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Keyboard Music Java (KMJ)

Would it be so hard?
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My recent accidental discovery of the Windows Narrator function (check it out!) got me thinking about music, the web and the keyboard.

1. Music website. There are 26 letters. With 12 notes in an octave (counting sharps/flats) that is enough for 2 octaves. Proposition1: a website (the KMJ) with a java program that interprets each letter as a musical note. You could pick out a tune, or log in your toddler and let them merrily bang the keys.

2. Music interpretation. If every letter corresponds to a note, it should be possible to paste a string of letters into the KMJ input screen and have them interpreted as the corresponding notes. The website as described above would be good for one-note at a time type tunes. However, perhaps a group of letters together could be played as a chord corresponding to those notes. Individual notes would be seperated by spaces. This would allow more complicated pieces to be written out and played by KMJ. It would also allow you to input poems etc and see how it sounds as music.

3: Voice recognition. If voice recognition software can distinguish e from a, can it distinguish a whistled middle C from a b-flat? I am not sure, but if so, by retraining the voice recognition software to recognize a whistled B-flat to be the letter T (corresponding to B-flat on the KMJ), one could whistle into Microsoft word and get a string of characters, then paste those characters into the KMJ to hear your tune played back.

bungston, Aug 20 2004

Not at all like this then? http://www.rathergood.com/buffy/
[gnomethang, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]

Pianographique http://www.pianographique.net/
Very awesome and vaguely similar. Warning: Addictive. [Face, Oct 31 2004]

[link]






       Right. 2 octaves.
bungston, Aug 20 2004
  

       3) seems incredibly dodgy. 2) (end of) is a bit iffy. Please find attached link. It shows a reasonable facsimile of Buffy. She will swear when you press your keyboard.
gnomethang, Aug 20 2004
  

       There are devices that work in cents (of musical tones). People, (unfortunately!) do not as well we know!!. [Bungston] does not know either given the amount of questions.
BTW - How are you doing?
gnomethang, Aug 20 2004
  

       I had speculated on how this system might be used to determine timing. For simplicity's sake, assume each character represents an eighth note. Two q (qq) would be a held quarter note of that tone. qqqq would be a half note. q.q.q. would be three eighth notes. q q would be an eighth note, an eighth rest then another eighth note.   

       You can see how this system could be used for cents also, or whatever other interval you choose.   

       I must say, Buffy cussing sounds much different than she does on TV. More English, for sure. But she did teach me about "quim".
bungston, Aug 20 2004
  

       OK, I tried, and cannot teach the voice recognition in Windows to discriminate between a high and a low whistle. Not sure why that should be.   

       I am sad that there are no annos from coders or from musicians on this idea. I will kick it up to the top one more time with this anno.
bungston, Aug 22 2004
  

       I like this idea.
DesertFox, Aug 22 2004
  

       There are already many, many systems that do basically these things... do a google of "music recognition". Also, take a look at Cakewalk Express -- it has a "virtual piano" built in that uses the keyboard to play. Also explore "MIDI". The list goes on, but I'm heading to bed.
zigness, Aug 22 2004
  

       As [zigness] says, there are music recognition systems out there, although I've not had a lot of luck with those I've tried. I don't think voice recognition software is designed to distinguish between a C and a B-flat: if you think about it, you want the software to recognise your voice, whether you speak at a C pitch or a B-flat pitch.
Thod, Oct 31 2004
  

       I am a keyboard player, but not a techno player, It would be like learning another language to reconfigure the keyboard in this way. I think there is software for composing which is more traditional. My son, who composes techno on Fruityloops and also can read music, would probably adapt to this quickly. (old dogs and new tricks, you know)
dentworth, Oct 31 2004
  
      
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