A new piece of software called Direct Note Access from Celemony Software will for the first time allow computers to analyze the digitized sounds of guitar or piano chords, or even multi-instrument recordings, and then extract and modify individual notes.

Notes can be moved up or down to change their pitch, or back and forth to change their timing. An existing chord can be changed from major to minor; notes played at the same time can be strung out to occur in sequence, in an arpeggio.