Analyzing changes in vocal power within music content using frequency spectrums

A method, implemented by a computing device, for identifying surge points within audio music content, the method comprising:

• obtaining audio music content in a digitized format;
• generating a frequency spectrum of the music content using a short-time Fourier transform (STFT);
• analyzing the frequency spectrum to separate harmonic content and percussive content;
• using results of the analysis, generating an audio track representing vocal content within the music content;
• processing the audio track representing vocal content to identify at least one surge point within the music content;
• and
• outputting an indication of the at least one surge point.

A computer-readable storage medium storing computer-executable instructions for causing a computing device to perform operations for identifying surge points within audio music content, the operations comprising:

• generating a frequency spectrum of at least a portion of digitized audio music content, wherein the frequency spectrum is generated with a short-time Fourier transform (STFT) with a first frequency resolution;
• performing median filtering on the frequency spectrum to separate harmonic content and percussive content, wherein the first frequency resolution is selected so that vocal content will be included with the harmonic content when the median filtering is performed to separate the harmonic content and the percussive content;
• applying an STFT with a second frequency resolution to the harmonic content, wherein the second frequency resolution is higher than the first frequency resolution;
• performing median filtering to results of the STFT using the second frequency resolution to generating audio data representing vocal content within the audio music content;
• processing the audio data representing vocal content to identify at least one surge point within the audio music content;
• and
• outputting an indication of the at least one surge point.