I made the decision to use Python this week, due to its similarities to Java and C++ (versus LISP and Nyquist) and a large amount of applicable libraries. In particular, I found a library called Keras that was written to handle code for neural networks, making my job to program one much easier. As a introduction, I watched a two hour video that explained neural networks and showed basic applications of them with Keras. In addition to Keras, I came across a library called Music21 through an article on generating music with Keras. Music21 appears to make inputting MIDI scores into neural networks much easier.
I also thought a bit more on the data I plan to use. At the earlier prototyping stages, I figured it would be a good idea to write a bunch of short, simple songs myself, just to keep things more basic for scratching the surface of Keras. However, once I get past that stage, I will need some MIDI scores of well known songs so that I will have a clearer goal to test the output’s accuracy with. I have been thinking of albums I could use as test sets for this stage; preferably albums that have a consistent sound. Two albums that have come to mind are AC/DC’s Back in Black and Linkin Park’s Hybrid Theory. A part of my mind wonders if I will need bigger test sets, since albums tend to have only around 10 to 15 songs, but I don’t think that will be a glaring issue.
One simple idea for testing the accuracy of songs generated by the program involves asking a simple question: “What band does this sound like?” I would have to ask other people this question instead of myself, since their answer would be unbiased. The biggest issue with this method is that it is a lot easier to make a neural network if the accuracy is given in a percentage, rather taking in one of two possible answers. Therefore, I think the best way to going about testing for accuracy is by using this question: “From a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being most accurate, how much does this sound like *band name*?”
Here’s a list of the links I referenced in this post:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6g4O5UOH304