Audio Signal Processing in Ironman A development of film music analysis from a perspective of music technology

Abstract

The advances in music technology and cinematography in recent years has granted a higher level of importance to the film music. There exists a gap in the academic study of film music as it relates to music technology, as no appropriate methodology exists that can accurately measure the contribution that music technology makes towards the music as it exists in film. This study aims to contribute towards existing methodologies for analysing film music, but from the perspective of music technology, and more specifically how audio processing in the domains of dynamic, spectral, spatial and temporal processing contribute towards the music in the film. This is achieved by building on the proposed methodologies of the study of film music as proposed by Kassabian (2009) and Altman (2000). This new method can be utilized to create a reference list of contributions that audio processing can make towards the soundtrack of a film by isolating the particular contribution that every moment of music is contributing to the film, and then finding how audio processing adds to this.