Query by humming

This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (August 2012) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Query by humming (QbH) is a music retrieval system that branches off the original classification systems of title, artist, composer, and genre. It normally applies to songs or other music with a distinct single theme or melody. The system involves taking a user-hummed melody (input query) and comparing it to an existing database. The system then returns a ranked list of music closest to the input query.

One example of this would be a system involving a portable media player with a built-in microphone that allows for faster searching through media files.

The MPEG-7 standard includes provisions for QbH music searches.

Examples of QbH systems include ACRCloud, SoundHound, Musipedia, and Tunebot.

External links[]

Online demos[]

• ACRCloud SDKs
• SoundHound (mobile app)
• QbH system from Musipedia
• QbH research project at NYU
• Query by Humming at Sloud Inc, QbH applet (Active X)
• MaART at Sourceforge
• Tunebot at Northwestern University

General info and articles[]

• Comprehensive list of Music Information Retrieval systems (apparently last updated ca 2003) at the Wayback Machine (archived December 21, 2008)
• Query By Humming – Musical Information Retrieval in an Audio Database, paper by Asif Ghias, Jonathan Logan, David Chamberlin, Brian C. Smith; ACM Multimedia 1995
• A survey presentation of QBH by Eugene Weinstein, 2006
• The New Zealand Digital Library MELody inDEX, article by Rodger J. McNab, Lloyd A. Smith, David Bainbridge and Ian H. Witten; D-Lib Magazine 1997
• Name that Tune: A Pilot Study in Finding a Melody from a Sung Query, article by Bryan Pardo, Jonah Shifrin, and William Birmingham, Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, vol. 55 (4), pp. 283-300, 2004