Converts mp3 to Midi

[ninotiro]

Anyone? This is a hard one. Been looking for ages!

[Anupam]

I read on some site, that converting mp3 to midi is quite a complex process. I searched for a freeware, but couldn't find one. I think you will have to look for commercial products for this.

[George]

Well, no wonder that such a conversion is difficult. Even though the output is generally the same for MID and MP3, sound that is, the content of the files are quite different.

While MP3 is a digital coding of audio waves, MID is a sequence of commandos to be sent to a midi processor that then itself will create audio wave signals through several sound modules. These sound modules simulate different musical instruments or sounds.

So what a converter should be able to do first is, analyze the MP3 and find out what instruments are in it. Then it needs to separate them and create several tracks of midi commandos for an appropriate midi sound module. And all such a converter has to work with is a sound wave that combines all instruments and sounds.

Tough job, I doubt there is any qualified product out there...

[mrbuckingham]

Yep.. think you'll struggle to find a freeware solution. Cheapest I know of is TS-AudioToMIDI at around $40. Dunno if it's any good though as I've never tried it.

[grannyGrump]

Are you married to the concept of "conversion"? (I did some search for similar tools a long time back, and gave up on finding anything free or cheap that would give acceptable results.)

How about playing the midi file, and recording the streaming audio off of your sound card? i.e. "What You Hear". (too bad I haven't been able to get my current computer to record off the sound card!)

If your sound setup allows you to do this, it might be your simplest solution.
Quite a large number of audio tools exist to record streaming audio, including freeware Audacity audio editor http://audacity.sourceforge.net/. I've used and loved Audacity for years, can't say enough good things about it.
Another free one is HddOgg from http://www.fridgesoft.de/harddiskogg.php

[Wasabi]

Originally Posted by grannyGrump

Are you married to the concept of "conversion"? (I did some search for similar tools a long time back, and gave up on finding anything free or cheap that would give acceptable results.)

How about playing the midi file, and recording the streaming audio off of your sound card? i.e. "What You Hear". (too bad I haven't been able to get my current computer to record off the sound card!)

I think you misunderstood. Converting MIDI to MP3 is trivial. Converting MP3 to MIDI is not, as George has pointed out.

AmazingMIDI is free and does quite a good job with single instrument files, even picking out complex chords accurately.

If you're looking to convert a full band song to MIDI, you're probably going to be SOL for eternity. There's a spectacular complexity involved in such a task.