Are there many good tools, either part of or not part of general music composing software, that can pull the notes from a recorded audio sample? For example, it might be useful to be able to hum a tune and have the program automatically report each of the notes and the lengths for which they played. Are there any such programs that can be downloaded for free?

I don't know of any such programs, but generally speaking, you're looking for software that does Fourier analysis on an audio sample. The Free and open source program Audacity has an "Analyze Menu" which will give you a graph of the frequencies and amplitudes in a sample, but you'll have to do noise extraction and note identification on your own.

Alternatively, make your own version of this using libraries for Fourier analysis.

Do you just need to analyize a single note or chords? There are loads of frequency analyzers around that can tell you what note you are humming, a guitar tuner can do this. They won't tell you the length though. I did make something in max a while back that converted the microphone input into a midi file, i'll have a quick look for it but I think it might have gone when my last HD broke :(

If it's chords you want then melodyne can seemingly do this very well, it's not free though.

I was hoping to analyze a sequence of notes from an audio sample as best as possible to try and have the program find the main tune for me. I could then go in and edit the notes as needed, or begin adding additional layers to it.

I was basically looking for an easier way to find the notes to new tunes - I'm not the most handy with a keyboard, nor do I have one at the moment.

I've run some quick google searches before on this topic, searching for something along the lines of "voice to music" or "voice to notes" if I remember correctly. I hadn't found anything concrete at the time. I'll run some more searches and, if necessary, ask if anyone knows about anything I find.

Thanks for your replies.

Quote: Original post by datahead8888
I was hoping to analyze a sequence of notes from an audio sample as best as possible to try and have the program find the main tune for me. I could then go in and edit the notes as needed, or begin adding additional layers to it.

Melodyne will do this. There is also an option in Logic to convert audio to midi but it is difficult to get a perfect result.

Finale also has this method with "hyperscribe" technology that will read duration, pitch, tempo, and other nuances like ritarandos, rallentandos, etc.


Personally, I would recommend taking pride in your musicianship. Don't download some program - sit down at a piano, learn how to sing the intervals, learn to read the notes, learn to write them down.

It's difficult at first, but that's also why it's rewarding.

Google for a program called 7Canaries. I used it before to convert some simple WAV sounds to MIDI notes.
It has a note editor where you can grab the notes themselves. It was kinda klunky, but it worked enough for me.

Quote:
7Canaries provides four different note detection algorithms. A number of filtering options allows to leave aside odd notes. Monophonic methods provide recognition of one (the loudest) voice in melody but with great accuracy. Polyphonic method transcribes several voices.