MP3 to MID Converter
A .mid file is a list of notes, so getting one from an MP3 means listening to the recording and writing down what was played. This page does that transcription for you and hands back a standard .mid file, ready to load into a piano trainer, a notation editor or a sequencer.
Audio Converter
or drop MP3, WAV, M4A … files here ·
Max 95 MB per file· Up to 20 files· Deleted after 30 minutes
Files are processed on our servers and deleted after 30 minutes.
Constant bitrate (CBR) gives a predictable size and works on every player. Variable bitrate (VBR) spends bits where the music needs them and is usually smaller at the same quality.
Keep the source rate unless a device asks for one. 44.1 kHz is CD standard, 48 kHz is video standard, 8 kHz is used by phone systems and AMR.
Mono halves the size of lossless files and is fine for voice recordings.
16-bit is CD quality. 24-bit keeps headroom for editing and mastering; converting a 16-bit source up does not add detail.
Optional. Seconds (e.g. 75) or minutes:seconds (1:15). Leave empty to start at the beginning.
Optional. Same format as the start time. Leave empty to keep everything up to the end.
How to use this tool
- 1
Upload a clear recording
Add up to 20 MP3s. A solo piano piece, a hummed tune or a single flute line gives far cleaner notes than a full band.
- 2
Keep the defaults
Convert to is set to MIDI, Channels to mono and Normalise volume is on, so quiet passages still register as notes. Use Start at and End at to transcribe one section.
- 3
Convert and open
Press Convert to MIDI (transcribed notes) and download the .mid. Open it in the app you plan to use and assign whatever instrument you like.
How an MP3 becomes a .mid file
The converter decodes the MP3, follows the pitch of the strongest musical line over time and writes each sustained pitch as a note-on and note-off event. Loudness becomes the note's velocity. The output is a single-track .mid, small enough to email, that every music program since the late 1980s can open.
What it cannot do is separate instruments the way a person can. In a full mix, a bass line, a chord pad and a vocal compete for the same moment, and the result jumps between them. The more the recording sounds like one instrument playing alone, the more the .mid will look like the music you hear. For a fuller explanation of transcription limits, see MP3 to MIDI.
Where to open the .mid file
MuseScore
Free notation software that imports .mid and lays the notes out as sheet music you can correct, transpose and print.
GarageBand and Logic Pro
Drag the .mid into a track on a Mac, pick a software instrument, then fix or quantize notes in the piano roll.
Synthesia and piano apps
Shows the notes as a falling-key lesson, with the option to practice each hand separately on a connected keyboard.
FL Studio, Ableton Live and other DAWs
Import the file as a MIDI clip and use it as a starting point for a cover, remix or backing track.
MP3 to MID converter: the note range
0–127MIDI note numbers available for every transcribed pitch, with middle C at 60
128 note numbers cover more than ten octaves, wider than a concert grand, so any sung or played melody fits. What MIDI does not store is tone: a violin and a whistle singing the same tune produce the same notes, and you choose the instrument afterwards.
Sound quality of the MP3 matters less than clarity. A 128 kbps phone recording of a solo guitar transcribes better than a 320 kbps studio master of a full orchestra. Remove reverb-heavy intros with Start at, and prefer recordings without backing tracks.
MP3 and MID files compared
MP3
MP3 audio
MP3 (MPEG-1 Audio Layer III) is a lossy audio format developed largely at the Fraunhofer Institute and standardised by MPEG in 1993. It removes sounds the ear is unlikely to notice, shrinking music to about a tenth of CD size at 128–320 kbps. All patents have expired, and every phone, car stereo, browser and media player supports it. Quality loss is audible at low bitrates and accumulates with re-encoding.
- Compression
- Lossy
- Transparency
- –
- Animation
- –
- Introduced
- 1993 · Fraunhofer IIS / MPEG
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
People convert MP3 to .mid when an app that teaches, notates or sequences music will only read note data; turning a recorded melody into a .mid file lets Synthesia, MuseScore or a DAW work with it as editable notes.
MP3 to MID questions
Is .mid different from .midi?
No. Both extensions name the same Standard MIDI File format; .mid is simply the three-letter form that Windows and most apps write by default. Any program that opens one opens the other, and you can rename the file freely.
Can I load the .mid into Synthesia to learn a song on piano?
Yes, Synthesia plays any standard .mid file as falling notes. Transcriptions of a solo piano recording work best; for a song with vocals and a band, expect to delete stray notes in a MIDI editor before practicing with it.
Why does the .mid file sound like a cheap keyboard?
A MIDI file carries no sound, only note numbers and timings, so your computer plays it with its built-in General MIDI synth. Load it into GarageBand, Logic or another DAW and choose a better instrument, or render it back to audio with MIDI to MP3.
Will the notes line up with bars and beats?
The notes are placed where they sound in the recording, and a live performance drifts slightly from a strict grid. Use your editor's quantize function after setting the song's tempo, and the notation will tidy up into regular bars.
Can I turn a ringtone MP3 into an old-style MIDI ringtone?
For a simple melody, yes, and the resulting .mid is only a few kilobytes. Polyphonic phone ringtones of the early 2000s were often MIDI, and some basic phones still accept .mid tones; a chord-heavy song will need cleanup to sound right.
- Convert MP3 to MIDIConvert MP3 to MIDI online: transcribe the lead melody of a song or a solo recording into editable notes for a DAW, MuseScore or piano practice.
- Audio to MIDI ConverterTranscribe a sung, hummed or played melody from MP3, WAV, M4A, FLAC or OGG into a MIDI file for your DAW or notation app. Up to 20 files, no account.
- WAV to MIDI ConverterTranscribe a sung, hummed or played melody in a WAV file into an editable MIDI file for your DAW or notation app. Up to 20 files at once, free.
- MIDI to MP3 ConverterRender MIDI files (.mid, .midi) into MP3 audio you can play on a phone, send in a chat or add to a video. General MIDI instruments, 20 files per batch.
- MP3 to WAV ConverterDecode MP3 to uncompressed 16-bit WAV for audio CDs, samplers, DAWs and broadcast tools. Choose 44.1 or 48 kHz, up to 20 files, no account needed.