Freesound datasets: a platform for the creation of open audio datasets

Abstract

Openly available datasets are a key factor in the advancement of data-driven research approaches, including many of the ones used in sound and music computing. In the last few years, quite a number of new audio datasets have been made available but there are still major shortcomings in many of them to have a significant research impact. Among the common shortcomings are the lack of transparency in their creation and the difficulty of making them completely open and sharable. They often do not include clear mechanisms to amend errors and many times they are not large enough for current machine learning needs. This paper introduces Freesound Datasets, an online platform for the collaborative creation of open audio datasets based on principles of transparency, openness, dynamic character, and sustainability. As a proof-of-concept, we present an early snapshot of a large-scale audio dataset built using this platform. It consists of audio samples from Freesound organised in a hierarchy based on the AudioSet Ontology. We believe that building and maintaining datasets following the outlined principles and using open tools and collaborative approaches like the ones presented here will have a significant impact in our research community.