Contents - Index

Tips for Best Results

• Recognition is best for audio that is recorded at a good volume and contains only a few instruments and minimal drums and percussion.  If you are having trouble recording at a good level, refer to the section on recording levels.

• If the original audio contains two or more instruments that a very similar to each other, such as a violin and viola, try specifying only one of the instruments in your ensemble.  Make sure the pitch range is large enough to cover both instruments.  Also, try excluding instruments that cannot be prominently heard in the audio.  You can also restrict the pitch ranges of instruments through the Ensemble Editor to reflect the pitch ranges present in the original audio.  (If the original audio contains multiple instruments and you have the Polyphonic Edition of intelliScore, consider upgrading to intelliScore Ensemble Edition.)

• If your music is on an audio CD, be sure to use the intelliScore's direct CD transfer feature rather than the wave file recording feature.  This is the second option from the top in the Audio Source step in the New Project Wizard.

• Try converting simpler music until you become familiar with intelliScore's controls, then try more complex material.

• If your audio is monophonic, set Polyphony to 1, but be sure your audio is really monophonic.  If you are playing in the instrument, release one note before playing the next note so that there are not overlapping notes -- a damper pedal on piano and reverb can also cause one note to overlap the next.  Also be sure your audio source is not producing multiple notes at the same time, such as octaves.

• For vocals, limit singing to using "aah" or "ooh" rather than the actual words.  You might also want to enable the Constrain to Key option if you have trouble singing in key.

• Whenever possible, set the tempo manually using the Tempo Tracker, and manually set the timing resolution rather than relying on the automatic detection features.  Before tapping in the tempo, close any other unnecessary programs that may be running.

• Remember that when playing MIDI files, the instrument sounds you hear are originating from the sound card. Therefore, it will sound somewhat different than the instruments used to record the source audio.

• If your music changes rhythm, try converting the audio file in several pieces, using a separate project specifically optimized for each piece.

• If the generated MIDI file seems too fast or too slow, adjust the Notes Per Beat (Timing Resolution).  Usually, the correct setting is either Eighth note or Sixteenth note.

• After trying the suggestions below for more specific problems, review the Project Editor section of the Settings Reference chapter in this User Guide to learn how you can adjust various settings to improve accuracy.  The most important settings are Audio Instrument, Polyphony, Pitch Range, and Timing Resolution.  Keep in mind, however, that the default settings usually provide the best results, so you should only adjust a setting if you have a specific reason for doing so.  Continual adjustments will probably not greatly affect results.  If you cannot get good results after a few adjustments, we suggest trying a different piece of music.

• If the recognizer runs very slowly, this often also indicates that you adjusted too many settings in the Project Editor.  Leave the settings at their default values unless you have a specific reason for changing them.