The Dynamic Note Map Panel

 

The dynamic note map provides a visual image of the "notes" in the audio file as interpreted using the current envelope and note selections.  Using the Note Map Panel you can:
  • view both the dynamic and the static (the one permanently stored in the Note Map file) note-maps
  • zoom into the note map to examine details of any tone/signal at any time
  • examine the raw signal amplitude vs. time data for any tone or set of tones
  • play audio excerpts corresponding to the current zoomed view
  • make note-by-note adjustments affecting the MIDI generation process
  • generate a standard MIDI file from the Note Regions.

Help Topics

Windows and dialogs accessible from the Dynamic Note Map Window include:

The Dynamic Note Map Window's context menu includes commands to adjust the view, to modify note regions, to listen to audio excerpts, and to generate MIDI data.

 

Layout of the Note Map Panel
The various components of the Note Map Panel are shown in the figure below.  The color scheme, the initial setup, and the default MIDI timing parameters used by the Note Map Panel are configurable.

Static Indicator This asterisk indicates that the displayed bitmap is the static version stored permanently with the Note Map.  When the dynamic bitmap is displayed, the asterisk is not shown.
Static/Dynamic Toggle Pressing this button toggles the displayed bitmap between the static and dynamic versions.
Mouse Location Indicators The current position under the mouse (time, note, and note region) is displayed in these boxes.
Tool Window Toggle Show/Hide the Note Map Tool Window.
Navigator
Visible only when the view has been zoomed, clicking on regions of the navigator shifts the view in that direction.  Depressing the Control key shifts twice as much; Control-Shift shifts 5x as much.
Zoom Buttons Zoom In/Out by pressing these buttons.
Note Regions These rectangles are note/time regions which are above the note's threshold signal and extend for longer than the minimum duration set in the ToolWindow.  Additional operations (neighbor note merging, overtone merging, and peak detection) can be applied to the note regions to generate MIDI.

Notice that not all colored regions of the note map are marked as being "Note Regions".  These areas may have signals which are relatively high but are not above the note's threshold, or they may not extend beyond the minimum duration defined in the toolwindow.

Static and Dynamic Note Maps
When a Note Map Object is first created, AudioExplorer creates a Note Map image using the threshold factor and color-depth defined for the new object.  Unlike the dynamic image which is generated only for currently selected notes, the static image includes all 128 MIDI notes.  The static image can be viewed at any time by pressing the Static/Dynamic Toggle () near the upper left corner of the panel.  The appearance of the static indicator (*) next to the toggle indicates that the currently viewed image is static.

The Note Map Tool Window

To use the Tool Window, enter the desired new values and press Apply.

Smoothing

 Instead of looking at every time point sampled by the Power Spectrum Analyzer, the dynamic note map can used a windowed average, causing a smoothing of each note's signal vs. time curve.  An example of smoothing is shown in Note Recognition by the Note Map.

You can experiment with and observe the effects of different smoothing values by selecting "View Signals" from the context menu, and entering different smoothing values in the Note Signal Viewer.

Color Depth

 Color depth determines the overall color intensity used for notes that are above their threshold signal intensities.  This is a visual effect only, and does not affect note recognition and MIDI generation.

Minimum Duration

 The minimum duration is the shortest length of time that a signal must remain above threshold in order to be interpreted as a note region.  For more information on the note-recognition algorithm, see Note Recognition by the Note Map.

Stutter Time

 If two note regions are identified based on threshold values, but they are separated by a time interval less than the stutter time, then the two note regions will be merged into a single note region.  For more information on the note-recognition algorithm, see Note Recognition by the Note Map.

 

Selecting Note Regions
By pressing the Control key and clicking on note regions, they become selected.

Multiple note regions can be selected by pressing the Control key and drag-selecting a group of note regions.

All note regions are deselected by pressing the Control key and double-clicking on an area of the panel where there is no note region.

Alternatively, selections can be made using the selection commands in the context menu. 

When one or more note regions are selected, many of the menu commands which act on note regions are applied to all of the selected regions.

 

Menu Commands

These commands are available from the Note Map Panel's context menu which appears when you click the right mouse button on the panel.  
View You can check either the static (prepared) Note map image or the dynamically generated image.

You can view identified notes as either note regions or as MIDI.  The note regions can be edited and can be properties which affect their conversion to MIDI.  In the MIDI view, notes appear as they would after application of the note region properties.

Zoom Zoom to selected notes zooms the view to include only those notes which have been selected in the Note Selector and the Note Range Panel.

Zoom in/out commands reduce or expand the scale by 5%, respectively.

Unzoom restores the full view.

 
View Signals Opens a Signal Profile Window.  If the mouse was positioned over a note region when the right-button was clicked, the viewer will open centered on that region.  Otherwise, the viewer will center on a 2-second interval surrounding the time over which the mouse was clicked.

The signal viewer can also be opened by pressing Shift and double-clicking on the panel.

 
Calculate Tempo If 10 or more note regions are selected, this command is enabled.  It invokes the interval analyzer which uses the selected note regions to calculate a tempo.  To use this command, regions should be selected which are spaced at regular intervals (e.g., an ostinato part).  The analyzer uses statistical methods to discard outliers, so the selection does not need to consist of perfectly spaced regions.

 
Note Regions - these commands affect the note regions.  

Several of these command refer to a mouse note region - this is the note region under the mouse when the right button is clicked.

 
View Regions check or uncheck this command to view/hide the note region overlay
Lock Regions Check this command to prevent the note regions from being overwritten when the note selections are changed.  Regions are automatically locked when previously saved note regions are loaded.

When unlocking the note regions, you will be prompted as to whether to recalculate a new set of regions.
Select Select/deselect the mouse note region.
Select all of note Select all note regions of the note under the mouse.
Deselect all of note Deselect all note regions of the note under the mouse.
Deselect All Deselect all note regions.
Undo Undo the most recent operation on a note-region.  AudioExplorer support 'Undo' of up to 10 previous operations.
Hide Mark/unmark the mouse note region as hidden.  Hidden regions are not converted to MIDI.

If the mouse note region is selected, the hide/unhide operation will be applied to all selected regions.
Merge Neighbors Mark/unmark the mouse note region for merging with neighboring tones.  Merged neighbors will not be converted to MIDI, and their signals will be added to the mouse note region.

If the mouse note region is selected, the operation will be applied to all selected regions.
Merge Overtones Mark/unmark the mouse note region for merging with overtones.  Merged overtones will not be converted to MIDI, and their signals will be added to the mouse note region.

If the mouse note region is selected, the operation will be applied to all selected regions.
Apply to All Apply properties (hidden, merge/neighbors, merge/overtones) of the mouse note region to all other regions of the same note.

If the mouse note region is selected, the operation will be applied to all selected regions.
Reset Reset the mouse note region so that no properties (hidden, merge/neighbors, merge/overtones) are set.

If the mouse note region is selected, all selected regions will be reset.
Reset All Note Reset all regions of the same note as the mouse region.

If the mouse region is selected, the operation will be applied to all selected regions.
Reset All Reset all note regions so that no properties (hidden, merge/neighbors, merge/overtones) are set.
Save Save the current region settings.  This command is available only if one or more regions have been altered.
Load Load the saved region settings.

 
Play Excerpt Play an audio excerpt corresponding to the currently view time range.  An audio cursor will appear to mark the current audio location, and the Time Window will open (if it was not already open).  Excerpt playback can be both started and stopped by pressing the space bar while working in the dynamic note map panel.

 
Render MIDI Use the current note region settings to generate a standard MIDI file.  The MIDI data will be transferred to the MIDI Window, where it can be edited, optimized for timing, and saved.
Copy Copy an image of the note map panel to the clipboard.