Best software for transcribing MP3 tracks

[Silvia Bluejay]

8 minutes ago, Crawford13 said:

The notes on the stave for C major and A minor would look exactly the same when written. But their function within the melody / harmony would be different.

What I can’t explain though is why a song in Am come up in Eb major lol, unless the software is flawed.

The software writes down the entire song as a piano stave by default. It doesn't just show single notes. You can choose to print out only one instrument, say double bass (there is no provision for electric bass), but you'll still get some chords as opposed to just notes. 

I remember checking a few songs with the software and at least one third were transcribed in the wrong key. If the real key is minor, you can't have the software re-transcribe it correctly. 

Not just pointless but a waste of time and disk space.

[Crawford13]

3 minutes ago, Silvia Bluejay said:

The software writes down the entire song as a piano stave by default. It doesn't just show single notes. You can choose to print out only one instrument, say double bass (there is no provision for electric bass), but you'll still get some chords as opposed to just notes. 

I remember checking a few songs with the software and at least one third were transcribed in the wrong key. If the real key is minor, you can't have the software re-transcribe it correctly. 

Not just pointless but a waste of time and disk space.

Ah I see, it certainly sounds like a waste of disk space to me!

[Silvia Bluejay]

It's probably very easily fooled by songs that are recorded a bit too fast or too slow, which messes up the pitch. however, I uninstalled the demo version and continued to use MyEars 2.1.

[yorks5stringer]

Right, here's my issue.

For our Open Mic Night, as well as backing other artists who are pre-invited (so we know what tunes they will be doing), the Houseband do our own performance also. In order to make things more exciting ( not my words) the band leader has been seduced by You Tube versions of well-known songs  done in a different way by people like Post Modern Jukebox and Scary Pockets. Add to that we usually do them in a different key which means even if I sit down and chart them out and then transpose them, I am unable to practice playing along with them, unless I sit in the YT  key. We only get one stab at rehearsal which is usually spent  with the vox working on  their arrangements too...😉

So I'm looking for software that will enable me to download a YT song into and then transpose it so I can learn and play along with it. I have an iMac.

Any recommendations please?

Edited August 21, 2019 by yorks5stringer

[Muppet]

19 minutes ago, yorks5stringer said:

...software that will enable me to download a YT song into and then transpose it so I can learn and play along with it. I have an iMac.

Any recommendations please?

I use Replay Music (on Windows but there is a Mac version) https://applian.com/mac/products to record/download an MP3 from an online source. 

I then use Audacity to change the pitch to suit. It has a function to adjust the pitch in half steps up or down. 

I know that is two products rather than one but I don't know a single solution. 

[yorks5stringer]

29 minutes ago, Muppet said:

I use Replay Music (on Windows but there is a Mac version) https://applian.com/mac/products to record/download an MP3 from an online source. 

I then use Audacity to change the pitch to suit. It has a function to adjust the pitch in half steps up or down. 

I know that is two products rather than one but I don't know a single solution. 

Anyone else know of a 1 stop shop?

[wishface]

how do you loop and slow down sections in audacity? I have no idea how this program works and am completely confused

[Unknown_User]

21 minutes ago, wishface said:

how do you loop and slow down sections in audacity? I have no idea how this program works and am completely confused

Under the "Effects" menu at the top there is a "Change Tempo" option.

Edit: To loop stuff you have to highlight the bit you want to loop and then press <Ctrl> + C to copy it.

Then go to the "Tracks" menu > "Add Track" and select the new track it's opened up.  Press <Ctrl> + V to paste the bit you want to loop into that new track.

Add another track and copy it into that as well.  Now you will have 3 tracks and the same section listed on 2 of them, but at the same time.

Underneath the "Analyse" menu there are six buttons.  Choose the one that looks like "<->".  That allows you to drag the sections around.  Select one of the sections and drag it to the end of the other so they will play one after the other.  You can click the one that looks like a typing cursor (like a capital "i") to be able to select again later on.

Then just copy the section into the empty track and drag it to the end of the other one to loop it as many times as you like.

Finally click the "Mute" button on the original track so you don't hear it when you play it back.

Then you can use "Change Tempo" to slow it down.

Edited August 23, 2019 by Unknown_User

[wishface]

Thanks. It's quite rewarding trying to figure out proper parts. I usually just invent my own based on what I think is being played and then going off on my own flight of fancy.

[Unknown_User]

1 minute ago, wishface said:

Thanks. It's quite rewarding trying to figure out proper parts. I usually just invent my own based on what I think is being played and then going off on my own flight of fancy.

Just realised I only answered half your question there so I've added some more details in to the first post.

@stewblack gave me some good instructions on how to change the sound of the track so it makes the bass more prominent.  I can summarise those too if you like?

Finally I think changes you make to a track you load into Audacity can alter the original track if you aren't careful.  So when loading a song in make sure it's a copy of the file, rather than the original one in your iTunes library or wherever.

[wishface]

9 minutes ago, Unknown_User said:

Just realised I only answered half your question there so I've added some more details in to the first post.

@stewblack gave me some good instructions on how to change the sound of the track so it makes the bass more prominent.  I can summarise those too if you like?

Finally I think changes you make to a track you load into Audacity can alter the original track if you aren't careful.  So when loading a song in make sure it's a copy of the file, rather than the original one in your iTunes library or wherever.

yes please

i'm using ripped tracks so if something goes awry i'll just do like edwyn collins

[Unknown_User]

To make bass stand out a bit, take your track and click "Effects" > "Change Pitch".  Select a "Percent Change" of 100.  This will raise the pitch of everything by one octave.

Next it's "Effects" > "Bass & Treble".  Move the "Treble" slider extreme left and leave the others normal.

After that the song itself will sound a bit weird, like Alvin and the Chipmunks are singing it, but the bass is much easier to hear.  Just remember it's now an octave higher than it should be.

You can then make it even better apparently using EQ but my initial efforts at doing that were so cack handed that I decided to stick to just using those two effects.

[stewblack]

Use Export to save in the File menu to save tracks as MP3 or whatever you like and the original remains unaltered. As long as you save it as a different name or in a different place 

[Ricky 4000]

5 hours ago, Unknown_User said:

Edit: To loop stuff you have to highlight the bit you want to loop and then press <Ctrl> + C to copy it.

Then go to the "Tracks" menu > "Add Track" and select the new track it's opened up.  Press <Ctrl> + V to paste the bit you want to loop into that new track.

Add another track and copy it into that as well.  Now you will have 3 tracks and the same section listed on 2 of them, but at the same time.

Underneath the "Analyse" menu there are six buttons.  Choose the one that looks like "<->".  That allows you to drag the sections around.  Select one of the sections and drag it to the end of the other so they will play one after the other.  You can click the one that looks like a typing cursor (like a capital "i") to be able to select again later on.

Then just copy the section into the empty track and drag it to the end of the other one to loop it as many times as you like.

Finally click the "Mute" button on the original track so you don't hear it when you play it back.

Then you can use "Change Tempo" to slow it down.

Dude, I don't think you need to do all that to loop stuff in Audacity.

Just select the part of the file that you want to loop (you can adjust / fine tune the selection markers as you wish).

Then >Shift+Space< to loop-play that selection. And then any 'effects' you choose will just effect your selected area (bearing in mind that you usually have to stop playback to add effects).

Alternatively, 'select all' - add your effects to the whole file - then use the selection markers and Shift+Space to loop the bit that you want to loop.

 

👍 ?

Edited August 23, 2019 by Ricky 4000

[wishface]

by the way, if anyone's familiar with the Clasp by Jethro Tull, maybe they could show me what Dave Pegg is playing near the end beause I can't work it out. Not technically difficult but some weird classical riff and I can't for the life of me hear it properly

 

[MartinB]

On 21/08/2019 at 16:03, yorks5stringer said:

Anyone else know of a 1 stop shop?

You should be able to use Audacity to record from Youtube, Spotify, or any other audio stream. Have a look at the options in the dropdown menu next to the microphone icon - you want one that includes "loopback", "what u hear" (sic), or "stereo mix". This treats your audio output as a microphone input, so you end up recording all sounds currently playing on your PC.
Start recording in Audacity, go to Youtube, play the video, wait for the song to end, stop recording, save.

As others have described, you can then do your looping, speed changing, pitchshifting, EQ, etc. in Audacity as well. Though personally I prefer Transcribe! for this part - it feels a lot less clunky.

Edited August 24, 2019 by MartinB
Added another synonym for "loopback"

[tauzero]

On 16/08/2019 at 22:34, Silvia Bluejay said:

The software writes down the entire song as a piano stave by default. It doesn't just show single notes. You can choose to print out only one instrument, say double bass (there is no provision for electric bass), but you'll still get some chords as opposed to just notes. 

I remember checking a few songs with the software and at least one third were transcribed in the wrong key. If the real key is minor, you can't have the software re-transcribe it correctly. 

Not just pointless but a waste of time and disk space.

Do you mean it gets the actual notes wrong, or that it gets the key signature wrong? You appear to be a bit confused between keys and chords. The key of C major and of A minor have the same key signature (no sharps or flats) and the same set of chords fit straight into both keys - Am, C, Dm, Em, F, G. There's no way of telling whether something's in C major or A minor except by context. "Converting" something from the key of C major to the key of A minor means leaving everything as it is. If it's been put into Eb major instead of A minor, it just means (if it's got the actual notes right) there's a load of unnecessary natural signs on the score.

[Silvia Bluejay]

Now guys, please lay off the patronising attitude. I have done my theory studies. If a song is in A minor, it will usually (although not always) start with an A minor chord, and move on to other chords that are part of the scale, with some possible exceptions if the composer wants to surprise you. What this damn piece of software does, not having an A minor setting, is it doesn't seem to recognise it at all.

So it usually - IME - gets the key wrong in cases like this, and you can't 'tell' it that it needs to work in A minor. You can ask it to change the key to one offered by its list. The closest is C major: so it changes the first chord to C major, and all other chords that follow are transposed to the key of C major in the transcription offered. The software works on all the instruments, not just bass. You can play the song as transcribed, and it sounds nothing like the original!

That's it.

[floFC]

On 16/08/2019 at 19:01, dannybuoy said:

Looks like they've been bought by Fender!

https://play.riffstation.com

Found a link here to the latest free version before it disappeared, uploaded by a user on the Cakewalk forum:

http://forum.cakewalk.com/Riffstation-Pro-for-FREE-m3756955.aspx

https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/riffstation-downloads/Riffstation.exe

Late to the party, catching up.

After a bit of guesswork, here is the link to download the Mac Version from the same source, which works fine:

https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/riffstation-downloads/Riffstation.dmg

[Ricky 4000]

4 hours ago, MartinB said:

You should be able to use Audacity to record from Youtube, Spotify, or any other audio stream. Have a look at the options in the dropdown menu next to the microphone icon - you want one that includes "loopback", "what u hear" (sic), or "stereo mix". This treats your audio output as a microphone input, so you end up recording all sounds currently playing on your PC.
Start recording in Audacity, go to Youtube, play the video, wait for the song to end, stop recording, save.

As others have described, you can then do your looping, speed changing, pitchshifting, EQ, etc. in Audacity as well. Though personally I prefer Transcribe! for this part - it feels a lot less clunky.

Wow, I never even thought of looking for a loopback function using a Windows laptop with built in soundcard -- but it is there!

And it works! -- Thank you!!

And it's here in Reaper: