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Comment by TeMPOraL | Hacker News Reader

Great! Refreshing to see a ML post using some well-understood methods instead of throwing a random neural net from Kaggle at the problem...

Tangential:

> Is a given audio file a sample of a kick drum, snare drum, hi-hat, other percussion, or something else? (...) Humans have no trouble classifying these two sounds, as we’ve likely heard them tens of thousands of times before.

Are people taught that in schools or something? Because I personally can't classify those sounds, don't know these names, and I'm not sure how I was supposed to learn them, other by playing in a band.

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> Are people taught that in schools or something? Because I personally can't classify those sounds, don't know these names, and I'm not sure how I was supposed to learn them, other by playing in a band.

This is something that is taught at schools with a music program. (Although, not necessarily discretely).

If you are someone whom has played music before, it is easy to forget what music sounded like before your ear was trained. (i.e. certain instruments and harmonies can be indistinguishable without training)

Is it common to have never played on at a drum kit in your entire life?

Thanks!

> Is it common to have never played on at a drum kit in your entire life?

I didn't, not on a real one at least. I know the sounds though, I spent ungodly amount of time playing on an electronic keyboard as a kid, where I could (and often would) change the sounds under keys to drums. However, nowhere (AFAIR) were the names of those sounds mentioned, and I'm not sure where I could encounter them.

In my anecdotal experience I only know the names of various percussion by sound because I was a drummer in band class at school. My friends weren’t taught that in the general education program though. That could possibly vary by region though.

Just because you don't know the right names for the labels doesn't mean you're unable to label them.

A kick drum is the big foot operated one on the floor. Congrats you now know the name for the label and you can most definitely pick out a kick drum sample out from other samples.

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