Patent ID: 8138409
Filing Date: 2012-03-20
Classification: G09B,G10H

Abstract:
1. A method comprising: receiving a source stream from a source, the source stream comprising a plurality of components; receiving a user selection of a component of the source stream to be compared against; suppressing non-selected components within the source stream to isolate the user selected component of the plurality of components; receiving a user provided component corresponding to the user selected component of the source stream simultaneously with the source stream, the user provided component comprising one of voice or instrument; determining a first waveform area for a waveform generated by the user selected component; determining a second waveform area for a waveform generated by the user provided component; comparing the three characteristics of pitch, rhythm and sonic quality of the isolated user selected component with the user provided component, wherein the sonic quality comprises a measure of timbre and articulation of the respective component, and the comparison of sonic quality is performed by comparing the first waveform area to the second waveform area over a defined time period; weighting at least one characteristic of the three characteristics to give a different emphasis to the at least one characteristic relative to the other characteristics; and providing to the user a single numeric score based on the weighting and representing a similarity of the pitch, rhythm and sonic quality of the user selected component of the source stream with the user provided component.