Hi, I'm TigerhawkT3, and I've posted a few tabs here. While making them, I found myself constantly wishing for an easy way to translate between tabs for various instruments and notes on the staff. I couldn't find what I wanted, so I did it myself.

I made a tool (links at the end of this post) that allows users to compare note positions between a 10-hole diatonic harmonica, a six-string guitar, a piano, and a musical scale. I call it the Digital Virtual Instantaneous Instrument Comparator and Emulator, or DVIICE.

Mouse over a note to display all enharmonic (equivalent) notes, and click a note to play it (uses an equal-tempered scale). The Chrome/Safari version (using the Web Audio API) allows you to hold the button down for a continuous note, while the compatibility version (using HTML5 - works on modern browsers) produces fixed tones of one beat (half a second) in length.

Want to change a guitar tab into a harmonica tab? Use the DVIICE to quickly translate each fret on the guitar to the proper hole (with any required overblows or bends) on the harmonica. Want to create sheet music out of your harmonica ditty? Tell the DVIICE how it goes on the harmonica, and it will show you where each note belongs.

I plan on using this for future tabs, and I hope others find it useful as well.

Chrome/Safari version: [www.tigerhawkt3.com]
Compatibility version: [www.tigerhawkt3.com]
Zip file for offline use: [www.tigerhawkt3.com]



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/04/2013 02:05AM by TigerhawkT3.

I like it!! But there needs to be a drop-down menu to choose the key of the harmonica.

At this point, the best I can do is to make a separate webpage for each key, which I don't think is going to happen. I'll try to find out how to make it a selectable option within a page, but I don't even really know how to look for what I need (i.e., what search terms for Google). I'm not a programmer, so each new feature involves several hours of figuring out what tools and methods I should use, then figuring out how to use those methods, then implementing them.

I used [dl.dropbox.com] for the complete C harmonica layout. Are all the different key harmonicas laid out in the same way, with each note simply shifted X number of half-steps away from the C layout? Or will I need to find a different chart for each key?

I think I can do it with a row of buttons in lieu of a drop down menu. I could probably also add a way to switch the guitar diagram/notes with a 16-hole chromatic, or the piano diagram/notes with a 12-hole chromatic.

And it looks like harmonicas in different keys all use the same layout, with the same distances between each note, just shifted up or down a certain number of half-steps. Is that correct?

I'll probably be able to start tomorrow or Monday.

The new note-highlighting methodology is complete. Creation of each key of harmonica is in progress. Later down the pipeline are the 12-hole chromatic and 16-hole chromatic, and then the instrument-selection functionality.

FANTASTIC!!
It's a very nice innovation!

That's pretty freakin' awesome, David! Well done so far!
I like the way you've included the piano keyboard layout with the harp and guitar. Very helpful! Any chance you'll be able to have a version that works with Firefox browser soon?
Looking forward seeing the versions with the 16 hole and 12 hole chromatics, too. May I suggest that you create two versions of the 12 hole chromatic, the standard 12 hole (which starts on C4) and the Tenor C 12 hole (which starts on C3)?
You mentioned "instrument-selection functionality"... any chance you might include horns in one of your future versions? To where say, C4 can be seen/located on the already included instruments, but also such instruments as saxophones, trumpets, and trombones?? (I don't know if you could get the program to handle alternate/transposed tunings along with concert pitched tunings though....)

Quite a usefull tool so far. Keep up the good work.

If you open the Chrome/Safari version on Firefox, you'll get the comparator (notes highlighted), but not the emulator (sounds). For Firefox and other browsers, use the compatibility version.

If the tenor 12-hole is just an octave lower, I can certainly do that.

I don't know if I could put horns in, because I've never played a brass instrument in my life, and have no idea how they work. =\

The notes will play in Firefox (and IE, and other modern browsers) too, if you use the compatibility version. The difference is that it'll just play a short tone instead of letting you hold down the button for a longer note.

I now have to create the chromatic 12, tenor chromatic 12, and chromatic 16 instruments. Chromatics are quite tidy, though, so it shouldn't take too long. I should have it all done by tonight or tomorrow, at which point I can start fixing the bugs.

After that, I get to create the accompanying compatibility version.

Doing horns could be tricky. They're in all sorts of keys. A trumpet, for example, is in Bb. That means if a trumpet player reads his sheet music and plays a C, it won't sound like the C a piano plays. What could be done, however, is to have a drop-down menu (er sumthin') labled "Transpose from instrument in the key of:"

You're onto a great piece of software, here!!

I don't think I'll try adding horns, then.

The new Chrome/Safari version would've been done, but I've run into an issue related to technique rather than simple typos. Hopefully I'll get it figured out at some point soon. Then I can make the compatibility version (for all browsers including FF/IE).

The new version is up, for Chrome and Safari. Click a "Display X" button to display the template for that instrument, then click the appropriate button to load the actual instrument. For example, say you want to compare a Lo F diatonic in Instrument 1, a D diatonic in Instrument 2, and a 16-hole chromatic in Instrument 3. In the column of buttons next to Instrument 1, you'd click "Lo F". In the column of buttons next to Instrument 2, you'd click "Display Diatonic" and "D". In the row of buttons below Instrument 3, you'd click "Display Chromatic 16" and "Chromatic 16".

[www.tigerhawkt3.com]

I am currently working on the compatibility version that works on Firefox, IE, and Opera.

The compatibility version is complete, and seems to be working.

[tigerhawkt3.com]

I've checked both versions as thoroughly as I can, but with so many instruments I'm bound to have missed something, so if you see something wrong, please let me know.

Did you try the compatibility version (http://tigerhawkt3.com/dviice/dviicecompatibility-v2.html)? That should have audio functionality in any modern browser.

Some notes are not displaying correctly. The hole numbers should not display any notes*, and the blow notes are too high. The blow 1 on the C harp, for example, shows it to be D#.

*I mean you have the hole numbers, and you have blow above and draw below. The nuetral numbers (neither blow nor draw) should not display any notes.

Would this page help?

Once the bugs are worked out, I would like Nick to add this fine piece of software to the "resources" section and give you a gazillion points, if that's OK with y'all.



Edited 6 time(s). Last edit at 09/06/2013 03:51AM by gene.

Ah - it seems we have a slight nomenclature miscommunication. There is no empty "label" row. The "1" is blow 1, and the "-1" is draw 1. The D# you mentioned is the hole 1 overblow.

For the diatonics:
Blow 1: 1
Draw 1: -1
Overblow 1: 1+
Overdraw 7: -7+
Draw 3, half-step bend: -3b
Draw 3, whole-step bend: -3bb

For the chromatics:
Blow 1: 1
Draw 1: -1
Blow 1, slide in: <1
Draw 1, slide in: <-1

I've been thinking of creating a little instructional page when I'm back in town next week.

Now you know how much I know about OBs.
May I suggest you label the blow notes "+1" and the oberblows "ob" and the overdraws "od"?

An instructional page (hyperlinked within DVIICE would be nice. (I like the name "DVIICE"!)

I can't understand why it's not working on Firefox for you. The only two possibilities I can think of are that you're using a really old version of FF that doesn't support HTML5, or that you're opening the page, clicking a few buttons, and immediately giving up. The compatibility version uses actual sound clips, and needs to download them before it can play them, so sometimes there'll be a delay before a note first works. Is that the case for you?

If you're using an up-to-date FF and you're giving time for each audio clip to load, I'm really not sure what the problem could be.

I'll try having the page preload all the audio. It'll take a little longer to download the page initially, since there's about a MB or two of audio, but it should take care of any delays when you try to play a note you haven't used before.

Do any notes play at all when you open the compatibility version on FF?

Have you tried downloading the zip file (even though it's version 1), extracting it, and opening the compatibility version locally? If the sounds play fine there, preloading the audio is probably what's needed. If not... I don't know.

Oh, weird. In theory, there shouldn't be any difference between Mac and PC in this context. Have you tried the compatibility version on IE or Opera? Or on Chrome, for that matter?

Do you have Safari? Does the Chrome/Safari version work properly in Safari for you? The only machines I have access to with Safari on them are iPads/iPhones, and of course the touch interface doesn't play well with all the mouseover/click/etc. functionality.