I'm trying the new feature of our forum - MP3 transcriber. Now it is possible to convert audio tracks to standard notation online with the help of specialized software. Here's Joe Pass "Satin Doll" taken from YouTube.



And here's the intro as transcribed with the LickPlayer:

click to play	show source

I was always admired by Joe Pass, his chords and melodies sound fresh and pretty. I suspected there was a lot of magic in his playing but I didn't know how perfectly adjusted to chord progressions were his solos. Look at this tab and say I'm wrong! What voicings! The lick in the last two bars always matches the harmonies! Was it prepared or was it a real-time playing?

click to play	show source

Joe Pass - Intel Core Duo inside...

Friend: I'm mystified by your success in using the MP3 transcriber. I uploaded "I'll be Around" by Joe and got a few notes on a piano score. I used Foxfire. Have any idea what I might not be doing right?

Many thanks,

Thomas

Hi Thomas,

I use up and down arrows to increase or decrease brightness, mouse to select a particular region and space to pause playback. In most cases that's enough for me to guess melodies and voicings. The transcriber does not produce guitar tabs, just notes without durations on piano staves which is obviously the low point. Actually, I use this tool as a helper that tells me what's going on at a given moment if I can't distinguish it with my ears. And that's usually just what I need.

Could you send me a link to the record you are having trouble with and I would try to transcribe a few bars from it.

Best,
__aux

__aux:

Thanks for the reply. I understand better what this device is capable of. I've been transcribing and collecting Joe's solos for a while now. It's incredibly time consuming and, in some cases, very difficult.

I was hoping that the Bopland transcriber would do considerably more heavy lifting, it you know what I mean. Is this the best transcriber you know of?

Did you happen to complete your transcription of Satin Doll? I'd love to see it; better than that, I'd love to play it. Perhaps you have some other transcriptions?

Thanks again for the help.

Thomas

Hey Thomas,

There are some commercial solutions available to convert audio to MIDI. A while ago I tried WidiSoft http://www.widisoft.com/english/index.ht... and one more converter I can't remember the name of. http://www.intelliscore.net/ is likely to deserve some consideration. All the examples I tried were not perfect and worked well only for simple pieces.

You're right, transcribing is time consuming. Even more, after you've got it in your fingers, the next step is to put in into notes which equally difficult. I never transcribed the whole tunes, I always preferred to extract some licks from the piece I like most of all and use them on every occasion.

Best,
__aux

Very nice transcription. It's actually similar to the way I learned it, but on the video it looked very different as far as fingerings. The F#(4) in bar 1 threw me off at first, I kept wanting to put a natural there, but after a while it sounds good.

Yeah, the same here. I wouldn't trust those books and even my ears until I've seen the clip. Indeed Joe played the gb in Dm7 chord, and I was also a bit surprised but finally clung to it.

That's the thing with Joe. Every time I watch this video and play my version of Satin Doll I sound like a 3 year old banging on a toy piano.

The things even worse here: I can't play for about a day after watching Joe's clips. So I try to watch them not that often :)