Overview and tutorial on the identification and tracking of pitch and frequency

Abstract

Many diverse areas of acoustics leverage the identification and tracking of frequency over time. Pitch tracking plays an important role in music information retrieval and performance analysis. Frequency contours are also important features in speech processing and bioacoustics applications, and the identification of frequency content in a signal is widely used. From a signal processing perspective, these applications vary drastically with respect to signal duration and frequency, desired resolutions, and amount of signal interference. In some cases, a single pitch is used to characterize a multicomponent sound, while other applications demand independent tracking of individual components. As such, a wide variety of algorithms exist in both the time and frequency domains. This presentation provides a general overview of commonly used methods and available implementations for tracking pitch and/or frequency. Potential sources of error will be emphasized, focusing on the considerations relevant to selecting and optimizing an algorithm for a given application.