A Parametric Method for Pitch Estimation of Piano Tones

The efficiency of most pitch estimation methods declines when the analyzed frame is shortened and/or when a wide fundamental frequency (F_o) range is targeted. The technique proposed herein jointly uses a periodicity analysis and a spectral matching process to improve the f_o estimation performance in such an adverse context: a 60 ms-long data frame together with the whole, 71/4-octaves, piano tessitura. The enhancements are obtained thanks to a parametric approach which, among other things, models the inharmonicity of piano tones. The performance of the algorithm is assessed, is compared to the results obtained from other estimators and is discussed in order to characterize their behavior and typical misestimations.