Audio-to-MIDI & harmony processing in Max/MSP?

Bill Canty's icon

Hi everybody,

Complete pre-novice here. (Planning to buy the program when version 5's ready. Yeah, I know about the free upgrade, but I'll be busy finishing off a project or two for the next couple of months.)

I'm mostly interested in MIDI, therefore only need Max. But I'd be very interested in MSP too if it could do...

- Audio-to-MIDI. Especially in realtime, like Digital Ear (http://www.digital-ear.com/)

- Audio harmony processing, like the Digitech Vocalist, etc.

If these are huge, difficult tasks (as I assume they would be for a beginner) something that's already done would be great, free or commercial.

Thanks in advance, Bill

Adam Glazier's icon

I wouldn't suggest purchasing Max/MSP just for to generate a harmony, unless you plan to do more with that information since other standalone apps exist for that sort of thing.

There are objects like pitch~ (http://web.media.mit.edu/~tristan) that will get pitch information for you, but making the output work for you is not easy as pie. You see, most Max/MSP objects output streams of raw data. They are built that way so you have complete control over things.

I haven't looked, but try searching the forums or Google for Max/MSP patches that solve this problem. I bet nearly every Max/MSP user has wanted this type of thing and about 1/4 have actually tried building the patch you describe.

Good Luck,

Adam Glazier's icon

Just did a search at http://www.maxobjects.com and found a patch built that does what you need :)

-------------------
transcribe
real-time polyphonic audio to Midi transcriber
Realtime Transcription of Music Signals.
Outputs a [MIDIPITCH MIDIVELOCITY] list for each note (both onset and offset)

Bill Canty's icon

> I wouldn't suggest purchasing Max/MSP just for to generate a
> harmony, unless you plan to do more with that information since > other standalone apps exist for that sort of thing.

I'm getting Max anyway. Just wondering whether to get MSP too.

I prefer to avoid having too many interconnected apps - there's usually less to go wrong. Plus there's the cost of extra apps. Plus, the best audio-to-MIDI app seems to be the Windows-only Digital Ear, which is not only a separate app, but would need a copy of Windows and Parallels or Fusion to run on my Mac. So, yeah, if Max/MSP could do it, life'd be much simpler (at least in theory!)

> I bet nearly every Max/MSP user has wanted this type of thing
> and about 1/4 have actually tried building the patch you
> describe.

So it's not a silly question. Phew!

> Just did a search at http://www.maxobjects.com and found a
> patch built that does what you need :)
>
> It's called transcribe: http://cosmal.ucsd.edu/arshia/index.php?> n=Main.Transcribe

Hey, THANKS Adam! :-)

Cheers, Bill