How to use the Spectrogram in Songs2See Editor

This guide describes how to use the spectrogram view for transcribing your favorite music.

Music file formats for Songs2See Editor

Songs2See Editor can import the most common formats for digital sheet music or tablatures. If you would like to play a particular song, but you don't have it available in a format like MIDI, MusicXML, GuitarPro or ABC notation, you can also record the song via "File -> Record Audio":

Record music with the Songs2See Editor

Suppose you want to import the first few bars of this famous video game theme into Songs2See and play it on piano:

You can play the YouTube™ video and at the same time record it into the Songs2See Editor. After you finished recording, press the "Quick Import" button.

The spectrogram in Songs2See Editor

After the import of your recorded snippet has finished, you'll see the results of the automatic melody transcription:



Songs2See Editor only focuses on the melody and did not find the accompanying chords. Using the spectrogram view, you can now insert these missing notes by yourself. To enable the spectrogram, just tick the box next to the zoom slider:



You will notice dark blobs in the background, these are all potential note candidates:

Refining the notes along the spectrogram

Looking at the spectrogram, you can easily spot which notes to add and which ones to correct. For adding notes, simply double left click on the spectrogram blob you suspect to be a note. New notes will automatically snap to the selected beat grid. You can get more options by right clicking:

Checking your results

We recommend you first correct the melody which is usally played by the highest notes. With a few mouse clicks you should have a result like this:



You can easily check by ear if you added the correct notes. Just push the "Solo" slider to the maximum and mute all others. You will now be able to hear only the transcribed notes with no accompaniment. You'll easily spot wrong notes since they will sound unmusical and thin:



Once your melody is finished, continue with the chords. These are the blobs on the lower notes that appear simultaneously. It should not take long to come up with a full transctription:



In order to check the final result, you can also mute all sliders except the "Backing" slider. This will allow you to listen to the remaining music. If you did everything right, you should only hear noisy sounds, but neither melody nor chords anymore.

Export as S2P file for the Songs2See Game

Once your done and happy with your transcription, you can save it for use with the Songs2See Game:



If you like, you can also look at the sheet music inside the Songs2See Editor:



Apart from that, you are ready to practice the song inside the Songs2See Game: