Syncopation

I tried my hand at setting a bluesy Bonnie Raitt number to musical notation.  As before, you can hit the automated "play" button at the bottom left.

9 comments:

Cass said...

I'm still not sure I understand what Noteflight does - do you have to be able to read music to enter it?

I took a quick look at the user guide and it looks as though you can enter notes directly via MIDI (though I'm not sure I"m smart enough to figure that out). If so that would be incredible.

I have written so much music but my ability to read/write music from scores is so poor that I've never even tried to write any of it in permanent format so other people could play it.

Very impressive, Tex! :)

Texan99 said...

Is MIDI an audio file? If noteflight translates those, I don't know how. I was "writing" music, i.e., clicking on the staff, which causes a note to be inserted, while helpfully playing the note, so you can keep track of whether it's the right tone. Then you keep adding notes until you have chords and accompaniment that match what you hear or remember about the song.

It would be tricky to use this program if you don't read music, because although you can adjust the tone by ear, you still have to be able to choose the right length of notes and rests in order to get the timing and rhythm right. It also really helps to know what the standard chords look like in standard musical notation, so you don't have to hunt blind for every single note in every chord. So, for instance, if I know that the song calls for a C major chord, I know that's C-E-G, much as a guitar player knows how to make a C chord with the frets.

I think there's a guitar-chord function in the program, but I haven't tried to use it yet. I don't know whether it adds the elements of the chord to the staff as notes, or just writes the name of the chord above the lyrics. There are some functions that aren't activated unless you upgrade from the free basic service, which I haven't done.

Cass said...

I think only the extra features edition (costs more? I only had a sec to look at it) lets you capture notes from MIDI (a digital interface).

I agree it would still be very tedious, but that's the only way I'd ever get through writing it all down. One piece I wrote about 10 years ago - a waltz - is so complicated that I'm hard pressed to play it.

Which really limits what one can compose.

Grim said...

A MIDI file is a primitive audio file, Tex. It's a protocol developed way back in the 1980s.

Texan99 said...

So what Cass is talking about is a program that can take a full audio file and transcribe it into notation, even with multiple parts and instruments? That would be pretty great, if it could pick up all the parts at once. I may have to buy the upgrade!

Grim said...

I think so.

These kinds of files -- the extension is .mid -- were often used in early computer games. Here are the ones from Darklands, which are (by the way) mostly actual Medieval tunes that they rendered into MIDI format for inclusion in the game. This was a kind of high point in the history of computer gaming, when the graphic and sound technology was still quite primitive but designers were willing to sink vast effort into historical research and accurate modeling.

So you can play those files on your computer, most likely: Windows Media Player and many others can read a .mid file. And then this would read out the notes and give you basic sheet music for these wonderful songs.

Texan99 said...

Is the musical notation capability (or translation) built in the coding of the MIDI in the first place, or is it simply an audio recording that relies on new software (such as noteflight) to do the transcription?

Grim said...

Heck if I know. :) I just know how to emulate the old software, sometimes when current stuff doesn't support it.

Cass said...

Is the musical notation capability (or translation) built in the coding of the MIDI in the first place, or is it simply an audio recording that relies on new software (such as noteflight) to do the transcription?

I think the latter. I can already create the files with my electronic piano, but didn't think there was any way to transcribe the music.