Quick Guide: Getting Accurate MIDI from Audio with AudioScore Professional

Quick Guide: Getting Accurate MIDI from Audio with AudioScore ProfessionalConverting audio into accurate MIDI can unlock powerful editing, arranging, and notation workflows. Neuratron’s AudioScore Professional is built specifically for this task: it listens to audio and converts what it hears into MIDI and notation you can edit. This guide walks through practical steps and settings to maximize accuracy, common pitfalls, and workflow tips to get musically useful results.

Why accuracy matters

Accurate MIDI ensures pitch, timing, dynamics, and articulation are represented so you can:

• Edit notes precisely.
• Export clean notation.
• Trigger better-sounding virtual instruments.
• Save time in transcription and arranging.

Preparation: choose the right source material

AudioScore performs best with:

• Isolated monophonic audio (single clear melody) — highest accuracy.
• Clean recordings without heavy reverb, crowd noise, or compression.
• Recordings at 44.1 kHz or higher with good signal-to-noise ratio.
  Avoid heavily polyphonic mixes (full band) when aiming for note-for-note accuracy; these require more manual correction.

Recording tips before importing

• Use a close mic for instruments and vocals to reduce bleed.
• Reduce background noise and room reverb.
• Record in a consistent level (no extreme compression).
• If possible, record each part separately (lead, bass, harmony).

Setting up AudioScore Professional

1. Create a new project and import your audio file (WAV recommended).
2. Set the correct sample rate and tempo if known; this helps alignment.
3. Choose the appropriate detection mode:
   • Monophonic/voice mode for single-line melodies.
   • Polyphonic mode for chords (expect more manual editing).
4. Select the instrument family (voice, piano, guitar) to bias pitch detection and note grouping.

Detection parameters to tweak

• Sensitivity/threshold: lower sensitivity avoids extra spurious notes from noise; higher sensitivity captures quieter notes. Adjust while previewing.
• Note separation/minimum note length: prevents short noise bursts being labeled as notes.
• Pitch smoothing: reduces jitter; increase for vibrato-heavy performances to get stable pitch detection.
• Tempo/beat detection: lock tempo if the performance is steady; allow detection for expressive rubato but be prepared to correct timing.

Workflow: step-by-step conversion

1. Import audio and set detection mode.
2. Run a quick scan to see results, then zoom into problematic passages.
3. Use spectral and piano-roll views to visually confirm detected notes.
4. Correct pitch octaves and misdetected notes manually using the editor.
5. Quantize timing gently — heavy quantization can kill musical feel. Use swing/feel settings when appropriate.
6. Apply velocity/dynamics adjustments to reflect expression.
7. Export as MIDI and test in your DAW with appropriate virtual instruments.

Common problems and fixes

• Incorrect octaves: transpose suspicious notes by ±12 semitones or use octave-correction tools.
• Missed notes in polyphonic sections: split tracks and process parts separately or manually add notes.
• False detections from noise/reverb: reduce sensitivity and increase minimum note length, or re-record if possible.
• Timing drift: slice audio into sections and detect each with a fixed tempo; use beat/tempo maps.
• Vibrato/pitch slides: increase pitch smoothing or manually correct pitch bends in the MIDI.

Using multiple passes for complex audio

For multi-instrument recordings:

• Isolate tracks (EQ, spectral editing, or multitrack stems) and convert each pass for one instrument.
• Use noise gating and filtering to remove competing frequency content before detection.
• Combine and manually align resulting MIDI tracks in your DAW.

Post-processing in a DAW

• Clean up note lengths, overlaps, and overlaps using piano-roll editing.
• Add pitch bends, modulation, and humanizing to restore natural expression.
• Use instrument-specific articulations and keyswitches for realistic playback.
• If preparing notation, tidy rhythmic values and articulations so the score reads well.

Tips to improve accuracy quickly

• Work with dry, high-quality source audio.
• Process monophonic lines separately whenever possible.
• Use conservative quantization and preserve expressive timing.
• Validate output by listening while watching the piano-roll/spectrum.
• Keep expectations realistic with dense polyphony — manual correction will be necessary.

Quick checklist before export

• Tune and transpose corrected.
• Timing quantized to taste.
• Dynamics adjusted or velocity mapped.
• Unwanted artefacts removed.
• Export settings: Standard MIDI File (SMF) Format 1 for multi-track projects.

Final notes

AudioScore Professional is a powerful tool for turning audio into editable MIDI, but the best results come from combining smart recording practices, careful detection settings, and manual editing. Treat automatic transcription as a starting point — with targeted cleanup you can achieve highly musical and accurate MIDI conversions.