PIANO TO MIDI · CHORDS SUPPORTED · NO UPLOAD

Piano to MIDI: Convert a Piano Recording to Notes

Solo piano is one of the better sources for audio-to-MIDI conversion. Choose a piano recording on the homepage converter, and it detects notes — including several notes at once in chords — and gives you a .mid file to edit. Expect to clean up some extra or missing notes, especially with heavy pedal or reverb.

Open the free converter

How to convert, step by step

Open the converter. Go to the MP3toMIDIFlow homepage. The converter is at the top of the page; nothing needs to be installed.
Choose your file. Select or drag in one piano recording (MP3, WAV, M4A, FLAC, OGG, AAC or WMA, or the audio in an MP4/MOV video). Solo piano with little pedal and reverb works best.
Convert in the browser. Select Convert to MIDI and keep the tab open. The note-detection model and decoder load from this site and run on your device; your audio is not uploaded.
Download and edit. Download the .mid file and open it in a DAW or notation editor to set the tempo, fix wrong notes and choose an instrument sound.

Why piano works comparatively well

A piano note has a clear, sharp attack and a stable pitch, which makes note starts easier to find than with a sung or bowed note. The note-detection model used here, Spotify's open-source Basic Pitch, is polyphonic: it estimates every pitch it hears at each moment, so chords and two-hand playing can produce simultaneous notes in the MIDI. Its pitch range covers the 88-key piano range.

The output is a single track with notes, timing and velocities based on loudness. Both hands end up on the same track; if you want left and right hand separately, split the track in your DAW or notation editor by pitch.

What makes piano transcription harder

Sustain pedal. With the pedal down, earlier notes keep ringing under new ones. The model may extend those notes, add notes that are still ringing, or cut them short as they fade. You may need to fix note lengths and add pedal (CC64) yourself.
Overtones. Low piano notes have strong harmonics, so the model sometimes adds a quieter note an octave or a twelfth above. Our extra chord notes guide shows how to check before deleting.
Dense chords and fast runs. Thick voicings and fast passages produce more missed and merged notes.
Room sound and recording quality. A phone recording in a reverberant room is harder than a close-miked or digital piano recording.
Piano in a band mix. The converter does not isolate the piano from vocals, bass or drums. Everything pitched is transcribed together.

Tips for the best piano to MIDI results

Use a solo piano recording. A digital piano's direct line output or a close microphone is ideal.
Use less pedal and less reverb if you are recording specifically to transcribe.
Start with a short section (30–60 seconds) to judge the result before converting a whole piece; the maximum is 3 minutes per file.
If your digital piano or keyboard has MIDI output, record MIDI directly instead — it will be exact. Audio-to-MIDI is for when you only have the recording.

After conversion: making the MIDI usable

The file is written at a fixed 120 BPM, so the notes play at the right real-time positions but will not line up with bar lines. In most DAWs you can detect or tap the tempo and conform the MIDI, or simply set the project tempo to match the performance before quantizing. Then:

Delete obviously spurious short notes and octave duplicates.
Check note lengths where the pedal was down.
Quantize gently — a rubato performance will be distorted by hard quantizing.
For sheet music, import the cleaned MIDI into a notation program such as MuseScore and split it into two staves. The converter does not produce sheet music itself.

Limits that apply to every file

One file at a time, up to 50 MB and 3 minutes. Trim longer recordings into sections first.
Mono analysis. The audio is mixed down to one channel at 22,050 Hz before note detection. If the left and right channels cancel each other out, see why a file that plays can be reported as silent.
One instrument track, fixed tempo. All detected notes go on a single MIDI track. The file is written at 120 BPM; the converter does not detect the song's tempo, key or time signature, so bar lines in your DAW will not line up with the music until you adjust them.
No pitch-bend data. Each detected note is written as a plain note-on/note-off with a velocity based on its loudness.

Questions

Can it transcribe piano chords?

Yes, the model detects multiple simultaneous pitches, so chords produce several notes. Dense chords, pedal and reverb can cause missing or extra notes that need editing.

Will left and right hand be on separate tracks?

No. All notes are on one track. Split them by pitch in your DAW or notation editor.

Does it export sustain pedal?

No. Only notes with velocities are written. Add pedal (CC64) yourself if needed.

Can I convert piano from a full song?

You can, but the converter does not isolate the piano. Vocals, bass and other instruments are transcribed into the same track.