Mike's Oud Forums

Transcription service

bugaga - 2-5-2020 at 04:17 PM

I like transcribing music a lot and I think it's a very good way to learn many things about music. Sometimes I'm getting requests to transcribe recordings for other people. Just they're so different in effort and before you start it's sometimes hard to tell how long it might take and what to charge. I believe in fair payments, but fair prices might also be hard to pay for some customers. So I'd like to ask if other people here also are experiences with paid transcription services or in general, what might be ok prices.
Recently I was struggling with a piece (which I also didn't like a lot) which strong reverb made it difficult to understand which notes are actually played and which are result of the reverb.
Any critics and suggestions for improvements are also welcome. I'm not completely satisfied, but as I told, from every transcription you can learn and improve.
Here is the Youtube link (transcribed until 4:35):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pl16qq-99MU
(since it's Persian music I was using Persian symbols)

Attachment: Bayate Tork Aref Ebrahimpour.pdf (85kB)
This file has been downloaded 133 times

Brian Prunka - 2-6-2020 at 11:50 AM

Looks like you did a nice job. The problem isn't the reverb here, it's the echo! Whenever he stops you hear 2-4 extra notes from the echo. I think in a couple of places what he played is simpler than what you wrote possibly, because of the echo adding notes at the ends of phrases.

I 100% agree on the value of transcription. I don't usually transcribe much for other people because most people don't want to pay what I feel my time is worth, so I only do projects that I'm personally interested in. I have transcribed some instrumental compositions for people—these are the easiest because there is a regular beat and the melody is generally pretty straightforward.

I'd recommend timing yourself when you transcribe (clockify is a good website that lets you keep track of stuff like this) and see if you can guage average times to transcribe. I find a taqsim is usually about 30 minutes for every minute of music on average. Compositions are about half that if it's just a melody, but if there is a bass line or other parts it will take more time, and vocal pieces take a lot more time due to the complexity of the ornamentation and the flexibility of the rhythmic placement.

Mainly decide for yourself what your time is worth, and give discounts for things that you wanted to transcribe anyway :)


bugaga - 2-11-2020 at 02:00 AM

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. It's a pity a reverb is not removable.
I will check Clockify. Is the free version doing for this task or are you recommending another one?

Brian Prunka - 2-11-2020 at 03:14 PM

There are actually plugins that do a decent job of removing reverb. Echo less so.
I think the free version of Clockify is adequate.

Chris-Stephens - 2-11-2020 at 07:27 PM

What are some of these reverb removing add ins? So much great playing ruined by effects, mostly Jalil Shahnaz and Munir Bashir but also many other Oud Tar and Setar players I'd love to hear without the fake studio reverb

Brian Prunka - 2-12-2020 at 07:54 AM

Accusonus Era-D is the best one I've found, it has a lot of parameters and allows you to differentially reduce reverb with a multiband interface. It still introduces artifacts if you go for really intense reduction, but you can get good results. I've mostly used it to reduce room sound from recordings in a big rooms like churches, etc. Not sure how great it would be at removing artificial reverb but I'd expect you could at least get some reduction.

SPL De-Verb is more of a one-knob version. I think its algorithm works best on solo instruments. It's pretty transparent at low levels but doesn't give you many options to control it.