The software, it makes me sing like a French horn

April 3, 2008 8:50 AM

I recently came across a program to edit the pitch of individual notes in a recording, even if they were recorded as a chord. If the technology is so advanced, it should be possible to identify the notes sung by the voice of a singer, right? Does such software exist?

There is a program that can split the individual notes within a recording of a guitar chord so they could be edited individually. The program would let you drag the sound of each string up and down to change its pitch as seamlessly as if you were editing the score. It was remarkable how well it worked, considering that the sounds of the strings of a guitar are overlaid in a standard stereo recording.

I came across it recently, it might have been on mefi, but I forgot its name.

I thought, if such analysis exists, it should be possible to sing some notes then convert the recording into a score and save it as a midi file. If I could do that, then by editing the midi instrument I could transform the sound of my voice into a clarinet or a cello. How cool would that be?

Does such software exist? Is it expensive? And, above all, is it as much fun as I picture it to be?

posted by gmarceau to media & arts (12 comments total)

Celemony Melodyne is what you're referring to. Truly breathtaking software!

Probably not cheap, and probably able to do what you want...!
posted by rc55 at 8:55 AM on April 3, 2008

The software was Direct Note Access by Celemony.
posted by matthewr at 8:55 AM on April 3, 2008

I don't think it's Melodyne, as far as I know that really only works with single-note lines. yeah, Direct Note Access looks like it. Melodyne is sweet though. Maybe I'll get a chance to try Direct Note Access some time.
posted by RustyBrooks at 8:57 AM on April 3, 2008

This is what you might have seen on Metafilter.
posted by spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints at 8:59 AM on April 3, 2008

Man I'm watching that video. That is so sweet.
posted by RustyBrooks at 9:04 AM on April 3, 2008

What you're asking, if I understand correctly, is much simpler to accomplish than what Celemony's Direct Note Access does. Here's a list of Audio-to-MIDI converters at KVR. I've heard that results can be unpredictable - you might need to do some pruning afterward.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 9:22 AM on April 3, 2008

Direct Note Access is going to be part of the new version of Melodyne. GNFTI is right, what the OP is asking for is simpler and has been available for some time, although I don't have a lot of experience with it. Search for audio to MIDI.
posted by ludwig_van at 9:33 AM on April 3, 2008

If you just want notes sung by a singer, the problem is actually a lot simpler than what Celemony is doing.

I have a Roland GI-10 which will take mic input and transform it to MIDI data. That's early-mid 1990s tech. It isn't perfect -- the tracking can be a little funny -- but if you just wanted a singer's notes to MIDI note data, this will do that.
posted by weston at 1:15 PM on April 3, 2008

Ah, I was confused, I thought Direct Note Access was a subfeature of the latest version of Melodyne. Still is very neat tho!
posted by rc55 at 2:54 PM on April 3, 2008

Ah, I was confused, I thought Direct Note Access was a subfeature of the latest version of Melodyne.

It's going to be, once Melodyne 2 is released.
posted by ludwig_van at 6:26 PM on April 3, 2008

I guess this thread is kind of old now, but I wanted to clear something up. The GI-10 does NOT take mic inpuit and transform it into midi data. It takes input from a special guitar pickup (like the roland GK pickups) and converts it to midi. The new one is actually the GI-20 and its pretty decent but the Axon ones by Terratec are superior imo.
posted by RustyBrooks at 1:16 PM on April 25, 2008

Oh crap, I just read the whole thing. The GI-10 apparently DOES also do mic to midi. That's pretty cool. Ignore my previous post.
posted by RustyBrooks at 1:16 PM on April 25, 2008