Setting up the mic level is fairly simple — you can see both the waveform and the input level using this supplied utility, and once the pitch‑recognition software recognises a note, its pitch is indicated on the Staff meter, and its absolute pitch is indicated (+/‑ half a semitone) on the Pitch meter.
If all the ivories do when you tickle them is laugh, you might be interested in an alternative method of getting MIDI information into a sequencer. Martin Walker wails, blows and plucks in the interests of non‑keyboard players everwhere.
There must be plenty of people who would like to use banks of MIDI gear, but who don't possess keyboard skills (or don't find modern synth keyboards very expressive to play). Although there are various guitar synths available, these often require the player to play very cleanly to avoid pitch glitches, and tracking pitch‑bends is often not an option. Autoscore, therefore, presents an intriguing prospect — it will recognise any solo instrument played through the supplied microphone and translate the performance to a standard MIDI file. Not only that, but it also claims to track pitch‑bends as well. As it says on the packaging, "You sing or play the tune. Autoscore writes it down for you. Composing music has never been easier." Bold claims indeed. If it works, this package would not only be suitable for beginners and for educational use, but would also be an ideal way for any musician to add that human touch to any MIDI track. Time to have a gargle and try it out.
Installation
Cakewalk Home Studio comes with the Pro package, although various other sequencers are supported, and Autoscore appears as an additional set of menu options within the sequencer, as shown here.
<p>There are two versions of Autoscore (Deluxe and Professional), and both are at version 2. Version 1 came out about 18 months ago, and whilst it was fully functional, it had a few bugs that have been eradicated in version 2. The Deluxe version provides basic note tracking, but lacks the full editing and pitch‑bend tracking of the Pro version. Both versions are available for Mac and PC, and although I only looked at the PC Pro version, the algorithms used should ensure identical performance on both platforms.
The installation of the software caused me some problems, although I was able to work round them. I think it's tempting providence to have an install program that plays background WAV music — my Gina soundcard driver crashed at the same point in the music every time, although I used a crash recovery program that allowed me to complete the installation with no background music, and no further problems.
Autoscore comes complete with Cakewalk Home Studio v3.01, although it is also compatible with various US sequencers (including the rest of the more modern Cakewalk range including Pro Audio 6), but unfortunately not with Logic Audio or Cubase VST. However, this is not a major problem, since any recordings made using Cakewalk can be exported as Standard MIDI files, for use with any other sequencer. In Cakewalk, the Autoscore options appear as an extra set of menu options, indicated by a small microphone symbol (see screenshots). Once the option has been selected that switches on the pitch‑recognition system, MIDI information is output in response to audio signals entering the mic, and this can be recorded into the sequencer just like any other MIDI signal. And that, in essence, is it. Whatever you blow, pluck and tap into the mic appears as MIDI information.
On The Right Track
Autoscore offers several 'Base Classes' which are optimised for tracking different types of instrument, and you can fine‑tune these for pitch range and note length in the Instrument Settings Window.
Of course, real life is never quite as simple, and there are numerous options for optimising the tracking to suit different sorts of instrument and different styles of playing.
There are three tracking Recognition modes, and the first is Constrain mode. This is designed to take account of inaccurate pitching by the player, and constrain the MIDI notes to either a chromatic scale, or to any of the 12 major or minor scales. As long as you know what key your song is in, this ensures that the nearest correct note in the scale is chosen, however out of tune your singing. This makes for neat sequenced results, but forces every note to exactly the correct pitch. If you are more accomplished, and want to include expressive pitching as part of the performance, the Pitch Bend Tracking Mode will be more suitable (Pro version of the software only). This uses MIDI pitch‑bend to accurately track any bends or slides, sending out 20 pitch‑bend controller messages per second, and while it will accurately capture the total performance, looking at the results in a sequencer score editor may be confusing, as only the initial note of a slide will be shown.
The newest mode (and the default) is the Tru Trak mode. This constrains the notes to the chosen scale (just like the Constrain mode) but at the beginning of each note it sends out a single MIDI pitch‑bend message. This allows the pitch of each note (complete with human imperfections) to be captured exactly, but also leaves any score editor with a nice neat output as well. Volume tracking can be switched on and off separately, to suit your application (depending on whether you're a world‑class performer with loads of expression, or desperately trying to hold onto the correct note, and not worried about capturing the correct levels as well).
A Blow For Freedom
Here's a short guitar phrase that I grabbed in Pitch‑Bend mode, with Volume Tracking on. You can clearly see the semitone pitch‑bends, as well as the vibrato on the final note. Although MIDI velocity is always constant, the Main Volume (controller 7) also clearly shows the attack and decay of the notes.
Other aspects of a performance that can affect the results obtainable with Autoscore are the type of instrument being played, whether notes are short or long, over what pitch range it's being played, and so on. The Instrument section of the program deals with these factors, and a selection of presets are provided. The program analyses sound depending on the 'Base Class' used, and there are five of these — Voice, Guitar, Wind/Brass, String, and Rhythm. The best tracking will be probably be achieved if you choose the Base Class most like your chosen instrument. The Rhythm class is a special case that ignores input pitch information, instead outputting Middle C in response to any percussive noise, so that clapping, tapping or making any similar sort of sound could create rhythm patterns that will trigger MIDI percussion sounds.
The pitched options allow you to specify the top and bottom of the pitch range to minimise spurious notes (the smaller the pitch range, the faster and more accurate is the response), and Note Length specifies how short a signal will result in a valid note: the shorter the note setting, the more likely it is that spurious notes will be triggered by short, unwanted background sounds. A second Volume Threshold parameter sets the minimum acceptable level for valid note data, and minimises triggering by background noises. Finally, Silence Between Notes determines how the end of a note is set — when this parameter is switched on, the program looks for a silent gap to set the note end point, and when off it waits for a change in pitch or volume. For instance, the on setting would cause a pitch‑bend to be interpreted as a single note with pitch‑bend, whereas the off setting would dictate that two separate constrained notes would be output (depending on the tracking mode selected).
Since many sequencers have a step‑entry mode, Autoscore has yet another switchable option to account for this, ignoring the duration of notes, and concentrating on their pitch. Finally, Reference Tones, which play either a major or minor arpeggio, are provided so that you can hear the notes of the appropriate scale before you start singing or playing (very useful as a reminder).
In Action
The microphone supplied with the Autoscore package is a low‑cost, unidirectional type that should be suitable for use with the mic input of many soundcards (sound quality isn't the most important factor for this application), and it also has an on/off switch, which may come in useful if you are attempting to work without headphones and need to mute the signal when the loudspeakers are turned up. It comes with a 3.5mm jack plug, a quarter‑inch jack adaptor, and a desktop support clip.
The first thing to do is to test the supplied microphone with the Autoscore pitch recognition system, and a Test Microphone option is provided to do just this. I got off to a flying start by using an A440 tuning fork, whereupon the pitch meter jumped to A3, which is the correct MIDI note. Since running slightly into clipping generates extra harmonics that can cause mistracking, it seems better to run with lower levels, and the tracking seems clean even with fairly low signal levels. The Staff meter shows the nearest note on the keyboard (assuming A440 concert tuning), and the Pitch meter shows any discrepancy in the range of plus or minus half a semitone from the correct pitch.
I got satisfactory results directly through my AWE64 Gold soundcard, although even with my mixer mic level control turned full up I could have done with more signal level. I ended up using a studio mic, through my mixer and straight into the line‑level input of my Gina card, simply because I could then use a boom mic stand, (unfortunately, the supplied mic doesn't fit in a standard mic clip). To really test out the tracking, I cheated by using a line‑level sine wave signal to see how far the system could go. I managed to get it to track cleanly over a range of four or five octaves, and it was impressive, when using an octave MIDI pitch‑bend, to see the pitch meter sequentially read out each semitone and its deviation from concert pitch as it tracked the signal. You could even see vibrato as a regular up/down pitch variation in the pitch meter.
Using real instruments through a mic proved more tricky (as you might expect), especially since you can't hear any mistracking until you finish recording and play back the MIDI sequence. It's important to switch MIDI Thru off in your sequencer, as otherwise you may get all sorts of strange noises. For capturing sung tunes (Wildcat Canyon recommend singing 'dah dah dah...' rather than words, to minimise mistracking) the system works extremely well. The easiest way to use Autoscore is with Constrain Mode on and Volume Tracking off. This always generated MIDI notes well for me (apart from occasional glitches of maybe one or two notes per minute, which could probably be eliminated with more careful adjustment).
You don't always need a mic — you could try connecting an electric guitar. I managed to capture a blues guitar solo very closely in Pitch‑Bend mode, as long as I didn't try rapid flurries of notes. Volume tracking also works well, but since it uses MIDI controller 7 it's up to you to make sure that your MIDI device is set up to respond to this. I even managed to get a fair amount of expression from a penny whistle.
Occasionally I got strings of short notes that I didn't expect, but this was normally because either the signal level was too low, or that I was playing exactly on the transition between two tones (ie. sadly out of tune), and the tracking was jumping repeatedly between the two notes. If you do experience major problems, the Autoscore Control Window has an option to capture the audio it's hearing from your soundcard and save this as a WAV file to narrow down the problem. Like all expressive software applications, you shouldn't expect to master Autoscore in a single session, although once you've set up levels and chosen Constrained mode you could be outputting a set of tuneful MIDI notes within the first few minutes. To capture a total performance, complete with volume and pitch‑bend tracking will take more time.
Summary
Autoscore could be the poor man's wind synthesizer, and at £80 the Deluxe version (which comes with Recording Session software rather than Cakewalk Home Studio) will be ideal if you just want to sing in basic melodies and is already selling well for home and educational use. The Pro package, at £155, adds the Pitch‑Bend mode, Volume Tracking, and Instrument editing, and is a much better bet for the professional musician. Incidentally, these pricings are an introductory offer, and are likely to rise slightly in a month or two.
It's a shame that Autoscore doesn't integrate with either Cubase VST or Logic Audio, but apparently it seems largely up to Steinberg and Emagic to add support. However, if you use Cakewalk Pro Audio 6 you're off to a flying start.
For anyone who wants to make music but can't use a MIDI keyboard this is an attractive program, and I can see why it has been so well received elsewhere. If you don't know the score, you now know a program that does!
How Do They Do That?
The audio signal you play into your soundcard is analysed by Autoscore for its pitch content, and this is converted to the nearest MIDI note value. The tracking takes a significant time to process, and relies on looking at previous notes, as well as the current one, to produce accurate notation — and, as anyone using a MIDI + Audio sequencer will already know, there are always significant delays when recording audio through soundcards. Because of this, real‑time MIDI Thru information is not available, so you cannot hear Autoscore's tracking output through a connected MIDI synth while you play.
To ensure that the processed MIDI output is recorded in the sequencer at an identical time to the original performance, Autoscore uses MIDI time stamps, which fix each Note On and Note Off message to the time it was played. This, unfortunately, is why Autoscore will not interface directly with either Logic Audio or Cubase VST: neither of these applications have the ability to interpret MIDI time stamping, and when they receive the MIDI data they ignore the time stamps, with the result that the MIDI data would end up in totally the wrong place in the sequence. Fortunately, though, you can export any Autoscore‑produced solo as a standard MIDI file to import into these two applications.
Pros
- Accurately captures real‑world performances.
- Pro version has pitch‑bend and volume tracking.
Cons
- No feasible real‑time auditioning.
Summary
A clever and well written program that can add the human touch to any MIDI sequence.