AUTRIM or equivalent transcriptions of Carnatic renditions

[satishsatish]

I searched on rasikas.org and couldn't find any reference or prior discussion on this subject...

AUTRIM is a project of the NCPA (Mumbai). Snippets from http://ncpamumbai.com/learn-music-autrim.html#:
a) "...meant primarily for students and music lovers to get a better grasp of what is really happening in music. "
b) "...Sound and sight constitute one of the major synesthetic pairs of senses. ..."
c) "...The auditory perception of sound combined with a simultaneous image of melodic shapes...the graphic transcription can help "see" the notes as well as their intricate movements. Graphic contours are useful in understanding the "sound" of music...reveals what we do not "hear", what we change in the process of "hearing" or what we take for granted....also provide an insight in to extremely subtle elements of music that we cannot readily distinguish aurally, but which might nevertheless influence our perception on a subconscious plane."
d) "The microscopic viewing ability afforded by the graphic transcription...invaluable in music analysis....subtle aspects such as intonation, melodic and rhythmic features, lyrics etc. can be reliably studied...for the visual representation of Indian music...depict graphically the essential concepts and logical principles of the musical system."

https://autrimncpa.wordpress.com/ presents many ragas transcribed by AUTRIM.
I find them very helpful, an eye opener in the sense they help me visualize what the artistes were creating and delivering aurally.
I wonder if informed and serious rasikas here would find AUTRIM as (or more) valuable and informative.

Qs for the audience in this forum:
1) Is there a system similar or equivalent to AUTRIM that has been developed for music Carnatic?
2) would you know of renditions by Carnatic musicians that have been transcribed by AUTRIM (or its equivalent)?
3) what can explain the dearth of transcriptions of Carnatic renditions in AUTRIM (or its equivalent, if there's one)?
lack of awareness of the availability of such a system? disinterest? other reasons?
4) when would we see visual and graphical maps, in a manner similar to what is presented by AUTRIM, of presentations by MDR/SSI/MS/MLV and others and the youngers too (Sanjay S, TMK, Sowmya, Sudha R, etc; the instrumentalists too)?
5) would you know who is working on the transcriptions of Carnatic renditions? where can we track their efforts and progress?

[MaheshS]

The aim of this project is to freely put at the disposal of students, teachers and researchers of music a new tool, that enables us to take a zoomed-in look-and-listen of North Indian music (Hindustani sangit).

Maybe why Carnatic music here primarily

Fascinating site, I am going to spend hours on it!!

[MaheshS]

Carnatic Music Krithi Audio Archive

[satishsatish]

>Carnatic Music Krithi Audio Archive
Familiar with it...and it certainly lacks transcriptions of the sort AUTRIM provides.

Imagine a future where a rasika can listen to a Carnatic song with the graphical transcription of that rendition to complement the aural and (now common) video. And they can compare/contrast different renditions by the same performer, different performers, and pick up nuances that would otherwise escape most rasikas.

What would it take to get to that?
NCPA would likely be open to open-sourcing the code for AUTRIM.
If not, another system will need to be developed which, while non-trivial, can't be too hard since we benefit from AUTRIM's path breaking effort.
Pre-load that system with several Carnatic renditions (as AUTRIM has with khyal) and voila! you have something that students and rasikas (lay or expert) would benefit from use as tool and reference, can extend with their contributions that the system automatically transcribes,...all the way to a repository...
In the worst case at least use AUTRIM and contribute back to the NCPA/AUTRIM web site so it covers Carnatic also.

I lack the musical chops needed to make that happen.
Perhaps someone else at rasikas.org has what it would take...and they deserve all the credit for their effort and service.

[harimau]

Install SoundForge on your PC.

Open the music file in SoundForge.

SoundForge will build up the waveform for the entire record.

Hit the PLAY button. The cursor will start moving along the time axis. You will hear the sound on your speakers/headphones and can watch the waveform on the screen.

You can change the scale on the horizontal axis (time) to whatever precision you want and scrutinise the waveform to your heart's content.

SoundForge costs money. There are freebies such as Audacity that do pretty much the same thing.

[satishsatish]

Thank you for the pointer, Harimau. Got SoundForge and yes, I like the experience of seeing the shape of the music that is being delivered to my ears.

My time and effort at tweaking time scales, staring at waveforms and playing with other SoundForge features, while interesting because it is novel to me, is unlikely to leave me more informed and knowledgeable about the music itself. In fact I run the risk of arriving at the wrong conclusions concerning the music. And becoming attached to them overly so, as is human wont, because they are "my" conclusions.

What I found valuable with the AUTRIM project, and is missing in my experiments with SoundForge, is the "meta" material: the comments, annotations, and notes by muscicologists and music enthusiasts (in the same way some of the postings at rasikas.org makes this site a treat for someone wanting to learn more about Carnatic music).

If only there is the equivalent of what's there in AUTRIM for kritis and RTPs in the Carnatic tradition....