Tuner and note analysis

LazyCircuits · 2020-10-27T14:33:48.540Z

I love all of the effects in Ableton but I wish the tuner could do more. Does anyone know of a good plug in that helps to analyse the notes within a sampled chord?

I know that you can use the Spectrum tool with note names but I don’t know how to read it to find which notes are in the chord.

Anatol · 2020-10-27T14:36:01.576Z

If I recall correctly, J74 had a chord analyzer: http://fabriziopoce.com/progressive.html

LazyCircuits · 2020-10-27T16:23:37.014Z

That looks quite cool but I wouldn’t spend €15 if there was a free alternative.

Anatol · 2020-10-27T17:38:27.871Z

That, unfortunately, is the only solution I know of.

LazyCircuits · 2020-10-27T17:43:34.092Z

Hopefully, someone can chip in with a review of it.

Byzero · 2020-10-27T17:44:56.487Z

For spectrum in notes mode, play the chord in a loop, then hover your pointer over the highest peaks to see which note that represents. Doing this for all the highest peaks should give you the notes in the chord.

LazyCircuits · 2020-10-27T18:32:29.946Z

Don’t you get peaks for harmonics as well? Is it obvious which is the next note up and which is a harmonic of a lower note?

mzero · 2020-10-27T19:02:23.413Z

Harmonics are always above the fundamental in frequency… and usually lower than the fundamental in volume. Sometimes the 2nd harmonic is louder… and om which octave you consider the fundamental is arguable and depends on context.

For chords it is always going to take some sleuthing because the very nature of a chord is that the harmonics of the root align with some of the fundamental and harmonics of the other notes. Timbres that have many harmonics, or effects like distortion will only make all of this fuzzier.

Analyzing the notes of a chord from a recording is still a tricky business. Even using latest machine learning, the results are only a starting point for transcription.

You can play with Magenta’s machine learning polyphonic transcription, tuned for piano for free, on the web without installing anything: https://piano-scribe.glitch.me/