Researchers at the University of Rochester have found a way to digitally reproduce music in files that are 1,000 times smaller than an MP3 file.
The music, a 20-second clarinet solo encoded in less than a single kilobyte, is not a recording but a reproduction. Researchers led by Mark Bocko, a professor of electrical and computer engineering, recreated via computer “both the real-world physics of a clarinet and the physics of a clarinet player,” according to a school press release.
The computer uses everything it knows about how clarinet music is produced—fingerings, force of breath, and pressure of the player’s lips—to recreate the sounds.
The sound quality is not yet identical to that of a real performance, though. Download the sound clips and compare for yourself: click here for the human-made music and here for the computer-made reproduction.—Catherine Rampell
One Response to Eine Kleine File Musik
maggieth - November 4, 2010 at 2:14 pm
“not yet identical to that of a real performance”
You can say that again!
The tone is instantly recognizable as a non-clarinet digitized sound source to any professional musician. Horrible.