Written by Stefan Nikolaj
22 Aug 2022
As a very curious person in general, I often like to look for patterns in things. I also enjoy listening to very diverse genres of music. The combination of both of those facts led me to my hobby of transcribing melodies, solos, chord progressions and basslines in order to find some sort of general theme that makes them enjoyable for me and others. After doing a few transcriptions, I can definitively say that there is no real pattern, however that won’t stop me from transcribing more! What follows below are some of the transcriptions I’ve done in MIDI form. They may not be exactly the same as the originals, since I have absolutely no formal music training, but they sound good enough to be both recognizable and in many cases far better than other community-made transcriptions online.
My process usually includes working out the features I want to transcribe by ear and writing them down in a program called MidiEditor, however with some harder or longer songs I use an amazing piece of software called deCoda, which essentially does an AI-assisted Fourier transform to isolate parts where instruments are and the frequency they are playing at, and a MIDI editor to write down and export those notes. Very useful!
You can (hopefully, if jsdelivr still exists) play all of the MIDI files listed in the browser, or download them locally and use a program like Synthesia or MidiEditor! They’re meant to be played, not listened to here, this is just a preview.
Final Fantasy Mystic Quest’s Shrine of Light
This obscure Final Fantasy game has an amazing soundtrack and Shrine of Light is, in my opinion, the most emotional and calming song out of all. I discovered this song in a Bisqwit programming tutorial, and have enjoyed the whole OST ever since. I have a silly and embarrassing personal story related to this song, but that is for another blog post and another time…
The melody of Amyloid by Marcel Donné (Mad)
I spent my whole last year, studying for school with this 11 hour playlist of Commodore 64 soundtracks playing in the background. I’ve listened to this over and over many times, but one song that stood out to me was Amyloid by Marcel Donné. It’s just got a good melody. (if the file doesn’t play automatically, skip to 10:44)
The bassline of Your New Cuckoo by The Cardigans
A great song with a great bassline, thank you Sara for introducing me to the fact that not only do The Cardigans have more than one song, but it’s better than Lovefool. (if the file doesn’t play automatically, skip to 00:08)
The melody of Legend Intro by Martijn Schutten
Another of the Commodore 64 classics, this one is actually a cracked game intro, however it’s so well done and I enjoy it so much that I’d put it as one of the best Commodore 64 songs I’ve ever heard, and I’ve heard over 11 hours of different songs!
Download the chord progression as well!
The synth solo of Profesore by Jessica
Obscure Macedonian singers making mediocre turbofolk are prime sources for great synth solos, and that’s not even a joke. (if the file doesn’t play automatically, skip to 1:19)
The organ solo of Nepravda by Leva Patika
In my opinion, one of the most coolest organ solos in a rock song I’ve ever heard, and I’ve heard many. It sounds better when contrasted with the great song coming before it.