An effect adding apparatus includes: at least one first operation element on which a first user operation is performed; a plurality of second operation elements on which a second user operation is performed after the first user operation; and at least one processor, in which the at least one processor determines two or more effects including at least a first effect and a second effect, from a plurality of effects in which each of the effects is associated with a plurality of parameters, based on the first user operation on the at least one first operation element, and determines a parameter associated with each of the plurality of second operation elements, based on data indicating significance of each of a plurality of first parameters associated with the first effect determined and data indicating significance of each of a plurality of second parameters associated with the second effect determined.

A system and method to identify a digital representation of a first musical composition including a set of musical blocks. A set of parameters associated with source content are identified. In accordance with one or more rules, one or more of the set of musical blocks of the first musical composition are modified based on the set of parameters to generate a derivative musical composition. An audio file including the derivative musical composition is generated.

A system and method to identify a digital representation of a first musical composition including a set of musical blocks. A set of parameters associated with source content are identified. In accordance with one or more rules, one or more of the set of musical blocks of the first musical composition are modified based on the set of parameters to generate a derivative musical composition. An audio file including the derivative musical composition is generated.

An effect adding apparatus includes: at least one first operation element on which a first user operation is performed; a plurality of second operation elements on which a second user operation is performed after the first user operation; and at least one processor, in which the at least one processor determines two or more effects including at least a first effect and a second effect, from a plurality of effects in which each of the effects is associated with a plurality of parameters, based on the first user operation on the at least one first operation element, and determines a parameter associated with each of the plurality of second operation elements, based on data indicating significance of each of a plurality of first parameters associated with the first effect determined and data indicating significance of each of a plurality of second parameters associated with the second effect determined.

Methods and apparatus to extract a pitch-independent timbre attribute from a media signal are disclosed. An example apparatus includes an audio characteristic extractor to determine a logarithmic spectrum of an audio signal; transform the logarithmic spectrum of the audio signal into a frequency domain to generate a transform output; determine a magnitude of the transform output; and determine a timbre attribute of the audio signal based on an inverse transform of the magnitude.

Methods and apparatus to extract a pitch-independent timbre attribute from a media signal are disclosed. An example apparatus includes an audio characteristic extractor to determine a logarithmic spectrum of an audio signal; transform the logarithmic spectrum of the audio signal into a frequency domain to generate a transform output; determine a magnitude of the transform output; and determine a timbre attribute of the audio signal based on an inverse transform of the magnitude.

In exemplary embodiments of the present invention systems and methods are provided to implement and facilitate cross-fading, interstitials and other effects/processing of two or more media elements in a personalized media delivery service so that each client or user has a consistent high quality experience. The effects or crossfade processing can occur on the broadcast, publisher or server-side, but can still be personalized to a specific user, thus still allowing a personalized experience for each individual user, in a manner where the processing burden is minimized on the downstream side or client device. This approach enables a consistent user experience, independent of client device capabilities, both static and dynamic. The cross-fade can be implemented after decoding the relevant chunks of each component clip, processing, recoding and rechunking, or, in a preferred embodiment, the cross-fade or other effect can be implemented on the relevant chunks to the effect in the compressed domain, thus obviating any loss of quality by re-encoding. A large scale personalized content delivery service can be implemented by limiting the processing to essentially the first and last chunks of any file, since there is no need to processing the full clip. In exemplary embodiments of the present invention this type of processing can easily be accommodated in cloud computing technology, where the first and last files may be conveniently extracted and processed within the cloud to meet the required load. Processing may also be done locally, for example, by the broadcaster, with sufficient processing power to manage peak load.

In exemplary embodiments of the present invention systems and methods are provided to implement and facilitate cross-fading, interstitials and other effects/processing of two or more media elements in a personalized media delivery service so that each client or user has a consistent high quality experience. The effects or crossfade processing can occur on the broadcast, publisher or server-side, but can still be personalized to a specific user, thus still allowing a personalized experience for each individual user, in a manner where the processing burden is minimized on the downstream side or client device. This approach enables a consistent user experience, independent of client device capabilities, both static and dynamic. The cross-fade can be implemented after decoding the relevant chunks of each component clip, processing, recoding and rechunking, or, in a preferred embodiment, the cross-fade or other effect can be implemented on the relevant chunks to the effect in the compressed domain, thus obviating any loss of quality by re-encoding. A large scale personalized content delivery service can be implemented by limiting the processing to essentially the first and last chunks of any file, since there is no need to processing the full clip. In exemplary embodiments of the present invention this type of processing can easily be accommodated in cloud computing technology, where the first and last files may be conveniently extracted and processed within the cloud to meet the required load. Processing may also be done locally, for example, by the broadcaster, with sufficient processing power to manage peak load.

Methods and apparatus to extract a pitch-independent timbre attribute from a media signal are disclosed. An example apparatus includes an audio characteristic extractor to determine a logarithmic spectrum of an audio signal; transform the logarithmic spectrum of the audio signal into a frequency domain to generate a transform output; determine a magnitude of the transform output; and determine a timbre attribute of the audio signal based on an inverse transform of the magnitude.

Methods and apparatus to extract a pitch-independent timbre attribute from a media signal are disclosed. An example apparatus includes an audio characteristic extractor to determine a logarithmic spectrum of an audio signal; transform the logarithmic spectrum of the audio signal into a frequency domain to generate a transform output; determine a magnitude of the transform output; and determine a timbre attribute of the audio signal based on an inverse transform of the magnitude.