PocketVAE: A Two-step Model for Groove Generation and Control

Abstract: Creating a good drum track to imitate a skilled performer in digital audio workstations (DAWs) can be a time-consuming process, especially for those unfamiliar with drums. In this work, we introduce PocketVAE, a groove generation system that applies grooves to users' rudimentary MIDI tracks, i.e, templates. Grooves can be either transferred from a reference track, generated randomly or with conditions, such as genres. Our system, consisting of different modules for each groove component, takes a two-step approach that is analogous to a music creation process. First, the note module updates the user template through addition and deletion of notes; Second, the velocity and microtiming modules add details to this generated note score. In order to model the drum notes, we apply a discrete latent representation method via Vector Quantized Variational Autoencoder (VQ-VAE), as drum notes have a discrete property, unlike velocity and microtiming values. We show that our two-step approach and the usage of a discrete encoding space improves the learning of the original data distribution. Additionally, we discuss the benefit of incorporating control elements - genre, velocity and microtiming patterns - into the model.