Neat transcription software for Mac

Whistler

Neural Mix Pro (review above) was £40-something and I am still liking it.

For around £80 RipX DeepRemix looks to have more features and be better aimed at musicians rather than DJs.

lukedlb

I have just downloaded the 5 day trial version of RipX DeepRemix and so far I'm astonished. Just tried digging Jimi out of the drums and bass on Red House and it's remarkable just how clear it is. Did the same with James Brown though with some cross-mix on the horns and guitar. You can highlight and loop specific parts and frequencies of a song to omit unwanted frequencies but I don't see any way to modify how the app separates the tracks. I am tempted to get the full version if but just to have backing tracks of the real thing.

Kasalic

Tried both of these today, and whilst initially Neural Mix Pro looked to have more features, RipX certainly did better at separating the stems out. 

lukedlb

Last day trialing RipX and I am amazed by its potential. You can click on any part of the visual representation (a piano roll) and hear that specific note, or select an area and loop it. It tells you the note on the visual keyboard as well as the number (c2 for example). What’s more, you can export any part as a midi file and feed that to other software, which leads me to ask:
what is the best way/app in iOS to see midi for learning a piece of music? Perhaps a Tab generator or piano scroll generator?

allen

My experience with ripx so far is that it is a lot more complicated than neural mix pro or capo. Also a lot more powerful though.

Need to have a bit more of a fiddle with it.

lukedlb

lukedlb said:

Last day trialing RipX and I am amazed by its potential. You can click on any part of the visual representation (a piano roll) and hear that specific note, or select an area and loop it. It tells you the note on the visual keyboard as well as the number (c2 for example). What’s more, you can export any part as a midi file and feed that to other software, which leads me to ask:
what is the best way/app in iOS to see midi for learning a piece of music? Perhaps a Tab generator or piano scroll generator?

in answer to my own question:
 i took the theme from Barry norman's theme night (Billy Taylor's I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free), isolated the piano, saved it as a midi file, imported it into garageband and chose a steinway piano as my instrument and voila a digital version THAT SHOWS YOU WHAT NOTES TO PLAY ON THE PIANO!!!!!!

Is there a way for garageband or other app to output a musical score so I can read it on the piano rather than eagle eye each key pressed on the midi keyboard?

lukedlb

by a lucky click I just discovered piano score on garageband alongside piano roll

lukedlb

unfortunately, the midi track isn't as clean as it sounds and the score includes all the transients that seeped in from other sounds/instruments.
but it would be perfect for the bass guitar or vocal lines

allen

Great info. Thanks 

Whistler

lukedlb said:

Is there a way for garageband or other app to output a musical score so I can read it on the piano rather than eagle eye each key pressed on the midi keyboard?

Logic Pro has included music score since its beginning way back when (I started with it in 1993). Logic Pro on a Mac is a big step up from GarageBand on an iPad or iPhone.

Freestanding music score programs such as Sibelius will do it all but has a price to confirm its abilities.

There will be cheap options, such as Musescore and Noteflight but I don't keep up with them so you will need to dig around to find which apps can do it for you.

lukedlb

allen said:

Great info. Thanks 

Your thread has opened a world of easier studying. I’d go as far as saying it’s fundamental for learning any new song, especially the visual aspect. 

allen

Here's another one.

Zplane deCoda

https://products.zplane.de/products/decoda/


I really need to do a comparison video

This one looks a lot simpler than RipX, similar to Capo, but with powerful controls.

It's very squarely aimed at guitar players.

Check out the demo videos on their website.

lukedlb

allen said:

Here's another one.

Zplane deCoda

https://products.zplane.de/products/decoda/


I really need to do a comparison video

This one looks a lot simpler than RipX, similar to Capo, but with powerful controls.

It's very squarely aimed at guitar players.

Check out the demo videos on their website.

2 minutes of messing with it and it's not for me. Perhaps better for students who are starting out. It's nothing like RipX, which separates the instruments, whereas Plane just uses EQ. It has the same piano roll feature but without instrument separation is just a mess. Perhaps I'm missing something.

lukedlb

Trial period has expired on RipX. I can still access all my files and listen to them. However, I can't import or export or mess with tempo or edit. It's just playback.
I'm still open to other software options; after all, RipX offers much more than I need. 

lukedlb

Looking at the RipX manual (the software is very intuitive), it shows that the software is meant for sampling as much of the manual is dedicated to this topic. My use is directed towards learning and understanding music.
Importing a music file will offer more or less these 'instruments': drums, Bass, Violin, Guitar, and Voice. Violin and guitar cover everything in the midrange from piano to strings.
Once the drums are muted, much of the 'study' is clearer to understand. I have been looking at 3 parts specifically: the vocals, piano and Bass. Each instrument follows a piano roll representation so that any part of a melody can be tapped and heard alone for the duration of the note, with the voice of that instrument.
Examining vocal lines is particularly illuminating as the harmonies, such as a 3-part harmony, reveal the simplicity of chord harmony or complexity of melodic harmony. I analysed Silk Sonic's Fly As Me and discovered that Anderson Paak's rap is in fact a melody. the harmonies are chords with Bruno Mars topping it with his scream.
Examining Bass Lines is remarkably clear and distinct whether electric bass or organ.
Piano or guitar depends on the music. A lot of transients turn up making it difficult to read the playback piano roll. However, once you stop the playback and select each note of a chord by ear, ignoring the transients from other instruments, the music begins to reveal itself. Melodic lines are much easier to identify. Jimi's guitar from Red house was remarkably accurate (I have the TAB already).
The visual representation of the horizontal piano roll for someone music-score impaired is especially helpful. Unfortunately, the software does not offer a vertical piano roll option so much of the time my neck is askew from consulting the vertical piano. Exporting midi to the piano roll feature on Garageband is a work around; however, midi includes all those transients that make it almost unusable. 
The tempo change and loop feature make study particularly easy without sounding too glitchy.

Does a software exist that performs only these specific features? At its core is the track separation. If the software already provides the features I require, why wouldn't it go the extra stretch and provide the sampling option? Perhaps RipX would profit from two versions: one for samplers and one for instrumentalists. Rebranding away from RipX DeepAudio and its connotations of dance music to a more guitarist friendly name would make this an essential element in any music student's hardware (software).

Not only can you hear the notes, you can see them and confirm them. This is much more rewarding than the laborious effort or working out the notes on your own. I imagine that traditionalists would say, but that's how Clapton did it! Patiently listening and repeating until you understand it. Sure, but I can work out any of Clapton's lines in minutes and learn them in hours now. I would've absorbed the music theory behind just the same and much quicker to boot.

Once again, the kids don't know how lucky they are.

axisus

@lukedlb Thanks for that, really useful write up.

Of the software mentioned in this thread, anyone have any idea of which would be best to extract just the drums from a song? I like making backing tracks but my drumming is rubbish!

allen

axisus said:

@lukedlb Thanks for that, really useful write up.

Of the software mentioned in this thread, anyone have any idea of which would be best to extract just the drums from a song? I like making backing tracks but my drumming is rubbish!

Neural mix pro is free to try so might as well start there. It's only £40 if you want to save files. So overall, it's the cheapest and simplest solution.

TheOtherDennis

I may well be misunderstanding this thread, but I've been getting the impression that these apps take a music recording and can break it down and produce the equivalent of sheet music/tab from it.

But the algoriddim link I followed only seems to be for remixing music.

And the Transcribe pages I've looked at don't seem to be easily interpretable to me.

Am I missing something or looking in the wrong place or expecting something the apps can't actually do?

lukedlb

TheOtherDennis said:

I may well be misunderstanding this thread, but I've been getting the impression that these apps take a music recording and can break it down and produce the equivalent of sheet music/tab from it.

But the algoriddim link I followed only seems to be for remixing music.

And the Transcribe pages I've looked at don't seem to be easily interpretable to me.

Am I missing something or looking in the wrong place or expecting something the apps can't actually do?

RipX gives something like that but requires Garageband for further notation.

allen

allen said:

Well it's 5 months later and I've finally got round to doing a demo for guitar playing. 

Here it is:

Just watch my video to see what Algoriddim does for guitar players.