Audio to MIDI

Get a note draft from a recorded performance

A transcription draft, not a new recording

The converter uses Basic Pitch in your browser to estimate notes from audio. Its output is MIDI: pitches, note starts, durations and velocities that another instrument can play. It does not contain the original singer’s voice, guitar tone or room sound. A clean isolated performance usually gives a more useful starting point than a complete band mix. Expect to inspect and correct the notes, especially around overlapping instruments, expressive slides, sustained pedal passages or sounds with ambiguous attacks.

Controls for different source material

Source presets for mixed audio, piano and voice establish useful threshold starting points. Onset threshold influences note starts; note threshold affects which pitches remain; minimum note length can remove brief spurious events. Melody only keeps a single-note interpretation where that matches the performance. These controls express tradeoffs: raising a threshold may clear noise while losing quiet notes, and lowering it can recover a phrase while adding false detections. Change one setting, convert again and compare the result with the source.

Piano roll and timing before export

The piano roll makes the detected pitches and durations visible, while result tiles summarize the note count, range and tempo information. The export can carry a detected tempo map when supported by the analysis, or a fixed tempo while preserving heard note times. Different DAWs handle imported tempo information differently, so check how your application places the clip. A plausible-looking roll is not proof the transcription is correct; listen to a suitable instrument playing it against the original part. Choose the destination instrument early in the cleanup process. Short false notes can be easy to miss on a soft pad but obvious on a piano, while overlapping notes that sound plausible on keys may be impossible for a monophonic instrument. The MIDI file gives you editable events precisely so you can make those decisions. Preserve useful timing and articulation where possible instead of assuming that the cleanest-looking grid is always the most convincing musical result.

Who converts a recording to MIDI

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  Songwriters capturing a sung idea

  A voice memo can preserve a hook before you know how to play it. Record one clear melody with minimal background accompaniment, choose the voice-oriented setting and review the result with Melody only where appropriate. Breaths, consonants and expressive pitch changes can create extra or uncertain events. Correct the draft in your DAW and choose an instrument that suits the idea. The value is recovering an editable musical outline, not automatically turning an informal vocal into a finished arranged song.

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  Arrangers changing an instrument

  Convert a separated piano or other harmonic part when you want to explore it on another instrument. Chords may need attention to overlapping note lengths, inversions and unwanted harmonics. Start with a cleaner isolated source rather than assuming the model can assign every instrument in a dense mix to its own track. In the DAW, inspect the register and voicing before giving the notes to strings, bass or another sound whose playing range differs from the original instrument.

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  Players learning a solo

  Use the detected notes as a transcription aid while learning an isolated solo. Fast ornaments, bends and vibrato do not always map neatly to simple note events. Slow the source in a practice workflow and compare each phrase by ear, correcting pitches and durations manually. An accurate enough draft can save time, but a crowded roll is a signal to improve the source or settings. It is better to recover one clear line than to export a large number of uncertain notes.

How to get a cleaner MIDI result

1. 1

   Start with the clearest part available

   Load a supported source within the 10-minute and 300 MB limits. A melody, bass line or chord part on its own is a better candidate than a mastered mix with many instruments. Use the stem splitter first when you need to isolate an instrument from a song, understanding that separation artifacts can also affect transcription. The MIDI analysis itself runs locally. Wait for the initial conversion, then compare its note density and register with what you actually hear.

2. 2

   Tune the detection instead of accepting every note

   Choose the source preset closest to your recording and inspect the first piano roll. If soft notes disappear, lower the relevant threshold gradually; if the roll fills with brief false events, increase the threshold or minimum length. Keep Melody only for genuinely single-note material rather than chord passages. Reconvert after changes and audition a representative phrase. Avoid using the total note count as a quality score: fewer correct notes can be more useful than many unsupported guesses.

3. 3

   Import the MIDI and check the musical result

   Download the MIDI file and open it in an application that reads standard MIDI. Confirm the import behavior for tempo maps or choose the fixed-tempo option when that better suits your DAW. Assign an instrument, listen beside the original and correct notes, rhythm and lengths. Keep the original audio as a reference because MIDI does not preserve its timbre. Save the edited musical version in your project rather than assuming the raw transcription is the final arrangement.

MIDI transcription and timing questions