Essential Utilities

Dec 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Len Sasso

           
 

STREAMLINE YOUR WORK FLOW WITH THESE MUST-HAVE APPLICATIONS

FIG. 4: Transcribe 7.5 takes the tedium out of deciphering chords and melodies.

The user interface is divided by a green bar, with the audio waveform display and navigation aids on top and the spectral analysis below (see Fig. 4). You create markers above the waveform and navigate using the scrollbar and overview below it. A vertical line through the waveform indicates the current playback position, but Transcribe uses a special red marker called the Current Point Marker (CPM) for most actions. You position the CPM by clicking in the waveform or below the scrollbar, and you make selections by click-dragging in those areas. Typing E moves the CPM to the playback position, Period moves the playback position to the CPM, and D selects everything between the CPM and the playback position.

Transcribe distinguishes Section, Measure, and Beat markers, and, for longer clips, it's useful to first drop those in on the fly using the S, M, and B keys. Then drag the markers as needed to refine their positions. Optional automatic subdivision markers may come in handy. Although they cannot be moved, marker-based navigation commands do locate to them. For example, if you place a Section marker every 8 bars in 4/4 and call for 32 subdivisions, you'll have fairly accurate beat markers. For short clips, you may want to just drop markers at the events you want to analyze.

Among the most convenient keyboard shortcuts, the bracket keys [ and ] with modifier keys such as Command or Option move the CPM along with the current selection, if any. The Left and Right Arrow keys move the left end of the selection, and with Shift they move the right end. U and I cancel the selection, moving the CPM to its left or right end, respectively. 1, 2, and 3 move the CPM to the left, center, and right end of the visible area.

Transcribe offers a variety of effects to facilitate transcription. You can choose mono, single-channel, or Karaoke (canceled center) playback; invoke a 40-band EQ; fine-tune and transpose; store up to ten preset selections; and slow down without changing pitch. Even at very slow speeds, notes and chords are easily recognizable.

Len Sasso is an associate editor of EM. For an earful, visit his Web site at swiftkick.com.

Little Gems

These six free or donationware utilities will make your life easier. You may not use them every day, but they'll be there when you need them.

Snoize MIDI Monitor

When your MIDI keyboard or control surface is not talking to your DAW or your DAW is not controlling your hardware synth, Snoize MIDI Monitor should be your first stop. It will eavesdrop on any combination of MIDI inputs and outputs, and you can set it up as a MIDI output destination for other applications. You don't have to sort out messages of different types or from different sources; instead, open multiple specifically targeted windows.

Filtering lets you decide what MIDI messages are shown in the multiline display, which will retain an event history as large as you want. Filtering includes SysEx as well as individual Voice, System Common, and Real Time message types on all or selected MIDI channels. You can even configure the MIDI display format, for example to show notes by number (decimal or hexadecimal) or note name.

Sonalksis FreeG

If your DAW channel strip is not quite up to the task, Sonalksis FreeG will pick up the slack. It comes in mono and stereo versions and sports a giant level fader with matching meters; trim and pan knobs; and mute, bypass, fine-resolution, and invert-polarity buttons. Polarity inversion is especially handy for converting between stereo and mid-side signals. Pre- and postmetering includes both peak and RMS levels with digital and graphic readouts for highest-since-reset values. Flip to the back panel to choose peak-meter ballistics (Digital PPM, PPM, VU, or BBC), pan law, and fine-tune and trim ranges.

Smartelectronix Fre(a)koscope and s(M)exoscope

When you want to know what's going on under the DSP hood, these two plug-ins are a big help. Fre(a)koscope is an FFT-based, real-time spectrum analyzer, and s(M)exoscope emulates an oscilloscope that lets you capture very short events, such as single cycles of an audio waveform, as well as longer events, such as several beats from an audio track. You might, for instance, use Fre(a)koscope to analyze the effect of EQ and s(M)exoscope, the effect compression.