My whistle/pitch/note recognition app

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Escribano

Posts: 6415
Joined: Jul. 6 2003
From: England, living in Italy

My whistle/pitch/note recognition app

I have been working on a pitch/tone recognition iPhone app for my own amusement. I want to transcribe my own composition themes by just whistling them. I am rubbish at doing that by ear.

I'm using iOS DSP hardware acceleration and my own algorithms to distinguish between actual notes, then snapping them to MIDI notes to play back through a simple piano soundbank sequencer function. It's tough because a whistle wavers in and out of tune with very little to distinguish between note breaks and target pitch.

It will only ever been monophonic but you can hear the piano following my wavering whistle with its own glissandos in the video below.

Same approach as a guitar tuner but more sophisticated. Much more to do but I will post updates here if you are interested.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Sep. 3 2014 11:16:04

rombsix

Posts: 7816
Joined: Jan. 11 2006
From: Beirut, Lebanon

RE: My whistle/pitch/note recognitio... (in reply to Escribano)

Have you seen what software is available out there? There are things like this I've come across before. I think Sibelius is one of them...

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Sep. 3 2014 11:45:09

Escribano

Posts: 6415
Joined: Jul. 6 2003
From: England, living in Italy

RE: My whistle/pitch/note recognitio... (in reply to rombsix)

quote:

Have you seen what software is available out there?

Sure, there are loads but they don't do what I want and I also need to learn how to code this stuff in Objective-C for my work. It has to be on the iPhone, optimised for whistling and tolerant of significant background noise, like on the street.

I have also tested it with loud heavy music playing at the same time and I can filter that out completely, which is kind of weird.

There is a lot more to this which I can't talk about right now.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Sep. 3 2014 11:47:27

edguerin

Posts: 1589
Joined: Dec. 24 2007
From: Siegburg, Alemania

RE: My whistle/pitch/note recognitio... (in reply to Escribano)

Nice. Keep us posted.

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El aficionado solitario
Alemania

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Sep. 3 2014 11:59:29

rombsix

Posts: 7816
Joined: Jan. 11 2006
From: Beirut, Lebanon

RE: My whistle/pitch/note recognitio... (in reply to Escribano)

Looking forward to more...

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Sep. 4 2014 4:23:42

Escribano

Posts: 6415
Joined: Jul. 6 2003
From: England, living in Italy

RE: My whistle/pitch/note recognitio... (in reply to Escribano)

OK, I have decided that my next step is to send the derived MIDI notes from my app over wi-fi to GarageBand on a Mac. This is a cheap way to build loops from a human beat box, whistle over the loops and create multitracks with different instruments, all controlled from my whistle, hum, lah lah lah or any other noise I wish to make.

I didn't really explain too well, but my code can analyse pitch in real-time as well so it can act as a sequencer.

Might be fun

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Sep. 5 2014 18:28:50

Anders Eliasson

Posts: 5780
Joined: Oct. 18 2006

RE: My whistle/pitch/note recognitio... (in reply to Escribano)

You should look at the camera at 0:12, smile and say aaahhhhhhh. That would make it more sellable.
BTW, my dog, Lana likes the video a lot.

Good luck (with whatever it is)

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Sep. 5 2014 21:20:53

Escribano

Posts: 6415
Joined: Jul. 6 2003
From: England, living in Italy

RE: My whistle/pitch/note recognitio... (in reply to Anders Eliasson)

quote:

BTW, my dog, Lana likes the video a lot.

Yeah, dogs like whistling

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Sep. 5 2014 22:03:50

Ruphus

Posts: 3782
Joined: Nov. 18 2010

RE: My whistle/pitch/note recognitio... (in reply to Escribano)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Escribano

I have also tested it with loud heavy music playing at the same time and I can filter that out completely, which is kind of weird.

I am amazed all they time by the fact that apps can filter out vocals like for karaoke. It is beyond me how they are able to distinguish a voice from all kinds of instruments.

... Suppose that there must be some "fingerprint" in the waveform of voices.

Ruphus

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Sep. 6 2014 8:55:13

gerundino63

Posts: 1743
Joined: Jul. 11 2003
From: The Netherlands

RE: My whistle/pitch/note recognitio... (in reply to Escribano)

Cool thing Simon!
I can whistle quit good! Very nice "in tune" instead of my singing......if I want to sort a melody line out I always whistle.
so your first costumer you have allready!

Can it handle more complicated melodies too? For instance if you whisle like a chromatic mouth harp?

An example....i mean the melodieline of the solo player.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Sep. 6 2014 9:26:09

Anders Eliasson

Posts: 5780
Joined: Oct. 18 2006

RE: My whistle/pitch/note recognitio... (in reply to Escribano)

So... Peter, is that your new favorite music style?

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Sep. 7 2014 15:30:03

gerundino63

Posts: 1743
Joined: Jul. 11 2003
From: The Netherlands

RE: My whistle/pitch/note recognitio... (in reply to Anders Eliasson)

Well Anders, more the favorite from my youth........When I was very young I played the chromatic mouthharp.....once I did an audition for the hotcha trio.....i was not good enough. But mouth harp trio's is still somethoping I get a warm heart from.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Sep. 7 2014 17:47:00

Leñador

Posts: 5237
Joined: Jun. 8 2012
From: Los Angeles

RE: My whistle/pitch/note recognitio... (in reply to Escribano)

I'd definitely buy it, my whistling is also better then my singing. It'd be handy tool for writing for sure.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Sep. 7 2014 20:50:19

Escribano

Posts: 6415
Joined: Jul. 6 2003
From: England, living in Italy

RE: My whistle/pitch/note recognitio... (in reply to gerundino63)

Peter, I also whistle better than I hum or sing (a lot better) but still it's tricky to smooth out unintentional, but valid, musical tones. There is not significant limit to handling a complex melody - as long as it is monophonic. I am working on a better smoothing algorithm. I may introduce a filter that discards notes outside of the key of the melody, but that would mean one would have to know the key in the first place.

Not happy yet, so I need to work with something other than the relatively short sustain of a piano sample in the higher register. Watch this space.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Sep. 7 2014 21:30:59

Anders Eliasson

Posts: 5780
Joined: Oct. 18 2006

RE: My whistle/pitch/note recognitio... (in reply to Escribano)

Well, Peter. Thats a good story. Besides, I kinda like the music. Its different and they dont sound like Toots.
I have a ton of respect for Toots, but there were a period many years ago, when he was on the radio all the time.
There are people playing Irish Trad on mouth harps. Cromatic and the smaller ones, which are tuned like blues harps. I prefer the sound of tyhe smaller ones. I used to play blues harp myself.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Sep. 8 2014 7:41:03

gerundino63

Posts: 1743
Joined: Jul. 11 2003
From: The Netherlands

RE: My whistle/pitch/note recognitio... (in reply to Anders Eliasson)

Yes, the sound of smaller ones is very nice, played a long time on that kind. ( a bigger one was too expensive) but it irritated me that I could not play everything I could whistle because of the half notes.
Nowadays you have small ones with chromatic keys too. Toots is great, a lot of skills, but the trio's with the old fashioned music I prefer.

@Sorry Simon, we went a bit off topic......old mans and their past.....

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Sep. 8 2014 8:06:22

Escribano

Posts: 6415
Joined: Jul. 6 2003
From: England, living in Italy

RE: pitch recognition app and GarageBand (in reply to Escribano)

I have got my app to transmit MIDI over WiFi to GarageBand in real time. Here is a video of me laying down some strings and a MP3 of the loop I built up from it using other whistles and grunts, just for fun.

Sounds a bit like an odd John Carpenter movie.

Attachment

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Sep. 8 2014 18:18:56

Mark2

Posts: 1872
Joined: Jul. 12 2004
From: San Francisco

RE: My whistle/pitch/note recognitio... (in reply to Escribano)

Simon,
That app is super cool. Too bad I can't whistle. A grunt I could manage-I'll buy the app.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Sep. 8 2014 18:26:44

guitarbuddha

Posts: 2970
Joined: Jan. 4 2007

RE: pitch recognition app and GarageBand (in reply to Escribano)

It looks like a fun project.

I've got a friend who is an artist. He loves all these new apps, it's how he wants to explore music.

Maybe one day every child will have access to apps way more advanced than this. Which is just as well since there will be no music teachers left.

But everyone will be a musician by then. They can meet up at their local pub once a week and from different ends of the bar whistle into their phones. Although that might be outmoded be then, maybe face recognition softwarwe will read the expression on their faces and provide them with the soundtrack to their life. Like reality TV shows or Neighbours.

I like Bach Chorales. There is a man who knew how to write harmony. I get kinda depressed when people don't notice the difference between voice leading and it's magical effect and what a casio keyboard does to block chords in the hands of the producer's son because they are too cheap to hire a real composer and a real composer might not be crass enough for their liking anyway.

D.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Sep. 28 2014 10:45:54

El Kiko

Posts: 2697
Joined: Jun. 7 2010
From: The South Ireland

RE: pitch recognition app and GarageBand (in reply to Escribano)

this is really a - wave to midi - app ..i did try one or two of these before to see if it would help with transcribing some guitar stuff , as the one i have is polyphonic ,, but it doesnt really do as i want it to ... there is a way to go yet with this technology ,,although i feel it should be possible ..
the real time thing and arranging loops is definately a winner for a lot of people and of course sending it into another , garage band , programme ...anyway if you get it all good then Apple Computers should pay you to stick it into the garage band software as an extra

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Sep. 28 2014 12:04:53