Is there a plugin that identifies what key/note a sample is?

[Dimension]

Im wondering if there is a way that I can find what note/key a sample is in, im using ableton, I haven't found anything in it..


Thanks

[mowmow]

I recently saw EQ which shows graph of what's playing and keyboards on bottom to see what note it is.
I forgot which one it was but I let you know when I remembered it.

[Rob The Viking]

The new waves eq has a piano roll to show what frequencies correspond to what notes. Also logic has a function that allows you to convert samples to midi notes. Although its not entirely accurate.

You should try putting up a soft synth and try to match up notes.

http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/jw/notes.html

[Yoozer]

Would it be daft to suggest "your ears"?

You've got 12 notes. Learn them by heart; the effort will be rewarding over your entire career as a musician. If the sounds are too low or too high, speed them up or slow them down respectively.

[Futureman84]

Originally Posted by Yoozer

Would it be daft to suggest "your ears"?

You've got 12 notes. .

Damn.. You beat me to it..
Although, perfect pitch is something very few of us are blessed with.

[Yoozer]

Seeing that solfege is something you can practice, perfect pitch is not some unachievable talent you're born with that mere mortals can never approach (if you do have it, it just means that you'll cringe every time you watch those auditions for talent shows).

Just put the sample you want to find the pitch of on loop so that it keeps playing. Again; if it's about very low-pitched (kick) or high-pitched sounds, speed them up or slow them down in a sample editor. If you're smart, do this in multiples of 2 - that means that you're going to retain the pitch, it's just going to be an octave (or more) lower or higher.

Then, pick a bog-standard piano sound and try every note until you have something that sounds good. If you can't seem to hit the correct note, detune with 10 or 20 cents and try again.

Slowing down samples is the musical equivalent of using a magnifying glass. Speeding them up is the musical equivalent of a zoetrope. Trying each key on the keyboard until you hit the right one is like playing darts, and nobody's going to reprimand you for not guessing the right note the first time. If this is about a melody, nobody's going to blink an eye at you using key transpose because you can play melodies with more ease in C major than in F# major.

This only matters when you're playing a grand piano live, and it's a crutch because it makes certain progressions harder to understand and follow.

If you need a plugin for this you're effectively crippling yourself because you will not learn or spend the effort analyzing music. Analysis and finding the right notes and right chords of an existing melody is something you're going to reap the benefits from for the rest of your life. Every repetition of it is going to make you better at it until you will only use this method for the really hard parts.

It's not one of those bullshit deals like you have with hardware samplers, sequencers or tape - the "do it manually, because back in the day we had to do it by hand too so you're going to have to suffer through the same I did until I treat you as an equal" kind of thing.

[atsushi_hoshiai]

Melodyne DNA does the job even with chord samples. Try the demo

[Systolic]

Mixed in key will work as a work around. It isn't a plug in though. It is meant for DJs to ID the key of a track. You might have to loop the sample to make the file long enough for it to read it.

[tenkas]

Originally Posted by Dimension

Im wondering if there is a way that I can find what note/key a sample is in, im using ableton, I haven't found anything in it..


Thanks

A little ear training will put you light years ahead and what's best is that it's free and future proof.

All good producers, mixers, composer, even DJ's have done some ear training.

Start with some basic music theory, tons of stuff on the net for free or grab a book.

The advantage is in a long run, you will become much faster working/recording/producing/communicating.

[hubiedubie]

For simple audio (ie a single note, simple chord) you can use Ableton's Spectrum to work this out. Have a look at where the audio is peaking (ie the fundamental) and move your mouse over that section. The note should then be displayed.

[Phil_The_Rodent]

For a single note, you could use a guitar tuner.

[Mardi Gras]

Originally Posted by atsushi_hoshiai

Melodyne DNA does the job even with chord samples. Try the demo

this

[Mr. Varaldo]

Originally Posted by Yoozer

perfect pitch is not some unachievable talent you're born with that mere mortals can never approach .

As far as I know, perfect pitch is indeed something you are born with.

If you have perfect pitch, Yoozer, then you are one of the very few born with it.

The majority of people (me included), have relative pitch (even though the Keyboard magazine's last page ads from a few years ago had a program that was supposed to "teach it" )

Give me one note as reference, and I can easily identify any other subsequent note that you ask me. Relative pitch.

But people who have perfect pitch, are able to distinguish the pitch of a note by heart, without any reference. Very rare for my experience. I used to know a woman (conservatory piano graduate) who had it.

Anyway, to answer the OP's question... I also strongly believe that you need to put some heart and passion to music, and not look for technology to do the work for you. I don't mean it in a bad way, but if you don't have the drive and interest to "feel" the notes and at least try to match them by ear, you won't go far in your ability to play an instrument... again, I do not mean this in a bad way, but it's how I see it.

[LimpyLoo]

Originally Posted by Mr. Varaldo

As far as I know, perfect pitch is indeed something you are born with.

If you have perfect pitch, Yoozer, then you are one of the very few born with it.

The majority of people (me included), have relative pitch (even though the Keyboard magazine's last page ads from a few years ago had a program that was supposed to "teach it" )

Give me one note as reference, and I can easily identify any other subsequent note that you ask me. Relative pitch.

But people who have perfect pitch, are able to distinguish the pitch of a note by heart, without any reference. Very rare for my experience. I used to know a woman (conservatory piano graduate) who had it.

Anyway, to answer the OP's question... I also strongly believe that you need to put some heart and passion to music, and not look for technology to do the work for you. I don't mean it in a bad way, but if you don't have the drive and interest to "feel" the notes and at least try to match them by ear, you won't go far in your ability to play an instrument... again, I do not mean this in a bad way, but it's how I see it.

i think perfect pitch can be 'faked' pretty easily using relative pitch. e.g. imagine the sound of a guitar's low E string or any other reference you have in your brain. like photographic memory, i think perfect pitch can be duplicated pretty well using non-innate skills.

[Mr. Varaldo]

Originally Posted by LimpyLoo

i think perfect pitch can be 'faked' pretty easily using relative pitch. e.g. imagine the sound of a guitar's low E string or any other reference you have in your brain. like photographic memory, i think perfect pitch can be duplicated pretty well using non-innate skills.

That "photography" in your memory will fade away after just a little time has passed.

Try it.

Wake up in the morning, and without any reference, listen to a note, and guess which one it is.

Then find out if you're right.

I can guarantee you that you won't be able to do it. You might "luck out" a few times, but people with perfect pitch can do it 100% of the time.

Normal people can't. That "photography" will fade out after a very short while.

[bad andy]

Varaldo is right. Perfect pitch is something you are born with. The rest of us have to develop Relative Pitch. This can be practiced and learned to a point where you are very good, and with a known pitch to compare to, you can figure out the desired pitch relatively, very accurately. Once you have a known pitch, you can figure out the rest. And, if you practice learning a single pitch that is familiar, like low E on a guitar, or middle C on a piano, or whatever seems natural to you, you can get to a point where you memorize this pitch. Once you have that, you'll always have a known pitch. It does take practice, though.

[sftd]

Tori Amos' grandfather had perfect pitch.

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[Dimension]

Thanks for the responses guys. Much appreciated.

[Zombie H]

perfect pitch doesn't really exist imho

some people are gifted with near-perfect RELATIVE pitch and solfege and ear-training can develop that in anybody who is willing to practice

perfect pitch to me would mean being able to tell the pitch value of something like knocking on a door without any kind of other context information

relative pitch is hearing note relationships like intervals etc where the two notes give each other context or being able to identify cadences

[tenkas]

Zombie H, perfect pitch exists at different levels.

A knock on a door probably does not have a specific fundamental tone, it is made up of too much "noise" or non harmonic content.

Perfect pitch is about identifing tones without any references.

I have it, I can wake up in the morning and if you play a F#, I will say F#.

Some of my friends even have it at an extreme degree where they can tune any instrument by ear and it will be SPOT ON using a very precise tuner.

I know maybe 10 persons who have perfect pitch and they all had perfect pitch before knowing what an octave or a fifth was.

Some say you are born with it, but no research as prooven this yet.


For the OP, I am still convinced that you should not invest in ANY software... just use your ears and a keyboard, or a guitar, etc. Everybody can learn how to find a tonality with an instrument. If you can't, sound recording, mixing and mastering is probably not for you...

[sftd]

Originally Posted by tenkas

Zombie H, perfect pitch exists at different levels.

A knock on a door probably does not have a specific fundamental tone, it is made up of too much "noise" or non harmonic content.

Perfect pitch is about identifing tones without any references.

I have it, I can wake up in the morning and if you play a F#, I will say F#.

Some of my friends even have it at an extreme degree where they can tune any instrument by ear and it will be SPOT ON using a very precise tuner.

I know maybe 10 persons who have perfect pitch and they all had perfect pitch before knowing what an octave or a fifth was.

Some say you are born with it, but no research as prooven this yet.


For the OP, I am still convinced that you should not invest in ANY software... just use your ears and a keyboard, or a guitar, etc. Everybody can learn how to find a tonality with an instrument. If you can't, sound recording, mixing and mastering is probably not for you...

Everyone on GS has perfect pitch, join the crowd!

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[Zombie H]

Originally Posted by tenkas

Zombie H, perfect pitch exists at different levels.

A knock on a door probably does not have a specific fundamental tone, it is made up of too much "noise" or non harmonic content.

Perfect pitch is about identifing tones without any references.

I have it, I can wake up in the morning and if you play a F#, I will say F#.

Some of my friends even have it at an extreme degree where they can tune any instrument by ear and it will be SPOT ON using a very precise tuner.

I know maybe 10 persons who have perfect pitch and they all had perfect pitch before knowing what an octave or a fifth was.

Some say you are born with it, but no research as prooven this yet.


For the OP, I am still convinced that you should not invest in ANY software... just use your ears and a keyboard, or a guitar, etc. Everybody can learn how to find a tonality with an instrument. If you can't, sound recording, mixing and mastering is probably not for you...

the knock on the door would indeed have a tone - any sound is something a person with perfect pitch should be able to assign a note value to

I dunno I was in conservatory for years and then a University performance degree program for classical music and never met anyone with something like perfect pitch

Ive met lots of people with highly advanced relative pitch tho

[smallisbeautiful]

white noise is a sound that has no pitch. Not all sounds have a discernible pitch, that's just completely false.

[Zombie H]

Originally Posted by smallisbeautiful

white noise is a sound that has no pitch. Not all sounds have a discernible pitch, that's just completely false.

i wasn't considering the use of white noise for determining perfect pitch do you use white noise a lot in solfege I gave an example of a daily life sound you will hear like a door knock

a knock on a door produces an acoustic thud that has a pitch, sound is energy...do you mean discernible pitch to the human ear?

[sftd]

I thought white noise was actually am extreme number of pitches at once, rather than no pitches.

Is this totally wrong?

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[Jgbrenn]

White noise is equal energy per frequency, so yea tons of frequencies

[psykx]

in ableton there is a spectrum audio effect called notes which will show you what notes are being played.

[improvpwnd]

Haha GS threads always become super elitist about everything. To the OP, take your sample - no matter how short - loop it, throw up a gtr tuner plug in, deture/transpose til tuned. Use that as root key. I use the POD guitar tuner plug

[audioconsult]

Originally Posted by psykx

in ableton there is a spectrum audio effect called notes which will show you what notes are being played.

this ... you can switch the display modes to show you a freq or key scale