Old recordings
Get the notes off an old piano record
Some of the greatest piano playing exists only on worn 78s and tapes. Upload a transfer and get the performance back as MIDI, note for note.
10 free minutes of transcription every 30 days, whole pieces included, no card required. See plans
Drop your audio or video file here, or click to browse
WAV · MP3 · FLAC · OGG · M4A · MP4 · MOV
The free plan transcribes recordings up to 10 minutes, 10 minutes every 30 days. Paid plans go up to 30 minutes.
Transcribing needs an account — we’ll hold onto your file while you sign in.
Surface noise and all
Crackle, hiss and a narrow frequency range are what old recordings sound like. The model hears through most of it, because it listens for the shape of piano notes, not just loudness.
Where a record is badly worn you may get a few stray notes in the extreme high or low register. In the Jazz setting, isolated quiet notes there are filtered out.
Hear it slowly
Play the result back on the page at a fraction of the speed, as falling notes, and you can see what a stride left hand or a novelty-piano break actually does. That is far easier than slowing the scratchy original.
Or open the MIDI in a DAW with a good piano sound and hear the performance without the noise.
Free examples
Hear what it does with a 100-year-old record: the free MIDI library has transcriptions of public-domain ragtime and novelty piano 78s to play and download.
Then upload your own transfer.
Questions
Which files can I upload?
MP3, WAV, FLAC, OGG, M4A or AAC, or an MP4 or MOV video. A transfer at a good bitrate keeps the most detail.
What if the record runs fast or slow?
The notes come out at the pitch they sound. If the transfer is off speed, every note is shifted; most DAWs can transpose the MIDI back.
Can I share the MIDI?
That depends on the recording and the composition, not on the transcription. Recordings published in the US in 1925 or earlier are in the public domain there.