Melody line detection and source separation in classical saxophone recordings

We propose a system which separates saxophone melodies from composite recordings of saxophone, piano, and/or orchestra. The system is intended to produce an accompaniment sans saxophone suitable for rehearsal and practice purposes. A Melody Line Detection (MLD) algorithm is proposed as the starting point for a source separation implementation which incorporates known information about typical saxophone melody lines, acoustic characteristics and range of the saxophone in order to prevent and correct detection errors. By extracting reliable information about the soloist melody line, the system separates piano or orchestra accompaniments from the solo part. The system was tested with commercial recordings and a performance of 79.7% of accurate detections was achieved. The accompaniment tracks obtained after source separation successfully remove most of the saxophone sound while preserving the original nature of the accompaniment track.