The first thing you will have to do is load in a track you wish to transcribe.
Note: For best performance, please convert your audio to 48000 Hz, 16 bit WAVE files.
Once the file loads you will see the wave form of the recording in the top panel. The main (centre) panel is where the pitch analysis is displayed. Depending on the size of the file you are transcribing Music Transcriber may take a minute or two to completely load the file, but you will be able to commence analysing the start of the recording immediately. The portion of the file that has not been loaded yet is marked with grey. You can see what percentage of the file has loaded by looking at the bottom left hand corner of the status bar. As the recording loads the frequencies will be drawn on the main panel. These frequencies correspond directly to the notes displayed on the keyboard at the bottom of the screen. Click on play to commence playing the recording. You will be able to hear the recording while watching the notes scroll past.
You can now proceed to the next section of the manual to learn how to read this graph in greater detail and utilise some of the other features of Music Transcriber.
The main panel of the Music Transcriber screen is where the frequencies of the recording you are analysing are graphed. The horizontal axis of the graph represents pitch, and the vertical axis represents time. Each mark drawn on the screen represents a frequency present in the recording at that particular point in time. So a long, vertical line is likely to represent a sustained note in the recording. The colour and intensity of the marks represent the volume. Loud notes are brighter whereas quieter notes are more faint.
Determining which notes are being played is as simple as lining up the marks with the keys on the piano keyboard at the bottom of the screen. Gridlines can optionally be displayed by right-clicking on the display and selecting "Show Note Lines", or enabling the feature from the options dialog.
When you press play you will hear the recording being played as well as see the graph scroll down the screen. As the marks pass the front edge of the keyboard you will hear them played in the recording. You can think of the front edge of the keyboard as the cursor of the graph. You can press on the keyboard as the notes pass to get a feel for how the graph works. To accurately measure the timing of notes on the display, hover the mouse over the time axis to show a cursor and timestamp.
Now that you know how the graph works you can start transcribing your first recording using Music Transcriber. This page contains some useful tips for effectively transcribing a song.
When you first load a recording into Music Transcriber the graph produced may seem complex and little overwhelming. But by tweaking the settings and a little practice it will start to make sense to you in no time.
The first thing you should do once you have loaded a track is to adjust the gain control. This is the slider on the bottom panel. It will assist in emphasising the strong notes and diminishing the softer notes.
Next, start playing the song and watching the graph. You can help identify the notes you are trying to transcribe by using the keyboard to match the marks on the graph.
If you are having trouble picking out notes in a fast part of the song, then try slowing the track down using the Speed slider. This will slow the track down without altering the pitch of the notes being played.
You may notice that sometimes the graph indicates that there are more notes being played than you can actually hear. What you are seeing are harmonics. When a note is played on an instrument such as a guitar, the instrument produces a fundamental note. This is the main note you hear. It also produces several other higher notes called harmonics. These harmonic overtones help to give instruments their individual characteristics. Music Transcriber tries to reduce suspected harmonics but is not able to completely remove them. Using the keyboard here is a good way to identify which of the notes you are seeing is the fundamental.
There are various controls which you can use to assist in analsying a recording.
Playback Controls
Play: Commence playing the recording you have loaded in to Music Transcriber.
Stop: Stop playing the recording you have currently loaded in to Music Transcriber.
Start: Click on this button to return to the start of the recording. If you have set a loop on the recording then you will return to the start of the loop.
Rewind: Rewind the recording. You can alter the speed of rewinding and fast forwarding by adjusting the sliders in the Music Transcriber Options dialog.
Fast Forward: Fast forward the recording. You can alter the speed of rewinding and fast forwarding by adjusting the sliders in the Music Transcriber Options dialog.
Scrub: When you put a recording into scrub mode you will be able to hear the exact part of the recording you are on even though the recording is not playing. Scrub can be useful if you want to pause on a particular section of the recording but still hear what is happening underneath.
Loop: Select this menu option to enable or disable looping. You can access the loop controls by right clicking on the graph. To specify a region to loop, right click on the graph and select your start and end points. You should see two bars indicating the loop region.
Menu
File ==> Open: Open a recording from a browseable location on your computer.
File ==> Load CD Track(s): You can directly load a recording from a CD into Music Transcriber. If you would like Music Transcriber to automatically download track information for you then make sure you have the Use the CD Database for CD track lookup option selected in the Music Transcriber Options.
Controls ==> Loop, Play, Stop: These menu items are the same as the buttons at the bottom of the screen. Please read the above section for details on how they work
Keyboard
You can click on the keyboard to hear that corresponding note. This is useful in identifying which marks on the pitch analysis screen correspond to the instrument or voice you are transcribing.
Below the main panel there is a tuning slider. You can tune the keyboard up and down to help fit songs which may be recorded at slightly lower or higher pitches than the standard. Music Transcriber's tuning defaults to A440 (A = 440Hz).
Gain: The gain slider can be used to boost or cut the intensity of the colour display. The highest volume notes will appear with the foreground color, with quieter ones fading into the background color. These colors can be changed by right-clicking on the main window or using the options dialog. Moving the gain slider has an instant effect on the graph.
Speed: You can modify the speed of playback without affecting the pitch of the notes being played. This can be particularly useful for sections of music where there are many rapid notes. Adjust the slider to the speed you would like to hear the recording at.
Volume: Next to the playback controls are a volume slider, DB display meter and a clock indicating the current playback position.
General
Use the CD Database for CD track lookup
If you check this option then Music Transcriber will automatically attempt to download track information from an online database when you load tracks from a CD.
Fast Forward Speed
Changes how quickly Music Transcriber will fast forward a recording
Rewind Speed
Changes how quickly Music Transcriber will rewind a recording
Sound output device
Change which device sound will be played through
Show format warning
Change whether you would like to be alerted when using formats Music Transcriber is not optimized to use. i.e. 16khz .wav
Display
Orientation
Choose one of the orientation options: Horizontal or Vertical. Horizontal orientation uses a horizontal keyboard at the bottom of the window and vertical orientation uses a vertical keyboard at the left side of the window.
Display Notes on the Keyboard
Check this box if you would like Music Transcriber to print the name of each note on the keyboard. The setting can also be changed by right-clicking on the keyboard
Show wave window
Check to show the waveform of the file at the top of the window. The waveform can be hidden by right-clicking on it.
Show time axis
Check to show the time axis on the left of the window. The time axis can be hidden by right-clicking on it.
Show note lines
A grid of lines lining up with the piano keys will be displayed on the main panel. This allows you to easily see where the frequencies of the recording you are analyzing are and determine which notes are being played.
Highlight note
Allows you to move your mouse over the piano keys and the display in the main panel will indicate what note you are hovering over.
Set Foreground and Background colors
Click these buttons to change the foreground and background colors of the main panel. These colors can also be changed by right-clicking on the panel.