WAV to MIDI at last?

2005-04-22 03:48 pm

New Scientist reports today that an american company are confident that their software can "listen" to (wav file-based I assume) piano recordings and convert them to MIDI files that can then be used to MIDI play back faithfully the original live recording, this time using a MIDI instrument.

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg18624966.700

I'd love to see the software tackle a big band, or an orchestra, or a metal concert....

Sterghios

Re: WAV to MIDI at last?

Reply #1 – 2005-04-22 05:14 pm

For a specific instrument with fixed tunings, and without background interference, that is not unreasonable.

Look at it this way: Divide time into millisecond increments. At any time slice, predict what the sound would be if there were no change from the previous (except for natural decay). Compare the actual sound. If the difference exceeds an allowable error window, it would be because one or more keys were struck, or un-struck, or a pedal change. Compute tentative best fit, since there are only a finite number of possibilities.

If the evolution of sound during the next few time frames is inconsistent with the tentative best fit, go back and try again among other likely alternatives. And so forth.

Seems to be within the reach of ordinary computers.

But I ask: Given that the original piano could have been recorded in MIDI to start with, how great is the need for such software except as a curiosity?

Re: WAV to MIDI at last?

Reply #2 – 2005-04-22 07:12 pm

the reason is if you have any wav file on your computer that you would want as a midi (for any reason) it could be easily converted