'Chord AI' app for Android and iOS - impressive chord detection!!

[Bif_]

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkwZ48ZuUqE

 

I dropped the $$ for the paid version and will be using to learn song structure more easily. Some here may find it unnecessary, and I can slog through figuring out chords, but this will expedite that process for me. 

 

Must be some impressive programming under the hood. 

[ElmerJFudd]

I see what he is demonstrating on these two youtube linked tracks.  

How effective are you finding it at getting voicings correct, on densely populated arrangements?  

Can it tell the difference between pitch data coming from piano, guitar, electric pianos and synths, whatever other harmonic things are happening?

Typically audio to MIDI software just can't tell which is which, and although it may grab an accurate chord name out of the lot, voicing is still up to you to figure out.   

But, ya.  Thanks for sharing, this looks fascinating.  I wonder how "AI" is being used to achieve the accuracy.  

[ElmerJFudd]

OK, I downloaded the free version.  In this state, the guitar and piano diagrams aren't doing any analysis of voicing.  Just providing generic root position chord shapes and typical first position block chord diagrams.  It says the paid version reveals more where extended harmony is used.  But I don't think it analyzes and reveals the voicing.  That's more a higher paid tier of melodyne thing.  

[Reezekeys]

I watched a bit of the video linked in the first post here. I applaud the programmer of this app – it's obviously no mean feat to "listen" to a finished, mixed-down track, extract the pitches, and somehow deduce the chords being played. However, anyone who has no ear for harmony and relies on this to create a chord chart is probably going to fail miserably. To me, it's just another example of tech substituting for knowledge - similar in concept to the "midi packs" that have pre-rolled chord progressions anyone can drag into a track, "no theory knowledge required." I had to stop the video as the uploader was singing the praises of this, listening to the Diana Krall example and watching entirely wrong chord spellings scrolling by on the screen! If I was on a gig and someone handed me a chord chart with what this app produced, it would be a mess.

 

Again, nothing against the programmer - to me this is almost an impossible task. Post a song here asking what a particular chord is, and you get a multitude of different and often conflicing answers - from humans who presumably know harmonic theory (or do I presume too much? 🙂 ). The same voicings can have completely different chord spellings depending on the key of the song and where they fall in a particular cadence.

 

Can this app save a little time for someone already knowledgeable in harmony, someone with a good ear who will immediately know when a chord spelling it produces is wrong, and through that "wrongness" point to a more correct spelling? Maybe; I suppose it depends on what you're feeding into it. IMO it might only confuse things more and add time to the process too.

 

Anyone ever have someone hand them a piece of music made by a notation program from an unquantized performance, with a forest of 64th rests and hemidemisemiquavers? This app could be the equivalent for chord progressions!

[re Pete]

Seems very cool. Wonder if how it would work on these chord voicings.

 

 

[Bif_]

I've played with this a bit, nothing serious, so no attempt here at a formal review. 

 

The free version picks up basic chord types ( major, minor, aug, dim, 7th, M7th, sus). The paid version picks up a lot more (Half-dim, dim7, M7b5, M7#5, 6th, 9th, M9th, add9, and many more including 11 and 13 extensions) as well as alternate bass notes.

 

I've thrown various types of music at it and obviously get varying results. You're not going to be able to print a chord chart using only this app, but it may well help you figure out the vast majority of chords in a given song, which could then be used to create your own chord chart.

 

Those that have a great ear and more musical experience will likely find little use for this product. I've played all my life and am good at figuring out chords as long as they aren't too complex, but I find this a wonderful tool for learning chord structure and changes from songs where I can't easily do that on my own. For instance, I enjoy Sypro Gyra, Rippingtons, Bob James (to name a few) but I can't readily figure out those types of chord/song structures. This app gets me down that rabbit hole a lot easier, where I can then jump into with what I do know. 

 

Also the ease of using Youtube, source media on your device, Spotify, the phone's mic, etc., make it easy to grab any song and learn. 

 

The Android app was $13. A pittance to pay for something that I know I'll get way more than $13 value as a learning tool. I'm still impressed. 

 

[Vivien]

Hi everyone,

 

I am a member of the tiny team of developers of Chord ai. Really glad to see that some of you like it

I see that some of you would like to see not only chords, but also the right voicings. This was 10 times more difficult to do than just chords, but after one year of hard work we finally managed to release this, see the toggle "Voicings" and turn it on (only Pro version and only iOS for now...). It's not 100% accurate of course, but it's already 10 times better than my own average ear! 

 

I am open to any feedback, always keen to improve the app further.

Vivien

[RABid]

I have a bad ear for pulling out chords. Partially because I was classically trained on piano and depended on sheet music long before I moved from drums to keyboards to play in a cover band. The other problem for me is my mind tends to focus on overtones. Great for programming synth patches. Horrible when trying to analyze a chord structure when a song is using rich hovers. I've also been told by a couple of band members that I must not hear chords the way most people do. I used to drive one of them crazy playing inversions. "No. Play the root on the bottom!" he used to say over and over. He was a butthole. I enjoyed driving him batty. Anyway, wish I had this when I was playing cover music. Will definitely be grabbing it. 

[RABid]

Downloading now. Will immediately upgrade to full version, then test it with James Brown - Cold Sweat and see how it does with the horns.

[Reezekeys]

Please let us know - I'd be happy to retract my debbie-downer post!

[ElmerJFudd]

2 hours ago, Vivien said:

Hi everyone,

 

I am a member of the tiny team of developers of Chord ai. Really glad to see that some of you like it

I see that some of you would like to see not only chords, but also the right voicings. This was 10 times more difficult to do than just chords, but after one year of hard work we finally managed to release this, see the toggle "Voicings" and turn it on (only Pro version and only iOS for now...). It's not 100% accurate of course, but it's already 10 times better than my own average ear! 

 

I am open to any feedback, always keen to improve the app further.

Vivien

This is an interesting development!!! 

[cedar]

Just downloaded the free version.  I'm intrigued to play around with this.

 

I can think of one time this tool might have come in handy.  I was playing a wedding, and got a request to accompany someone on a tune I didn't know (and without any chart to read).  With a recording to load, it seems that this tool might have enabled me to generate a quick chord-only chart (though I guess that requires the paid version).

[b3plyr]

I applaud the technical accomplishments for this app. However, I think transcribing is an important aspect of growing as a musician. Some say they are not good at this, but you will never get better if you don't practice. Having said that, it doesn't hurt to have a bit of help now and then. I use Transcribe on the Mac for slowing down/pitch changes. Sometime I use the spectrum display, chord and note guesses. Hmmmm, now that I think about it, maybe I will try Chord AI. Another super useful app on the iPad is Transcribe+, not to be confused with Transcribe. Gives you slow down, pitch change, and track separation.

[re Pete]

On 2/10/2022 at 8:03 AM, Vivien said:

Hi everyone,

 

I am a member of the tiny team of developers of Chord ai. Really glad to see that some of you like it

I see that some of you would like to see not only chords, but also the right voicings. This was 10 times more difficult to do than just chords, but after one year of hard work we finally managed to release this, see the toggle "Voicings" and turn it on (only Pro version and only iOS for now...). It's not 100% accurate of course, but it's already 10 times better than my own average ear! 

 

I am open to any feedback, always keen to improve the app further.

Vivien

 

Thinking of getting the app. One question, it would be really cool if this could create a pdf chord chart on the fly as the chords are being shown. Or maybe it does?

That would be a time saver. 

[Vivien]

So I just made a little video to highlight the recently added voicing recognition feature which is now available in the iOS app only. Hope you find it insightful for those who don't have this feature unlocked. I will try to make on with more example later.

 

 

[Vivien]

On 3/13/2022 at 5:06 PM, re Pete said:

 

Thinking of getting the app. One question, it would be really cool if this could create a pdf chord chart on the fly as the chords are being shown. Or maybe it does?

That would be a time saver. 

 

Yes it does. I attached an example of what it looks like.

BØJET - lost.pdf

[re Pete]

Very cool. Will there be a PC version in the future?

[Vivien]

1 hour ago, re Pete said:

Very cool. Will there be a PC version in the future?

 

A MacOS version shall be available later this year. But I can't say anything yet regarding a Windows version

[Mr -G-]

Looks like a very impressive app. I wished the visualisation of the chords on the piano keyboard were better (e.g. alternative colour options with more contrast). In that video, the colour to represent the chord notes is poor (creamy yellow next to white?! ) plus the aspect ratio of the piano keys (too thin and tall) make it quite difficult to read. In chart mode, the current chord appears rendered using a white font on a bright grey background which has much less contrast than the rest of the chords (shouldn't the current chord be easier to read than the rest?). Hope these comments are useful to improve the UI.

 

[pinkfloydcramer]

I agree with Reezekeys, it could be a starting point and a timesaver but it's not infallible (not that anyone claims it is) and your ear needs to be the final judge. In the Al Jarreau example I think it simplified the chord at 1:25, leaving out the minor 2nd. I also think it's off somewhat in the vocal walkup at 1:57 which I think is Fm9,  F7+5( with b9),  GbM7 (with b5), Bb13,  Eb7-5.   Someone please educate this music school dropout on the correct way to notate these, please 🙂.

 

I see the basis for every chord the program offers and realize most of my "corrections" are very minor and maybe not even correct, and besides, no one at the VFW (or the piano bar) will know the difference.

 

Also, the best way I can think of to really test the program, is with Al Jarreau songs that have charts in the New Real book. 

 

Waiting to see how it does with voicings.

[MathOfInsects]

I am only here to unhelpfully state the following three facts. 

• Fact the 1st: I cannot not read the second word in this thread title as the name "Al." Therefore,
• Fact the 2nd: I cannot not read the first word in this thread title as the word "Weird." Which means
• Fact the 3rd: Every day I come here and spend a second or two wondering if there is a Weird Al app for Android and IOS. And then,
• Bonus fact: ...because that would be awesome, I end up oddly disappointed at what would otherwise be a helpful and on-topic thread which exists completely unaware of my brain damage.

[pinkfloydcramer]

38 minutes ago, MathOfInsects said:

...because that would be awesome, I end up oddly disappointed at what would otherwise be a helpful and on-topic thread which exists completely unaware of my brain damage.

Disappointed? When you finally will be able to nail the chord voicings for Dare To Be Stupid??

[MathOfInsects]

No, that would be awesome. I inadvertently hold my enthusiasm for it against this otherwise helpful thread, which turns out to be, for reasons I struggle to understand, completely unrelated to Weird Al in any way.

[re Pete]

If this app can get chord tones, I wonder if it can or be developed to get notes played in time set on a music staff? That would be awesome.

[Vivien]

On 3/15/2022 at 11:32 PM, Mr -G- said:

Looks like a very impressive app. I wished the visualisation of the chords on the piano keyboard were better (e.g. alternative colour options with more contrast). In that video, the colour to represent the chord notes is poor (creamy yellow next to white?! ) plus the aspect ratio of the piano keys (too thin and tall) make it quite difficult to read. In chart mode, the current chord appears rendered using a white font on a bright grey background which has much less contrast than the rest of the chords (shouldn't the current chord be easier to read than the rest?). Hope these comments are useful to improve the UI.

 

 

Thank you very much for the feedback. I just released an update and made the keyboard played notes a little darker + the chord name is now black when the beat background is highlighted in white. It's definitely better than before, thank you

[Vivien]

19 hours ago, re Pete said:

If this app can get chord tones, I wonder if it can or be developed to get notes played in time set on a music staff? That would be awesome.

 

Full automatic music transcription of each instrument is a very hard problem. DeepMind released a recent paper where they achieved compelling results but their models still seem to fail in too many cases.