WinXP, experiments in Audio to MIDI with Live 5

mikemc · Post by **mikemc** » Fri Jul 29, 2005 4:46 pm

Mentioned this briefly elsewhere, this may be of interest. If you have done audio-to-MIDI within Live, it would be interesting to hear about it:

As someone whoss primary instrument is guitar but who also has some keyboard skills, the audio to midi concept it appealing, but if it's more trouble than just playing the melody on the keyboard, it loses it's appeal. I know there are various pickuips etc that will digitize guitar, maybe I'll go that route, but the software approach is appealing for ease and versatility.

I'm looking for free or inexpensive, I prefer melodic transformation not just triggering on peaks, but that can be interesting. I have tried some and will try all of the VSTs that meet that criteria on this list:

http://www.kvraudio.com/get.php?mode=re ... t=1&rpp=15

Dodo Bird, Super Eel Audio to MIDI -- works somewhat, kind of interesting, but does not use VST routing, it has a selector that you route out to yoke or other MIDI-accepting program and then back in. Be careful, this can cause MIDI feedback depending on how you adjust levels and depending on the timbre of the audio you are inputting (dry saw type stuff seems to work well, reverb-y or ring-y square or sin type stuff less so). In a MIDI to Audio back to MIDI using operator set to the same patch as both audio and MIDI acceptor, tracking was very good for some patches. You get some very weird things if you run perc or drums through it and then to a tonal synth.

Jaltoh, Ultram Audio to MIDI -- Crashes Live, *boom*. Don't try this one.

KlangLabs Synodeia 2 Audio to MIDI -- Will be trying this one next.

knzaudio Midifier Audio to MIDI -- have demo version, will try. It will write midi output to file. The demo has an intermittent silence set up.

Nuton Musiciendoz Audio to MIDI -- will try this, I somehow like the look of it. the price is right and the sample sounds like the conversion works well..

Prodyon audiotrig Audio to MIDI -- this does peaks to note, maybe at some point will try.

TazMan Audio TheExtractor Audio to MIDI -- I have the demo version of this, the nag screen is particularly in-your-face, but looks promising.

I will post more as it goes along.

ben_blue · Post by **ben_blue** » Fri Jul 29, 2005 6:30 pm

maybe a midi guitar - plenty of old school ones still work..maybe eBay?

Clearscreen · Post by **Clearscreen** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 12:39 am

interesting stuff! i perform occasionally with a vj using gridpro, and the audio recognition stuff in that always makes me a bit jealous. he can pretty much sync his clip triggering, filters, lfo's and FX using the mic in his powerbook...
of course thats all from transients i guess.
he was actually wondering about using his guitar for clip triggering just yesterday... a very intriguing idea.

mikemc · Post by **mikemc** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 8:11 am

he was actually wondering about using his guitar for clip triggering just yesterday... a very intriguing idea

welll, here's where I've gotten to:

http://www.kvraudio.com/get/1606.html tried out Synodeia2. Dropped into a return track, it will cause that return track to show up as a MIDI routing selection. What it does is kind of cool, and what you can make it do is kinda cool.

These things seem to work best with a compressor in front of them. Recorded some guitar, used the clip to trigger the MIDI (so I could twiddle with both hands) this works fine and translates fairly well with picked notes (pulloffs aren't dealt with as well, fret/neck noise makes interesting things happen). I routed the MIDI into a "feeder" track, and then set all the synths (Operators and Crystal) to accept MIDI from that track. For grins, put Live Arp,Scale and Velocity in there, played around with that, verry spacy.

My thought is that for triggering events irrespective of note value using a guitar, you can set the Scale MIDI effect to play the same note no matter what, then set that note value to trigger whatever.

serotoninsteve · Post by **serotoninsteve** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 1:00 pm

There is another one you could try out:

http://www.digital-ear.com/digital-ear/index.asp

Greetings

håkan bråkan · Post by **håkan bråkan** » Sun Oct 09, 2005 4:36 pm

Have you tested KTDrumTrigger? It works really well (with env follower) with plogue bidule, but you can only trig three different midinotes per vst, but if you uses many... I really don't know how to specify the inputs to impulse, how do I set a certain midikey to play a sample (I don't have a midikeyboard)? Or is it certain notes that have to be used in impulse, and if so, which are they (midichannel, midinotenumber)? It would be nice to have a midilog vst or something like that to see whats going on.

mikemc · Post by **mikemc** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 2:51 am

I recall that the midi pitches that trigger the impulse drums are in the manual, I do not recall what they are (vaguely remember that they are really low).

Yeh, the KTDrumTrigger won't do exactly what I want, I'm looking for pitch following, but I've heard good things about it.

håkan bråkan · Post by **håkan bråkan** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 8:27 am

The first sound in impulse should be playing in C3, and I found this yesterday:
http://archive.cs.uu.nl/pub/MIDI/DOC/midinotes
but I have not tried it yet...

mikemc · Post by **mikemc** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 7:47 pm

ah, ok, C3 is not as low as I thought. Hey, so given the above filter/resonator technique, triggering beatboxing with impulse might work, adding a couple more returns with a few more resonated notes, one could do bass, snare, hihat coupla toms, mebbe. Getting it to trigger selectively with voice would take a little practice.

håkan bråkan · Post by **håkan bråkan** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 7:56 pm

håkan bråkan · Post by **håkan bråkan** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 7:56 pm

Maybe I have misunderstood something but it works with the midinotes in C5; 60, 62...67 and so on.

håkan bråkan · Post by **håkan bråkan** » Tue Oct 11, 2005 8:31 am

what the hell am I doing, posting in the wrong forum

mikemc · Post by **mikemc** » Tue Oct 11, 2005 2:30 pm

uh, ok...

messed around with this some more. If you have multiple mics, resonating multiple notes, you can trigger multiple drums/whatervers, just by tapping on the mics.

Urbem · Post by **Urbem** » Tue Oct 11, 2005 4:34 pm

I have recently discover Fretted Synths stuff. They have three very free "VST Audio triggered Synths" . On my guitar they work extremely well. The tracking is just beautiful. It does not translate to MIDI but it shure is a great alternative for Guitar Synth. The Tripp Lead sounds amazing.

http://207.218.248.76/~fretted/atsynths.html#atsynths

håkan bråkan · Post by **håkan bråkan** » Tue Oct 11, 2005 10:57 pm

Thanx for the tip! I tried with my bass, and it's really cool, never really heard such a fat bass sound before! How did you find this?

WinXP, experiments in Audio to MIDI with Live 5

WinXP, experiments in Audio to MIDI with Live 5

tried using synodeia2