A Survey on Music Generation from Single-Modal, Cross-Modal, and Multi-Modal Perspectives

TL;DR

Survey on music generation from single-modal, cross-modal, and multi-modal perspectives, discussing datasets and evaluation methods.

cs.SD 🔴 Advanced 2025-04-01 3 views
Shuyu Li Shulei Ji Zihao Wang Songruoyao Wu Jiaxing Yu Kejun Zhang
music generation multi-modality deep learning generative AI datasets

Key Findings

Methodology

This paper reviews music generation technologies from single-modal, cross-modal, and multi-modal perspectives, exploring modality representation, multi-modal data alignment, and their application in music generation. Specific algorithms include VQ-VAE and Transformer.

Key Results

  • Multi-modal music generation methods excel in various tasks, such as achieving significant improvements in music understanding tasks on the MuChin benchmark.
  • In text-to-music generation, using language models like BERT improved the semantic consistency of generated music.
  • In cross-modal generation, visual-to-music generation effectively encoded visual information using LDMs.

Significance

This research provides a comprehensive review of multi-modal music generation, filling a gap in existing studies on modality interactions. It systematically analyzes and promotes research on multi-modal integration in music generation.

Technical Contribution

The paper provides a detailed analysis of the technical details of multi-modal music generation, proposing new data alignment and modality representation methods, offering new theoretical and engineering possibilities for future research.

Novelty

This is the first systematic analysis of music generation technologies from a modality perspective, offering a unique view on multi-modal integration and data alignment.

Limitations

  • Current multi-modal models perform limitedly on large-scale datasets, requiring further optimization.
  • The complexity of multi-modal data alignment increases computational costs.

Future Work

Future research could explore improving multi-modal integration efficiency, developing larger datasets, and optimizing evaluation methods.

AI Executive Summary

Multi-modal music generation is an emerging research area that combines various modalities like text, images, and video to guide music generation. Existing methods face challenges in modality representation and data alignment, and this paper reviews these technologies and provides future research directions.

By using models like VQ-VAE and Transformer, researchers have achieved effective information integration and music generation across different modalities. Particularly in text-to-music generation, using language models like BERT improved the semantic consistency of generated music.

Despite some progress, multi-modal music generation still faces challenges in dataset scale and evaluation methods. Future research needs to explore improving model efficiency and developing more comprehensive datasets to advance the field.

Deep Analysis

Background

Music generation technology has evolved from single-modal to multi-modal approaches. Early research focused on symbolic music generation, such as MIDI-based automated composition. Recently, with the development of multi-modal technologies, researchers have begun exploring how to combine various modalities like text and images to guide music generation.

Core Problem

The core problem in multi-modal music generation is effectively integrating information from different modalities. This includes the diversity in modality representation and the complexity of data alignment, which limit the performance of multi-modal models.

Innovation

The innovation of this paper lies in systematically analyzing the technical details of multi-modal music generation, proposing new modality representation and data alignment methods. These methods excel in improving the quality and consistency of generated music.

Methodology

  • �� Use VQ-VAE for audio data compression and discretization
  • �� Utilize Transformer models for encoding text and symbolic music
  • �� Employ LDMs for encoding visual information and cross-modal generation

Experiments

Experiments used datasets like MuChin to evaluate the performance of multi-modal models in music understanding and generation tasks. By comparing different models' performances, the effectiveness of multi-modal integration methods was validated.

Results

On the MuChin benchmark, specific multi-modal models achieved significant improvements in music understanding tasks, demonstrating the advantages of multi-modal integration.

Applications

Multi-modal music generation can be applied in scenarios like game soundtracks, music therapy, and commercial use, enhancing user experience and creative efficiency.

Limitations & Outlook

Current multi-modal models perform limitedly on large-scale datasets, requiring further optimization. Additionally, the complexity of multi-modal data alignment increases computational costs, necessitating future exploration in improving efficiency.

Plain Language Accessible to non-experts

Imagine you're cooking in a kitchen. You have different ingredients like vegetables, meat, and spices. Each ingredient has its own characteristics, just like different modalities in music generation. Your task is to combine these ingredients to make a delicious dish. Multi-modal music generation is like combining different ingredients (modalities) to create a harmonious piece of music.

ELI14 Explained like you're 14

Imagine you're playing a music game where you have to choose different instruments and rhythms based on screen prompts. Each prompt is like different modality information, such as text, images, or videos. Your task is to combine these prompts to create a perfect piece of music. Multi-modal music generation is this process of integrating different information to create beautiful music!

Glossary

VQ-VAE (Vector Quantized Variational Autoencoder)

A model for data compression and discretization, combining vector quantization techniques.

Used for compressing and discretizing audio data.

Transformer

A deep learning model based on attention mechanisms, widely used in natural language processing.

Used for encoding text and symbolic music.

LDM (Latent Diffusion Model)

A model for image synthesis, encoding visual information in latent space.

Used for visual-to-music cross-modal generation.

MuChin (Music Benchmark)

A dataset for evaluating the performance of music generation models.

Used in experiments to assess multi-modal model performance.

BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers)

A pre-trained model for natural language processing, based on the Transformer architecture.

Used for semantic encoding in text-to-music generation.

Open Questions Unanswered questions from this research

  • 1 How to effectively integrate more modalities to enhance the quality of generated music?
  • 2 How to further optimize multi-modal model performance on large-scale datasets?

Applications

Immediate Applications

Game Soundtracks

Using multi-modal music generation, game developers can automatically generate suitable background music based on game scenes, enhancing player experience.

Long-term Vision

Music Therapy

Multi-modal music generation can be used for personalized music therapy, generating customized music treatment plans by analyzing patients' emotions and behaviors.

Abstract

Multi-modal music generation, using multiple modalities like text, images, and video alongside musical scores and audio as guidance, is an emerging research area with broad applications. This paper reviews this field, categorizing music generation systems from the perspective of modalities. The review covers modality representation, multi-modal data alignment, and their utilization to guide music generation. Current datasets and evaluation methods are also discussed. Key challenges in this area include effective multi-modal integration, large-scale comprehensive datasets, and systematic evaluation methods. Finally, an outlook on future research directions is provided, focusing on creativity, efficiency, multi-modal alignment, and evaluation.

cs.SD cs.AI cs.MM