AUDIO TO SHEET MUSIC · MP3 TO NOTES · FREE
Audio to Sheet Music
To turn audio into sheet music, convert it to MIDI and open the MIDI in a notation editor. This site does the first step free in your browser with no upload. Below is the actual score from one of our MP3 tests: the converter found all four notes of the melody (C4, E4, G4, C5) at the right pitch, and the notation only became clean once the tempo was set to the recording’s real pulse.
melody.mp3, engraved with LilyPond after setting the pulse to 67 BPM and rounding to an eighth-note grid.Our MP3 to music notation test, step by step
Input: melody.mp3, a generated four-second mono melody we built for an earlier WAV vs MP3 test (notes C4, E4, G4, C5). We converted it on the live site and parsed the downloaded MIDI. Our converter writes every file at a fixed 120 BPM, which is what a notation editor sees first.
| Note | Start (s) | Length (s) | Start / length in beats at 120 BPM | Rounded to 1/16 | Start / length in beats at 67 BPM | Rounded to 1/8 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C4 (60) | 0.000 | 0.790 | 0.00 / 1.58 | 0 / dotted quarter | 0.00 / 0.88 | 0 / quarter |
| E4 (64) | 0.905 | 0.778 | 1.81 / 1.56 | 1.75 / dotted quarter | 1.01 / 0.86 | 1 / quarter |
| G4 (67) | 1.811 | 0.768 | 3.62 / 1.54 | 3.5 / dotted quarter | 2.01 / 0.85 | 2 / quarter |
| C5 (72) | 2.695 | 0.790 | 5.39 / 1.58 | 5.5 / dotted quarter | 2.99 / 0.88 | 3 / quarter |
How we found 67 BPM: the three gaps between note starts are 0.905 s, 0.906 s and 0.883 s, a mean of 0.898 s per note. 60 ÷ 0.898 = 66.8 beats per minute if each note is one beat. Every start then lands within 0.02 beat of a whole beat, and each length (0.85–0.88 beat) rounds to a quarter note. Beat values in the 67 BPM columns use 0.9 s per beat.
Sources for this test are public: melody.mp3, mp3-result.mid, the LilyPond files raw and re-timed, and results.json.
Sound to sheet music with a real voice: what you will need to clean
A generated melody is the easy case. We also counted what a real singing clip produces, using the converter output from our real vocal example (about 8.9 seconds, with two human note annotations for comparison).
| Measure | Converter MIDI | Human annotation A1 | Human annotation A2 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Notes | 40 | 35 | 27 |
| Notes shorter than 125 ms (a sixteenth at 120 BPM) | 14 | 13 | 4 |
| Pitch range (MIDI) | 45–82 | 41.9–56.0 | 44.9–56.0 |
| Range without the one stray note | 45–56 (A2 to G♯3) | — | — |
What this means for a score: one stray note (MIDI 82, a short blip at 2.17 s) would sit far above the staff and should be deleted; 14 very short notes would print as sixteenths or shorter and are usually merged with their neighbours; and the real melody sits between A2 and G♯3, which reads in bass clef. The two human annotators themselves disagree on how many notes there are (35 vs 27), so expect to make musical choices when you clean up.
How to turn audio into sheet music (mp3 into sheet music)
- Convert to MIDI. Open the converter, choose your MP3, WAV or other supported file, and download the .mid. Nothing is uploaded.
- Import the MIDI into a notation editor. Any editor that opens .mid files will draw the notes on a staff; MuseScore is a free example.
- Set the tempo and time signature first. Our files are written at 120 BPM. If your recording is slower or faster, change it (or the editor’s import tempo) before you judge the rhythm, as the test above shows.
- Choose a quantize grid. Eighth or sixteenth notes for most melodies; finer grids keep timing noise as tiny rests.
- Clean up. Delete stray notes, merge very short repeats, pick the clef, then add key signature, dynamics and lyrics yourself — the MIDI does not contain them.
Limits of mp3 to music notes this way
- The MIDI has one track, no key signature, no time signature and a fixed 120 BPM tempo; notation details come from your editor and your choices.
- Works best for one melody line. Chords and full songs produce extra notes; see extra chord notes and piano to MIDI.
- Files up to 50 MB and 3 minutes, as on the audio to MIDI converter page.
Questions
Can I convert MP3 to sheet music for free?
Yes, in two steps. Convert the MP3 to a MIDI file with the free converter on this site (it runs in your browser, no upload), then open the .mid in a notation editor that imports MIDI, such as the free MuseScore. The editor draws the notes on a staff.
Does this site output sheet music directly?
No. The converter outputs a standard MIDI file of notes. Sheet music is drawn from that MIDI by notation software. This page shows what that looks like with our own test output.
Why does my sheet music from audio look messy?
Our MIDI files are written at a fixed 120 BPM. If the recording was at another tempo, the notation editor spreads the notes across odd beat positions. In our MP3 test the melody moved at about 67 BPM, so the raw import showed dotted notes, rests and a tie; setting the pulse to 67 BPM gave four clean quarter notes.
Which recordings give the best audio to notes result?
A single melody line with clear note starts, such as one voice, a flute or a single piano line. Chords, drums and full mixes produce many extra or merged notes that need editing before the score is readable.
Is my audio uploaded when I make sheet music this way?
Not by this site. Decoding and note detection run in your browser; only the converter files load from the server. What your notation editor does with the MIDI depends on that program.