This week was spent finding suitable algorithms for beat detection since we switched from chords. I have primarily settled upon comb filters and autocorrelation to detect song tempo and beats. While both work in similar ways, by comparing delayed versions of a signal to itself, a comb filter algorithm will detect the tempo based on the total energy after a few iterations while autocorrelation will compare differences in the lagged signal. I will begin implementing both in MATLAB to do some initial testing on which is more accurate and which is faster.
As for detecting the tempo of the person rapping into the mic, I have decided upon using the energy spectral density. Using the average energy is much easier and faster to compute than other more computationally intensive algorithms. Since it is important for this to be real-time, we want the delay between when a person raps and the tempo detection update to be as low as possible.
I have already began re-familiarizing myself with MATLAB. As of right now, I am still on track given my week of slack time. I plan to have comb filters and autocorrelation done and start testing by next week.