Systems and methods are provided for assembling and displaying a visual ensemble of musical performances that were created and uploaded from one or more locations that are remote from a host of the network, a director or other administrator reviewing submissions for selection and assembly, or perhaps merely remote from one or more other submissions received over a computer network. The assembled performances include a plurality of submissions, the submissions including performances created and uploaded at one or more locations remote from the location of the director for the assembly and display over the computer network. Systems and methods are also included for mapping one performance against another performance qualitatively, quantitatively, in real-time, or some combination thereof, enabling a musician, or a reviewer of performances, in the assessment of one performance relative to another performance.

Techniques have been developed to facilitate the livestreaming of group audiovisual performances. Audiovisual performances including vocal music are captured and coordinated with performances of other users in ways that can create compelling user and listener experiences. For example, in some cases or embodiments, duets with a host performer may be supported in a sing-with-the-artist style audiovisual livestream in which aspiring vocalists request or queue particular songs for a live radio show entertainment format. The developed techniques provide a communications latency-tolerant mechanism for synchronizing vocal performances captured at geographically-separated devices (e.g., at globally-distributed, but network-connected mobile phones or tablets or at audiovisual capture devices geographically separated from a live studio).

In an embodiment, a wireless mix monitor system is provided in which the musicians have one or more wearable electronic devices that may receive digital audio over a wireless connection to a computer. The channels monitored by a given user may be mixed on the computer, on the devices, or on a combination of the computer and the devices. The musicians may be freed from a fixed mix monitor, allowing easy movement about the stage or performance space. Audio buffering and upsampling/downsampling may be used to manage temporal discontinuities in the audio stream.

Techniques have been developed to facilitate (1) the capture and pitch correction of vocal performances on handheld or other portable computing devices and (2) the mixing of such pitch-corrected vocal performances with backing tracks for audible rendering on targets that include such portable computing devices and as well as desktops, workstations, gaming stations, even telephony targets. Implementations of the described techniques employ signal processing techniques and allocations of system functionality that are suitable given the generally limited capabilities of such handheld or portable computing devices and that facilitate efficient encoding and communication of the pitch-corrected vocal performances (or precursors or derivatives thereof) via wireless and/or wired bandwidth-limited networks for rendering on portable computing devices or other targets.

In one aspect, provided herein is a device for notating a musical composition. The device, in various implementations, is structured so as to be less laborious to notate, easier to read, and more simple to employ in notating, reading, and/or playing the music of a given composition to be composed and/or played. Accordingly, in its most basic form, the device herein disclosed includes a template, upon which template one or more symbols may be notated, where such notation is configured in a manner that more closely relates the note to be played with the mechanical action needed to be performed so as to play that note, such as on an instrument to be or being played.

Methods and systems are described that are utilized for remotely controlling a musical instrument. A first digital record comprising musical instrument digital commands from a first electronic instrument for a first item of music is accessed. The first digital record is transmitted over a network using a network interface to a remote, second electronic instrument for playback to a first user. Optionally, video data is streamed to a display device of a user while the first digital record is played back by the second electronic instrument. A key change command is transmitted over the network using the network interface to the second electronic instrument to cause the second electronic instrument to playback the first digital record for the first item of music in accordance with the key change command. The key change command may be transmitted during the streaming of the video data.

User interface techniques provide user vocalists with mechanisms for forward and backward traversal of audiovisual content, including pitch cues, waveform- or envelope-type performance timelines, lyrics and/or other temporally-synchronized content at record-time, during edits, and/or in playback. Recapture of selected performance portions, coordination of group parts, and overdubbing may all be facilitated. Direct scrolling to arbitrary points in the performance timeline, lyrics, pitch cues and other temporally-synchronized content allows user to conveniently move through a capture or audiovisual edit session. In some cases, a user vocalist may be guided through the performance timeline, lyrics, pitch cues and other temporally-synchronized content in correspondence with group part information such as in a guided short-form capture for a duet. A scrubber allows user vocalists to conveniently move forward and backward through the temporally-synchronized content.

User interface techniques provide user vocalists with mechanisms for solo audiovisual capture and for seeding subsequent performances by other users (e.g., joiners). Audiovisual capture may be against a full-length work or seed spanning much or all of a pre-existing audio (or audiovisual) work and in some cases may mix, to seed further contributions of one or more joiners, a user's captured media content for at least some portions of the audio (or audiovisual) work. A short seed or short segment may span less than all (and in some cases, much less than all) of the audio (or audiovisual) work. For example, a verse, chorus, refrain, hook or other limited chunk of an audio (or audiovisual) work may constitute a short seed or short segment. Computational techniques are described that allow a system to automatically identify suitable short seeds or short segments. After audiovisual capture against the short seed or short segment, a resulting, solo or group, full-length or short-form performance may be posted, livestreamed, or otherwise disseminated in a social network.

The present invention is a method and a computer program for allowing individual artists to produce a latency corrected collaborative audio work by providing a first artist the opportunity to create a base track which may then be accessed by additional artists who can add audio tracks which harmonize with the base track. Artists may add synchronized tracks to the base track at any time from a remote location thereby allowing artists in different geographical locations to produce a collaborative work of art simultaneously or over an extended time period. The present invention includes a novel method for latency correction, which corrects for delays caused by various types of user equipment, and ensures each track is properly synchronized with the others. The present invention also includes a novel interface where a slot machine or slider user interface allows for ease of use from a browser.

Certain examples described herein provide a method for providing a collaborative session over a network. In these examples, a collaborative session is a series of geographically-separated temporally-coordinated events, such as a performance or concert. In examples, a global latency is set for the collaborative session. The global latency is set to a value greater than a longest latency for a plurality of client devices engaging in the collaborative session, and is defined as a function of a temporal rate for the series of temporally-coordinated events. During the collaborative session data streams are received from the plurality of client devices and presentation of the received data streams on the plurality of client devices is synchronised to enforce the global latency.