DamRsn releases NeuralNote, a freeware audio-to-MIDI conversion tool in VST3 and AU plugin formats for supported DAWs.
Recent years have seen all sorts of marvelous advances in audio software, and If you’ve ever wished to convert audio loops to MIDI, then NeuralNote by DamRsn might fit the bill.
The core interface of NeuralNote calls to mind a piano roll rather than any sort of audio-centric utility.
You can load or record audio directly into the plugin itself, which then will do its best to portray the pitches as MIDI information. From here, you can drag the MIDI out to your DAW’s timeline and assign whatever instrument you want to handle the sound generation.
Also available is scale quantization, used for trying to keep everything in a specified key. You can select the root note, range, and snap mode for the resulting MIDI. That said, it doesn’t really handle borrowed modes or the like. You’ll probably have to lean on the chromatic selection, so you’re not whacking things out of key.
There are also options for controlling the time quantization. There are controls for time division, as well as the overall force of the time quantization.
In use, NeuralNote does an admirable job and reminds me quite a bit of some of the things you can do with something like RipX by Hit’n’Mix.
It does seem to have some issues with sounds baked with a lot of reverb or delay. You could chalk that up to overtones on the resonance of the reverb tail or just the information from the taps. I certainly wouldn’t hold it against it.
NeuralNote is a fun utility and does great with clean sounds. You might have to tidy up timing if you’re ripping notes from live guitar or bass unless you’ve got audio from an absolute machine of a player.
NeuralNote is free to use and comes with a standalone application in addition to the plugin.
NeuralNote runs on Windows and Mac computers. Supported plugin formats are VST3 and AU. As to whether it runs on Apple Silicon, you might have to try it on your end. I currently don’t have an M1 or M2-based Mac.
Download: NeuralNote
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