Using Audacity's spectrogram to transcribe music

I use Audacity's spectrogram to transcribe music when something is hard to hear. Not sure how to view a spectrogram? Start here: • Exploring Audacity's S...

[@Arlojmikk]

audacitys spectrogram is nice but i ended up using the program sonic visualizer instead because its a little more easy to see when im trying to transcribe something that isnt clear cut and since the spectrogram view on that program also shows what the key is when you hover over a section which is very very useful for me. the song im trying to transcribe is luminescence and a bud by tengu no mai, which is one of my favorite songs

[@Arlojmikk]

(also i'm transcribing it into a midi file because i need it in that format for the purpose im making it)

[@robinHobin]

Thanks for the recommendation!

[@Maurice75]

Absolutely awesome video. Simple, fast and concise. Didactic.

[@matildaessig6147]

wow - thank you for sharing. This has opened up a whole new universe of perceptual possibility for me.

[@mdthib]

That's nice to hear! I just wanted to share a bit, and I'm glad it helped!

[@GuitarUniverse2013]

You can also slow the playback down for more complicated pieces. Really cool idea!

[@functionform]

Are you the nicest person of all time? Super sweet story and the vid was a bonus.

[@iddy]

Mine was reaaaally blurry (just big sqares of red and white..) you can change the quality of the spectrogram to fix this: view > preferences > spectrograms > FFT, Window Size (bigger is better) Thanks for this video :)

[@mdthib]

You're right that the FFT Window makes a difference, thanks for the help. A higher value is not always better, as too high makes it hard. My other videos on the spectrogram explain this a bit.

[@groszak1]

Bigger gives more frequency resolution but less time resolution. 2048 and 4096 are one of the best options.

[@ruthsmith7053]

I know this song, its an Irish folk song, I played this a billionth time with my band

[@acorderog]

This is simply amazing Esto es simplemente increible Isto é simplesmente incrível

[@emanuel_soundtrack]

i think for one part pieces logic pro is already good with the midi conversation. Btw. its espected that violin players have ear above average

[@tarquinnff3]

Very informative. Thanks for sharing.

[@EsQuizzyMusic]

Thank you very much, and I enjoyed the excursion to the performance clip! =)

[@1827641]

6:37 "Even one could do that", how could it be done? I would find it very useful to superimpose a piano keyboard

[@ftwgunnerpwns]

hi! did you ever find out how?

[@1827641]

@@ftwgunnerpwns no, never. Make me know if you discover how!

[@kachilda]

D is baritone E is tenor that's how you can tell.

[@CamerieriZeppoleMix]

WHERE IS THE TRANSCRIBING USING AUDACITY??? I DIDN'T SEE THE SHEET MUSIC?

[@christinakoller3621]

Hey mdthib, I think it's great to use a tool like audacity to figure out the score by hand. I found there is a well written program that will automatically do this called AnthemScore 4.13.0, and it presents to you the spectogram and it transcibes it into a score and it can be converted into mdi, giving you the exact timing and loudness of each note. You can print out the score into pdf and also transcribe the score into any key, which is a nice little creativity tool. Human playing is not robotic and a professional might play different measures say at 59, 60, 59, 58, 57, 60 beats per minute, and the program will provide those distinctions if you want to break the timing down exactly.

[@benzion786]

great i just need about eight years of music clases to learn to recognize the notes by ear and then get a crappy program to transcribe the music myself because the program just gives me dots and lines.... so freaking dumb

[@mdthib]

I hear you-someone in your position will maybe learn more by just going totally into playing by ear. In the end it's what you hear that counts! Many of the GREAT greats didn't bother reading music.

[@GeorgeGeorge-xj2bc]

If you cant learn music because is difficult the next thing is to think to learn to read spectrograms because this might be easier.

[@antoniomattana6706]

Thanks!

[@fermatreturns1008]

very helpful, thanks for posting :)

[@vageliskomninos2723]

cannot reproduce your steps. my cursor on the left side is not changing to a magnifying glass to reduce the selected area to as small portion as you did so to see the notes

[@yuriyfazylov5506]

I thought you had found a tool to transcribe the spectrogram into notes

[@mdthib]

Nope! I think there are tools that do that, but for a tune like this I'd rather rely on my judgment than anything automated.

[@OndrejPopp]

Tx!

[@tonyHern865]

at 2:48 how do you activate the zoom like this in audacity? By default, I don't have the magnifying glass icon like you

[@ghbytdsrfhb]

f for us newbies here late lol

[@fermatreturns1008]

See below, the question has been answered...

[@Mariemichee]

THANK YOU!

[@subhamchoudhury3681]

Hey pretty interesting. Is there any feature available in audacity to get the frequencies being played at each time interval in a tabular format??

[@mdthib]

Sorry, I don't know. Maybe?

[@ezno_2603]

could you please make an updated video for the newest version?

[@mdthib]

Thanks for the encouragement-I might? Cheers!

[@bryan_nfs5593]

BEAST!

[@gillopez8660]

Great video!

[@mirwislanger4792]

hi,which version is this Audacity ??

[@aggabus]

4:12 i see like 12 lines of notes? for a violin 1note

[@mdthib]

Yes, you are seeing the harmonic overtone series for a single note. You can look it up, but there are resonances when even a single note plays. It's fascinating!

[@nikitas8353]

Sorry but what song is this?

[@2000SkyView]

Can you change pitch if the recording is 1/2 step flat?

[@mdthib]

yes, change pitch is an effect in Audacity.

[@oazlast8844]

can you see notes of this song

[@TenninWorks]

Seems like bad playing more than anything

[@ruthsmith7053]

@TenninWorks, Just Irish or Scottish playing, don't be rude about the content of the playing. Listen to the folk music

[@bobbysanchez6308]

How do you superimpose a piano keyboard on the side?

[@mdthib]

I don't know that you can do that. I just use a guitar or keyboard to establish what a given target tone is when transcribing.

[@moorthyconsulting]

2 years late - but are you thinking of the app called AnthemScore?

[@jhovo2008]

Así que de esto nació el programa Antehmscore

[@donniumar767]

how do you zoom freq from 2000 down 0 hz i try my audacity cant work

[@mdthib]

Sorry, this was 6 years ago and I can't recall... nor am I sure current Audacity retains this ability. Maybe check the preferences?

[@YetAnotherInternetUser]

You've probably almost certainly figured it out since it's been 5 months, but for posterity: View -> Zoom -> Advanced Vertical Zooming, then you can click and drag like in the video

[@fermatreturns1008]

@@YetAnotherInternetUser Thanks, I was searching for that!

[@paulaungiers8734]

Will Audacity let you export a wav into a musicxml file, please?

[@matthewthibeault9819]

I have no idea, sorry! If my memory is right, probably not (I think that format is more about notation than audio recordings).

[@christinakoller3621]

Try a program called AnthemScore 4.13.0.

[@ottercrk23]

you just don't get it

[@groszak1]

No, it's obviously not pam-pam-pam-pam, you are wrong...

[@aggabus]

really see 3:33

[@Naratis]

Sounded like a D to me

[@Pierrick584]

7:50, that's not "Do ré mi" but "ré mi fa#"

[@7Earthsky]

Fix your own audio microphone when recording your voice....No one wants to hear every lip smacking spit pop when you talk....Had to stop listening as it was gross.