audio to midi

[LNovik@aol.com]

If I have,  ie, a piano audio track, which I have paid to download from a third party, is there a tool that I can use to convert that track to a MIDI track--so I'll end up with my original audio track and it's corresponding MIDI track below it. I'd like to do that for multiple tracks of a song, but I'll start with the example of just 1 track.

Thanks.

LNovik

[reginaldStjohn]

You can if you have Melodyne.  You have to have the version that could do polyphonic detection. there are probably other tools as well but that is the one I am familiar with.

[Byron Dickens]

Kinda, sorta but its far from perfect. You would still have to do a lot of editing.

[Promidi]

If it's just a single instrument, there are many online tools that will make the attempt.  YMMV depending on the quality of the source material.

[John Vere]

You would need Melodyne Editor to convert any audio that is polyphonic ( chords) to midi. It is $399 USD but goes on sale for less from time to time. You might want to ask the people you bought the file from if it is available in midi format. Audio files are not as useful as far as any keyboard parts go. Hope it didn’t cost you too much if you can’t even use it. 

[LNovik@aol.com]

Hi,

Thanks for the replies. I also learned a new acronym, YMMV.   The piano audio track conversion was just an example, because I also want to convert other tracks as well. Most of these other ones are monophonic, so my Melodyne Assistant can do the job-at least somewhat. The whole set of audio tracks making up the song was only in the $10 range total. The song was Funeral for a Friend, by Elton John--always a favorite song of mine. I like the midi versions as well for multiple reasons. I make a video out of the songs I download, targeted to just family and friends. So, ie, the MIDI version helps me learn the parts that I then play myself--such as guitar and keyboards. OF course, I could also just buy another version of the MIDI version, so that I can learn the notes from that one. However, it's nice when they sync together. Sometimes, in fact, I'll not like 1 or 2 of the instruments on the audio track version, and I'll replace them with my own instruments thru the MIDI track version. Lastly, as some of you may know, I never realized that the Bass part of Funeral for a Friend/Love lies bleeding contains  such intricate areas of bass playing. Well, on my version, I think the playing strays off tempo several times. To my ears, it throws off the beat. So, by converting the bass to midi, I think it's a bit easier to see all the notes on the staff view and experiment with moving them slightly earlier or later. Or I'm thinking, maybe even apply some quantization. Lastly, I should say this audio version is from Song Galaxy, which I think is located in Australia. They often DO have associated midi tracks, but not always. They'll even usually make up corresponding MIDI tracks for perhaps about $50 or $60, I believe. But, they said, for a song of this length, it would be much more expensive, and out of my range. I must say that the bang for the buck (BFB?) of most of these audio files, including this one, IS pretty excellent. And, the other advantage is that they even come with the solo voice and voice harmony parts. So, I usually use the solo voice as a reference, and then disable it. But, it's nice to have the harmonies right in the same package. As I said, this is all for nonprofessional use, so I can get away with all of this.

Thanks again for the comments.

LNovik