What do you use for your transcriptions/generation of midi?

[Sengin]

I recently finished my project of finding the original percussion samples used to derive the cartridge ROM DAC samples for Sonic 3&K / Sonic 3D Blast, pitching them appropriately, and sticking them in a pack (download available in description if you are interested in such a thing

).  One of the things I'd like to do with it is to pair the samples with the Genny vst to recreate what the Sonic Generations 3DS' remix of Big Arm (

) could sound like on the Genesis (because come on, that remix is legendary), using the same instruments originally defined for the original sonic 3&K Big Arm (by importing its vgm file).  But I am absolutely godawful with transcription and I'd need a midi file or sheet music to start with.  I was going to look around for a service I could pay for to get a transcription, but was hoping some folks here would have some first hand experience and have some recommendations (or perhaps something to avoid).  Or do you use the "hope it's on vgmusic.com/google" method?

[ZackParrish]

I transcribe everything by ear, which is the oldschool approach to it.

Some DAWs have built in audio to MIDI converters, and some pitch correction VSTs like Melodyne also have the ability. Those usually aren't perfect and really only work if you can isolate the parts you need transcribed. 

Then of course finding a transcription that someone already did(like all the tracks on vgmusic) is a possibility if that particular theme you want exists there.

Only other thing you can do is hire someone to do it for you(or hope you find someone willing to just do it for free). 

If you can hear a note and then play it on your preferred instrument, or just know what the pitch is without a comparison tool, you have all you need to transcribe it yourself. That's largely what the process is... repeatedly listening to the audio and picking the parts out you want and putting the notes down into a DAW or notation editor.

I recommend just trying it yourself, it is pretty fun once you get going. Kind of like putting a puzzle together...

[Sengin]

Hah, I wish it were that way for me.  I am exceptionally slow at transcription and really bad at pitch detection - it is far more frustrating than rewarding.  Mostly I would end up splicing the audio note by note and running each through frequency analysis...

[Seth Skoda]

My approach is ridiculously technical.

I'll split an audio file into dynamic parts to get some sound separation (usually bass, mids, treble, more if necessary). Next, I send each file through an online "audio to MIDI" converter, which gives me some (really) rough translation of the music, but at least it's not one big, hot mess. The resulting MIDI files go into my DAW. Bit by bit, I'll start knocking off the notes with the lowest velocity to get rid of translated harmonics in each track. Once it starts to more cleanly represent the original composition, I'll start new tracks and rewrite what sounds like it's correct; albeit with some trial and error. I use my ears to fill in the parts missing from the above mentioned note deletion.

 

Yes, it's a pain in the ass, but it gets the job done for me when either no one else did it or someone did and wants to charge money for it.

 

Some of my SEGA Genesis covers have been done this way, such as Rumors by Timex Social Club.

 

 

Edited December 11, 2023 by Seth Skoda
I added a link to show what's possible.

[timaeus222]

The way I do it is fairly simple. I have a MIDI keyboard in front of me, which I recommend to anyone trying to figure out notes. I hum to figure out the melody and play it back to check, then try to put it to memory and play it out on keyboard. Humming it is easiest and is what I would recommend to figure out what is going on. If there was harmony in what you listened to, I would track and hum the bass line, then that will give me a clearer picture of what the chords might be.

[Master Mi]

Here you have at least some visible note material (lead/melodies, chords, bass, drums) you could start with in order to create your remix:

https://onlinesequencer.net/1639136#

I still have some trouble to figure out the key of this composition ('cause of the many possible semitone steps according to the huge note material).

Could it be something like A major - or D major - or maybe E minor - or is it a special mode?
How would you proceed to determine the key in this case?

Edited December 25, 2023 by Master Mi

[Sengin]

Welp, I ended up doing it.  I honestly don't think I would have had Dean Nkosi not transcribed the lead instrument here:

I had to pause the video to transcribe into musescore every 10 seconds, but it made a great starting point.  I realized I had some minutes left on lalal.ai, so I used it to separate the 3DS version into as many stems as I could, abuse EQ to remove some noise on the stems and bandpass the general ranges of the fundamentals, use Audacity's spectrum analysis (enhanced auto-correlation seemed to work better), and try out a few things.  I know there are some mistakes, but maybe someone else can fix them - mostly in the harmony which I wasn't able to get good separation from.

I put the midi file here if anyone's interested in creating their own remix or wants to attempt to fix mine: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AuaJEDSykCcEgeYhRMmnR57doHz-KA?e=HcveMA

Unfortunately it looks like vgmusic isn't accepting midi file uploads at this time.

 

@Seth Skoda that approach sounds pretty brutal, but I'll keep that in mind.  It may come in handy for short sections in the future.

[Master Mi]

@Sengin

I finally came up with a pretty bulletproof method for figuring out the key of this (or any) soundtrack - I think I'll write an extra post because it might interest others as well.

So, your soundtrack has all the notes of D major and its relative key of B minor in common (my other two guesses for A major or E minor were wrong because at least one note in those keys sounded wrong in the context of the soundtrack).

Since the piece sounds much better and more harmonious with a D major chord than with a B minor chord, the actual key of the piece should be D major.

D major means that the following notes are completely safe to play: D, E, F#, G, A, B, C#.
With the help of this, you should be able to compose your own alternative lead melodies, countermelodies, basses, chords, etc. for your remix.