What the press and musical sites say about
Digital Ear
Future Music magazine:
"So close to the original
sound that it is scary
!"
"This clever little program from Greece is a
rather advanced sound-to-MIDI converter that not only understands pitch, but
also understands volume and brightness. And it's extremely simple to use.
Load up a WAV file, click Start and you're away. Chances you'll have to
fiddle with scary settings as Harmonic Threshold and Time Resolution a few
time before you get the result you're looking for, but once you've got it
sussed the quality is superb [Note: Version 3.0 offers automatic
settings].
As long as the samples you are using are clean
enough (things like delay and background effects tend to get in the way
somewhat) the MIDI playback is so close to the original sound that it is
scary. With cappella samples it's almost as if your computer is singing to
you. Really!
There are a few niggles though. The lack of
sample previewing is a pain in the butt [Note: Version 2.0 offers sample
previewing] and you can use only mono recordings, it would also be cool
if you could play the sample and the MIDI rendering at the same time to
compare them. Plus you've got to know the exact BPM of your sample if you
want to use the MIDI file created in your own compositions.
In general Digital Ear is very useful to have
around"
by Tim Cant
Audio Buyer's Guide:
"Produces fantastic
results !"
"[...] So far, the best
audio-to-MIDI conversion software. This software comes closest to capturing
the true expression found in singing, wind, string and other continuously
variable pitch instruments. And that, to me, is where it's at! The product
takes an original approach to conversion in that it captures the initial
note of each unbroken phrase and uses MIDI pitch wheel data to capture the
rest of the note, slur, and vibrato elements for that phrase. Marvelously,
it also captures the continuous volume of the performance on the MIDI sound
volume control. It also has the option of capturing the "brightness" of the
performance on any control # of your choosing, defaulting to #74 (MIDI Sound
Brightness?) [...]"
by Campbell Bouchet-Burnet
Electronic Musician magazine:
"A number of features
enable accurate conversion"
"EPINOISIS SOFTWARE DIGITAL EAR: Converting
digital-audio data to MIDI can be a thorny undertaking; the ability to
capture a performance accurately depends on dynamics and articulation, and
many audio-to-MIDI software programs fall short in that regard. Epinoisis
Software's Digital Ear ($79.95; Win) boasts a number of features that enable
accurate conversion of monophonic audio files to MIDI data.
The program translates the audio file's vibrato into Pitch Bend data to
one-cent accuracy. The software's Pitch Quantize can resolve MIDI events to
the nearest semitone, or use Soft Quantization for a less rigid but more
in-tune performance. An In-Tune Wizard can automatically tune performances
that are below or above standard tuning.
To further ensure that a MIDI file follows the expressiveness of the audio
performance, Digital Ear can capture the amplitude envelope of the audio
file, converting the information into MIDI Volume messages. Dynamic control
of timbre is analyzed and can be changed into MIDI Control Change messages
for managing filter cutoff. You can edit the resulting pitch, volume, and
brightness contours of the MIDI performance using an onscreen keyboard,
chart, and sliders.
Digital Ear supports General MIDI- and XG-compatible synthesizers, but you
can remap MIDI controller messages to support synths that don't comply with
those standards. Digital Ear requires at least a 100 MHz Pentium with 32 MB
RAM and Windows 95/98/ME/2000.
by Marty Cutler
Hi Tech magazine (Greek):
"It has earned the global
acceptance of music experts"
(Translated from Greek language)
"Just before month ago, we
had presented Melodyne from Celemony, software that gave us the ability to
convert monophonic Audio into MIDI. Melodyne gives good results, but there
is only a Mac version and its cost is extremely high for the majority of
users. The solution of all that problems comes from a Greek company named
Epinoisis Software. The company’s software is called Digital Ear which runs
under Windows 95/98/Me/2000. It costs only $79.95 (just the one twelfth of
Melodyne) and it has a big number of innovative capabilities. A unique
feature of Digital Ear, is that the it does not "simply" translate pitch and
volume, but it analyzes the timbre of the sound and tracks the evolution of
the signal's waveform. As a result, it produces extremely detailed MIDI data
for the change of pitch, volume and timbre of the audio, converting
performance details like vibrato, tremolo pitch-bend and portamento. Digital
Ear adapts in every kind of sound using various settings. Its effectiveness
has earned the global acceptance of music creation experts worldwide. You
can find more information at the site www.digital-ear.com, order it online,
download a free demo, or listen to a series of Audio demos."
Music Software Monthly newsletter:
"Sing in one end and come out as a
piccolo at other. Cool!"
"Sometimes I get the file
conversion blues! Today, I need to convert a WAV to MIDI for a little idea
I've been kicking around with. Normally, I'd be downloading a few programs
and spending my afternoon checking them out. But I'm going to take a chance
with my copy of Music Software Monthly disc. I'm going to play with Digital
Ear. [...]
Installation is a largely a breeze. It's a bit
of hassle to have to re-boot after installation, but it's not exactly the
end of the world, is it? [...]
And this we have the moment of
truth. I have a trumpet sample that I need to convert to MIDI. Loading the
WAV is intuitive, as is the process of conversion. For basic conversions
such as the one I'm interested in, just hit 'Start'. The resulting MIDI
sounds pretty good. And it's only taken me a couple of minutes so far. The
interface is easy to decipher. That's one of the neat things about Digital
Ear - simplicity.
Still, don't get the idea that this
program is one-trick pony. Digital Ear can also
do real-time conversion from your microphone. This means you can use your
voice as a MIDI controller. Sing in one end and come out as a piccolo at
other. Cool!
[...]
But that's more than I needed. I just
needed a simple format conversion tool and Digital Ear was fine for the job."
by Geoff
Nicholson
Ziff-Davis Network:
"It will have you converting your files
in no time"
"Digital Ear is a versatile audio utility that can
analyze a recorded solo performance (e.g., a singing human voice or a
musical instrument) and convert it to a standard MIDI file. It reads
standard PCM wave (.wav) files, which can be sent directly to any
synthesizer or exported to your favorite sequencer (e.g., Cubase VST,
Cakewalk, etc.) for mixing with other tracks or for further processing. A
Quick Start guide will have you converting your files in no time. The
user-friendly interface then allows you to hear your newly converted MIDI
files using the integrated MIDI player. An impressive Voice Features Editor
lets you graphically see your modifications. Output settings can be
customized for Send Volume, Send Brightness, and GM Voice (unless you want
to manually do this on your synthesizer)."
by ZDNet reviewer
Graphics Resource Club newsletter
(Published by Charles River Media)
"Nothing could be simpler"
"Digital Ear represents a new type of audio software that
fills along desired need for MIDI translation. Using Digital Ear, you can
either import WAV file or record audio directly, and translate the results
into a MIDI file.
To fully appreciate the importance of this capability, you have to think
about what this means. Let’s say you have a WAV file of a full melody,
perhaps recorded on a piano, but you need to hear the music as if it were
played on a flute. Other than playing the song on a MIDI keyboard, and using
either a hardware sampling device or a soft synth with a flute sample, there
was really no other way to achieve the translation. The problem with that
method was that it took a lot of time and effort. By using Digital Ear, all
you have to do is to load in the WAV file, translate it to MIDI, and save it
as a MIDI file. Then you simply load it into a suitable MIDI application (Acid,Sonar,Cubase
…) and assign the proper soft synth sample to it. Nothing could be simpler.
[...]
Digital Ear can send detailed ADSR envelope events to your MIDI file or
synth, emulating the exact envelope of the input audio (WAV or live). Pitch
Bend data (plus/minus 12 semitones) can also be sent, so that you can use
glissando input (cello, violin, trombone, human voice) to create extremely
interesting soft synth emulations for all instruments.
An interesting use for Digital Ear is to
create two separate tracks in your music application, one with the original
WAV audio file, and another (perhaps offset) with the Digital Ear MIDI file.
That gives you the best options for both worlds. For instance, if you own
the free VST plugin Delay Lama (from Audio Nerds), you can use it to create
an audio track of the Tibetan chant voices, then translate that audio track
back to MIDI in Digital Ear for use as a VST soft synth. The glissandos,
with some tweaking, will match, so that a glissando enriched flute can be
used to accompany the hypnotic Tibetan voices. Digital Ear can do much more
with some extended experimentation on your part. If you enjoy expanding your
creative options, be sure to check out Digital Ear soon!"
by R. Shamms Mortier, PhD
The Sonic Spot:
"Earns high marks for its
simplicity"
"Even from first glance, Digital Ear's "face" is clean
and very friendly. All of the controls on the main window are large for
easily manipulation; the model of the piano keys has nuanced shadings that
make it look much more realistic than its counterparts in similar apps; and
every button has a immediately recognizable icon. [...] The help is
extensive, friendly, and helps you begin converting Waves to MIDI files
immediately with a quick start section. Help is in an HTML file, which
somehow seems easier to use than the standard help system found in other
apps. [...] Also, online support from the Web site is fast and friendly.
[...] The ToolTip help – the yellow rectangles that pop up when you station
the pointer over a control – is outstanding. [...]
With other apps, there's a more complicated process
involving selecting a tone file appropriate for the Wave, and perhaps doing
some other manipulations. At best, these other programs make Wave-to-MIDI
conversions a hassle, especially for those who don't know much about signal
processing. Thus, Digital Ear earns high marks for this simplicity factor.
[...]
Digital Ear has a high caliber
interface that is very easy to begin using. The controls are centrally
located, so you're not rummaging through reams of dialog boxes to change
settings. Some additional support is needed to enable faster sessions,
including keyboard shortcuts and hints on specifically how to tune the
settings for maximum performance. Once the parameters for a particular Wave
file are set correctly, it does a decent job of converting Wave files to
MIDI files. [...]"
by Darrin Koltow
YAMAHA corp
Yes, Yamaha corporation itself, the leading musical
instrument maker, recommends Digital Ear as a companion to its excellent XG-series
synthesizers and soft-synths.
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Digital Ear |
