KVR Audio

zmarx · Post by **zmarx** » Thu Dec 08, 2011 5:18 pm

Hi there!

Is there a solution out there that reliably converts audio into MIDI on the fly, so I "dum diddle dum" into the mic and say my Vienna Symphonic violin instantly plays along?

I do a search every other year, but so far none of the solutions was fast or reliable enough. So here is my try for 2011. I hope I can get rid of my MIDI keyboard one day

Thanks
Zsolt

zmarx · Post by **zmarx** » Thu Dec 08, 2011 6:16 pm

zmarx wrote:Hi there!

Is there a solution out there that reliably converts audio into MIDI on the fly, so I "dum diddle dum" into the mic and say my Vienna Symphonic violin instantly plays along?

I do a search every other year, but so far none of the solutions was fast or reliable enough. So here is my try for 2011. I hope I can get rid of my MIDI keyboard one day

Thanks
Zsolt

Just tested Digital Ear. Seems to be quite fast, but hard to decide as the demo version interrupts every 10 seconds or so for 10 seconds and then it crashes after a minute - so Digital Ear probably won't get my money ...

clif321 · Post by **clif321** » Thu Dec 08, 2011 8:02 pm

Saw a video recently suggesting you could do this via the iPad/iPhone app Thumbjam:

http://www.sonicstate.com/news/2011/11/ ... pilot-v20/

opus_diaboli · Post by **opus_diaboli** » Thu Dec 08, 2011 10:19 pm

I don't know of any instant analyze -> play solutions. But Melodyne can analyze (even polyphonic*) audio material and you can convert it to midi. But since Melodyne is no VST host, it can't load a sampler which would be able to convert the midi data to audio. It has a build in synthesizer to check whether or not the audio material has been analyzed correctly.

Depending on the complexity of the audio material you may need to correct the result manually, but generally Melodyne is quite reliable concerning the analyzed notes. It's just the best solution on the market to date. The latest release has some interesting additional features.

*) that depends on the edition of Melodyne. For polyphonic material you need the Editor edition.

Edit: just try the demo version:

www.celemony.com

RunBeerRun · Post by **RunBeerRun** » Thu Dec 08, 2011 11:17 pm

Fretkeys link, this is what I use, provided you're on Windows.

Also there's Voicekeys there, too, a Reaktor ensemble, never tried it myself.

V'ger · Post by **V'ger** » Wed Dec 14, 2011 7:07 pm

I've also tested a lot of these to use voice as input, but still nothing really workable. Best so far of the VSTs is Midifier.

RunBeerRun · Post by **RunBeerRun** » Wed Dec 14, 2011 10:51 pm

I remember the Kznaudio Midifier, and just demoed it again. The latency is really bad while I play guitar!

Christian Budde's VST analyzer initially reports the latency at 9309 samples.

Pytchblend · Post by **Pytchblend** » Thu Dec 15, 2011 12:36 pm

Reaper has a free plugin called Reatune: http://wiki.cockos.com/wiki/index.php/U ... io_to_midi

SteveBurley2000 · Post by **SteveBurley2000** » Thu Dec 15, 2011 12:44 pm

Native Instruments 'The Mouth' does exactly what you want.

You also need Reaktor though.

http://www.native-instruments.com/#/en/ ... the-mouth/

There's a great video of it in use by Tim Exile on the NI site and YouTube.

It's the MIDI out option that will interest you.

V'ger · Post by **V'ger** » Thu Dec 15, 2011 3:13 pm

Looks really cool, anyone tried the midi out on it yet?

Midifier has atrocious latency yes, but I guess that explains its better than average performance.

Reatune is not too bad either, but I think to get any of these working reliable, one should have a chain of gate, eq, compressor and tuner in front to make the input as readable as possible, but haven't really experimented too much with it.

SteveBurley2000 · Post by **SteveBurley2000** » Fri Dec 16, 2011 10:37 am

I've tested The Mouth's MIDI out and fed it to Trillian for bass lines and it was excellent.

Bones1223 · Post by **Bones1223** » Mon Sep 03, 2012 2:58 pm

I have been experimenting with this myself and have had mixed results using the Sonuus i2m device. It hasn't been cheap, however. I also needed to buy a super fast laptop computer, some pretty expensive virtual instrument software, and several other outboard gadgets. It does work, but I'm still having some tracking problems, especially with a few of the particular voices, several of which I had hoped to use. My plan has been to eventually be able to use this in my live solo performances while playing my guitar so I had to come up with something totally hands free. So far it is not reliable enough to debut in front of an audience but I am still hoping to get it there one of these days. I'm tired of only having neck strap harmonica or kazoo to play solo parts over my guitar during breaks in my vocals. I have written to TC Helicon, Roland, and just about everybody else I could think of to see if they could develop an affordable stand alone device to do this but so far I haven't even heard back from anybody.

highkoo · Post by **highkoo** » Mon Sep 03, 2012 4:04 pm

V'ger, have you used The Mouth?
I am wondering how Midifier compares, latency aside.

Something as good as The Mouth that doesnt need Reaktor would be nice...

V'ger · Post by **V'ger** » Mon Sep 03, 2012 9:27 pm

No haven't. Like you say the Reaktor player is a bit off-putting but there is a nice deal on Komplete with Mouth and other things included now so might jump on it.

@Bones1223: What's your complete chain? Are you using Auto-tuners?

Voice to MIDI