This is an interesting area which can apply to any type of solo harmonica including diatonics and chromatics, in any tuning.
Over the past couple of months I've been spending a lot of time exploring various pitch-to-Midi solutions. This is basically about playing a standard analogue harmonica into some kind of interface to get Midi sounds from it. I had tried this in the past, but always gave up in frustration because of too many sound glitches, and latency. Those factors still exist, but with a lot of research and fine tweaking of settings they can be minimized to the point where I now feel this approach is really workable.
I'm using the iPad as my Midi sound source, as well as for audio. It's an incredible playing resource for any musician, as millions of keyboard players and guitarists have already discovered! But up till now few harp players seem to have taken the iPad seriously, even for using guitar-type effects in an app like Bias FX. If you check the Facebook discussion groups on harmonica effects, the overwhelming view is that the standard old-school pedalboard with a bunch of your favourite foot-stomp pedals is the only way to go. Even floor multi-effects units like the Line-6 are frowned on by the purists!
Sure, there are some great foot pedals especially designed for harmonica out there, mostly made by the Lone Wolf company. Fair play to them, and I'm not dissing their great work over recent years in creating dedicated pedals for harmonica players. But to me, using floor pedals is a very poor approach for us harmonica players. Having them on the floor means crouching down to adjust settings, plus it’s easy to hit knobs and mess up the sound with clumsy foot operation on a closely-packed pedalboard. Unlike guitarists and keyboard players, we have a free hand to quickly change sounds and do fine tweaking of settings, so it makes sense to have our effects units at waist height - preferably mounted on a mic-stand.
This goes perfectly with using the iPad, because it's so small and light and is designed for finger operation. Combine that with its awesome processing power and the HUGE number of amazing music apps inside, and you have an incredibly powerful music workstation at your fingertips. That's the case even for the many excellent packages of digital emulations of guitar-type effects, such as Tonestack, Bias FX, Tonebridge, Amplitude etc. They are all fantastic in themselves, and have some stunning iPad versions of pedals that go wonderfully with harmonica. For example, Bias FX and Tonestack have their own version of the POG-2 Poly-Octaver. It sounds just as good as the real thing, costs a fraction of the price, and can be patched along with other great pedals on your iPad screen - or even along with a traditional pedalboard.
But then if you throw in the plethora of Midi synths in the iPad, you have a huge NEW area of amazing sounds that have never been accessed by traditional harmonica players before. This is what I've been exploring recently. It's taken a lot of time, trial and error (and expense!) on various dead-ends or unsatisfactory solutions, but I’ve now got to a point where I have something stable and reliable happening, which is really usable in recording and performance.
I'm making a series of videos on the Harmonica and iPad combination. Here is the first one, a general overview of the possibilities:
More info and a split-screen version of the video showing the iPad screen is available here for those interested: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/harmonicaipad/
Possibly because you don’t hear harmonica on modern recordings. Technology enables folks to create music with a minimum of skills—playing the harmonica is easy, learning how to make it work is hard.
Awesome, Brendan! As usual, pushing the boundaries of harmonica innovation and application. This looks like a convenient and high tech way to obtain tremendous versatility In one’s harmonica performing, composing and recording. This seems to be the trend, especially for solo performance. Thanks for presenting us with yet another great tool. I will be following your research with interest as I’ve been pondering how to advance my ability to create and present original material.
Thanks robbert, glad you like this new direction :)
@ Spyderyak: Adding the ability to access Midi sounds doesn't stop you playing traditional harmonica, but it empowers you to leverage your harp playing skills to gain extra abilities without having to learn another instrument. Record a bass line for example, or an atmospheric synth pad behind a tasty acoustic harmonica lick - both generated from that very same harp. Plus it's just a whole lot of fun!
Then there is the ability relating to Nacoran's query: to record Midi files from an acoustic harmonica, which is pretty amazing! Midi files come out as standard musical notation, which can in turn be converted to TAB with any of several harmonica TAB generators. Like any live-played Midi file they require some cleaning up, but you get the main body of the melody instantly. Being able to 'write' musical notation simply by playing your harp is something pretty incredible in my opinion, a new power that I'm sure many players will love to have - especially those who compose their own tunes or write Instructional material. I shall certainly be making good use of it.
For live and recording, Midi also gives you the ability to vary your soundscape enormously. This can enhance a working musician's chances of getting/keeping a gig. The harp is a great sound but very few bands want harmonica on every song. If you can intersperse your harp parts on some tunes with quite different tones on others it makes you more sonically versatile without having to learn another instrument. That makes you more valuable to any band, and could be the key to getting/keeping the gig.
I've been using it for Guitar/Harp/Shakuhachi/Vox++ to Midi for years. Rock solid, Multi-platform (JamOrigin Products), low latency, and polyphonic to boot.
@nacoran re: Audio to Tab
One of the problems here is there is no standard tab. There are some common ones, but also a few custom ones that claim to be the one tab to rule them all. Personally I prefer simple as possible due to lessening the cognitive load for real time mental processing. I have a basic audio to tab/midi in HarpNinja, and the rewrite of HarpNinja (underway atm) has plans for this to be extended significantly. Stay tuned...or bent!
