New chord detector by DDMF

[docdued]

Ok, it's not (yet) a plugin but still something the practising musicians among you will find interesting (especially those poor souls that don't have perfect pitch ). Chorddetector is an mp3/wav-player with an integrated chord detection algorithm. It's extremely simple to use: just load the song whose chords you're interested in, press play and see the displayed chords in realtime, so that you can play along with your instrument. Very useful for covering songs, which, as we all know, is the basis of virtually all successful band careers!

This nice piece of software is available for next to nothing (15 $) in Windows (32 bit executable) and Mac OSX (Intel 10.5 or 10.6) format at http://www.chorddetector.com . A demo version is ready for download as well. Also, there's a little video on the site showing the tool in action...

[VitaminD]

very cool concept.

Why does the windows version have a mac-like look and feel?

[docdued]

Because Steve Jobs pays me to do so! Na, it's the default JUCE look (a graphics library), and I like it.

[D N A]

very nice concept, it'll be an amazing concept when you create plugin version

how such "detecting chord task" is realised ? I use software which returns the root key of track (useful for DJs and "harmonic mixing" technique) but been always wondering how it's possible ? I'm totally newbie here. Do you scan the frequencies or are there any detector algorithms ? IF you could write a little bit about technique, about "how it works" (some basics, because I assume that there are some hidden tricks ) that would be great Im just curious

[penguinfromdeep]

cool idea!

[audiobot202]

Nice, but it this just detecting the root note of the chord?

[Nielzie]

cool idea!

Cool indeed! Would reach the highest grade of coolness if it also could copy the chords realtime into the piano roll of the host

[Shabdahbriah]

cool idea!

Cool indeed! Would reach the highest grade of coolness if it also could copy the chords realtime into the piano roll of the host

That would be clever, indeed.

But I will def check this out...

[docdued]

The approach I've taken here is: imagine a piano and a loudspeaker playing a song at high volume nearby. The strings in the piano will start to resonate with the notes that are present in the music, and when you stop the music at any given point, you'll hear (more or less) the chord that was being played at that moment. So this is what I simulate... and then I see, okay, the C, E and G string are vibrating, must be C major! Of course there are some more details (like the strings shouldn't react too fast, otherwise every drum beat will f**k things up), and you have to set some sort of threshold for overtones (any real instrument playing C,E,G will in fact also have a bit of B and D in it). But that's about it.
Of course it's not perfect, but neither are the existing approaches. It's meant to guide you, but you shouldn't follow it blindly (just like a car navigation system, sort of). It will usually work well with acoustic stuff, Pantera, not so much...

[Lotuzia]

Just tried it.

The idea is really brilliant.

This said on WinXp32 SP 3 :

When browsing to load a file my system becomes terribly sluggish. Also : After I've selected a track/clip it hangs for one mn before playing/refreshing program window.

Also its a real hassle that the program doesnt keep the last folder used. Tkaes ages if you have to reselect your demo folder at each time.

Also a rewind/forward button would be very appreciated, aslo the logic to restart from beginning (press left once then center then play ) is a bit weird to say the least.

Also sometimes when for example the base material is made from arpeggios the program displays fast changing chords wich are not related to what is actually playing.

So maybe a "refresh time" parameter could be usefull, which user could tweak to approximately follow the tempo of the track and then get the chords each bar or half/quarter bar.

Dont get me wrong :

Just some thoughts : The idea of this program is ultimately cool, and could be very usefull for music students, schools etc, but I thoink it needs to be a little more polished to do the job.

Best,

LtZ

[docdued]

Thanks for the thoughts! On Win7, the last folder is being remembered... will look into XP asap.
I agree the controls can (and will) be improved. Ideally you could scroll through the waveform, or maybe also loop parts. There has to be something for version 1.1!

[D N A]

The approach I've taken here is [...]

Thanks for the info. It was very interesing

[wakax]

it's good but is more technology demo than application ...
it doesnt have any storage like save notes / chords to midi.
not even to a txt file ... also it doesnt have loop points.
but it detects quite good ...

[Klemperer]

Like with ddmf, after so many outstanding plugins I just bought it. (Even though the price tag is enormous ). It's amazing, after first tests (and with Vista and a few wavs it doesn't give me problems Lotuzia has with WinXP up to now, will try on my other PC with xp).

A little FR - I know, I know, it's out since a few days and I just should enjoy it^^: nearly all of my wav-files are saved as flac these days, as Reaper loads them so fine. Will flac, as far as I know the most used lossless compression (in earlier times I had monkey's audio, but many programs support flac more) be supported in a later update?
Anyway, thanks for the program, it is great!

[stanlea]

Could someone compare it with another program, called Chordata ?

http://clam-project.org/download.html

I"d be curious to see the differences.

(sorry docdued for the competition... but it's not the same approach)