Scoring Audio Files ?

Cubase
#1

We have Cubase 8.5 Pro, and have seen how to score using MIDI files, but all the tutorials and examples seem to only use MIDI files. Can you score Cubase projects where the tracks are audio, not MIDI?

We have about 30 pieces where all the tracks were recorded as audio we need to score them for orchestration. Is it possible in Cubase Pro? If not, is there another way to do it?

Claire is currently scoring them by hand, but it would be good if we could just auto-create all the scores straight from Cubase.

thanks,
Mark + Claire

#2

Hi, there is a way to create MIDI from audio, but it’s only going to take you part way. For one it’s only able to work on single notes not chords (as you would expect). Two it won’t like reverb tails or echoes. At best it would give you a starting point which you can then tidy up.

The process is:
Highlight an audio part and click into the Sample Editor
Select Variaudio
Analyse, by pressing on triangle by Pitch and Warp
Press Extract MIDI and follow the prompts

For illustration, I played a short piece on a piano VSTi, rendered it in place, then followed the instructions above. The screenshot shows the original MIDI piano and then Variaudio’s analysed version I separated them by an octave to make the pic clearer. Red is original, blue is the extracted part. I hope this helps.
Variaudio MIDI extraction demo.JPG

#3

Thanks Parrotspain, Claire pieces are very complex, but will give it a try.

So you can’t create a score from audio tracks in Cubase Pro ?

#4

Melodyne will detect the different notes in a chord (I’m baffled by that bit of magic) and can convert the audio to midi. They also provide a month long free trial that is totally unrestricted. Tip, if after the trial you want to buy it shop around as you can usually get it cheaper from a music store than the manufacturer, Celemony. It’s a fantastic tool.