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Topic: File Conversion (Read 6790 times) previous topic - next topic

File Conversion

Hi guys, I know this subject has been hashed over before, but bear with me (and don't hit me with any large ugly sticks, please). I have some CD music that I have been assured by several music store people has never been printed in sheet form. Naturally I would like to have it in this form. Now I know that the Windows Media Player will make me a nice .WMA file from the track and I found a very nice program at downloads.com called dBpowerAMP that will rip the track and make a very nice sounding .mp3 file or a .wav file or will convert one to the other. I have seen oodles and gobs of questions dealing with converting NWC files to MIDI and other file types. Still with me? Ok, good. Now to the meat and potatoes of this bit. Has anyone found any software that will take a .wma file or a .wav (yeah, yeah, I know, you can't get there from here) file or an .mp3 file or any other type (except MIDI of course, if I could get there, I could get to NWC) and turn it into something that Noteworthy Composer can recognize?

Thanx and keep up the good work.
The Shadow

Re: File Conversion

Reply #1 –
As someone said, that's "trying to convert a hamburger back to a cow".

LOL!

Re: File Conversion

Reply #2 –
Wav to midi phenomenon has been discussed on this forum several times. To sum up:

Midi is a set of commands that lead the soundcard to produce sounds in particular quantitive attributes. For instance, "play a C5 semiquaver in crotchet=120bpm, using patch #3, on channel 14, volume=127..."

A wave file, on the other hand, is a digitised sound data.

Converting a wav to midi efficiently will require superb artificial intelligence, more than Kubrick can imagine!

There are, however, some expensive software packeges that *claim* to be able to convert wav to midi. Never pay them a penny! ;)

Hth,
Ertugrul

Re: File Conversion

Reply #3 –
Thanks guys, I was afraid of something like that.
Ah well, back to the drawing board.

Re: File Conversion

Reply #4 –
Yeah, sorry Henry. It would be nice...

But, believe it or not, you already have "superb artificial intelligence, more than Kubrick can imagine" at your disposal. And it's free. It's that incredible machine we call the human brain. It just needs to be trained, and it's top-notch ear-training to work out what's happening in a piece of music and transcribe it to NWC. Hint: start with an easy one, and work your way up from there.

Good luck, and above all have fun with it!

Fred

Re: File Conversion

Reply #5 –
Fred's reply reminds me...

I sing in a choir. From time to time, another member of the Bass section (who is a much better singer than I) complains to me, "Can't you read music?"

My reply is, "Of course I can read music. This note is C# of eigth duration. That note is E of quarter duration."

What he means to ask is, "Can't you SING what you READ?"

Re: File Conversion

Reply #7 –
> My claim of not being a musician.

Actually, I do claim to be a musician, by virtue of singing in a choir.

Alas, it is the other members of the choir who dispute my claim. I am merely conceding the point to the majority!

Re: File Conversion

Reply #8 –
Henry,

If after listening to a track a few times, you can whistle, hum or play the melody on your favourite instrument, then you are half way to being able to transcribe it. It's not easy and takes time and many, many playings of the track to ensure you have it just right. However, it is the most reliable and accurate method. If you have a really good ear, you might even be able to extract the harmonies - I'm afraid I can't and usually have to then work them out after taking down the melody.

Good Luck

Geoff

Re: File Conversion

Reply #9 –
Thanx again for all the comments guys.
I have arrived at the conclusion that there isn't yet a method of 'turning the hamburger back into the cow' (grin).

I found a couple of programs on download.com the claimed to convert .wav files into .midi files, they were freeware so I tried them. Welllll...... to make a long story short, Conway Twitty's "Tight Fittin' Jeans" came out the other end of the tunnel sounding like "Kitten On The Keys". (In C# Major no less) LOL.

I deeply appreciate all the comments and wisdom shown by everyone at this Forum.

We now return you to your regular programming.

The Shadow.

Re: File Conversion

Reply #10 –
Geoff's remark made me think of this:
nowadays NO program is able to transform complex sound (wave multi-timbral and/or polyphonic) into "simple" midi events.
BUT some of them can do it with one single instrument playing only one note at a time. Such as you singing with your own voice.

So if you're not (yet ;) trained to notate what you hear (reverse part of "can't you sing what you read?" ;), you can listen to your CD with headphones, and record on your PC (in WAV) what you SING along... Then a program (for example, look at https://forum.noteworthycomposer.com/?topic=845 ) could transform your output (or input?? I'm lost here) into MIDI.
Of course you'll have to do it with each "voice" you'll identify on the music you listen to!! This is anyway a good training for listening music and learning polyphony :)

Notating by ear (and NWC) is not as difficult as it may seem first. I did it with a 4 voice choir (Absalon fili mi) and got it right finally! (or _NWCly_ should I say). Playing the score along with the CD is of good help either.

Hope this helps !

Re: File Conversion

Reply #11 –
I've tried to find a program that would convert mp3 or wave files into midi files for quite sometime now.

Long story short, haven't found anything that really works.

It could be several years until the real thing comes along, so why not hire a musical transcriber to put your cds onto sheet music??

You know, someone with perfect pitch, excellent notating skills, and lots of experience with the top notating software.

Someone like....... me. Yeah, you read correctly, I've been doing transcribing for years now, locally, and would like to start developing a web based clientel.

Tell me what you think.

Thanks.