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Topic: MP3 to Midi converter software  (Read 13099 times) previous topic - next topic

MP3 to Midi converter software

Recommendations for MP3 to Midi conversion software ...

Thanks
Danna

Re: MP3 to Midi converter software

Reply #1 –
G'day dannac,
Band In A Box has a "chord recogniser" that seems OK - it will NOT give you the notation of any particular instrument or melody line etc.  It just guesses at the chords.

This topic comes up fairly regularly and as always, the answer is, what you're asking for is not possible (dare I say yet..?  If it ever happens I reckon it will be a long time away).  Fundamentally, you are trying to "unscramble" an egg, or perhaps extract the ingredients from a cake that has already been baked...
I plays 'Bones, crumpets, coronets, floosgals, youfonymums 'n tubies.

Re: MP3 to Midi converter software

Reply #2 –
Hi Lawrie

Seems there are a few out there .......
from a google search anyway.

Was hoping someone might have tried one
and have some opinions on the better ones.

Are you saying none of them can do the
job right ??

Thanks
Danna

Re: MP3 to Midi converter software

Reply #3 –
G'day Danna
Quote from: dannac –
<snip>
Are you saying none of them can do the
job right ??

Yep.

To expand that a little, if you had an mp3 or wav file or the like with a single voice then you stand some chance of extracting useful information, but the moment you introduce polyphony you increase the difficulty.  I don't really know what the "difficulty curve" would look like but I would guess it is either a "square law" (where difficulty level equals the square of the number of voices) or more likely it is an exponential curve.

<edit> a voice is any stream of musical information coming from a single note instrument - E.G. vocal, single trumpet, etc.  2 notes on a piano are TWO voices, not one even though it is a single instrument.  Ditto for a guitar playing a chord, or a violin playing double stop.
I plays 'Bones, crumpets, coronets, floosgals, youfonymums 'n tubies.

Re: MP3 to Midi converter software

Reply #4 –
Thanks Lawrie

Re: MP3 to Midi converter software

Reply #5 –
A little more info:

This site http://www.mp3-converter.com/faq/mp3_to_midi.htm took me here:
http://www.audiohero.com/wav_to_midi.htm which links to:
http://www.akoff.com/music-composer.html

The samples provided are OK, but the text of the page confirms my contention:
Quote
Composer normally recognizes polyphonic music with one instrument or voice. This means you won't get the appropriate results if you try to recognize many instruments playing at the same time especially with drums. Composer determines note dynamics and frequencies and translates this information into MIDI events. Composer doesn't automatically recognize the types of sounding instruments. Moreover, human voice and instruments have various timbres and complicated harmonic components, therefore recognition accuracy depends on concrete instrument or singing style. Also the recognition is influenced by quality of WAVE recordings such as background noises and recording level.

This product:
http://www.intelliscore.net/
linking to:
http://www.intelliscore.net/download.html - samples are about halfway down.

May give some candlelight at the end of the tunnel.  The source wavs are very pronounced, almost monophonic and quite emphasised, and do not have many instruments nor concurrent note changes.  The results are tolerable as a quick and dirty start but are more a hint of what may come than a realistic solution.

This one is similar to the above:
http://www.widisoft.com/
http://www.widisoft.com/english/samples.html

I'm not bagging these products - they are attempting to perform an incredibly complex task.  Unfortunately for us at the moment, the technology still has a very long way to go.
I plays 'Bones, crumpets, coronets, floosgals, youfonymums 'n tubies.

Re: MP3 to Midi converter software

Reply #6 –
My thoughts on the subject are <here>.
Registered user since 1996

Re: MP3 to Midi converter software

Reply #7 –
I'm mainly looking to convert piano pieces .... piano is the only instrument.

I'll check the one's you mentioned Lawrie.

Thanks so much for all the research ......

Danna

Re: MP3 to Midi converter software

Reply #8 –
Downloaded and tried demo of Intelliscore.
Tried it on a single intrument piano mp3 file.

Results not good ... not even close.

Glad it was try before you buy.

Thanks

Re: MP3 to Midi converter software

Reply #9 –
The eggs did not get unscrambled.
A pity - I hope computer-intelligence will some day be able to do it.
Thanks for trying it out; it saves me the trouble.
cheers,
Rob.
 

Re: MP3 to Midi converter software

Reply #10 –
Quote from: Rob den Heijer –
A pity - I hope computer-intelligence will some day be able to do it.
If it does, won't it be embarassing to many classical musicians to have the notation of what they played compared to what the composers wrote?

Edit: corrected typo
Registered user since 1996

Re: MP3 to Midi converter software

Reply #11 –
Quote from: Rick G. –
If it does, wont' it be embarassing to many classical musicians to have the notation of what they played compared to what the composers wrote?

[move]<evil laugh>[/move]
I plays 'Bones, crumpets, coronets, floosgals, youfonymums 'n tubies.

Re: MP3 to Midi converter software

Reply #12 –
Hi,

The reason it won't work (or very well) is because mp3's (like wavs) are pure audio (analouge) signal. That is, have been recorded with a mic. MIDI data on the otherhand is DIGITAL. MIDI is the protocol which tells notes when they are on, when to go off, and at what velocity. It is not possible to convert this audio data into digital data because of what I have just said. It is the same as trying to save a MIDI file as an audio file - not possible. (For the cocky people out there yes it is possible, but you have to come out via the headphone port of whatever and then back in via a line in port and record it in a program such as the much loved audactiy or REAPER)

Tom

Re: MP3 to Midi converter software

Reply #14 –
You know this, Rick, and I suspect Tom knows it, but for the benefit of those who might have suddenly become mystified by your last exchange:

  • A MIDI file stores instructions to the sound card to manipulate generic sounds that are stored in a sound bank on the computer.
  • A WAV file stores a digitized copy of the composite sound wave generated in the air by actual music (or other sounds).
  • An MP3 file is a WAV file that has been put through a compression algorhythm so that it can be stored in a smaller space.

The problem with converting WAV or MP3 to MIDI is that the music you hear comes into your ear as a single composite sound wave that is created by adding together all of the sound waves produced by all of the instruments that are playing. Your ear and your brain, working together, separate the sounds out again. Computers can record and play back the composite sound wave, and they can manipulate it in various ways, but they aren't capable of separating it into its additive components (yet).

MIDI to WAV or MP3 is a different story, though. You don't have to patch the audio output of your computer into the input; most sound recording programs will patch it internally (the option to do that is usually called "what you hear"). And there are programs available that will read MIDI files, access the MIDI sound bank, and create WAVs or MP3s directly without producing any actual sounds in the process. These can go at processor speed rather than the speed of the music, so they work pretty fast. Having not actually tried one, I don't know how good they are, but the theory they are based on is sound (so to speak;-).

Re: MP3 to Midi converter software

Reply #15 –
Quote from: William Ashworth –
Having not actually tried one, I don't know how good they are, but the theory they are based on is sound (so to speak;-).

I've used several products to do this.  Audio Compositor (which is no longer available) could take a MIDI file, and along with whatever soundfont (.SF2 file) you specified, would render the MIDI to WAV (from which you could easily convert to MP3 or other compressed format).  It sounded the same as if I had played the MIDI on the computer using that same soundfont.  No sound was generated during the rendering process.

I've also done it using the Roland Virtual Sound Canvas; it also sounds the same.  And I've done it using several DXi softsynths (Roland VSC DXi and Forte Dxi) - they sound the same as well.

Or, as long as you've got a full duplex sound card, just start your favorite audio recording software (Audacity, for example), make sure recording input is set to MIDI, set your levels, hit record, switch over to NWC, and hit play.  However long the song is later, go back to your audio recording software and hit stop.  You now have a WAV version of the MIDI file.

But as has been posted, you can't take it and go back the other way.  I suspect by the time they actually do figure out how to do it, MIDI will have been superseded by some new compositional audio technology.
John

Re: MP3 to Midi converter software

Reply #16 –
Back to the original topic.

There are reviews of many mp3 to MIDI converters on the alt.music.midi newsgroup FAQ here:-
http://home.sc.rr.com/cosmogony/ammfaq.html

One program worth a look is Score Extractor
http://www.scoreextractor.com
It analyses a wave file and displays the prominent notes in a display.
The user can then select the notes to be included in the output MIDI file.
The MIDI file sounds reasonable but timing is a problem.
Probably only useful for finding the occasional chord.

If you have a reasonable ear try Amazing Slowdowner by Roni Music.
http://www.ronimusic.com
This software can vary the speed of a wave, mp3 or CD track in real time and/or adjust the pitch.
It can be set to loop continuously within selected start and end points to allow the user to transcribe the looped section.
IMHO this is the only way to convert audio to MIDI but it depends on your ability to transcribe.