Audio to MIDI Converter

This converter listens to a recording, works out which notes are being played and when, and writes them into a .mid file. It accepts nearly any audio format, from a phone voice memo to a FLAC bounce, and it is at its best with one clear melody line.

or drop MP3, WAV, M4A … files here ·

Max 95 MB per file· Up to 20 files· Deleted after 30 minutes

Output

Convert to

Files are processed on our servers and deleted after 30 minutes.

How to use this tool

1
Upload the recording
Add MP3, WAV, M4A, FLAC, OGG, Opus, AIFF and other audio files, up to 20 at once and 95 MB each. A single instrument or voice gives the cleanest notes.
2
Trim to the melody
Use Start at and End at in Advanced settings to skip the count-in, talking or silence around the part you want, so none of it turns into stray notes.
3
Press Convert to MIDI (transcribed notes)
The pitch and timing of each note are detected and saved as MIDI events. Download the .mid files; uploads are deleted after 30 minutes.

Answer

Can any audio file be converted to MIDI?

Any audio file can be uploaded, but what comes out is a transcription, not a copy. A single sung, whistled or played melody becomes accurate notes; a full band mix becomes a rough sketch. Upload the file and press Convert to MIDI (transcribed notes).

How an audio to MIDI converter finds the notes

Every pitched note has a fundamental frequency. Concert A is 440 Hz, which MIDI calls note 69, and each semitone up multiplies the frequency by about 1.06. The converter tracks that frequency through the recording, rounds it to the nearest semitone, and marks where each note starts and stops. The result is written as note-on and note-off events in a Standard MIDI File.

This works well when one note sounds at a time, because there is one frequency to follow. Chords and full mixes stack many fundamentals and their overtones on top of each other, so the converter can pick up harmonics as extra notes or miss inner voices. That is a limit of audio-to-MIDI in general, not of any particular format. For tips on recording a clean take, see WAV to MIDI; for transcribing finished songs, see MP3 to MIDI.

Who turns audio into MIDI, and what they record

Songwriters with a voice memo

Hum the hook into the phone, convert the M4A, and the melody is in the DAW as notes you can harmonize and assign to any instrument.

Students and teachers

Turn a recorded solo or exercise into MIDI, then open it in notation software as a first draft of a lead sheet.

Producers reworking a part

Convert a bass line or synth hook from your own bounce, then swap the sound or fix the timing without re-recording it.

Audio to MIDI converter options compared

	UltKit	DAW audio-to-MIDI feature	Transcribing by ear
Works without installing anything	yes	no	yes
Accepts phone memos, MP3, FLAC and other formats directly	yes	Often after import	yes
Single melody lines	yes	yes	yes
Dense chords and full mixes	Rough sketch	Varies by tool	With training
Several recordings in one go	20 per batch	One clip at a time	no
Time to a first draft	Seconds	Seconds	Minutes to hours

Audio-to-MIDI moved into mainstream music software in 2013, when Ableton Live 9 added commands to turn audio clips into melody, harmony or drum MIDI. If you already own a DAW with such a feature, use whichever is quicker; the result needs the same light clean-up either way.

Expect to fix a few things: notes split in two by vibrato, very short notes at each consonant of a sung line, and octave slips where a strong overtone fooled the detector. Quantizing the notes to your project's grid and deleting anything shorter than a sixteenth note usually takes care of most of it.

Audio files and MIDI files compared

ANY A

Any audio

This accepts common audio formats, including MP3, WAV, M4A, AAC, FLAC, OGG and Opus. The format is detected automatically, and audio tracks inside many video files can also be used.

Any audio converter

MIDI

MIDI file

A MIDI file (.mid or .midi) stores musical instructions rather than recorded sound, following the Standard MIDI File format published in 1988. It lists notes, timing, velocity, instruments and controller changes, so files are tiny and fully editable. How it sounds depends entirely on the synthesizer or instrument plugin that plays it. MIDI is used in DAWs, notation software, keyboards and karaoke, but it cannot store vocals or real recordings.

Compression: –
Transparency: –
Animation: –
Introduced: 1988 · MIDI Manufacturers Association

MIDI converter

Songwriters, students and producers capture ideas as audio, in whatever format their phone or recorder writes, but arranging, re-voicing or notating a melody needs MIDI notes; transcription turns any recording into a starting score.

Audio to MIDI: frequently asked questions

Which audio formats can be turned into MIDI here?

Almost any: MP3, WAV, M4A and AAC, FLAC, OGG and Opus, AIFF, WMA, AMR, WebM audio and more. The file is decoded first, so the format matters far less than what is in the recording. Lossy files transcribe about as well as lossless ones.

Is a phone voice memo good enough to transcribe?

Usually, yes. Pitch detection relies on the fundamental frequency of each note, which a phone microphone captures fine. Record close to the phone in a quiet room, and avoid tapping or talking over the melody.

Why is the MIDI file only a few kilobytes?

MIDI stores events, not sound: a note number, a start time, a length and a velocity for each note. A three-minute melody might be a few hundred events, which fits in a few kilobytes, while the audio it came from takes megabytes.

Can I choose the instrument after converting?

Yes, and that is the point of MIDI. Drop the file on any software instrument in GarageBand, Logic, Ableton Live, FL Studio or a notation app, and the same notes play as piano, strings or a synth lead. To share a rendered version, convert it back with MIDI to MP3.

What happens to drums and percussion in the recording?

Drum hits have no clear pitch, so the converter either ignores them or turns their attack into short, unrelated notes. Record or trim to a section without drums, or delete those notes in your editor afterwards.