Syncopation creates the sensation of groove in synthesized music examples

This dataset contains the supplementary material for the journal article:

Syncopation creates the sensation of groove in synthesized music examples

G Sioros, M Miron, M Davies, F Gouyon, G Madison

Frontiers in psychology 5, 1036

We include the musical stimuli and the anonymized user ratings for the two experiments in the paper:

Experiment 1

Files included: 

musical_stimuli/expA/

ratings/GrooveSynthExptA.XLS

Our aim was to measure and understand the effect of syncopation on the sensation of groove, independently of other structural or expressive factors such as the meter or timing deviations from the metronomical positions. At the same time we wanted to eliminate any expressive features of human performances, such as timing deviations from the metrical grid or dynamic accents. To this end, we used simple piano melodies with a clear metrical structure. All melodies were in 4/4 meter and consisted of short melodic phrases of 2–4 bars. The melodies contain simple rhythmic figures such as the ones found in melodies for children and were of moderate tempo (120 BPM). Seven melodies were traditional songs for children from different cultures. Another five were composed for the purposes of the experiment. 

Four different syncopation transformations were applied on the original melodies that differ on the metrical subdivisions that the displaced notes were found after the transformation. They are coded by two numbers, x and y, in the following form xDyA, where xdenotes the metrical level that the weak quarter notes were shifted to and y is the metrical level where the last note of each phrase is shifted to. For example, in the 16D8A transformation the notes originally articulated on weak quarter notes were shifted to the 16 note position directly preceding the next strong beat, while the last note of each phrase in the melodies was shifted to the preceding 8 note metrical position.

Twenty-eight participants (14 female, 14 male, mean = 30.0 years, SD = 2.9 years) of different nationalities participated to this experiment.

Experiment 2

Files included: 

musical_stimuli/expB/

ratings/GrooveSynthExptB.XLS

Experiment 1 showed that the syncopation transformations increased the groove ratings of the simple melodies, but also that all transformations had a similar effect. This raises the question whether any kind of transformation that introduces faster metrical levels but preserves the structure of the melodies would in fact result in higher ratings from the metronomic deadpan original version, or if syncopation is indeed required. In Experiment 2 we aim to address this main question by including other non-syncopation transformations. Additionally, we employ a set of three syncopation transformations that vary in the degree and strength of the syncopation that they generate. We wanted, in that way, to examine in more detail how syncopation affects the sensation of groove. In order to be able to achieve a higher degree of syncopation without altering the perceived meter, a metronome was employed to provide a strong metrical reference.

Five of the traditional complex songs from Experiment 1 and all five simple melodies that were composed for the purposes of Experiment 1 were used. A set of transformations was then applied resulting in 6 versions of each. The meter was emphasized by a hi-hat drum sound on every quarter note with the first quarter note of each bar being dynamically stressed (twice the MIDI velocity value). An introductory bar with only the metronome sound preceded the playback of each melody.

Transformations: Syncopation transformation 8A, Syncopation transformation 8D, Maximum syncopation, Density transformations (density1 and density2).

Twenty-two participants (6 female, 16 male) took part in the experiment (mean = 30.7 years, SD = 6.3 years). Of the 22 participants, six of them had no music training and nine of them were considered professional musicians with more than 8 years of music training. 

Conditions of Use

The musical stimuli and the user ratings in this dataset are offered free of charge for non-commercial use only. You can not redistribute them nor modify them. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 Unported License.

Please Acknowledge this dataset in Academic Research

When the present dataset is used for academic research, we would highly appreciate if scientific publications of works partly based on the present dataset quote the following publication:

Syncopation creates the sensation of groove in synthesized music examples

G Sioros, M Miron, M Davies, F Gouyon, G Madison

Frontiers in psychology 5, 1036