A General-Purpose Sound Taxonomy for the Classification of Heterogeneous Sound Collections

A General-Purpose Sound Taxonomy for the Classification of Heterogeneous Sound Collections | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article A General-Purpose Sound Taxonomy for the Classification of Heterogeneous Sound Collections Panagiota Anastasopoulou, Xavier Serra, Frederic Font This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7206795/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract The task of sound classification is fundamental for decoding information embedded in the audio domain. Taxonomies are integral to this process by defining the way in which the audio domain is conceptualized. Existing sound taxonomies often feature complex hierarchies and can be very specific to a particular use case. Thus, navigating and describing audio content using such taxonomies becomes a difficult task, not only for computers but also for non-expert humans. In this paper, we introduce a user-centric methodology that integrates both theoretical and data-driven approaches to formulate a general-purpose and user-friendly taxonomy for sound classification, the Broad Sound Taxonomy (BST). The taxonomy comprises a two-level hierarchical structure with 5 broad top-level categories and 23 second-level categories capturing finer semantic distinctions. To inform the taxonomy's design process, we leverage the context of the Freesound website, a popular example of a large and heterogeneous sound collection with a substantial user base. We consider the needs of different user profiles including sound designers, musicians, and researchers, and we conduct a user-based evaluation to assess the usefulness of the taxonomy and users' understanding of its categories. Results suggest that the taxonomy is appropriate for classifying sounds of diverse nature and can be used effectively by participants with different levels of expertise. The proposed taxonomy has several applications in the fields of multimedia retrieval, machine listening, audio analysis and, more generally, computational audio. sound taxonomy taxonomy creation sound classification audio processing audio understanding computational audio Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-7206795","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":491228918,"identity":"af5516a3-bf37-499d-914a-1d02d061c105","order_by":0,"name":"Panagiota Anastasopoulou","email":"data:image/png;base64,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","orcid":"","institution":"Pompeu Fabra University","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Panagiota","middleName":"","lastName":"Anastasopoulou","suffix":""},{"id":491228919,"identity":"027731ef-c311-47cb-9321-2d858921213e","order_by":1,"name":"Xavier Serra","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Pompeu Fabra University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Xavier","middleName":"","lastName":"Serra","suffix":""},{"id":491228920,"identity":"94a58db9-8a79-4f23-a723-c8efb38bf3d0","order_by":2,"name":"Frederic Font","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Pompeu Fabra University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Frederic","middleName":"","lastName":"Font","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-07-24 14:53:22","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7206795/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7206795/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":90128273,"identity":"94ebff13-f854-420d-b568-1ecd141c4f12","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-08-28 19:53:28","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":510118,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Anastasopoulouetal.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7206795/v1_covered_f2840555-c8ef-41a4-920d-97c10d9ecd21.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"A General-Purpose Sound Taxonomy for the Classification of Heterogeneous Sound Collections","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"sound taxonomy, taxonomy creation, sound classification, audio processing, audio understanding, computational audio","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7206795/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7206795/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"The task of sound classification is fundamental for decoding information embedded in the audio domain. 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