Yahoo Groups archive

Disklavier

Index last updated: 2026-04-28 23:20 UTC

Thread

Convert MP3 or any music file to MIDI?

Convert MP3 or any music file to MIDI?

2016-02-11 by cmancus1@...

I was wondering if anyone has had good luck with a process or a product they have used to convert MP3 files to MIDI files? I was thinking of buying Intelliscore to do it, but wanted to get anyones experience with that or a better product or process before i do.


thank you kindly. Carl

RE: [disklavier] Convert MP3 or any music file to MIDI?

2016-02-11 by Danny

Hi,

 

This has been questioned many times in the past (audio to MIDI). Due to the complexity of audio waveforms, this would be a tremendous task to achieve.

 

Recently, there are a couple of ways now to do this, but with somewhat limited success. If the audio is not polyphonic (only one note at a time, no chords or other instruments playing at the same time, relative background silence between notes, etc ), there are a couple of programs that now claim to be able to do this. I have tried using one of them and it generally works very well, depending on the complexity of the audio. Amazingly, it can also ‘extract’ multi-note MIDI note (not certain of conversion audio velocity / loudness and such; my experiment was very brief) info from some chords also.

 

Ableton Live is one of the two programs that I am aware that can do this, but this is not free software. It is a sequencer of sorts, and is the one I have experimented with, with some success (mine is Ableton Live Suite, the most expensive version; not certain if the ‘lower tier’ Ableton Live versions will do the audio to MIDI extraction).

 

Another program is Melodyne which does also allows audio to MIDI extraction; I also have it, but have never tried the MIDI extraction capability with it.

 

 

Danny
Show quoted textHide quoted text
From: disklavier@...m [mailto:disklavier@yahoogroups.com] 
Sent: Thursday, February 11, 2016 3:44 PM
To: disklavier@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [disklavier] Convert MP3 or any music file to MIDI?

 






I was wondering if anyone has had good luck with a process or a product they have used to convert MP3 files to MIDI files?  I was thinking of buying Intelliscore to do it, but wanted to get anyones experience with that or a better product or process before i do.

 

thank you kindly.   Carl

Re: [disklavier] Convert MP3 or any music file to MIDI?

2016-02-11 by Horatio Kemeny

It’s funny…. I’ve been messing with MIDI for… jeez, close to 30 years…. since the late 80s… and this issue and desire and hope has been around since then… all sorts of attempts to take an analog signal, even a relatively clean single pitch — and turn it into MIDI. Back then it was very hit and miss — there was limited success, but the hardware and software was really in its infancy. Lots of wrong notes.

Here we are, 30 years later, and the issue really hasn’t been solved to anyone’s satisfaction.  It says a lot about the human brain, that it can listen to all sorts of polyphonic music and follow individual melodies and instruments. You can sit in a concert hall and listen to just the cellos, just the timpani, whatever. Your brain can do it.

But with all the hardware horsepower and software innovation of three decades, a computer still can’t pick out a simple melody out of the cacophony of everything around it.

…..HK
Show quoted textHide quoted text
> On Feb 11, 2016, at 1:11 PM, 'Danny' usergroup@... [disklavier] <disklavier@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> Hi,
> 
>  
> 
> This has been questioned many times in the past (audio to MIDI). Due to the complexity of audio waveforms, this would be a tremendous task to achieve.
> 
>  
> 
> Recently, there are a couple of ways now to do this, but with somewhat limited success. If the audio is not polyphonic (only one note at a time, no chords or other instruments playing at the same time, relative background silence between notes, etc ), there are a couple of programs that now claim to be able to do this. I have tried using one of them and it generally works very well, depending on the complexity of the audio. Amazingly, it can also ‘extract’ multi-note MIDI note (not certain of conversion audio velocity / loudness and such; my experiment was very brief) info from some chords also.
> 
>  
> 
> Ableton Live is one of the two programs that I am aware that can do this, but this is not free software. It is a sequencer of sorts, and is the one I have experimented with, with some success (mine is Ableton Live Suite, the most expensive version; not certain if the ‘lower tier’ Ableton Live versions will do the audio to MIDI extraction).
> 
>  
> 
> Another program is Melodyne which does also allows audio to MIDI extraction; I also have it, but have never tried the MIDI extraction capability with it.
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> Danny
> 
>  
> 
> From: disklavier@yahoogroups.com <mailto:disklavier@yahoogroups.com> [mailto:disklavier@yahoogroups.com <mailto:disklavier@yahoogroups.com>] 
> Sent: Thursday, February 11, 2016 3:44 PM
> To: disklavier@yahoogroups.com <mailto:disklavier@yahoogroups.com>
> Subject: [disklavier] Convert MP3 or any music file to MIDI?
> 
>  
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I was wondering if anyone has had good luck with a process or a product they have used to convert MP3 files to MIDI files?  I was thinking of buying Intelliscore to do it, but wanted to get anyones experience with that or a better product or process before i do.
> 
>  
> 
> thank you kindly.   Carl
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>

Re: Convert MP3 or any music file to MIDI?

2016-02-12 by rightnightboy@...

Hello,
Audioscore software from Avid (not free though) claims to be able to so that.

"Convert CD tracks, MP3s, and WAV files to MusicXML, NIFF, MIDI, and PhotoScore files"

To what extent and precision I dont know...


You might need to have some music knowledge though since I guess, the audio gets first transcribe into music notation (there may come the need to edit ) and only from there into a midi file or other formats...

Interesting ...

Re: Convert MP3 or any music file to MIDI?

2016-02-12 by rightnightboy@...

there is the demo

AudioScore Ultimate Demo Download



it does say:
"Important: Due to the complex nature of polyphonic music recognition, it is often necessary to tell AudioScore which notes belong to which instruments (or remove any spurious notes if a single instrument) and also where barlines should go - page 5 of this short guide explains how to do this."

Re: Convert MP3 or any music file to MIDI?

2016-02-12 by cmancus1@...

this is more complicated than i thought. This product is too much money for what i need. I tried a free web based converter found here: http://www.ofoct.com/audio-converter/convert-wav-or-mp3-ogg-aac-wma-to-midi.html

the result was pretty bad. speed was too slow at some points and too fast at others. chords didnt translate well. Definitely not worth the effort. All i want to do is convert some of Massimo Bucci's piano recordings of Genesis and other Prog tunes. I asked him if he had MIDI files to sell and he doesnt. Looks like i may have to ask a friend to sit down at my Yamaha piano and play the tunes im looking for with record on. :)


thanks to everyone for the help


Carl

Re: [disklavier] Re: Convert MP3 or any music file to MIDI?

2016-02-12 by PEOPLES, SAM

Have you tried VLC media player I think that may have a conversion tool for audio files?  You can get it for Windows, Linux and Mac OS-X I think.
Cheers

Sent from Windows Mail
Show quoted textHide quoted text
From: disklavier@yahoogroups.com<mailto:disklavier@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: ?Friday?, ?12? ?February? ?2016 ?12?:?37
To: disklavier@yahoogroups.com<mailto:disklavier@yahoogroups.com>



this is more complicated than i thought.  This product is too much money for what i need.  I tried a free web based converter found here:  http://www.ofoct.com/audio-converter/convert-wav-or-mp3-ogg-aac-wma-to-midi.html



Convert WAV ( or MP3, OGG, AAC, WMA) to MIDI | Bear File Converter - Online & Free <http://www.ofoct.com/audio-converter/convert-wav-or-mp3-ogg-aac-wma-to-midi.html>
Convert WAV or MP3, OGG, AAC, WMA etc stream audio file to MIDI file. MIDI can be used in more player. and also be used in more games software. MIDI file is very small.


View on www.ofoct.com <http://www.ofoct.com/audio-converter/convert-wav-or-mp3-ogg-aac-wma-to-midi.html>

Preview by Yahoo



  the result was pretty bad.  speed was too slow at some points and too fast at others.  chords didnt translate well.  Definitely not worth the effort.  All i want to do is convert some of Massimo Bucci's piano recordings of Genesis and other Prog tunes.  I asked him if he had MIDI files to sell and he doesnt.  Looks like i may have to ask a friend to sit down at my Yamaha piano and play the tunes im looking for with record on.  :)


thanks to everyone for the help


Carl

Re: [disklavier] Re: Convert MP3 or any music file to MIDI?

2016-02-12 by Mark Fontana

Your solution is the right one.  Having a decent pianist play the 
material by ear will produce far better results than any of the current 
audio->MIDI software.  In 15-20 years, software and AI techniques may 
have advanced to a point where this sort of conversion becomes 
practical, but we're not there yet.
Show quoted textHide quoted text
On 02/12/2016 06:37 AM, cmancus1@... [disklavier] wrote:
>
> this is more complicated than i thought.  This product is too much 
> money for what i need.  I tried a free web based converter found here: 
> http://www.ofoct.com/audio-converter/convert-wav-or-mp3-ogg-aac-wma-to-midi.html
>
>
>
>
> 	
> Convert WAV ( or MP3, OGG, AAC, WMA) to MIDI | Bear File Converter - 
> Online & Free 
> <http://www.ofoct.com/audio-converter/convert-wav-or-mp3-ogg-aac-wma-to-midi.html> 
>
> Convert WAV or MP3, OGG, AAC, WMA etc stream audio file to MIDI file. 
> MIDI can be used in more player. and also be used in more games 
> software. MIDI file is very small.
> 	
> View on www.ofoct.com 
> <http://www.ofoct.com/audio-converter/convert-wav-or-mp3-ogg-aac-wma-to-midi.html> 
>
> 	
> Preview by Yahoo
>
>   the result was pretty bad.  speed was too slow at some points and 
> too fast at others.  chords didnt translate well.  Definitely not 
> worth the effort.  All i want to do is convert some of Massimo Bucci's 
> piano recordings of Genesis and other Prog tunes.  I asked him if he 
> had MIDI files to sell and he doesnt.  Looks like i may have to ask a 
> friend to sit down at my Yamaha piano and play the tunes im looking 
> for with record on.  :)
>
>
> thanks to everyone for the help
>
>

Move to quarantaine

This moves the raw source file on disk only. The archive index is not changed automatically, so you still need to run a manual refresh afterward.