Dr Charalampos Saitis
Lecturer in Digital Music Processing
School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science
Queen Mary University of London
Queen Mary University of London
Research
Perception, cognition & aesthetics of sound, Crossmodal & multisensory perception involving sound, Enabling digital audio with an understanding of how we listen, Modelling human values (& biases) with digital music data, Digital tools for education
Interests
My research focuses on cognitive representations of timbre and metaphor, including digital interactive cross-sensory games for public engagement and in-the-wild collection of behavioural data. I am a founding member of the International Conference on Timbre and acted as co-editor for the scientific volumes Timbre: Acoustics, Perception, & Cognition (2019) and Musical Haptics (2018). I am also interested in data-driven approaches to modelling human values (and biases) using multimodal music data (Turing Fellow 2021–2023).Publications
Publications of specific relevance to the Centre for Multimodal AI2024
A multimodal understanding of the role of sound and music in gendered toy marketingMarinelli L, Lucht P and Saitis C
Plos One, Public Library of Science (Plos) vol. 19 (11)
06-11-2024
Composer Style-specific Symbolic Music Generation Using Vector Quantized Discrete Diffusion ModelsZhang J, Fazekas G and Saitis C
IEEE International Workshop on Machine Learning for Signal Processing (MLSP) 22 Sep 2024 - 25 Sep 2024.
22-09-2024
Timbre Tools: Ethnographic Perspectives on Timbre and Sonic Cultures in Hackathon DesignsSaitis C, Del Sette BM, Shier J, Tian H, Zheng S, Skach S, Reed CN and Ford C
Audio Mostly 2024 - Explorations in Sonic Cultures., 229-244.
18-09-2024
Building Sketch-to-Sound Mapping with Unsupervised Feature Extraction and Interactive Machine LearningZheng S, Del Sette BM, Saitis C, Xambo Sedo A and Bryan-Kinns N
New Interfaces for Musical Expression Utrecht, The Netherlands 4 Sep 2024 - 6 Sep 2024.
04-09-2024
MoralBERT: A Fine-Tuned Language Model for Capturing Moral Values in Social DiscussionsPreniqi V, Ghinassi I, Ive J, Saitis C and Kalimeri K
Proceedings of the 2024 International Conference on Information Technology for Social Good., 433-442.
04-09-2024
Timbral brightness perception investigated through multimodal interferenceSaitis C and Wallmark Z
Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, Springer Nature vol. 86 (6), 1835-1845.
01-08-2024
Automatic Detection of Moral Values in Music LyricsPreniqi V, Ghinassi I, Ive J, Kalimeri K and Saitis C
25th International Society for Music Information Retrieval Conference 10 Nov 2024 - 14 Nov 2024.
26-07-2024
Real-time Timbre Remapping with Differentiable DSPShier J, Saitis C, Robertson A and McPherson A
05-07-2024
Deep Learning-based Audio Representations for the Analysis and Visualisation of Electronic Dance Music DJ MixesWilliams A, Tian H, Lattner S, Barthet M and Saitis C
AES International Symposium on AI and the Musician Boston, MA, USA 6 Jun 2024 - 8 Jun 2024.
06-06-2024
Explainable Modeling of Gender-Targeting Practices in Toy Advertising Sound and MusicMarinelli L and Saitis C
ICASSP 2024 Workshop XAI-SA Seoul 14 Apr 2024 - 19 Apr 2024.
14-04-2024
Timbral effects of col legno tratto techniques on bowed cello soundsPàmies-Vilà M and Saitis C
The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. vol. 155 (3_Supplement), a60-a60.
01-03-2024
Composer Style-Specific Symbolic Music Generation using Vector Quantized Discrete Diffusion ModelsZhang J, Fazekas G and Saitis C
2024 IEEE 34th International Workshop on Machine Learning for Signal Processing (MLSP). vol. 00, 1-6.
25-01-2024
A review of differentiable digital signal processing for music and speech synthesisHayes B, Shier J, Fazekas G, McPherson A and Saitis C
Frontiers in Signal Processing, Frontiers vol. 3
11-01-2024
2023
Soundscapes of morality: Linking music preferences and moral values through lyrics and audioPreniqi V, Kalimeri K and Saitis C
Plos One, Public Library of Science (Plos) vol. 18 (11)
29-11-2023
Gender-Coded Sound: Analysing the Gendering of Music in Toy Commercials via Multi-Task LearningMarinelli L, FAZEKAS G and Saitis C
24th International Society for Music Information Retrieval Conference Milan 5 Nov 2023 - 9 Nov 2023.
05-11-2023
Sound of Care: Towards a Co-Operative AI Digital Pain Companion to Support People with Chronic Primary PainDel Sette BM, Carnes D and Saitis C
Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing., 283-288.
14-10-2023
Differentiable Modelling of Percussive Audio with Transient and Spectral SynthesisShier J, Caspe F, Robertson A, Sandler M, Mcpherson A and Saitis C
10th Convention of the European Acoustics Association (Forum Acusticum) 11 Sep 2023 - 15 Sep 2023.
11-09-2023
Sinusoidal Frequency Estimation by Gradient DescentHayes B, Saitis C and Fazekas G
ICASSP 2023 - 2023 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing (ICASSP). vol. 00, 1-5.
10-06-2023
Rigid-Body Sound Synthesis with Differentiable Modal ResonatorsDiaz R, Hayes B, Saitis C, Fazekas G and Sandler M
ICASSP 2023 - 2023 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing (ICASSP). vol. 00, 1-5.
10-06-2023
Interactive Neural ResonatorsDiaz Fernandez R, Saitis C and Sandler M
International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression.
31-05-2023
The Responsibility Problem in Neural Networks with Unordered TargetsHayes B, Saitis C and Fazekas G
International Conference on Learning Representations.
19-04-2023
Timbre Semantic Associations Vary Both Between and Within InstrumentsReymore L, Noble J, Saitis C, Traube C and Wallmark Z
Music Perception: An Interdisciplinary Journal, University of California Press vol. 40 (3), 253-274.
01-02-2023
Modelling Moral Traits with Music Listening Preferences and DemographicsPreniqi V, Kalimeri K and Saitis C
In Music in The Ai Era, Springer Nature 183-194.
01-01-2023
2022
More Than Words: Linking Music Preferences and Moral Values Through LyricsPreniqi V, Kalimeri K and Saitis C
International Society for Music Information Retrieval Conference.
02-09-2022
Timbre Transfer with Variational Auto Encoding and Cycle-Consistent Adversarial NetworksBonnici RS, Benning M and Saitis C
2022 International Joint Conference on Neural Networks (IJCNN). vol. 00, 1-8.
23-07-2022
Disembodied Timbres: A Study on Semantically Prompted FM SynthesisHayes B, Saitis C and Fazekas G
Journal of The Audio Engineering Society, Audio Engineering Society vol. 70 (5), 373-391.
11-05-2022
Deep Embeddings for Robust User-Based Amateur Vocal Percussion ClassificationDelgado A, Demirel E, Subramanian V, Saitis C and Sandler M
19th Sound and Music Computing Conferences., 123-130.
01-01-2022
timbre.fun: A gamified interactive system for crowdsourcing a timbre semantic vocabularyHayes B, Saitis C and Fazekas G
Proceedings of the International Congress on Acoustics.
01-01-2022
2021
Neural Waveshaping SynthesisHayes B, Saitis C and Fazekas G
Proceedings of the 22nd International Society for Music Information Retrieval Online 8 Nov 2021 - 12 Nov 2021.
07-11-2021
A Modulation Front-End for Music Audio TaggingVahidi C, Fazekas G and Saitis C
The International Joint Conference on Neural Networks 18 Jul 2021 - 22 Jul 2021.
18-07-2021
Phoneme Mappings for Online Vocal Percussion TranscriptionDelgado A, Saitis C and Sandler M
151st Audio Engineering Society Convention 2021., 129-138.
01-01-2021
The Timbre Explorer: A Synthesizer Interface for Educational Purposes and Perceptual StudiesLam JR and Saitis C
International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression.
01-01-2021
Learning Models for Query by Vocal Percussion: A Comparative StudyDelgado A, McDonald ST, Xu N, Saitis C and Sandler M
ICMC 2021 - Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference 2021., 166-171.
01-01-2021
2020
Brightness perception for musical instrument sounds: Relation to timbre dissimilarity and source-cause categoriesSaitis C and Siedenburg K
The Journal of The Acoustical Society of America, Acoustical Society of America vol. 148 (4), 2256-2266.
21-10-2020
Spectral and Temporal Timbral Cues of Vocal Imitations of Drum SoundsDelgado Luezas A, Saitis C and Sandler M
2nd International Conference on Timbre.
04-09-2020
Timbre Space Representation of a Subtractive SynthesizerVahidi C, Fazekas G, Saitis C and Palladini A
International Conference on Timbre (Timbre 2020) 3 Sep 2020 - 4 Sep 2020.
03-09-2020
There’s more to timbre than musical instruments: semantic dimensions of FM soundsHayes B and Saitis C
Timbre 2020 Thessaloniki (Online) 3 Sep 2020 - 4 Sep 2020., 69-72.
03-09-2020
Evidence for timbre space robustness to an uncontrolled online stimulus presentationZACHARAKIS A, Hayes B, Saitis C and Pastiadis K
Timbre 2020 Thessaloniki (Online) 3 Sep 2020 - 4 Sep 2020., 129-132.
03-09-2020
Musical dynamics classification with CNN and modulation spectraMarinelli L, Lykartsis A, Weinzierl S and Saitis C
17th Sound and Music Computing Conference Torino 24 Aug 2020 - 26 Aug 2020.
24-08-2020
Timbre semantics through the lens of crossmodal correspondences: A new way of asking old questionsSaitis C, Weinzierl S, von Kriegstein K, Ystad S and Cuskley C
Acoustical Science and Technology, Acoustical Society of Japan vol. 41 (1), 365-368.
01-01-2020
2019
Timbre: Acoustics, Perception, and CognitionSiedenburg K, Saitis C, McAdams S, Popper AN and Fay RR
15-05-2019
The Semantics of TimbreSaitis C and Weinzierl S
In Timbre: Acoustics, Perception, and Cognition, Springer Nature 119-149.
01-01-2019
Audio Content Descriptors of TimbreCaetano M, Saitis C and Siedenburg K
In Timbre: Acoustics, Perception, and Cognition, Springer Nature 297-333.
01-01-2019
The Present, Past, and Future of Timbre ResearchSiedenburg K, Saitis C and McAdams S
In Timbre: Acoustics, Perception, and Cognition, Springer Nature 1-19.
01-01-2019
2018
Multimodal Classification of Stressful Environments in Visually Impaired Mobility Using EEG and Peripheral BiosignalsSaitis C and Kalimeri K
Ieee Transactions On Affective Computing
22-08-2018
The Role of Haptic Cues in Musical Instrument Quality PerceptionSaitis C, Jarvelainen H and Fritz C
In Musical Haptics 73-93.
03-05-2018
Cognitive Load Assessment from EEG and Peripheral Biosignals for the Design of Visually Impaired Mobility AidsSaitis C, Parvez MZ and Kalimeri K
Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing vol. 2018
28-02-2018
2017
Concepts of timbre emerging from musician linguistic expressionsSaitis C and Weinzierl S
The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. vol. 141 (5), 3799-3799.
01-05-2017
Perceptual evaluation of violins: A psycholinguistic analysis of preference verbal descriptions by experienced musicians.Saitis C, Fritz C, Scavone GP, Guastavino C and Dubois D
J Acoust Soc Am, Acoustical Society of America vol. 141 (4), 2746-2757.
19-04-2017
Fractal Art: Closer to Heaven? Modern Mathematics, the Art of Nature, and the Nature of ArtSaitis C
In Aesthetics of Interdisciplinarity: Art and Mathematics, Springer Nature 153-163.
01-01-2017
2016
Exploring multimodal biosignal features for stress detection during indoor mobilityKalimeri K and Saitis C
Proceedings of the 18th ACM International Conference on Multimodal Interaction., 53-60.
31-10-2016
Model-based obstacle sonification for the navigation of visually impaired personsSpagnol S, Johannesson OI, Kristjansson A, Unnthorsson R, Saitis C, Kalimeri K, Bujacz M and Moldoveanu A
Proceedings of the International Conference on Digital Audio Effects, DAFx., 309-316.
01-01-2016
Sound of Vision - Spatial Audio Output and Sonification ApproachesBujacz M, Kropidlowski K, Ivanica G, Moldoveanu A, Saitis C, Csapo A, Wersenyi G, Spagnol S, Johannesson OI, Unnthorsson R, Rotnicki M and Witek P
In Computers Helping People With Special Needs, Springer Nature 202-209.
01-01-2016
Identifying Urban Mobility Challenges for the Visually Impaired with Mobile Monitoring of Multimodal BiosignalsSaitis C and Kalimeri K
In Universal Access in Human-Computer Interaction. Users and Context Diversity, Springer Nature 616-627.
01-01-2016
2015
Post-Classification of Nominally Identical Steel-String Guitars Using Bridge AdmittancesMansour H, Fréour V, Saitis C and Scavone GP
Acta Acustica, Wissenschaftliche Verlagsgesellschaft Mbh vol. 101 (2), 394-407.
01-03-2015
Effect of Task Constraints on the Perceptual Evaluation of ViolinsSaitis C, Scavone GP, Fritz C and Giordano BL
Acta Acustica, Wissenschaftliche Verlagsgesellschaft Mbh vol. 101 (2), 382-393.
01-03-2015
2014
Correcting Large-Scale OMR Data with CrowdsourcingSaitis C, Hankinson A and Fujinaga I
Proceedings of the 1st International Workshop on Digital Libraries for Musicology., 1-3.
12-09-2014
Categorization and lexicon in verbal descriptions of violin quality by performersSaitis C, Fritz C and Scavone GP
The Journal of The Acoustical Society of America, Acoustical Society of America (Asa) vol. 135 (4), 2214-2214.
01-04-2014
2013
Perceptual evaluation of violins: A comparison of intra-individual agreement in playing vs. listening tasks for the case of richnessSaitis C, Scavone GP, Fritz C and Giordano BL
Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics. vol. 19 (1)
02-06-2013
Perceptual evaluation of violins: A comparison of intra-individual agreement in playing vs. listening tasks for the case of richnessSaitis C, Scavone GP, Fritz C and Giordano BL
The Journal of The Acoustical Society of America, Acoustical Society of America (Asa) vol. 133 (5), 3365-3365.
01-05-2013
2012
Perceptual evaluation of violins: A quantitative analysis of preference judgments by experienced playersSaitis C, Giordano BL, Fritz C and Scavone GP
The Journal of The Acoustical Society of America, Acoustical Society of America (Asa) vol. 132 (6), 4002-4012.
01-12-2012
2011
Investigating the origin of inter-individual differences in the preference for violinsSaitis C, Giordano BL, Fritz C and Scavone GP
Proceedings of Forum Acusticum., 497-501.
01-12-2011
Aspects of experimental design for the perceptual evaluation of violin qualitiesSaitis C, Giordano BL, Fritz C and Scavone GP
Canadian Acoustics - Acoustique Canadienne. vol. 39 (3), 134-135.
01-09-2011
2010
Evaluating violin quality: How consistent are skilled players?Saitis C, Scavone GP, Fritz C and Giordano BL
The Journal of The Acoustical Society of America, Acoustical Society of America (Asa) vol. 128 (4), 2284-2284.
01-10-2010
2009
Physical modeling of the piano: An investigation into the effect of string stiffness on the hammer string interaction.Saitis C, Orr S and van Walstijn M
The Journal of The Acoustical Society of America, Acoustical Society of America (Asa) vol. 125 (4), 2684-2684.
01-04-2009
Grants
Grants of specific relevance to the Centre for Multimodal AISmart EQ: Personalising Audio with Context-aware AI using Listener Preferences and Psychological FactorsGeorge Fazekas and Charalampos Saitis
£172,101 Yamaha Corporation
23-09-2024 - 22-09-2028
UKRI Centre for Doctoral Training in Artificial Intelligence and MusicSimon Dixon, Emmanouil Benetos, Nicholas Bryan-Kinns, Mark Sandler, Andrew Mcpherson, Mathieu Barthet, George Fazekas, Ekaterina Ivanova, Anna Xambo Sedo and Charalampos Saitis
£6,519,934 EPSRC Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
01-07-2019 - 31-08-2028
Internship Vjosa Preniqi: Analysing User Activity for Improving Recommendations in Streaming PlatformsCharalampos Saitis
£9,834 BBC British Broadcasting Corporation
01-03-2023 - 31-08-2023
Metaphors we listen with: The neural correlates of timbral brightness investigated by pitch-timbre interference and fMRICharalampos Saitis
£10,000 British Academy
30-08-2020 - 31-08-2023