Hi guys,
Of all the requests that we get, "how can I get sheet music from my audio/mp3/ogg/wav files?" is probably the most recurring.
I just answered such a query yesterday at the helpdesk, so I'll post my response here for information's sake:
Quote:
The short answer: there is not yet any software product (despite any claims) that can take an audio file and faithfully translate it to a MIDI file from which anyone can get good sheet music. It's a "holy grail" of sorts that isn't yet achievable - and trust me, we've tested for just that!
Taking any audio file and trying to separate out the instruments or voices (different instruments/voices playing the same note pitch or chordal notes), the notes themselves (determining what is a root note versus the harmonics), the root pitch (versus vibrato or reverb), the duration (whether the note is still playing or if that’s some ringing echo in the recording) and a host of other nuances is a very difficult technological task. Our ears and brains work in an incredibly complex way to discern all these aspects of music. Getting a program to do the same thing, and then produce a MIDI file (the “directions” for playing the piece) so that we can get sheet music is still a goal yet to be fully realized. There are a number of programs that claim to do this, but in all the testing we’ve done, none of them do a good enough job to produce a MIDI that doesn’t still need a lot of work to give decent sheet music.
Even the Melodyne Editor (www.celemony.com), which does an absolutely amazing job of separating audio tones, still doesn’t give a very good MIDI file for getting sheet music (though it's getting better, and it can definitely be used in sequencers to give a performance). It's not that smart folks aren't trying their best, it's just a very difficult task to do well. If the pieces you want to do are fairly "clean", then the Melodyne Editor might be good for you for getting a MIDI file which you could then use along with our Notation Composer. Composer has the exclusive "Rebar" feature which allows you to adjust barlines to accommodate rubato playing. No other notation software allows you to do that, and it makes a tremendous difference in keeping the performance while being able to get readable sheet music.
I don't know what the trial version of Melodyne allows these days -it used to be only about a 10 second file save. You may want to check that out. Our Notation Composer is available as a free 30 day trial, which you can get at www.notation.com/DownloadComposerTrial.php
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Sorry to be a bit of a downer for the present, but the good news is that there's still progress being made toward the goal!
You can also
see our Resource page on "Audio to sheet music" for some tips on doing your own transcriptions.
ttfn,
Sherry