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Converting mp3s to MIDI
- Thread starter Rajj
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JackRipper
macrumors regular
notjustjay
macrumors 603
That's not possible -- at least not easily.
First of all, it would only work for instrumental pieces -- MIDI would not do anything for vocals, sound effects, or anything else that's not pure instruments.
Second, you'd have to isolate individual instruments -- something which the human ear does remarkably easily, but I don't think we have any technology to separate an MP3 of an orchestral piece into, say, 10 separate MP3 tracks, one for the tuba, one for the drums, one for ... etc.
Supposing we did: We'd then have to analyze each separate track to find out what note or chord is being played (C, F# major, etc.) and for how long, and convert those into MIDI note commands. It would probably have to round to the nearest partial beat, so any "nuances" caused by playing slightly off-time would be lost.
Your MIDI would be a mere shadow of the original piece...
Put it this way: It's dead easy to take a piece of sheet music and convert it to a symphony -- just give it to an orchestra and tell them to play it. But to hear a symphony and write out sheet music based only on what you heard, would be very laborious -- unless maybe you gave it to Mozart...
First of all, it would only work for instrumental pieces -- MIDI would not do anything for vocals, sound effects, or anything else that's not pure instruments.
Second, you'd have to isolate individual instruments -- something which the human ear does remarkably easily, but I don't think we have any technology to separate an MP3 of an orchestral piece into, say, 10 separate MP3 tracks, one for the tuba, one for the drums, one for ... etc.
Supposing we did: We'd then have to analyze each separate track to find out what note or chord is being played (C, F# major, etc.) and for how long, and convert those into MIDI note commands. It would probably have to round to the nearest partial beat, so any "nuances" caused by playing slightly off-time would be lost.
Your MIDI would be a mere shadow of the original piece...
Put it this way: It's dead easy to take a piece of sheet music and convert it to a symphony -- just give it to an orchestra and tell them to play it. But to hear a symphony and write out sheet music based only on what you heard, would be very laborious -- unless maybe you gave it to Mozart...
Re: Converting mp3s to MIDI
Huh?! I think this would be like taking a JPG picture of a famous artwork, and asking how do I convert this back to the original oil on canvas. I don't think you can get there from here.
Huh?! I think this would be like taking a JPG picture of a famous artwork, and asking how do I convert this back to the original oil on canvas. I don't think you can get there from here.
SilentPanda
Moderator emeritus
Re: Converting mp3s to MIDI
You can't.
An mp3 is a compressed version of the song. A midi file is actually very different. Typically a midi file will have different instruments and each instrument is "triggered" at different notes, for different lengths, for different volumes. You could in theory convert an MP3 to a midi if you sliced up the MP3 into midi samples and then played them all in order I suppose. But it would be completely insane.
Also I think typically the instruments are not stored in the midi file. It's just socially accepted that instrument 1 on a persons computer is a piano, instrument 2 is a funk piano, instrument 43 is a violin etc. So if somebody else played your midi file they wouldn't get the song anyhow.
Then again I'm just making up a lot of this stuff from what I used to know and it's probably terribly technically innaccurate... but in essence... it won't work. Sorry.
You can't.
An mp3 is a compressed version of the song. A midi file is actually very different. Typically a midi file will have different instruments and each instrument is "triggered" at different notes, for different lengths, for different volumes. You could in theory convert an MP3 to a midi if you sliced up the MP3 into midi samples and then played them all in order I suppose. But it would be completely insane.
Also I think typically the instruments are not stored in the midi file. It's just socially accepted that instrument 1 on a persons computer is a piano, instrument 2 is a funk piano, instrument 43 is a violin etc. So if somebody else played your midi file they wouldn't get the song anyhow.
Then again I'm just making up a lot of this stuff from what I used to know and it's probably terribly technically innaccurate... but in essence... it won't work. Sorry.
There is no way to do this. MIDI is more like a programing language. It just tells MIDI capable instruments when to play a certain note, for how long and at what volume. Your mp3 files are a compressed digital version of analog music. It's more like trying to figure out how and when brush stroke were applied to a painting with only the final piece of art. Sure, you could do it with a lot of time and patience, but why?
notjustjay
macrumors 603
Rajj,
Do you have a piano? Perhaps the easiest thing to do is to just sit down and figure out how to place the tune you have in mind, and then enter those notes into a MIDI file or into a ringtone description file. If it's a ringtone, you're only interested in the melody anyway and it's probably pretty short, so it's quite doable.
Do you have a piano? Perhaps the easiest thing to do is to just sit down and figure out how to place the tune you have in mind, and then enter those notes into a MIDI file or into a ringtone description file. If it's a ringtone, you're only interested in the melody anyway and it's probably pretty short, so it's quite doable.