Piano recognition for smartphone - what do you think?

[janbednarik]

Hello fellow pianists :-) I would like to hear your opinion. I am the university student and this year I am working on my bachelor's thesis. I would like to make a smartphone application that would help the piano students or composers. The application would be capable of recording someone playing the piano then it would recognize the single notes or polyphony, the rythm and finally it would generete the MIDI output. The MIDI output could be then imported to some 3rd party dekstop software (like Finale, etc.) to obtain the classical piano score.

Before I start I need to know whether you, pianists, would even like to use such an application. So would you use an application that can recognize and process the piano sound and generate the MIDI output? And if so what mobile platform would you prefer? Android / iOS / Windows Phone / Symbian / BlackBerry / anything else? What do you think?

I really need your feedback and I would appreciate every answer! :-) Thanks in advance.

[zezhyrule]

If you could make an app that actually works as you say, yeah I'd possibly use it.

[evitaevita]

I would like to make a smartphone application that would help the piano students or composers. The application would be capable of recording someone playing the piano then it would recognize the single notes or polyphony, the rythm and finally it would generete the MIDI output. The MIDI output could be then imported to some 3rd party dekstop software (like Finale, etc.) to obtain the classical piano score.

+1

So would you use an application that can recognize and process the piano sound and generate the MIDI output?

Certainly yes.

what mobile platform would you prefer? Android / iOS / Windows Phone / Symbian / BlackBerry / anything else?

I would prefer an application for Android.

Nice and interesting idea!

[j_menz]

Aside from the technical issues, have you considered the legal implications regarding copyright? I suggest you obtain good advice on that lest it prove a very expensive project.

[janbednarik]

Thanks for your answers!

zezhyrule: I hope I can :-) which mobile platform would you prefer?

j_menz: Actually I didn't but I don't think there would be any problems with copyritgh. The application is just a tool, I can't control how the users use it neither I'm responsible for that. At least I hope so :-) The main purpose of the application is to help the composers to transfer their idea into piano score. Anyway, would you use it and which mobile platform would you prefer?

And how about other users, what do you think?

[j_menz]

j_menz: Actually I didn't but I don't think there would be any problems with copyritgh. The application is just a tool, I can't control how the users use it neither I'm responsible for that. At least I hope so :-)

There is a body of legal precedent that is against you on that. I do strongly suggest you obtain proper advice, especially if you intend to release the product.

[ajspiano]

Actually I didn't but I don't think there would be any problems with copyritgh. The application is just a tool, I can't control how the users use it neither I'm responsible for that. At least I hope so :-) The main purpose of the application is to help the composers to transfer their idea into piano score. Anyway, would you use it and which mobile platform would you prefer?

While I don't know the exact details, I don't think that's quite how it works for torrent websites for example. They facilitate the breaking of copyright laws, and as a result they can cop it pretty badly..

..napster is another one. The users commit the piracy but the company was in litigation for 7 years and ended up paying up 130 million I believe. :/

[nyiregyhazi]

There is a body of legal precedent that is against you on that. I do strongly suggest you obtain proper advice, especially if you intend to release the product.

 

What precedent? I think you're being a little paranoid. Did the inventors of tape recorders, or cd burners get sued for facilitating piracy? I find the prospect very unlikely. It's too far removed for any obvious chance of legal culpability. Torrents involve direct organisation of piracy. This is merely a tool, that would be used entirely externally.

[nystul]

There is a body of legal precedent that is against you on that. I do strongly suggest you obtain proper advice, especially if you intend to release the product.

What kind of copyright issues are we talking about here?  There is already some software which will convert audio to MIDI with some degree of success.  This software is used primarily by the music industry itself.

[janbednarik]

I don't think there would be any legal issues but thanks for your suggestions:-) Rather please tell me  whether you would use this application and what platform would you prefer :-)

[nyiregyhazi]

I don't think there would be any legal issues but thanks for your suggestions:-) Rather please tell me  whether you would use this application and what platform would you prefer :-)

How much have you explored the feasibility of this? Unless you have some extremely advanced technology, I'm doubtful as to whether you could get it doing anything to a good standard. I know that there are the Zenph people who have recreated historical recordings for use on player pianos, but I doubt whether the ability to do this thing to a high level is something that is easily doable- especially on a mobile phone. It's one thing to get something to recognise a few notes of a melody, but something else altogether to accurately identify the precise notes in a series of even relatively simple chords. Is a mobile phone really going to be up to performing such advanced tasks?