Note detection

[gnubeard]

Hi guys,

I'm hoping someone can give me some tips here..

First off, let me briefly describe my set up. I'm using SonicBirth 1.3.1 to create a VST for use with AudioMulch. Primarily my audio source is my electric guitar. I want an effect for my guitar which, when I play a certain note, triggers the audio file player to play a wav file.

The approach I'm using now (which doesn't work that well) is to:

Bandpass filter the input in an attempt to isolate high frequency harmonics, convert that to dB and run that to a comparator which pumps a flipflop for use as the trigger signal for the audiofile player. The frequency and dB references are on sliders, naturally. The idea is, I let out a pinch harmonic "squealie" and the wav player fires off the sound of an explosion.

It basically does work, but I can't quite get the precision that I want. The file plays when I don't really want it to.

So I'm wondering if my approach is basically flawed, and if there is a better way to accomplish the same thing.

Left to my own devices, I'll probably add more bandpass sections to try and be more precise with the note detection.

But I'm wondering if there is a way that I could play the trigger note, grab its FFT and subsequently use that FFT as a "signature" for when to fire the wav file?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.