Thanks for the pointers. My goal - I really didn't like the Erik Satie Gymnopedie #1 version I'd just bought, and wanted to generate a new version. With the recent Astra release, I wanted to see how it and Fable did on creating their own versions based upon a standard MIDI. The encoding was actually just to make the PianoDisc player work better. Their iPad app will actually play MIDI directly without encoding, but they feel like second class citizens in the app, and there's some weird Bluetooth audio and a second Bluetooth MIDI interface on the app. I was having problems with the MIDI one, but the mp3 encoded connection seemed to work reliably.
When Fable came back with the decoder, I knew something was off. The decoy notes... even more evidence of wonkiness. Mostly posted it to HN out of disbelief that Fable just hacked my piano and had I blindly pushed it to a public repo, I would likely have broken some law.
Btw, the version I like is performed by Pascal Roge back in the 1970s. The AIs don't quite match his performance, and I keep trying to figure out how to guide them. I don't think his version has a delay between the melody and the chords, while the AIs were both convinced that was desirable. They seem to be lacking some taste in that area, but overall I prefer their version to the one I bought.
I haven't tried that, but when doing some quick discussion on the topic, Fable pointed me to some other models which do it better.
My task to fable was to take the MIDI and encode it into some proprietary mp3 format. It's still "binary" MIDI encoded in the mp3, it's not simulating the piano and generating waveforms... yet.
The encoder wouldn't be a concern if it didn't have details on the decoy notes - and I can easily ask fable to remove them. But, I'm not looking for lawsuits for what is really my wife's hobby.
That's a great data set. The main problem with it is the file labeling. All the details are in the external metadata file. I had Fable convert those MIDI into the PianoDisc mp3 format, and embed the metadata into the id3 tags. Should import into their application natively, with albums etc.
I had performed a quick GitHub search and not found any code. It certainly didn't have these decoy notes documented on its own. It only found them because I provided it a known Erik Satie piece, which has a specific number of notes, and it dug in to figure out what the excess notes were.
I'd found this code as well, and in a previous chat, Fable pointed me to it but first, I have a $100/month Claude subscription, and typically just barely run out every week, so I throw tokens at just about anything. Second, I'd come across that code, but it's windows software, not open source. Third, the encoder isn't anything exciting, and not really a concern except that the Fable version offers the ability to include the decoy notes. Finally, I literally just wrote "Yes, please write that encoder" when fable asked if I want it to "Bigger picture: since the Prodigy plays this format over Bluetooth, an encoder that writes your own MIDI into the right channel this way is probably the missing link for the MP3-to-piano project. I can build a test file if you want to try it."
I wasn’t trying to invoke the argument of “they can only regurgitate information” - the argument I was making was why resign all thinking to a company who does not have your interest in mind
The hackers of hacker news are forgetting how to hack
The funny thing is - I'm virtually tone deaf and can't play the piano. It's my wife's piano, but when we bought it, I had the player system installed, so I could get some enjoyment out of it.
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