Musicnotes.com (or similar) to synthesia.

bent429 · Post by **bent429** » 02-09-13 6:56 am

Hi,

I'm interested in a faster method of converting sheet music to midi. If i could purchase a nice made-for-piano solo in midi format, that's what I'd do, but good midi files are tough to find. So now I'm just purchasing the sheet music and resort to input the score note-by-note; which takes F O R E V E R. Is there a program or a workaround (via screen record of the audio etc...) that anyone uses that will easily convert digital sheet music to midi? I've used musicnotes.com for example, and it gives me a link to change the key, plus you can also listen to it...which makes me wonder if there might be a midi-type file or something embedded that could be converted to midi. Sidebar: I'm not looking to do anything illegal here, I'm simply purchasing the music for me, but I want to put it in synthesia and i'm looking for a way to do that quicker--that's all i'm looking for. Any suggestions?

Cheers,

benjy

jimhenry · Post by **jimhenry** » 02-09-13 9:41 am

The conversion of audio to MIDI is an elusive "holy grail" of MIDI file preparation. There are programs that do it but none that are really good at it that I know of.

I find that I can prepare a MIDI file from sheet music pretty quickly using "step input" with a MIDI keyboard. In step input you set the note duration using the computer keyboard and then play in the notes. For the music I play it probably takes no more than 1 minute per measure.

The free MuseScore offers step input. I am guessing most sequencers do.

Pianotehead · Post by **Pianotehead** » 02-09-13 3:04 pm

But you can't use step input in a mixed notelength song? For example when there are two quarter notes, three eight notes, one sixteenth note, even followed by eight note triplets.

jimhenry · Post by **jimhenry** » 02-09-13 10:32 pm

Sure you can. If it is mixed note lengths in succession you just hit the computer keyboard key for the length of the note you are going to enter. You quickly learn them and it doesn't slow you down very much although it is a pain when no two successive notes are the same length. In the sequencer I use, tied notes are the most difficult thing because I have to go back and tie them after they are entered. I usually play the pitches on the music keyboard with my right hand and key the durations on the computer keyboard with my left regardless of whether it is a right hand or left hand part that I am entering. If you have two durations that start at the same time in one hand, say eighth notes played over a held half note in one hand, it is trickier to enter but it can be done. In the sequencer I use, you would basically enter each line of non-overlapping notes independently so it is almost like entering a third staff. In the sequencer I use, tied notes are the most difficult thing because I have to go back and tie them after they are entered.

jimhenry · Post by **jimhenry** » 02-10-13 1:38 am

You should see if this works for you:
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=5424