---
license: cc-by-nc-sa-4.0
tags:
- audio
- source-separation
---
# CineAudioSynth

Synthetic cinematic audio for source separation. 453 scenes, ~22.8 h, 48 kHz / 16-bit / stereo WAV.

Each `data/scene_NNNN/` contains:
- `linear/` — additive render: `mix.wav` is the BIT-EXACT 16-bit sum of the four stems
  (`speech`, `music`, `ambience`, `sfx`) — max |mix − Σstems| = 0, verified per scene.
  Includes `gain_envelope.json` (sidechain ducking envelopes).
- `release/` — mastered render of the same scene (compression/limiting/loudness on the
  mix bus; intentionally non-additive).
- `metadata.json` — scene type, DSP/critic settings, SFX event timestamps and
  descriptions, loudness metrics, additivity measurements.

## Directory structure

```
CineAudioSynth/
├── README.md
├── ATTRIBUTIONS.md          # per-corpus & per-clip credits + citations
├── LICENSE
└── data/
    ├── scene_0001/
    │   ├── linear/                 # additive render
    │   │   ├── speech.wav
    │   │   ├── music.wav
    │   │   ├── ambience.wav
    │   │   ├── sfx.wav
    │   │   ├── mix.wav             # == speech + music + ambience + sfx  (bit-exact)
    │   │   └── gain_envelope.json  # sidechain ducking envelopes
    │   ├── release/                # mastered render (non-additive)
    │   │   ├── speech.wav  music.wav  ambience.wav  sfx.wav
    │   │   └── mix.wav
    │   └── metadata.json           # scene plan, DSP settings, loudness, additivity
    ├── scene_0002/
    └── ...                         # 453 scenes (scene_0001 … scene_0453)
```

Within a scene, every WAV shares the same length, sample rate (48 kHz), bit depth (16-bit) and channel count (stereo).

## Quick start

```python
# the whole dataset (~158 GB) ...
from huggingface_hub import snapshot_download
root = snapshot_download("disco-eth/cineaudiosynth", repo_type="dataset")

# ... or grab a single scene
from huggingface_hub import hf_hub_download
for f in ["linear/speech.wav", "linear/music.wav", "linear/ambience.wav",
          "linear/sfx.wav", "linear/mix.wav", "release/mix.wav", "metadata.json"]:
    hf_hub_download("disco-eth/cineaudiosynth", f"data/scene_0001/{f}", repo_type="dataset")
```

## Load with 🤗 datasets

A root `metadata.csv` ships an [audiofolder](https://huggingface.co/docs/datasets/audio_dataset) manifest — one row per WAV with scene-level columns — so the dataset loads directly:

```python
from datasets import load_dataset

ds = load_dataset("disco-eth/cineaudiosynth", split="train")                  # decodes audio (needs `torchcodec`)
ds = load_dataset("disco-eth/cineaudiosynth", split="train", streaming=True)  # stream, no 158 GB download

# filter to what you need — e.g. linear-render stems of dialogue-heavy scenes
stems = ds.filter(lambda r: r["render"] == "linear" and not r["is_mix"]
                            and r["scene_type"] == "dialogue_heavy")

ex = next(iter(stems))
ex["audio"]["array"], ex["audio"]["sampling_rate"], ex["scene_id"], ex["component"]
```

> Decoding uses `torchcodec` (`pip install torchcodec`); to read paths/metadata only, add
> `.cast_column("audio", datasets.Audio(decode=False))`.

`metadata.csv` columns: `file_name, scene_id, render, component, is_mix, scene_type, has_music,
has_ambience, n_sfx_events, music_tag, ambience_cue, linear_additivity_verified`.

## Loading a scene

```python
import soundfile as sf
scene = "data/scene_0001"

# linear (additive) render — mix is the bit-exact 16-bit sum of the four stems
speech,     sr = sf.read(f"{scene}/linear/speech.wav")
music,      _  = sf.read(f"{scene}/linear/music.wav")
ambience,   _  = sf.read(f"{scene}/linear/ambience.wav")
sfx,        _  = sf.read(f"{scene}/linear/sfx.wav")
linear_mix, _  = sf.read(f"{scene}/linear/mix.wav")
# linear_mix == speech + music + ambience + sfx   (max abs diff == 0)

# release render — same scene, mastered on the mix bus (intentionally non-additive)
release_mix, _ = sf.read(f"{scene}/release/mix.wav")
```

## Verify additivity

```python
import numpy as np, soundfile as sf
lin = "data/scene_0001/linear"
stems = sum(sf.read(f"{lin}/{s}.wav")[0] for s in ["speech", "music", "ambience", "sfx"])
mix, _ = sf.read(f"{lin}/mix.wav")
print("max |mix - Σstems|:", np.max(np.abs(mix - stems)))   # -> 0.0
```

## Iterate every scene

```python
import glob, os, soundfile as sf

root = "data"  # or the path returned by snapshot_download(...)
for scene in sorted(glob.glob(os.path.join(root, "scene_*"))):
    mix, sr = sf.read(os.path.join(scene, "linear", "mix.wav"))
    targets = {s: sf.read(os.path.join(scene, "linear", f"{s}.wav"))[0]
               for s in ["speech", "music", "ambience", "sfx"]}
    # ... train / evaluate your separator on (mix, targets)
```

## Reading scene metadata

```python
import json
meta = json.load(open("data/scene_0001/metadata.json"))

meta["scene_type"]                     # e.g. "balanced"
meta["linear_additivity_verified"]     # True
meta["scene_plan"]["events"]           # [{"timestamp": 3.0, "description": "..."}, ...]
meta["outputs"]["linear"]["loudness"]  # integrated LUFS / true-peak dBTP
```

`linear/gain_envelope.json` holds the per-stem, speech-triggered sidechain-ducking keyframes used to build the linear mix.

## License & attribution

This dataset is released under **CC BY-NC-SA 4.0** (non-commercial, share-alike).
Individual stems remain governed by the licenses of their source material; music and
sound-effect assets appear only within mixed scenes and may not be extracted and
re-published as standalone collections. Full per-track and per-clip credits, plus
citations for all source corpora, are in [`ATTRIBUTIONS.md`](./ATTRIBUTIONS.md).

Source corpora and asset libraries used by the CineAudioGen pipeline:

| Source | Content | License |
|---|---|---|
| [Expresso](https://speechbot.github.io/expresso/) | speech | CC BY-NC 4.0 |
| [RAVDESS](https://zenodo.org/records/1188976) | speech | CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 |
| [ASED](https://github.com/Ethio2021/ASED_V1) | speech | per its distribution page (cite authors) |
| [NonverbalTTS](https://huggingface.co/datasets/deepvk/NonverbalTTS) | speech | Apache-2.0 (annotations); audio CC BY / CC BY-NC |
| [FSD50K](https://zenodo.org/records/4060432) | SFX & ambience | CC BY 4.0; per-clip CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-NC / CC Sampling+ |
| [FMA](https://github.com/mdeff/fma) | music | per-track CC licenses |
| [Chosic](https://www.chosic.com/) | music | per-track (CC and artist terms; attribution required) |
| [no-copyright-music.com](https://www.no-copyright-music.com/) | music | royalty-free (provider terms; attribution required) |

When using this dataset, cite the source corpora as listed in `ATTRIBUTIONS.md`.

Research use only. Not for commercial use. Derivatives must be shared under the same
license (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).