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Capo 2 detects chords and tabs in your favorite songs

We reported on the original version of Capo a while back, and now the folks at SuperMegaUltraGroovy have released version 2 over on their website. The biggest feature in the new release is "a highly detailed spectrogram visualization," which basically means that they've implemented what the first app couldn't do; there's actual chord detection in the software. As you play the song, you can see visualizations of where the notes fall on the scale, and you can lay down chord markers that will automatically mark out your chords. Basically, you can reverse engineer the song.

It's pretty wild. You'll still need some musical insight since the app doesn't always get it perfectly right, and you'll need to know where the chord changes are in order to mark them out. It's impressive, though. I was able to get a basic chord structure out of the first verse of the Decemberists song above, and if I played around with it some more, I bet that I could reproduce the song on the guitar.

You can also have it write out tabs for you, and all of the features of the first version are back; you can mark out choruses and verses on all of your songs, correct pitch and speed, and set up loops to play along with. If you do any amount of playing around with your favorite songs, it's a fun tool to have. Capo 2 is US $49 as a new purchase or US $19 as an upgrade from the first version. It's also available as a free five minute trial download from the site.

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Mac Music

We reported on the original version of Capo a while back, and now the folks at SuperMegaUltraGroovy have released version 2 over on their...
 

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Rick

Because not everyone has a musical ear. That doesn't mean they can't play an instrument and enjoy themselves.

August 05 2010 at 4:50 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Saif

To all the naysayers: sure, if you're well-trained or well-practiced, melodic/harmonic dictation is a basic skill, but there are some parts that are harder to hear than others. Even though you'd get it if you just spent a little more time hearing the hard parts over and over again, you're on a deadline -- you have to arrange three covers by the end of the week, just like you did last week, and this isn't even the main part of your job...

Like most good tools, dictation tools are not a replacement for skill, but a supplement to skill. If you don't know how to transcribe melodies or harmonies, it's worth learning, either through music theory classes or through musictheory.net. But if you do have a good ear, dictation tools can help make short work of music transcription for re-arrangement. I particularly like chord analysis tools, because then I can decide if I can get away with certain voicings (particularly in horns) or adding extra chord tones.

Having said that, the price is a little steep for something that I think I could probably code in Pd. Of course, it would take significant time and effort to get it working correctly, and that's the very thing I'm trying to save. This interface looks much prettier, too, than anything I'd be able to code up in Pd.

August 05 2010 at 8:59 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
chavsraul

im looking for an iphone app that shows the spectogram of the currently played mp3. any pointers will be greatly appreciated.

August 05 2010 at 12:18 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Joe

"if I played around with it some more, I bet that I could reproduce the song on the guitar."

Or, y'know, you could just use your ears which would do a better job than this software if only you bothered to use them. Why are some people so lazy?!

August 04 2010 at 10:40 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Steve

Being a musician and having used a bunch of these programs in the past, I have to say that if you're good enough to fix all the mistakes these kinds of programs make, you're good enough to transcribe a song in the first place. If not, you're better off searching the internet for tabs anyway. They won't be 100% accurate either, but they'll give you a lot better start than any program like this will.

August 04 2010 at 3:32 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Dab

God bless you, Joseph Fourier, and your wonderful transform.

August 04 2010 at 2:04 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Gene

I already have a transcription device. Actually a pair of them. They're called "ears".

August 04 2010 at 11:04 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Saif

I used to use "Transcribe!" back in the day, to help with dictation. In addition to slowdown, the program shows an FFT of the section of audio that you have highlighted. It also shows a clickable piano keyboard below the FFT, so that you can identify which notes correspond to the peaks, and attempt to recreate the tones that you're hearing. It was a slow but relatively effective way of getting at the chords.

This, however, looks really slick. At $49, it's kind of steep, but I think I might give it a shot.

August 04 2010 at 10:43 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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