Automation goes Youtube – My Channel

The official stebtech.com YouTube channel contains as of today (08/2018) more than 600 videos of mostly the category piano education.

 

The creation of these videos is slightly more interesting story, than it might appear at first.

 

On the surface, it is a channel by a dedicated piano player that uploads his recordings of modern and classical music. Under the surface is a collection of tools and scripts that automatically create these videos:

 

• Out of a long list of midi files, the next midi file is chosen. It either contains two tracks of each the left and the right hand of a piano recording (ideal), or any other type of arrangement.
• In the case of no piano arrangement (e.g. other instruments) or only a single track, my self-developed tool called Arrangr is used to rearrange the midi-file to have two tracks that are playable for an average player with both hands.
• The song is then humanized, i.e. little errors and changes in volume are introduced to make the song sound like having been recorded by an actual pianist.
• Using the official Synthesia Video Creator, videos are created from that midi file.
• The final videos are then uploaded to the YouTube channel.
• The only thing left to do by hand is to write the description and to design the thumbnail image.

 

 

 

The songs, created in this way, arranged using Arrangr are unique and thus ensure a high ranking in the YouTube search results for people wishing to find piano tutorials for their favorite songs.

 

A next, but sadly with current technology impossible goal, would be to create piano arrangments from actual audio files. But I will continue trying to find ways of breaking down music into its melodical components.