Technology
The Note AI Engine
Real-time polyphonic note detection that identifies individual notes — with all their harmonics — in a live audio stream.
The Problem with Frequency-Based Processing
Traditional audio processors work on frequency bands. A multi-band compressor splits audio at, say, 200 Hz and 2 kHz. But music isn't made of frequency bands — it's made of notes.
When you play an E2 on guitar, its fundamental is 82 Hz — but its harmonics extend all the way up to 10 kHz and beyond. A multi-band processor tears that single note across every band. Apply reverb to "the highs" and you're washing out the upper harmonics of your bass notes, not just the high notes.
INSEKTIQ's approach is different. We detect actual musical notes, then process each note as a complete entity — fundamental and all harmonics together.
How Note Detection Works
Adaptive Harmonic Profiling
When you first play through TONIQ, the engine analyzes your instrument's harmonic fingerprint in about 0.3 seconds. Every instrument has a unique harmonic series — a Les Paul's second harmonic is stronger than a Strat's, an acoustic guitar has different overtone ratios than a piano. The profiler learns these ratios so it can reliably separate overlapping notes.
Polyphonic Pitch Detection
The engine runs continuous pitch analysis on the incoming audio — not simple FFT peak picking, but a model that understands harmonic relationships. When you strum a G major chord, it identifies G2, B2, D3, G3, B3, and D4 as six separate notes, each with their own amplitude and harmonic content. This happens in real time, every audio buffer.
Note-Level Audio Separation
Once notes are identified, the engine separates the audio into per-note streams. Each stream contains the note's fundamental and all its harmonics — nothing more, nothing less. This is the key difference from multi-band: a note's harmonics stay with their fundamental, not scattered across frequency bands.
Per-Note Processing & Recombination
Each separated note can now be processed independently — panned to its own stereo position, EQ'd, sent to reverb, delayed. After processing, the note streams are recombined into a stereo output. The result is processing that respects musical boundaries, not arbitrary frequency splits.
Technical Specs
Fast enough for live monitoring. No lookahead buffer required.
Full 6-string chords detected and separated in real time.
Adaptive profiler learns your instrument's harmonics automatically.
What's Next
The Note AI Engine is the foundation for every INSEKTIQ plugin. TONIQ uses it for stereo imaging. Our next plugin, DUPLIQ, will use the same engine for note-aware vocal doubling — creating harmonically-aware doubles that know what note you're singing.
The engine improves with every release. As we add more instruments and use cases, the detection and separation get better for everyone.
Hear the difference yourself
Download the free trial and hear what note-aware processing sounds like.
Download Free Trial →