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Introduction

Prism UI

Prism is an audio-to-MIDI analysis plugin designed to extract musical note information from recorded audio. It analyzes pitch, timing, and dynamics to generate MIDI note events that can be edited, exported, used to drive virtual instruments, notation, arrangement, sound design, or further editing within a DAW or external MIDI-compatible application.

Prism is intended for use with solo instrumental recordings and other clearly defined musical sources. It supports both monophonic and polyphonic material and is optimized for accurate detection of note onsets, durations, and velocities.

If your DAW supports ARA plugins​

note

Prism currently supports these DAWs in ARA mode:

If you are not using one of these DAWs, then the next section if for you.

To get an idea of how simple it is to work with Prism, let's run through an example that:

  1. Adds Prism to an audio track
  2. Analyzes and converts the audio to midi
  3. Add the midi it generates to a track in our DAW.

In this example, we are using Prism with a DAW that supports ARA (we'll talk a bit more about ARA after the demo).

Add Prism to an audio track​

In the following video, we are in Cubase so we go to the Extension drop down and select Prism (note: ARA plugins are handled differently than traditional "effect" plugins and are not inserted as Inserts or Sends).

Notice that when Prism is loaded, it will immediately begin processing the audio. In this example, the audio is an entire guitar track for a 3:40 long song.

note

Cubase has nicely integrated Prism into its UI in the place where its built-in audio and midi editors go. Not all DAWs will embed Prism this way, others, will put Prism in a stand-alone window (especially if in non-ARA mode).

Specific Steps for adding ARA plugins in Supported DAWs​

Each DAW has slightly different ways to adding an ARA plugin to a track or audio clip. For sepecific details on supported DAWs, click here

Skip the next section and goto Drag Generated Midi Into DAW

Use as a traditional "effect" plugin (Non-ARA Mode)​

For DAWs that do not support ARA, the only big difference is that you must first capture/record the audio into Prism before it can analyze it.

Prism is added to a track just like a normal audio effect plugin. Typically, you will add it as in Insert on the track or mixer section.

Capturing Audio (Non-ARA)​

To get the audio into Prism, the proceess is straight forward:

  1. Position the playhead in the DAW at the start of the audio you want to convert to midi
  2. In Prism, press the Capture Audio button.
  3. In the DAW, press Play
  4. As the DAW plays the audio, Prism is capturing it. When the audio that you want to convert to midi has played, stop playback in the DAW
  5. In Prism, click Stop Capture
  6. Prism has captured the audio, tempo map, etc. and will convert the audio to midi

In this video, we add Prism as a traditional plugin to an audio track. We then capture the audio following the above steps.

Drag Generated Midi into DAW​

At this point, the process is the same irregardless if we are using ARA or as a traditional plugin.You can now edit the notes in Prism and when ready, drag-n-drop the midi data directly into our DAW or save it as a MIDI file. In the following video that is what we do. Before dragging, we added a virtual Instrument track and will drag the midi data into that track.

That's it, converting audio to midi is that simple!

ARA and Traditional Plugins

Prism supports both ARA and non-ARA plugin workflows, depending on the host DAW.

What Is ARA?​

ARA (Audio Random Access) is a plugin extension that allows compatible plugins to access audio data directly from the DAW without requiring real-time playback to capture the audio so it can be analyzed. Instead of processing audio as it passes through the signal chain, an ARA plugin can analyze entire audio regions immediately. ARA plugins also get direct access to the DAWs tempo map, time-signatures, bars, and more allowing for much tighter integration than traditional plugins.

Supported DAWs with ARA​

ARA support is complicated for both DAW and plugin developers. There is a lot of room for variation and implementation details that make it difficult for a plugin to support, so even if your DAW has support for ARA, that does not necessarily mean that Prism will work without issues.

Prism currently supports these DAWs in ARA mode:

  • Cubase
  • Studio One
  • Reaper
  • Sonar
  • Logic Pro on Intel processors (if running Logic on Apple Silicon, then you must run Logic under Rosetta since it doesn't directly support ARA on Apple Silicon).

Non-ARA Mode​

In DAWs that do not support ARA, Prism operates as a traditional plugin. The main difference is that the audio must first be captured or processed by playing the audio one time through Prism. Once Prism has captured the audio, it will then be able to convert it to midi.

Once audio is captured, the algorithm processing and editing are identical to the ARA version.

Next Steps​

  • For DAW specific details on how to use Prism in ARA mode in your particular DAW, see Using ARA in DAWs
  • For deatils on using Prism, see Using Prism