So I cut .wav files down to chunks of a certain window size/length. Read them in; trigger on some RMS leel, just make an FFT of them, compare the magnitude at the center frequency for notes of the chromatic scale, and this seems to be able to "parse" chords reasonably well. You get spurious notes ( probably harmonics or something *like* IM products ). I would have thought this to be unreliable at best. it works too well; I must be "cheating" somehow. It would be quite slow; my window size is basically 100 msec for now. that's okay for what I'm using this for. Thoughts? -- Les Cargill
Naive pitch detection.
Started by ●January 18, 2014
Reply by ●January 18, 20142014-01-18
On Sat, 18 Jan 2014 15:14:01 -0600, Les Cargill <lcargill99@comcast.com> wrote:> >So I cut .wav files down to chunks of >a certain window size/length. Read them in; trigger >on some RMS leel, just make an FFT >of them, compare the magnitude at the center frequency for >notes of the chromatic scale, and this seems to be able >to "parse" chords reasonably well. You get spurious notes >( probably harmonics or something *like* IM products ). > >I would have thought this to be unreliable at best. it works >too well; I must be "cheating" somehow. > >It would be quite slow; my window size is basically 100 >msec for now. that's okay for what I'm using this >for. > >Thoughts? > >-- >Les CargillWhat's an "RMS leel", and how do you determine "center frequency"? Eric Jacobsen Anchor Hill Communications http://www.anchorhill.com
Reply by ●January 18, 20142014-01-18
Eric Jacobsen wrote:> On Sat, 18 Jan 2014 15:14:01 -0600, Les Cargill > <lcargill99@comcast.com> wrote: > >> >> So I cut .wav files down to chunks of >> a certain window size/length. Read them in; trigger >> on some RMS leel, just make an FFT >> of them, compare the magnitude at the center frequency for >> notes of the chromatic scale, and this seems to be able >> to "parse" chords reasonably well. You get spurious notes >> ( probably harmonics or something *like* IM products ). >> >> I would have thought this to be unreliable at best. it works >> too well; I must be "cheating" somehow. >> >> It would be quite slow; my window size is basically 100 >> msec for now. that's okay for what I'm using this >> for. >> >> Thoughts? >> >> -- >> Les Cargill > > What's an "RMS leel",Bads typyngs - should be "level". For a set of samples of length L ( say , 100 msec / 10 ) calculate the RMS of those samples using the classic sqrt(SUM(samp[0]...samp[k])). If said RMS is above some magic threshold, there's signal there. I can do this because the input signal has as much as -70dB noise floor so the threshold choice is pretty easy. Works basically like a guitar stompbox "gate" or a squelch control on a CB. Not as a downward expander; as a "gate". >and how do you determine "center frequency"?>There a wikipedia entry for musical pitches that says what frequency each one is centered on. You convert that to the index within the FFT result, based on the FFT size. Calculate the magnitude of the FFT bucket at that index, and presto. If it's above a different threshold, the that note gets a "1" for "present". For some reason, I wouldn't think this would work at all.> > Eric Jacobsen > Anchor Hill Communications > http://www.anchorhill.com >-- Les Cargill
Reply by ●January 18, 20142014-01-18
On 1/18/14 7:15 PM, Les Cargill wrote:> Eric Jacobsen wrote: >> On Sat, 18 Jan 2014 15:14:01 -0600, Les Cargill >> <lcargill99@comcast.com> wrote: >> >>> >>> So I cut .wav files down to chunks of >>> a certain window size/length. Read them in; trigger >>> on some RMS leel, just make an FFT >>> of them, compare the magnitude at the center frequency for >>> notes of the chromatic scale, and this seems to be able >>> to "parse" chords reasonably well. You get spurious notes >>> ( probably harmonics or something *like* IM products ). >>> >>> I would have thought this to be unreliable at best. it works >>> too well; I must be "cheating" somehow. >>> >>> It would be quite slow; my window size is basically 100 >>> msec for now. that's okay for what I'm using this >>> for. >>> >>> Thoughts? >>> >>> -- >>> Les Cargill >> >> What's an "RMS leel", > > Bads typyngs - should be "level". > > For a set of samples of length L ( say , 100 msec / 10 ) > calculate the RMS of those samples using the classic > sqrt(SUM(samp[0]...samp[k])). > > If said RMS is above some magic threshold, there's signal there. > I can do this because the input signal has as much as -70dB noise > floor so the threshold choice is pretty easy. > > Works basically like a guitar stompbox "gate" or a > squelch control on a CB. Not as a downward > expander; as a "gate". > > >and how do you determine "center frequency"? >> > > There a wikipedia entry for musical pitches that says > what frequency each one is centered on. You convert that > to the index within the FFT result, based on the FFT size. > > Calculate the magnitude of the FFT bucket at that > index, and presto. If it's above a different threshold, > the that note gets a "1" for "present". > > For some reason, I wouldn't think this would work at all.so you're adding the magnitude (or squared) of adjacent FFT bins that sorta lie under each semitone range? or is it just the FFT bin that is closest to the center of the semitone range? or something in between? -- r b-j rbj@audioimagination.com "Imagination is more important than knowledge."
Reply by ●January 19, 20142014-01-19
robert bristow-johnson wrote:> On 1/18/14 7:15 PM, Les Cargill wrote: >> Eric Jacobsen wrote: >>> On Sat, 18 Jan 2014 15:14:01 -0600, Les Cargill >>> <lcargill99@comcast.com> wrote: >>> >>>> >>>> So I cut .wav files down to chunks of >>>> a certain window size/length. Read them in; trigger >>>> on some RMS leel, just make an FFT >>>> of them, compare the magnitude at the center frequency for >>>> notes of the chromatic scale, and this seems to be able >>>> to "parse" chords reasonably well. You get spurious notes >>>> ( probably harmonics or something *like* IM products ). >>>> >>>> I would have thought this to be unreliable at best. it works >>>> too well; I must be "cheating" somehow. >>>> >>>> It would be quite slow; my window size is basically 100 >>>> msec for now. that's okay for what I'm using this >>>> for. >>>> >>>> Thoughts? >>>> >>>> -- >>>> Les Cargill >>> >>> What's an "RMS leel", >> >> Bads typyngs - should be "level". >> >> For a set of samples of length L ( say , 100 msec / 10 ) >> calculate the RMS of those samples using the classic >> sqrt(SUM(samp[0]...samp[k])). >> >> If said RMS is above some magic threshold, there's signal there. >> I can do this because the input signal has as much as -70dB noise >> floor so the threshold choice is pretty easy. >> >> Works basically like a guitar stompbox "gate" or a >> squelch control on a CB. Not as a downward >> expander; as a "gate". >> >> >and how do you determine "center frequency"? >>> >> >> There a wikipedia entry for musical pitches that says >> what frequency each one is centered on. You convert that >> to the index within the FFT result, based on the FFT size. >> >> Calculate the magnitude of the FFT bucket at that >> index, and presto. If it's above a different threshold, >> the that note gets a "1" for "present". >> >> For some reason, I wouldn't think this would work at all. > > so you're adding the magnitude (or squared)Magnitude - sqrt((x*x)+(j*j)) where one FFT bucket is the pair {x,j} > of adjacent FFT bins that> sorta lie under each semitone range? or is it just the FFT bin that is > closest to the center of the semitone range?Just the one bin. Yes, I was surprised, too. I thought I'd try that initially, and dern if it didn't work. As time goes by, I may need to sum the n adjacent or something.> or something in between? > >-- Les Cargill
Reply by ●January 19, 20142014-01-19
On Sat, 18 Jan 2014 23:28:18 -0600, Les Cargill <lcargill99@comcast.com> wrote:>robert bristow-johnson wrote: >> On 1/18/14 7:15 PM, Les Cargill wrote: >>> Eric Jacobsen wrote: >>>> On Sat, 18 Jan 2014 15:14:01 -0600, Les Cargill >>>> <lcargill99@comcast.com> wrote: >>>> >>>>> >>>>> So I cut .wav files down to chunks of >>>>> a certain window size/length. Read them in; trigger >>>>> on some RMS leel, just make an FFT >>>>> of them, compare the magnitude at the center frequency for >>>>> notes of the chromatic scale, and this seems to be able >>>>> to "parse" chords reasonably well. You get spurious notes >>>>> ( probably harmonics or something *like* IM products ). >>>>> >>>>> I would have thought this to be unreliable at best. it works >>>>> too well; I must be "cheating" somehow. >>>>> >>>>> It would be quite slow; my window size is basically 100 >>>>> msec for now. that's okay for what I'm using this >>>>> for. >>>>> >>>>> Thoughts? >>>>> >>>>> -- >>>>> Les Cargill >>>> >>>> What's an "RMS leel", >>> >>> Bads typyngs - should be "level". >>> >>> For a set of samples of length L ( say , 100 msec / 10 ) >>> calculate the RMS of those samples using the classic >>> sqrt(SUM(samp[0]...samp[k])). >>> >>> If said RMS is above some magic threshold, there's signal there. >>> I can do this because the input signal has as much as -70dB noise >>> floor so the threshold choice is pretty easy. >>> >>> Works basically like a guitar stompbox "gate" or a >>> squelch control on a CB. Not as a downward >>> expander; as a "gate". >>> >>> >and how do you determine "center frequency"? >>>> >>> >>> There a wikipedia entry for musical pitches that says >>> what frequency each one is centered on. You convert that >>> to the index within the FFT result, based on the FFT size. >>> >>> Calculate the magnitude of the FFT bucket at that >>> index, and presto. If it's above a different threshold, >>> the that note gets a "1" for "present". >>> >>> For some reason, I wouldn't think this would work at all. >> >> so you're adding the magnitude (or squared) > >Magnitude - sqrt((x*x)+(j*j)) where one FFT bucket is the pair >{x,j} > > > of adjacent FFT bins that >> sorta lie under each semitone range? or is it just the FFT bin that is >> closest to the center of the semitone range? > >Just the one bin. Yes, I was surprised, too. > >I thought I'd try that initially, and dern if it didn't work. As time >goes by, I may need to sum the n adjacent or something. > >> or something in between? >> >> > >-- >Les CargillWhat sorts of instruments have you tested, and is there anything else playing at the same time? Eric Jacobsen Anchor Hill Communications http://www.anchorhill.com
Reply by ●January 19, 20142014-01-19
On 1/19/14 12:28 AM, Les Cargill wrote:> robert bristow-johnson wrote: >> On 1/18/14 7:15 PM, Les Cargill wrote: >>> Eric Jacobsen wrote: >>>> On Sat, 18 Jan 2014 15:14:01 -0600, Les Cargill >>>> <lcargill99@comcast.com> wrote: >>>> >>>>> >>>>> So I cut .wav files down to chunks of >>>>> a certain window size/length. Read them in; trigger >>>>> on some RMS leel, just make an FFT >>>>> of them, compare the magnitude at the center frequency for >>>>> notes of the chromatic scale, and this seems to be able >>>>> to "parse" chords reasonably well. You get spurious notes >>>>> ( probably harmonics or something *like* IM products ). >>>>> >>>>> I would have thought this to be unreliable at best. it works >>>>> too well; I must be "cheating" somehow. >>>>> >>>>> It would be quite slow; my window size is basically 100 >>>>> msec for now. that's okay for what I'm using this >>>>> for. >>>>> >>>>> Thoughts? >>>>> >>>>> -- >>>>> Les Cargill >>>> >>>> What's an "RMS leel", >>> >>> Bads typyngs - should be "level". >>> >>> For a set of samples of length L ( say , 100 msec / 10 ) >>> calculate the RMS of those samples using the classic >>> sqrt(SUM(samp[0]...samp[k])). >>> >>> If said RMS is above some magic threshold, there's signal there. >>> I can do this because the input signal has as much as -70dB noise >>> floor so the threshold choice is pretty easy. >>> >>> Works basically like a guitar stompbox "gate" or a >>> squelch control on a CB. Not as a downward >>> expander; as a "gate". >>> >>> >and how do you determine "center frequency"? >>>> >>> >>> There a wikipedia entry for musical pitches that says >>> what frequency each one is centered on. You convert that >>> to the index within the FFT result, based on the FFT size. >>> >>> Calculate the magnitude of the FFT bucket at that >>> index, and presto. If it's above a different threshold, >>> the that note gets a "1" for "present". >>> >>> For some reason, I wouldn't think this would work at all. >> >> so you're adding the magnitude (or squared) > > Magnitude - sqrt((x*x)+(j*j)) where one FFT bucket is the pair > {x,j} > > > of adjacent FFT bins that >> sorta lie under each semitone range? or is it just the FFT bin that is >> closest to the center of the semitone range? > > Just the one bin. Yes, I was surprised, too. > >so you're not adding up anything, and then it doesn't really matter if it's magnitude or magnitude-squared because you can just change the threshold value. so the sqrt() is not necessary for your alg. so, at the higher notes, there are more bins living between the single bins you're using to represent notes. what if the instrument is detuned? is it possible to get a peak in between those single bins and that the value that "leaks" or "bleeds" into the bins is too small to reach the threshold? and then how do you keep from recognizing harmonics as note? -- r b-j rbj@audioimagination.com "Imagination is more important than knowledge."
Reply by ●January 19, 20142014-01-19
Eric Jacobsen wrote:> On Sat, 18 Jan 2014 23:28:18 -0600, Les Cargill > <lcargill99@comcast.com> wrote: > >> robert bristow-johnson wrote: >>> On 1/18/14 7:15 PM, Les Cargill wrote: >>>> Eric Jacobsen wrote: >>>>> On Sat, 18 Jan 2014 15:14:01 -0600, Les Cargill >>>>> <lcargill99@comcast.com> wrote: >>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> So I cut .wav files down to chunks of >>>>>> a certain window size/length. Read them in; trigger >>>>>> on some RMS leel, just make an FFT >>>>>> of them, compare the magnitude at the center frequency for >>>>>> notes of the chromatic scale, and this seems to be able >>>>>> to "parse" chords reasonably well. You get spurious notes >>>>>> ( probably harmonics or something *like* IM products ). >>>>>> >>>>>> I would have thought this to be unreliable at best. it works >>>>>> too well; I must be "cheating" somehow. >>>>>> >>>>>> It would be quite slow; my window size is basically 100 >>>>>> msec for now. that's okay for what I'm using this >>>>>> for. >>>>>> >>>>>> Thoughts? >>>>>> >>>>>> -- >>>>>> Les Cargill >>>>> >>>>> What's an "RMS leel", >>>> >>>> Bads typyngs - should be "level". >>>> >>>> For a set of samples of length L ( say , 100 msec / 10 ) >>>> calculate the RMS of those samples using the classic >>>> sqrt(SUM(samp[0]...samp[k])). >>>> >>>> If said RMS is above some magic threshold, there's signal there. >>>> I can do this because the input signal has as much as -70dB noise >>>> floor so the threshold choice is pretty easy. >>>> >>>> Works basically like a guitar stompbox "gate" or a >>>> squelch control on a CB. Not as a downward >>>> expander; as a "gate". >>>> >>>> >and how do you determine "center frequency"? >>>>> >>>> >>>> There a wikipedia entry for musical pitches that says >>>> what frequency each one is centered on. You convert that >>>> to the index within the FFT result, based on the FFT size. >>>> >>>> Calculate the magnitude of the FFT bucket at that >>>> index, and presto. If it's above a different threshold, >>>> the that note gets a "1" for "present". >>>> >>>> For some reason, I wouldn't think this would work at all. >>> >>> so you're adding the magnitude (or squared) >> >> Magnitude - sqrt((x*x)+(j*j)) where one FFT bucket is the pair >> {x,j} >> >>> of adjacent FFT bins that >>> sorta lie under each semitone range? or is it just the FFT bin that is >>> closest to the center of the semitone range? >> >> Just the one bin. Yes, I was surprised, too. >> >> I thought I'd try that initially, and dern if it didn't work. As time >> goes by, I may need to sum the n adjacent or something. >> >>> or something in between? >>> >>> >> >> -- >> Les Cargill > > What sorts of instruments have you tested, and is there anything else > playing at the same time? >Pedal steel, one instrument at a time. It's connected direct to an audio interface. Yes, I am pretty sure that's a critical detail but it fits well the anticipated deployment use case.> > Eric Jacobsen > Anchor Hill Communications > http://www.anchorhill.com >-- Les Cargill
Reply by ●January 19, 20142014-01-19
robert bristow-johnson wrote:> On 1/19/14 12:28 AM, Les Cargill wrote: >> robert bristow-johnson wrote: >>> On 1/18/14 7:15 PM, Les Cargill wrote: >>>> Eric Jacobsen wrote: >>>>> On Sat, 18 Jan 2014 15:14:01 -0600, Les Cargill >>>>> <lcargill99@comcast.com> wrote: >>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> So I cut .wav files down to chunks of >>>>>> a certain window size/length. Read them in; trigger >>>>>> on some RMS leel, just make an FFT >>>>>> of them, compare the magnitude at the center frequency for >>>>>> notes of the chromatic scale, and this seems to be able >>>>>> to "parse" chords reasonably well. You get spurious notes >>>>>> ( probably harmonics or something *like* IM products ). >>>>>> >>>>>> I would have thought this to be unreliable at best. it works >>>>>> too well; I must be "cheating" somehow. >>>>>> >>>>>> It would be quite slow; my window size is basically 100 >>>>>> msec for now. that's okay for what I'm using this >>>>>> for. >>>>>> >>>>>> Thoughts? >>>>>> >>>>>> -- >>>>>> Les Cargill >>>>> >>>>> What's an "RMS leel", >>>> >>>> Bads typyngs - should be "level". >>>> >>>> For a set of samples of length L ( say , 100 msec / 10 ) >>>> calculate the RMS of those samples using the classic >>>> sqrt(SUM(samp[0]...samp[k])). >>>> >>>> If said RMS is above some magic threshold, there's signal there. >>>> I can do this because the input signal has as much as -70dB noise >>>> floor so the threshold choice is pretty easy. >>>> >>>> Works basically like a guitar stompbox "gate" or a >>>> squelch control on a CB. Not as a downward >>>> expander; as a "gate". >>>> >>>> >and how do you determine "center frequency"? >>>>> >>>> >>>> There a wikipedia entry for musical pitches that says >>>> what frequency each one is centered on. You convert that >>>> to the index within the FFT result, based on the FFT size. >>>> >>>> Calculate the magnitude of the FFT bucket at that >>>> index, and presto. If it's above a different threshold, >>>> the that note gets a "1" for "present". >>>> >>>> For some reason, I wouldn't think this would work at all. >>> >>> so you're adding the magnitude (or squared) >> >> Magnitude - sqrt((x*x)+(j*j)) where one FFT bucket is the pair >> {x,j} >> >> > of adjacent FFT bins that >>> sorta lie under each semitone range? or is it just the FFT bin that is >>> closest to the center of the semitone range? >> >> Just the one bin. Yes, I was surprised, too. >> >> > > so you're not adding up anything, and then it doesn't really matter if > it's magnitude or magnitude-squared because you can just change the > threshold value. so the sqrt() is not necessary for your alg. >True enough.> so, at the higher notes, there are more bins living between the single > bins you're using to represent notes. what if the instrument is > detuned?I am thinking I want to encourage proper tuning.> is it possible to get a peak in between those single bins and > that the value that "leaks" or "bleeds" into the bins is too small to > reach the threshold? >(assumption warning!) I think it doesn't matter - you'll get "bleed" from adjacent buckets enough in the present windowing strategy that a little bit of detuning seems to not hurt. Obviously, I need more data, and I'll address that. If I need to sum a small set of buckets, it's relatively cheap. Right now, the evaluation method for this assumption is too slow and I don't have enough trials. I have rtAudio downloaded and will buid something to do this much closer to real time. > to where it reached the threshold.> and then how do you keep from recognizing harmonics as note? >good question. I am pretty sure I've already seen that. I think that's less a concern. It may also be that IM products ca be detected and filtered. Dunno yet. Here's what I think I am doing - I play pedal steel, and while there are instructional materials, the "copedents" of pedal steel guitars vary enough that the meaning of the levers and pedals are inconsistent. Copedents are basically "which lever does what to which string?" A guy named Mickey Adams put up a bevy of instructional videos outlining certain patterns. these are of immense value, but it's still hard "parsing" what he's doing from a video. I am more or less "building" a steel right now, and have written some stuff to evaluate the impact of one "pull" on a given copedent. Basically,how many chords does this pull make available that were not there without it? Which strings you hit on steel is called a "grip", and some grips are more ... canonical than others. I've also written stuff that, given a sequence of notes and a cost function for each move, helps plan the next move for a given "song" or excersize. For a given steel-state, you can assign a cost to hitting a different string, a knee lever change, a floor pedal change or moving the bar. What I'd like to do is be able to have a MIDI file that describes a song or exercise, then have it play one chord or note at a time on a MIDI instrument ( perhaps a VST host thing later on ) and wait for you to play that set of notes, then move on. -- Les Cargill
Reply by ●January 19, 20142014-01-19
On Sun, 19 Jan 2014 12:14:50 -0600, Les Cargill <lcargill99@comcast.com> wrote:>robert bristow-johnson wrote: >> On 1/19/14 12:28 AM, Les Cargill wrote: >>> robert bristow-johnson wrote: >>>> On 1/18/14 7:15 PM, Les Cargill wrote: >>>>> Eric Jacobsen wrote: >>>>>> On Sat, 18 Jan 2014 15:14:01 -0600, Les Cargill >>>>>> <lcargill99@comcast.com> wrote: >>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>>>> So I cut .wav files down to chunks of >>>>>>> a certain window size/length. Read them in; trigger >>>>>>> on some RMS leel, just make an FFT >>>>>>> of them, compare the magnitude at the center frequency for >>>>>>> notes of the chromatic scale, and this seems to be able >>>>>>> to "parse" chords reasonably well. You get spurious notes >>>>>>> ( probably harmonics or something *like* IM products ). >>>>>>> >>>>>>> I would have thought this to be unreliable at best. it works >>>>>>> too well; I must be "cheating" somehow. >>>>>>> >>>>>>> It would be quite slow; my window size is basically 100 >>>>>>> msec for now. that's okay for what I'm using this >>>>>>> for. >>>>>>> >>>>>>> Thoughts? >>>>>>> >>>>>>> -- >>>>>>> Les Cargill >>>>>> >>>>>> What's an "RMS leel", >>>>> >>>>> Bads typyngs - should be "level". >>>>> >>>>> For a set of samples of length L ( say , 100 msec / 10 ) >>>>> calculate the RMS of those samples using the classic >>>>> sqrt(SUM(samp[0]...samp[k])). >>>>> >>>>> If said RMS is above some magic threshold, there's signal there. >>>>> I can do this because the input signal has as much as -70dB noise >>>>> floor so the threshold choice is pretty easy. >>>>> >>>>> Works basically like a guitar stompbox "gate" or a >>>>> squelch control on a CB. Not as a downward >>>>> expander; as a "gate". >>>>> >>>>> >and how do you determine "center frequency"? >>>>>> >>>>> >>>>> There a wikipedia entry for musical pitches that says >>>>> what frequency each one is centered on. You convert that >>>>> to the index within the FFT result, based on the FFT size. >>>>> >>>>> Calculate the magnitude of the FFT bucket at that >>>>> index, and presto. If it's above a different threshold, >>>>> the that note gets a "1" for "present". >>>>> >>>>> For some reason, I wouldn't think this would work at all. >>>> >>>> so you're adding the magnitude (or squared) >>> >>> Magnitude - sqrt((x*x)+(j*j)) where one FFT bucket is the pair >>> {x,j} >>> >>> > of adjacent FFT bins that >>>> sorta lie under each semitone range? or is it just the FFT bin that is >>>> closest to the center of the semitone range? >>> >>> Just the one bin. Yes, I was surprised, too. >>> >>> >> >> so you're not adding up anything, and then it doesn't really matter if >> it's magnitude or magnitude-squared because you can just change the >> threshold value. so the sqrt() is not necessary for your alg. >> > >True enough. > >> so, at the higher notes, there are more bins living between the single >> bins you're using to represent notes. what if the instrument is >> detuned? > >I am thinking I want to encourage proper tuning. > >> is it possible to get a peak in between those single bins and >> that the value that "leaks" or "bleeds" into the bins is too small to >> reach the threshold? >> > >(assumption warning!) >I think it doesn't matter - you'll get "bleed" from adjacent buckets >enough in the present windowing strategy that a little bit of detuning >seems to not hurt. > >Obviously, I need more data, and I'll address that. If I need to sum >a small set of buckets, it's relatively cheap. Right now, the evaluation >method for this assumption is too slow and I don't have >enough trials. I have rtAudio downloaded and will buid something to do >this much closer to real time. > > > to where it reached the threshold. >> and then how do you keep from recognizing harmonics as note? >> > >good question. I am pretty sure I've already seen that. I >think that's less a concern. It may also be that IM products >ca be detected and filtered. Dunno yet. > >Here's what I think I am doing - I play pedal steel, >and while there are instructional materials, the >"copedents" of pedal steel guitars vary enough that >the meaning of the levers and pedals are inconsistent. > >Copedents are basically "which lever does what to which string?" > >A guy named Mickey Adams put up a bevy of instructional >videos outlining certain patterns. these are of immense value, >but it's still hard "parsing" what he's doing from a video. > >I am more or less "building" a steel right now, and have written some >stuff to evaluate the impact of one "pull" on a given copedent. >Basically,how many chords does this pull make available that were not >there without it? Which strings you hit on steel is called a "grip", >and some grips are more ... canonical than others. > >I've also written stuff that, given a sequence of notes and a cost >function for each move, helps plan the next move for a given >"song" or excersize. For a given steel-state, you can assign a cost to >hitting a different string, a knee lever change, a floor pedal >change or moving the bar. > >What I'd like to do is be able to have a MIDI file >that describes a song or exercise, then have it play one chord >or note at a time on a MIDI instrument ( perhaps a VST host >thing later on ) and wait for you to play that set of notes, then >move on. > >-- >Les CargillThat's very cool. If you get it working well you might consider talking to some harpists to see if it would be worth adapting to harps, as I think they have similar pedal configuration issues. The fundamental/harmonic power ratios for harps is probably less favorable than in a steel, though, which might be interesting to investigate as well. I take it you're ignoring slides, too... ;) Eric Jacobsen Anchor Hill Communications http://www.anchorhill.com
