Transcription tools?

[Robert Randolph]

So I think this sort of fits in this forum, I'm not sure where to put it otherwise.

I've been analyzing/transcribing some jazz tunes lately and there's points where I'm having difficulty figuring out various pitches. Mostly in faster tunes where simply slowing down the audio just turns everything into a cacophonic mush.

I've been using Sonic Visualizer a good bit, and I messed with the melodyne editor demo, as well as Transcribe! SV seems to do the best by far with a bit of know-how, but I'm curious if there's anything else out there?

I'm specifically looking for things that do more than just slow down audio. Spectrograms, note detection, phrasing, note based filters etc...

[tapper mike]

If they are standards then they've been transcribed.

Prolly not what you want to read but.. Buy the sheet. It's a faster way to learn a song if that is your intent. It's also something you can have at a moments notice years later when you are siting there going "how did it go?"

In the age of the internet many publishers have finally gotten their act together and sell in downloadable format. It's 100 percent legal usually cheaper then the actual recording and if your intent is to be a performing jazz musician you'll need to work with others that work from the sheet as well.

[jancivil]

I believe that the time dicking around with software cen be put to better use getting the chops together so you can identify the things you currently can't. Plus in the jazz idiom the number of options isn't exactly infinitudes or serious mysteries.

You're trying to do some work to avoid doing some more beneficial work frankly.

[tapper mike]

There is nothing wrong with trying to develop your ear if you have the time and sharpening it by transcribing material.

Software is very very iffy when it comes to deciphering digital audio because there can be a lot working in the background. Not to mention things like tuning and bends can send it way off. Software also can create a clutch where you don't feel you have to learn to trust your ears because you think it's doing the job for you. I can read tablature and I can read notation. I always pick notation because it's faster for me to follow. Reading notation. Reading tablature has not improved my notation reading ability. It's a crutch that I accept.

But to be honest. If you need to know something for a gig then you need to know it. Transcribers got their ears because they had to transcribe. I've transcribed because I needed the information and there was no other way to find it.