To make a MIDI file from a song, load an audio file into a converter that estimates the notes, then download the .mid file. For clean results, split the part you want out of the song first. You can do the conversion free in your browser with the MP3 to MIDI page, with no sign-up and no upload.
This guide is for songs you own, have a license for, or want to study for private practice. Sharing or selling a MIDI copy of someone else's song needs permission, the same as sharing the audio. I do not cover ripping audio from streaming or video sites, so start from a file you already have.
MIDI stores notes, not sound. A converter listens to the audio and guesses which pitches are playing and when. A MIDI file is a small list of notes with timing and loudness.
A full song has vocals, drums, bass, guitar and keys all at once. The converter hears every sound as a possible note, so you get hundreds of extra notes and a score nobody can play. One clear voice or instrument gives far better results.
So the plan is simple. Pick the part you want, isolate it, and convert only that part.
Ask what you are making the MIDI for.
- The melody of a sung song. Take the vocals.
- A piano or keyboard part. Take the keys.
- A bass line. Take the bass.
- Chords for a guitar part. Take the guitar, or the whole mix if it is a solo piece.
Drums are the hard case. Drum hits are noise, not pitch, so notes from them are rarely useful. Use the drums as a guide for the beat, not as a note source.
Open the stem splitter and sign in with Google. New accounts get 5 free credits. Upload your MP3, WAV, M4A or FLAC file, up to 10 minutes, press the big orange button, then download the track you need as an MP3.
In our test, a 4-minute-44-second song split into six tracks in 56 seconds and used 5 credits. The price shows on the button before you start, and a failed split gives the credits back.
Two pages are made for the most common jobs. The Acapella Extractor pulls out the vocals for a melody. The Piano Extractor pulls out the piano or keys.
Open Audio to MIDI or the MP3 to MIDI page. They run the same converter, so use whichever matches your file. There is also a page for WAV files.
- Drop in your file, or press Record to sing, hum or play something.
- Choose what is in it: Vocals / humming, Piano / keys, Guitar, Bass or Full song.
- Press Convert to MIDI.
- Switch between Audio and MIDI to compare what you hear. The notes also fall on an 88-key piano as the file plays.
The converter reads one note at a time for voice and bass. Piano and guitar keep their chords.
All of this runs in your browser, so the file is not uploaded. That holds for the conversion only. The splitting step in Step 2 sends your audio to our servers.
After the first pass, the settings update the result right away, so you do not need to convert again. Try these in order:
- Note sensitivity. Lower it if you see stray notes. Raise it if real notes are missing.
- Shortest note. Raise it to drop very short blips.
- Snap to beat. Turn it on to line the notes up with the grid, which helps when you drop the file into a DAW.
- Keep pitch bends. Keep it on for a sung line with slides. Turn it off if you want plain, steady notes.
- Transpose. Move everything up or down in semitones to fit your key or your instrument.
Then download the .mid file. It opens in Ableton, Logic, FL Studio, GarageBand, Cubase and Reaper. If a program shows odd tempo or silent tracks, check the tempo and the instrument on each channel.
A clean, single-voice take of a vocal, bass or piano usually gives a MIDI you can fix by hand in a few minutes. Fast runs, soft notes and heavy reverb cause wrong or missing notes. Chords in a thick mix are the hardest of all.
Expect to edit. Open the piano roll in your DAW, delete stray notes and fix the few wrong ones. That is normal for any audio to MIDI tool.
- Learn a melody or bass line by slowing it down.
- Write sheet music from the notes, after cleaning them up.
- Replace a sound: play the same notes through a different synth.
- Build a backing track or a cover in your own DAW.
Technically yes, but results depend on the audio. One clear instrument or voice gives good notes. A full mix gives a crowded file, so split out the part you want first.
It depends on what you do. Private practice and study are low risk. Releasing, selling or posting the MIDI or anything built on it needs permission from the rights holders.
Yes. The audio to MIDI converter is free, needs no sign-up and runs in your browser. Splitting a song first is the only step that uses credits.
Extract the vocals with the Acapella Extractor, then convert them with the setting set to Vocals / humming.
MP3, WAV, M4A, FLAC, OGG and AAC all work, up to 10 minutes. You can also record directly in the page.