Transfer Learning with Pretrained Audio Networks

This example shows how to use transfer learning to retrain YAMNet, a pretrained convolutional neural network, to classify a new set of audio signals. To get started with audio deep learning from scratch, see Classify Sound Using Deep Learning (Audio Toolbox).

Transfer learning is commonly used in deep learning applications. You can take a pretrained network and use it as a starting point to learn a new task. Fine-tuning a network with transfer learning is usually much faster and easier than training a network with randomly initialized weights from scratch. You can quickly transfer learned features to a new task using a smaller number of training signals.

Audio Toolbox™ additionally provides the classifySound (Audio Toolbox) function, which implements necessary preprocessing for YAMNet and convenient postprocessing to interpret the results. Audio Toolbox also provides the pretrained VGGish network (vggish (Audio Toolbox)) as well as the vggishEmbeddings (Audio Toolbox) function, which implements preprocessing and postprocessing for the VGGish network.

Create Data

Generate 100 white noise signals, 100 brown noise signals, and 100 pink noise signals. Each signal represents a duration of 0.98 seconds assuming a 16 kHz sample rate.

fs = 16e3;
duration = 0.98;
N = duration*fs;
numSignals = 100;

wNoise = 2*rand([N,numSignals]) - 1;
wLabels = repelem(categorical("white"),numSignals,1);

bNoise = filter(1,[1,-0.999],wNoise);
bNoise = bNoise./max(abs(bNoise),[],"all");
bLabels = repelem(categorical("brown"),numSignals,1);

pNoise = pinknoise([N,numSignals]);
pLabels = repelem(categorical("pink"),numSignals,1);

Split the data into training and test sets. Normally, the training set consists of most of the data. However, to illustrate the power of transfer learning, you will use only a few samples for training and the majority for validation.

K = 5;

trainAudio = [wNoise(:,1:K),bNoise(:,1:K),pNoise(:,1:K)];
trainLabels = [wLabels(1:K);bLabels(1:K);pLabels(1:K)];

validationAudio = [wNoise(:,K+1:end),bNoise(:,K+1:end),pNoise(:,K+1:end)];
validationLabels = [wLabels(K+1:end);bLabels(K+1:end);pLabels(K+1:end)];

fprintf("Number of samples per noise color in train set = %d\n" + ...
        "Number of samples per noise color in validation set = %d\n",K,numSignals-K);

Number of samples per noise color in train set = 5
Number of samples per noise color in validation set = 95

Extract Features

Use yamnetPreprocess (Audio Toolbox) to extract log-mel spectrograms from both the training set and the validation set using the same parameters as the YAMNet model was trained on.

trainFeatures = yamnetPreprocess(trainAudio,fs);
validationFeatures = yamnetPreprocess(validationAudio,fs);

Transfer Learning

To load the pretrained network, call yamnet (Audio Toolbox). If the Audio Toolbox model for YAMNet is not installed, then the function provides a link to the location of the network weights. To download the model, click the link. Unzip the file to a location on the MATLAB path. The YAMNet model can classify audio into one of 521 sound categories, including white noise and pink noise (but not brown noise).

net = yamnet;
net.Layers(end).Classes

ans = 521×1 categorical
     Speech 
     Child speech, kid speaking 
     Conversation 
     Narration, monologue 
     Babbling 
     Speech synthesizer 
     Shout 
     Bellow 
     Whoop 
     Yell 
     Children shouting 
     Screaming 
     Whispering 
     Laughter 
     Baby laughter 
     Giggle 
     Snicker 
     Belly laugh 
     Chuckle, chortle 
     Crying, sobbing 
     Baby cry, infant cry 
     Whimper 
     Wail, moan 
     Sigh 
     Singing 
     Choir 
     Yodeling 
     Chant 
     Mantra 
     Child singing 
      ⋮

Prepare the model for transfer learning by first converting the network to a layerGraph. Use replaceLayer to replace the fully-connected layer with an untrained fully-connected layer. Replace the classification layer with a classification layer that classifies the input as "white", "pink", or "brown". See List of Deep Learning Layers for deep learning layers supported in MATLAB®.

uniqueLabels = unique(trainLabels);
numLabels = numel(uniqueLabels);

lgraph = layerGraph(net.Layers);

lgraph = replaceLayer(lgraph,"dense",fullyConnectedLayer(numLabels,Name="dense"));
lgraph = replaceLayer(lgraph,"Sound",classificationLayer(Name="Sounds",Classes=uniqueLabels));

To define training options, use trainingOptions.

options = trainingOptions("adam",ValidationData={single(validationFeatures),validationLabels});

To train the network, use trainNetwork. The network achieves a validation accuracy of 100% using only 5 signals per noise type.

trainNetwork(single(trainFeatures),trainLabels,lgraph,options);

Training on single CPU.
|======================================================================================================================|
|  Epoch  |  Iteration  |  Time Elapsed  |  Mini-batch  |  Validation  |  Mini-batch  |  Validation  |  Base Learning  |
|         |             |   (hh:mm:ss)   |   Accuracy   |   Accuracy   |     Loss     |     Loss     |      Rate       |
|======================================================================================================================|
|       1 |           1 |       00:00:01 |       20.00% |       88.42% |       1.1922 |       0.6651 |          0.0010 |
|      30 |          30 |       00:00:14 |      100.00% |      100.00% |   5.0068e-06 |       0.0003 |          0.0010 |
|======================================================================================================================|
Training finished: Max epochs completed.