adjust to the complexity of the function being learned, account for nonlinear interaction between control-parameters, and allow us to characterize the uncertainty about the functions being learned. By tracking uncertainty about the functions being learned, we can use active learning to quickly calibrate the tool, by querying the user about the sounds the system expects to most improve its performance. We show through simulations that this model-based active learning approach learns high-level knobs on certain classes of target concepts faster than several baselines, and give examples of the resulting automatically- constructed knobs which adjust levels of non-linear, high- level concepts.
Year
DOI
Venue
2014
10.1145/2557500.2557544
IUI
Keywords
Field
DocType
high-level knob,gaussian process,model-based active learning approach,low-level parameter,nonlinear interaction,intuitive control knob,high-level quality,level concept,synthesizer control setting,nonparametric bayesian model,certain class,higher-level quality,user interfaces,gaussian processes,preference learning,active learning,sound design
Active learning,Nonlinear system,Sound design,Computer science,Nonparametric bayesian,Human–computer interaction,Gaussian process,Artificial intelligence,Preference learning,User interface,Machine learning
Conference
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
2
0.37
22
Authors
6