• experiment with "re-purposing" film scores
• build music that follows a timed emotional path
• extract musical feature data from sound files
• annotate music by emotion
• help researchers understand music
What's all this, then?

Using moodtrack, users can automatically assemble music according to emotional and timing specifications. The system searches a music library for suitable sections of sound, and assembles the pieces to create a new musical score. A music library can consist of original or commercially-available music, which is essentially "re-purposed" to fit new media.


[click to enlarge]

Re-purposing soundtracks?

Adapting a soundtrack to another film is interesting if not successful…Using a library created from John Williams' music from Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the San Fransisco Bay scene in Hitchcock's Vertigo was scored quite well by moodtrack. The same scene scored with a library of Korngold's music from The Adventures of Robin Hood was less effective.
 


[click to enlarge]

 Why bother?

By making moodtrack an open-source software project, the author hopes to encourage cooperation and discussion of music emotion data. While originally developed for research purposes, the current primary goal of the project is to stimulate interest in classic film soundtracks through hands-on experimentation.

The file formats used by moodtrack are all text-based, allowing simple and legal exchange of timing, musical and emotional annotations of music, film and other media.

Development plans include MIDI emotion-coding support and plug-in compatibility with commercial audio/video software (ProTools, AVID, Final Cut, etc.).
 
Who needs it?

• professional film directors/music supervisors: temporary tracks can be created quickly using familiar material

• media producers/composers: by adding an original music library, composers and producers can quickly create original soundtracks

• amateur filmmakers: home movies can include custom-made soundtracks using classic film scores

• music-emotion researchers: researchers can develop sound files for user studies and perform statistical analysis of subject data

Where is it?

Visit the download page (coming soon)

Download Scotty's MIT Master Thesis (pdf), entitled Moodtrack: practical methods for assembling emotion-driven soundtracks

Download moodtrack User's Manual (pdf)

Go back to

…even if it's for the first time!

About the author

Scotty Vercoe co-produced the acclaimed Invisible Movie Soundtrack and is a founding member of the bands Hyptonic and Zen Bastards. Beginning music explorations as a jazz pianist and composer in his early teens eventually led to a B.Mus. from Oberlin Conservatory in Jazz Composition, under Professor Wendell Logan. For four years, he worked with his father Barry Vercoe, Richard Boulanger and the Extended Csound team at Analog Devices.		 After working as a gigging/teaching musician for several years, Scotty earned a Master's degree at the MIT Media Lab, where the idea for moodtrack was born. Berklee Professor Richard Boulanger and MIT's Marty Marks and Walter Bender served as thesis advisors. Scotty currently operates media company Penny Nation.