Audio to MIDI

[spiralout311]

What is the best way to convert Audio files to MIDI? I basically want to be able to take an acoustic drum recording and throw into a program and convert bass, snare, hi-hat, cymbals, etc. into different midi tracks. I have EZ Drummer. Can this been done in that?

[j wazza]

lots of threads on this already, ableton can do it, so can fl studio, there are lots of drum replacer plugins, ive never had very good results but havent tried it that much, but especially with acoustic drums, even more with ones withs lots of different drum sounds going on when you need it to separate the drum sounds, it doesnt work that well
it does work well for getting the rhythm but not the velocities or separation

[Azbest]

Ableton can do this, though poorly (more often than not).

[ramseysounds]

Cubase can do this for music in varaudio. Not sure about drums

[CapnLockheed]

I've had the best luck with WIDI Audio To MIDI VST plugin.

https://www.widisoft.com/english/widi-a ... i-vst.html

But like most other converters, it's far from perfect. All of these sorts of things work best
on single note lines like bass or guitar and/or keyboard leads. Forget complex chords or mixed tracks.

[zerocrossing]

I've had the best luck with WIDI Audio To MIDI VST plugin.

https://www.widisoft.com/english/widi-a ... i-vst.html

But like most other converters, it's far from perfect. All of these sorts of things work best
on single note lines like bass or guitar and/or keyboard leads. Forget complex chords or mixed tracks.

Hm… link seems dead.

[thecontrolcentre]

I've had the best luck with WIDI Audio To MIDI VST plugin.

https://www.widisoft.com/english/widi-a ... i-vst.html

But like most other converters, it's far from perfect. All of these sorts of things work best
on single note lines like bass or guitar and/or keyboard leads. Forget complex chords or mixed tracks.

Hm… link seems dead.

Working fine here.

[Living Room Rocker]

Hi spiralout311,

This can also be done in Cakewalk (Windows only). You must install the Melodyne that comes with Cakewalk (see add-ons in Bandlab Assistant) and make sure you set Melodyne to percussion. You simply drag your audio into a MIDI track. Here is a link to the Cakewalk download page: https://www.bandlab.com/products/cakewalk

Kind regards,

Living Room Rocker

[Hink]

I've had the best luck with WIDI Audio To MIDI VST plugin.

https://www.widisoft.com/english/widi-a ... i-vst.html

But like most other converters, it's far from perfect. All of these sorts of things work best
on single note lines like bass or guitar and/or keyboard leads. Forget complex chords or mixed tracks.

Hm… link seems dead.

Working fine here.

here too

[EdwardGivens]

Anthemscore. It works well - but like the others it's up to you to clean and sort the resultant midi into something useable

[madsm]

I think Ableton does this fairly well, given that the source audio is somewhat clean.

[darrensensei]

I have used Melodyne with successful outcomes.

[nori147]

I have been trying them all out for some time now.

Ones I own that do Audio to Midi:

Rip X DAW
Melodyne 5 - Celemony
Ableton 10 Suite
FL Studio


I have also been using the free ones:

NeuralNote
SampLab

I would say it depends on the program material. The easiest program material to convert would be a monophonic instrument that is solo with no other instruments or background noise. Also the less harmonics and overtones on the instrument make it easier to convert.

As far as monophonic/solo material, they all don't do too bad. The most challenging is music with multiple instruments that is polyphonic material. For this type of material, I say the best performing is Samplab - which is free to use for converting segments under 10 seconds at a time.
But to be honest they are all flawed when it comes to this material.

Rip X is a joke and for something designed just for this task, I am surprised they get away with it. It returns way too many notes to be usable and misses obvious and notes and chords. Here is an example of one conversion -

RipX - too many notes.png

If you export the midi of any of the instruments: 1) Theres too many nonsensical notes and 2) It misses obvious chords and notes (even after using the filtering function that eliminates what it believes is the lighter notes, it is a terrible rendition). Once in a while you will come across some program material where it does an ok job but not very often.

I'd say the two that stand out as the best for multiple instrument / polyphonic material is: Samplab and Ableton.

Surprisingly, Melodyne did not perform well for this function using both their Polyphonic algorithms. It seems great for monophonic vocal and instruments, even showing you the minute tuning offsets from each note. Its free to try for 30 days.

[hotmitts]

You can covert audio to MIDI also in Reason and Studio One, again with mixed results.

I'm curious about Vochlea, I keep seeing adverts for it and apparently it's detection system underwent an overhaul recently, but there's no demo.