Is this finally the answer to converting audio to midi - even chords ?

[Mark W]

Hello Adrian,

You spotted Celemony's beta release of the Melodyne Editor on its first day. Good eyes.

Melodyne is able to detect individual notes in polyphonic music (multiple simultaneous tones) far better than any other software, commercial or academic, has ever achieved. I'm quite impressed by Celemony's accomplishment.

I believe there is a natural synergy between Melodyne, which has the world's best audio-to-MIDI technology, and Notation Composer and Musician, which has the world's best MIDI-to-notation technology. Put the two together, and you have some fairly good audio-to-MIDI-to-notation transcription!


Try this:

1. Take a recording of a piano, guitar, or small ensemble, and convert it to Wave. Lately, I've been very happy using Free Audio Editor from http://www.free-audio-editor.com/
2. Open the Wave file in beta release of Melodyne Editor. You can get it at http://www.celemony.com/
   [9/20/09 P.S. Oops. The beta release is available only to lucky Melodyne beta testers like myself. So, you'll have to wait for the final release. Well, in the mean time, at least check out the video the the upcoming Melodyn Editor, which (the video) you can find at http://www.celemony.com/cms/.]
3. Have a great time exploring Melodyne Editor. But this step isn't required.
4. Use the File Save As command to save the output as a MIDI file.
5. Open the MIDI file in Notation Composer or Musician.
6. Play the MIDI file, and you'll be pretty amazed how closely the notes resemble the audio recording. If it doesn't sound perfect, don't get too picky. Believe me, this is a nearly miraculous accomplishment in software development, which many people spending years attempting have been very discourage at in the last 15 years that I've been watching. Melodyne's note detection already very good; and I'm sure it will get even better.
7. Notice that the notated barlines are often misplaced. That makes sight-reading the notation relatively difficult. Nevertheless, if you are a keyboardist, you can still get your fingers on the notes, even if the rhythms sometimes are off-beat.

I've done this for some Oscar Peter jazz piano recordings, and some Scottish/Celtic music by a local 3-musician ensemble (The McKassons), that I wasn't able to play by ear, but could work out on the piano from the above transcribed recording. It totally opened up a new world of possibilities for me in playing the piano.

To say that I'm excited about Celemony's Melodye and Direct Note Access (DNA) technology would be an understatement.

Cheers
-- Mark