Converting a live recording to a printed chord chart

Cubase
1

Sorry, this is the first time I’ve tried this with 13 Pro OSX. I made a pass at it but the result was a mess. I’m going to describe what I did, but I would appreciate a full “how to” or correction:

In this case, it came from video - so –
1 - import video
2 - select one of the 2 stereo tracks
3 - create a tempo map from one of the tracks
4 - quantize that
5 - Make a chord track
6 - create chords
7 - create midi track
8 - Move track to midi track
9 - open midi track in score window
10 - Use “Create chord button” to make chord symbols
11- Try to clean up the score
12 - export as graphic or xml

IS there a better way to do this?
Much Thanks

2

Hi,

I don’t know, what kind of audio tracks you have, what kind of instrument(s)? Do you get a harmony in any of the track?

You can just drag and drop an Audio Event over to the Chord Track. Cubase will generate the Chord Events out of it.

3

I’m breaking down Sonny Rollins’ “Allison” from a youtube vid.

4

never mind transcribing the solo :slight_smile: I just want the chords. There is no chart for the song already and the piano player is doing some nice substitutions I can’t quite catch by ear… What I got already does identify some of the chords but nothing aligns with the measures / bar lines, and there are several conversion mistakes. But If I can get mostly there, I can finish the work by ear…

5

Hi,

You can also try SpectraLayers.

1 Like
6

I think the key is to get an accurate tempo map, then quantize the track to that, THEN make a chord track?

7

That is how I would go about it. Actually, the quantizing of the audio is optional. You create the tempo map in order to align the chord events from the chord track to the audio.

8

Thanks - Now I’m trying to remember how to convert the chord track to midi, so I can make a chart.
BTW the audio to midi did a passable job of digging out the melody.
So now I need to figure out how to stick the two, together.

9

Mark all the chord events and drag’n’drop them onto a MIDI track. That should create a MIDI part for each chord with the chord notes in it.

Have fun with that.