Music Technology Seminar (MUMT621)

Music Information Acquisition, Preservation, and Retrieval


Outline for Fall 2026

ISMIR Submission deadlines: Abstract: 2027-04 (topics), Full paper: 2027-04

09/01
  • Class cancelled
 
09/08  
09/15

 

09/22

Slide or HTML presentation I (8 min)

09/29
  • Classifiers (genre, instrument, mood, performer, composer, rhythm, beat tracking, etc.)

Slide or HTML presentation I (8 min)

 

 

10/06

Slide presentation II (10 min)

10/13
  • Reading Week: No class

 

10/20

Slide-based presentation III (15 min)

10/27

Slide-based presentation III (15 min)

11/03

Slide-based presentation IV (15 min)

11/10

Slide-based presentation IV (15 min)

11/17

Slide-based presentation V (15 min)

Submit a draft of the final project proposal (1–2 pages) plus a partial bibliography

 

11/24

Evaluation of MIR: MIREX

Slide-based presentation V (15 min)

12/01

Final project presentations (5–8 min)

Submit the final project proposal (1–2 pages) with a full bibliography

Assignments

The last slide of every presentation should include a: “AI / LLM Use Statement”

Assignment #1 (Due 09/22) 4% Slide-based presentation I (8 min)


Assignment #2 (Due 10/06) 6% Slide-based presentation II (10 min)
  • Slide-based presentation of audio file formats: AIFF, WAV/WMA, Opus (Ogg Vorbis), Lossless formats (FLAC), etc.; MPEG formats: MPEG1 (MP3), MPEG4 (AAC), MPEG7, & MPEG21; symbolic file formats: MEI, MusicXML, MIDI, etc., or audio compression techniques. Submit the slides as a PDF file.
  • Annotated bibliography (short summary and evaluation) as a PDF file (use links, if avialable) (Chicago style, Documentation II: Author-Date References, 16th edition) of the presentation topic.

Assignment #3 (Due 10/20) 10% Slide-based presentation III (15 min)
  • Slide-based presentation of review of topics related to classifiers, e.g.: Feature extraction (audio or symbolic), Feature selection (with Genetic Algorithms) Neural Networks (shallow, deep, CNN, RNN, LSTM, Transformers, etc.), Support Vector Machines, Decision Trees (ID3 & C4.5), Random Forest, Gradient Boosting, Gaussian Mixture Models, Hidden Markov Models, AdaBoost, and Dynamic Programming; include music information retrieval applications. Submit the slides as a PDF file.
  • Written summary (2–3 pages, single spaced, single columns 1" margins) plus an annotated bibliography (Chicago style, Documentation II: Author-Date References, 16th edition) of the presentation topic. Before submitting the summary, ask a Chappie: “Find any issues with this assignment: grammar, spelling, etc.»

Assignment #4 (Due 11/03) 10% Slide-based presentation IV (15 min)
  • Slide-based presentation on topics of transcription, recognition, annotation, and classification. It may include general review of transcription systems (monophonic, polyphonic, separation), Beat-box transcription, singing transcription, beat/tempo tracking using audio, beat/tempo tracking using MIDI, diarization, Goto’ works, realtme pitch tracking, piano music transcription, timbre / instrument recognition, genre classification, structural analy’sis, performer identification, music emotion recognition, review of a component of jMIR, etc. Submit the slides as a PDF file.
  • Written summary (2–3 pages) with an extensive bibliography (Chicago style, Documentation II: Author-Date References, 16th edition), which should include practically all significant papers on the subject. You do not need to annotated them but should reference each one of them in the summary paper. Before submitting ask a Chappie: “Find any issues with this assignment: grammar, spelling, etc. Also check every entry in the Bibliography is referenced in the main prose.&radquo;

Assignment #5 (Due 11/17) 10% Slide-based presentation V (15 min)
  • Slide-based presentation on review of topics related to similarity (melody, harmony, timbre, genre, etc.), query systems, recommendation / playlist systems, historical overviews in MIR, computational musicology / ethnomusicology, or exploratory research on topics related to your final project. Submit the slides as a PDF file.
  • Written summary (2–3 pages) plus an extensive bibliography (Chicago style, Documentation II: Author-Date References: 16th edition) of the presentation topic. Before submitting ask a Chappie: “Find any issues with this assignment: grammar, spelling, etc. Also check every entry in the Bibliography is referenced in the main prose.»

Assignment #6 (Due 11/17) 5%

  • A draft of the final project proposal (1–2 pages), including a tentative title, subgoals, plus a partial bibliography (Chicago style, Documentation II: Author-Date References, 16th edition).

Assignment #7 (Due 12/01) 5%

  • Final project presentation describing what you intend to do (5–8 min). Submit the slides as a PDF file.
  • Final project proposal (1–2 pages) with the title and a full bibliography (Chicago style, Documentation II: Author-Date References, 16th edition).

Final project (Due 12/30) 40%
  • Software project with description (2–3 pages) (Repository on Github) (ISMIR style)

or

Improving writing skills for McGill graduate students: Graphos

Reading list

Participants

Created: 2004-01-02 Modified: Ichiro Fujinaga <
McGill Crest