Absolutely amazing scoring software!

[Hambone 70]

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I just discovered this today. Absolutely amazing! Very accurate at scoring an audio bass line to be imported into Guitar Pro.

And it's got a 14 day free trial.

 

[Whousedtoplay]

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I just discovered this today. Absolutely amazing! Very accurate at scoring an audio bass line to be imported into Guitar Pro.

And it's got a 14 day free trial.

I've downloaded that software.
It also downloaded MuseScore2.
I've decided to check that "absolutely amazing" app with Steely Dan's "Peg".

Here is how it looks on the paper (just the beginning of the song):

(A big PLUS - it got the correct Tempo of the song).

Next.
I've tried to slow down and EQ the bass guitar - just 2 bars of Verse 1.
Here is what Anthem Score gave me via MuseScore2.

Verdict.
You decide if it's worth spending $62 for Anthem Score.

 

[Hambone 70]

I'm getting better results than that, probably for two reasons.
1) The tracks I'm doing are simpler.
2) I'm using isolated bass tracks rather than entire songs.

Here's an unedited section from Peg I got from Anthem Score:

 

[Jloch86]

I just uninstalled it after I uploaded the isolated Plush bass line into it and it came out as being in 3/4 time with uneven note durations all over the place.

 

[Hambone 70]

Of course it's not perfect. And it will obviously have more difficulty with complete mixes, or with an "organic" sounding instrument like a bass guitar, with its string noise, pops and slaps, intentional push/pull timing, vibrato, slides, distortion and other effects, etc. I had excellent results with the 5 or 6 songs I'm transcribing, although they all need a bit of tweaking in Guitar Pro.

I have tried 6 or 7 audio-to-MIDI programs, and while none is perfect, I think this one is the best by far.

 

[Whousedtoplay]

I had excellent results with the 5 or 6 songs I'm transcribing, although they all need a bit of tweaking in Guitar Pro.

Absolutely amazing! (??? - WUTP)
Very accurate(! - WUTP) at scoring an audio bass line to be imported into Guitar Pro.

I have NOTHING against anybody marketing any software.
When I've read your, "Absolutely amazing!" statement, I thought, "WOW. I really need it because I'm trying to DILIGENTLY transcribe Chuck Rainey's bass-line from Peg.
I've checked quite a few available transcriptions of it but found NOTHING suitable to my taste.
I don't want to just play some "GENERIC" somebody else's bass-line.
I want to transcribe and play, more or less, Chuck Rainey's bass-line with, more or less, all the nuances (that MY ears can hear) and my technical background could afford to interpret it.
To my regret, your advertised "absolutely amazing" software could not even get close to the "generic" somebody else's bass-line, possible from Steely Dan's Peg.

P.S. I could not find ANY mentioning ANYWHERE
that on the original studio recording, at 0:56, Chuck Rainey does not play first C on Beat 1.
And it's happening only ONCE on that record.
All bassists are playing that C note.
When Chuck recorded the "Instrumental" version of that song - a few years later, Chuck plays that note.
It puzzles me. Is it a technical error?
Here is that spot from the studio version.
https://www.talkbass.com/attachment...0/?temp_hash=53d5c0753e1cc3916a910bd572a0155e

Anyway,
Here is my lame attempt to transcribe Chuck Rainey's bass-line from Peg (just a few bars.)
I'm trying to notate it as close as possible with Guitar Pro6 to what I've heard on the original studio record - not the later instrumental version.

My notes/highlights:

No1: I think Chuck slides from the 4th fret on the A string to the 13th fret -Bb/A#. Also, there is only ONE double stop at the beginning of the song. There are no double stops with Eb or D. Only later in the song, the second time Chuck is playing double stops with Eb and D.

No2: I can hear that wide vibrato/bending, starting on the second part of Beat 3.

No3: I hear almost like a "harmonic" slide from E to G note, and I assumed, it's on the E string.
The first note is kind of ghosted, not perfectly clear. It sounds somewhere in between E and F/Open and 1st fret.
Plus, the last two 16th notes (light swing/shuffle) - E and hammer-on G.

No4: I'm bewildered. Is it ghosted but accented F or E? I've notated as E.

No5: Here is how I hear that last Beat, and here is how I interpret what I hear.
Chuck bends and releases A on the E string and hammers-on B before jumping to D on the A string.
I can clearly hear that "almost" Bb/A# - A - B - triplet.

I did not need to add an additional - second - A note, but in order to get some kind of similar sound from Guitar
Pro, I intentionally placed one more A on the transcription.
...

Sorry for such a long and verbose comment, but I' was just trying to show MY understanding about
"Absolutely amazing! Very accurate at scoring an audio bass line..."

Here is a (simplified) sound clip from Guitar Pro of those very few bars at a slower - 90BPM tempo, not the original 117BPM.
https://www.talkbass.com/attachment...8/?temp_hash=b98dccd942dedd9c5e58de2b571dda62

 

[Hambone 70]

Again, I wouldn't expect the intricacies of Chuck Rainey's 'Peg' to be easy, or even possible, for any software to automatically transcribe without error. And that's not what I'm using the software for. For the more basic songs I'm transcribing, in my experience I find it amazing, especially after audio quantizing and limiting in Ableton Live.

 

[Whousedtoplay]

There is another issue that I don't like about that software, and it has nothing to do with its musical notation/transcription.
It took about about 5 - 6 minutes for Anthem Score to "interpret" Steely Dan's Peg. It's not a big problem but...
My computer was loudly "buzzing"/humming while Anthem Score was working on Peg.
I have a computer with Intel Core i7, and it showed 100% CPU use.
I've never ever used any software/app with the unstoppable use 100% CPU for many minutes.
Too much stress on my CPU/computer.

 

[Hambone 70]

You're right. The note analysis does seem to be seriously processor-intensive! Some tracks take 10 minutes to process. My laptop's CPU goes to 100%, too. It doesn't seem to be causing any problems, though.

I'm finding that warping an isolated bass track in Ableton Live first to tightly quantize the notes to a grid makes for a far more accurate transcription from Anthem Score.

 

[Whousedtoplay]

warping an isolated bass track in Ableton Live first to tightly quantize the notes to a grid makes for a far more accurate transcription from Anthem Score.

I don't have Ableton. I have Presonus Studio One Pro and Sonar Pro.
I use (and love) Transcribe! for transcribing bass-lines.
Could you please elaborate your statement on "warping"?

 

[LeeNunn]

I want to transcribe and play, more or less, Chuck Rainey's bass-line with, more or less, all the nuances (that MY ears can hear) and my technical background could afford to interpret it. To my regret, your advertised "absolutely amazing" software could not even get close to the "generic" somebody else's bass-line, possible from Steely Dan's Peg.[

I don't know about the software. Transcribe! is more my comfort zone, but I am now inspired to transcribe Peg. I gave it a brief listen in the context of your comments and I agree with you. The slide in measure 3 goes from the D to the Bb on the A string. Measure 4 is the only double stop in the beginning of the song. The beginning of measure 8 of the second verse is a rest. I doubt most care about these nuances, and there are already multiple transcriptions of Peg available, but I think it would be fun to compare "notes." I can't wrap my mind around how software could achieve the same quality of understanding as the human ear, but I'm sure many will disagree.

 

[SteveC]

None of that remotely looked like Peg. I'll stick to trusting my ears and some published transcriptions.

 

[Hambone 70]

Could you please elaborate your statement on "warping"?

Warping in Ableton Live basically lets you move audio notes to align with a grid, say of eighth notes, so that when Anthem Score transcribes the audio track, it quantizes the notes in the MIDI file it generates on the same eighth-note grid. It is then much tidier when the MIDI file is imported into Guitar Pro.

 

[Whousedtoplay]

I doubt most care about these nuances, and there are already multiple transcriptions of Peg available, but I think it would be fun to compare "notes."

NO, NO, and NO. Even good PRO bass players playing/touring with Steely Dan don't get (or don't want to get) those nuances.
Let's just take one bar/measure. It's Bar 10 from the original/studio Steely Dan Peg recording.

Here is what I hear at a slow tempo.

No1: It looks easy. I just need to figure out if it's a legato slide or a hammer-on.
No2: It looks also easy, and again, I just need to figure out if it's a slide or hammer-on.
I decide to slow that "slow version" even more.

Here is what I here at a VERY slow tempo.

I can hear two short (I've marked them as grace) A and G notes between the the clearly pronounced F and G.
Now, I need to figure out how Chuck did it. I did not hear any additional notes, like F# or G#, which means - to me! - it's not a slide; therefore, I assumed the following:
First F - Left hand finger 1,
A - L.H. finger 4,
G - L.H. finger 1.

In addition, while I was listening carefully at a very slow tempo the same clip, it sounded to me like on Beat 4 of the same Bar, Chuck bends G# (full) and not the A note(???).

But I truly believe that Chuck would not do it - it's just the Flatwound strings, plus low E; therefore, I decided to leave it as bent A, released A, and B notes.

This is how I try to transcribe a bass-line of an excellent bass player. I truly doubt that any software could try to separate and analyze just one bass-line from a numerous instruments.

 

[Whousedtoplay]

Ableton Live basically lets you move audio notes to align with a grid

In order to align with the grid, you should have a PERFECT tempo number; otherwise, while quantizing, your Ableton (or any other DAW) will mess up your AUDIO track.

 

[Hambone 70]

That's OK. I expect it to mess up the audio track. I'm doing this just for sheet music and Guitar Pro. It's not for listening to.

By perfectly quantizing the audio and the MIDI file to a constant tempo and a grid, the sheet music is easier to read.

 

[project_c]

The idea for software like this is to help you transcribe, not to do the whole thing for you, especially when complex time and human feel is involved. Expecting anything to transcribe a complex, nuanced and multi-layered piece like Peg is pretty ludicrous. It's a machine trying to interpret 'feel', it's never gonna happen.

In all the time you've invested in messing around with flakey software, you could have loaded the song into a free audio editor, looped tricky sections bit by bit, used your ears and your bass to figure it out and written the whole thing out with a pencil. It's all just software, it's not magic.

Ps I use audio software on a daily basis, and it's integral to my process so i'm not a luddite, but you have to be realistic.

 

[Ulf_Hansson]

The idea for software like this is to help you transcribe, not to do the whole thing for you, especially when complex time and human feel is involved.
...
you have to be realistic.

That more or less sums it up.