Supermegaultragroovy
supermegaultragroovy.com · Personal blog · on HN since 2009
A small Mac and iOS software maker writes about audio apps like Capo and TapeDeck, signal processing, and Apple platform issues.
What HN saysHN commenters mostly recommend its Capo app, praising its chord and beat detection for working out songs by ear, with Mac and iOS only.
16HN people shared it
8linked it in comments
11stories submitted
79story points
1 year agolast shared
2009people per year2026
Most-shared posts
- 1Capo3: Reverse Engineering Rock and Roll5 people · 1 points · first shared 2009 · discussion on HN
- 2Capo3 people · first shared 2014
- 3How Album Artwork Took Down Audio Playback on macOS Sonoma2 people · 3 points · first shared 2023 · discussion on HN
- 4It’s over Between Us, AVAudioEngine1 people · 22 points · first shared 2021 · 13 comments on HN
- 5Swimming in OpenCL1 people · 14 points · first shared 2009 · 2 comments on HN
- 6An email marketing platform that deletes accounts without sending email notices1 people · 9 points · first shared 2025 · 1 comments on HN
- 7TapeDeck Goes Exclusive to the Mac App Store1 people · 9 points · first shared 2011 · 7 comments on HN
- 8Starting Signal Processing1 people · 8 points · first shared 2014 · discussion on HN
- 9FuzzMeasure – Signal analysis redefined1 people · 8 points · first shared 2015 · discussion on HN
- 10Capo: Automatic chord detection1 people · 3 points · first shared 2013 · discussion on HN
- 11Chord Intelligence1 people · 2 points · first shared 2014 · discussion on HN
What HN people wrote when they linked it
zwily · 2021-12-06
Tangentially, if you want to get chords from a song (and can't find them already written online), Capo does a pretty great job at it and is very easy to use. Mac/iOS only, but the best I've seen.
https://supermegaultragroovy.com/products/capo/
jameshart · 2014-08-20
Been having a lot of success with Capo [1] recently - excellent beat and chord detection (though it often overcomplicates simple fifths and sus4s assuming they're much more full voiced than they are); also provides a time/frequency intensity view that you can use to pick out melody lines which it automatically translates into tab.
[1] http://supermegaultragroovy.com/products/capo/
pit · 2013-11-22
Great job. I also really like Capo for OS X: http://supermegaultragroovy.com/products/Capo/index.html
Edit: can anyone recommend a good, free chord dictionary for Android?
GuiA · 2012-11-15
A great piece of software in the same space as SoundSlice is Capo:
http://supermegaultragroovy.com/products/Capo/
ksherlock · 2022-11-21
Apple used to have a "Music Memos" app for recording musical memos. It also identified chords and allowed you to add auto-generated bass and/or drums. Sadly it was removed a year or two back and users were told to use garage band instead.
For iPhone and Mac, there's Capo which will identify chords and gives a pretty spectrograph for identifying individual notes and tabbing it out.
http://supermegaultragroovy.com/products/capo/
Another option (windows, mac, linux) is Transcribe!
https://www.seventhstring.com/xscribe/overview.html
Tloewald · 2013-02-19
Hve you seen Capo?
http://supermegaultragroovy.com/products/Capo/
tlrobinson · 2009-06-02
Neat! I agree with others you should make an iTunes plugin, or perhaps even a standalone app with more features to help learn songs, like http://supermegaultragroovy.com/products/Capo/
pbhjpbhj · 2012-11-16
YouTube is not the service provider when the video is accessed as an integrated part of the OP's website. That YouTube take action against infringement doesn't mean that you're not infringing by embedding copyright content available there on your own site (particularly as it's commercial).
http://www.out-law.com/page-7235, http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/08/29/guitar_sites_under_fire/ give details of take downs, a few years ago, around the provision of guitar tabs. Note that the MPA moved the next year to make specific provision for licensing of guitar tabs, http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2007/04/legal-guitar-tabs-return-to…
I suspect Capo, http://supermegaultragroovy.com/products/Capo/, operates the way it appears to because they can circumvent many things (that copyright in the music or production of the tracks would restrict) by using the users purchased tracks as the source for the information.
Soundslice looks awesome but if they've not yet consulted with copyright experts then I fear they may be looking at a lawsuit imminently.
Choosing Yesterday [which is beautifully played] as one of the example tracks was pretty ballsy. FWIW the YouTube video links to Bandcamp where an album of covers are available - Bandcamp are obviously aware of this sort of issue, they can't sell unlicensed covers lawfully. Bandcamp T&C (http://bandcamp.com/faq#mixtape) specifically rule out the use of their service for covers. $0.091 is the current fee per digital play of the…