Tailors: New Music Timbre Visualizer to Entertain Music Through Imagery

Abstract

In this paper, I have implemented a timbre visualization system called ‘Tailors.’ Through the experiment with twenty-seven MIR users, Tailors was found to be effective in conveying timbral warmth, brightness, depth, shallowness, hardness, roughness, and sharpness features of music compared to the only music condition and basic visualization. All scores of Tailors in the music imagery and music entertainment surveys were valued highest among the three conditions. Multiple linear regression analysis between timbre-imagery and imagery-entertainment shows significant and positive correlations. Coefficients comparing results from Fisher Transformation show that Tailors made users’ music entertainment better through improved music visual imagery. The post-survey result represents that Tailors ranked first for the best timbre expression, music experience, and willingness to use it again. While some users felt a burden in the eye, Tailors left the future work of the data-driven approach of the mapping rule of timbre visualization to gain consent from many users. Furthermore, reducing timbre features to focus on features that Tailors can express well was also discussed, with future work of Tailors in a more artistic way using the sense of space.