How do I make a bad audio waveform more visible?

[Palimpsest9]

I have a short audio recording of a drum fill which I like, and I would like to transcribe it into MIDI notes

I figured I should use Compressor, so the peaks would become visible in audio waveform, so I could maybe transcribe then each note individually into a midi region, using attack=0.0ms in Compressor (0.5ms is too much, but Logic's Compressor doesn't have anything between 0.0 and 0.5). With some tweaking, the Compressor graph reflects reflects my intention, however the waveform in the bounced output looks as indistinguishable  as the original.  The orinal audio is very fast drumming and the quality of the source is low.(8-bit video game music.),

(Since it's for compositional purposes, not audio quality, I don't mind clipping.)

 

 

Edited August 10, 2022 by Palimpsest9

[triplets]

A compressor cuts the peaks and the transients if you put the attack very fast.

Why don't you use just a gain plugin to increase the volume of the file?

[Palimpsest9]

19 minutes ago, triplets said:

A compressor cuts the peaks and the transients if you put the attack very fast.

Why don't you use just a gain plugin to increase the volume of the file?

Ah, I see. I had it backwards.

Gain makes the peaks louder. So what do I then? I would also need to make the remaining parts less loud, before the peaks are clipped.

[Atlas007]

Have you experimented with the Enveloper plugin (instead) to increase only the attack without affecting the remainder? You could also use the Noise Gate plugin to filter out the sound you don't want to be part of the audio-to-midi conversion.

You could then try using the Create MIDI Track From Flex Pitch Data command found in the Track's Edit local menu after opening the audio track editor pane.

 

Edited August 10, 2022 by Atlas007

[Palimpsest9]

5 hours ago, Atlas007 said:

Have you experimented with the Enveloper plugin (instead) to increase only the attack without affecting the remainder? You could also use the Noise Gate plugin to filter out the sound you don't want to be part of the audio-to-midi conversion.

You could then try using the Create MIDI Track From Flex Pitch Data command found in the Track's Edit local menu after opening the audio track editor pane.

Noise Gate had a remarkable effect (see image of bounced audio below). I haven't yet gotten Enveloper to do anything. It's pretty hard to tell what I'm doing, since neither plugin seems to have a monitor or graph feature and I haven't done a tutorial.

Yes, I'm rather familiar with Create MIDI Track from Flex Pitch Data, though, these being two second fills, it doesn't take many minutes to transcribe them manually.

[Atlas007]

4 hours ago, Palimpsest9 said:

Noise Gate had a remarkable effect (see image of bounced audio below). I haven't yet gotten Enveloper to do anything. It's pretty hard to tell what I'm doing, since neither plugin seems to have a monitor or graph feature and I haven't done a tutorial

Indeed, that’s more the hit & miss type of approach challenging ones hear skill hearing. Enveloper does make the exercise more obvious. BTW, instead of using a compressor, how about an exciter?

[Atlas007]

 

4 hours ago, Palimpsest9 said:

Yes, I'm rather familiar with Create MIDI Track from Flex Pitch Data, though, these being two second fills, it doesn't take many minutes to transcribe them manually.

 

 

The Create MIDI Track from Flex Pitch Data is almost instantaneous…

 

 

 

 

 

[Palimpsest9]

13 hours ago, Atlas007 said:

Indeed, that’s more the hit & miss type of approach challenging ones hear skill hearing. Enveloper does make the exercise more obvious. BTW, instead of using a compressor, how about an exciter?

Exciter proved to be the easiest to use, although for some reason I had to apply it twice to get a satisfying result (see image of bounced audio below).