MP3 to MIDI

[PrietoBass]

Hi!

I read about the important to learn to "transcribe" in one of the threads (How often do you practice?) on this forum. However, for the sake of fun I also enjoy plugin a VOX to my bass and following along songs in Guitar Pro 5. I have been looking for an MP3 to MIDI converter so that I can import my favorite songs into Guitar Pro 5 and attempt to follow the bass lines.

I downloaded something called 7Canaries 1.0 Professional (the trial version) but either a) I am using it wrong or 2) it doesn't do what I want it to do.

Does anyone know of a program that will allow me to take an MP3 and automatically convert it into MIDI tracks? (Or at least not have to be a studio technician to use it?)

Thx!

[elros]

I do not believe such a thing exists.

[BassChuck]

That's a tough one. Remember that any audio signal is one wave (stereo is two versions of the same wave). So all audio is one signal that is the sum of all the sounds it represents. MIDI, on the other hand, can have as many tracks as one needs to create the sound. Once a MIDI file has been recorded in audio form, it becomes one wave. And while the wonder of the human brain can keep track of many if not all the different sounds in that one wave, we've yet to create a computer algorithm that can sort it all out.

There are a few programs that will take a monophonic sound and convert it to MIDI information. I've never used one, but from what I've read harmony or different tone colors don't do well, and even the sign line will not be perfect due to changes in intonation etc etc.

[warnergt]

There is software like widisoft to convert music to MIDI.
I have it. Frankly, it's not that good. You end up going through
the music note by note to clean it up and fix it up only to find
it very difficult to separate out the wanted notes from the
unwanted notes. Even bass lines that sound pretty clear get
lost in a sea of notes that the program creates; they don't
get converted well. Converting music to MIDI is not trivial.

To get bass lines out of music, I personally prefer Transcribe!
It slows down the music and can perform a frequency
analysis to help identify notes. It still takes time and effort
but it beats other methods.