is there any way to convert an audio file to sheet music?

You could try whipping out a piece of staff paper and transcribing it. Its a great practice for your notation handwriting, perfect/relative pitch skills, counting skills, and your knowledge of theory in general.

CodLBi wrote:
GarageBand can transcribe and print to sheet music.
Select (highlight) the track that contains your improvisation.
Click on the music note that appears in "segment".

Note Macpapas said "piano AUDIO file".

Logic has the "Audio to Score" function, in the sample editor. You could read up on that, although I doubt it's going to come close to giving you usable results. Still, it'd be worth trying.

Melodyne can do this, but I believe it's currently restricted to monophonic sound sources.

However, when Melodyne's new DNA feature is made available in the fall, I'm willing to bet it'll be able to handle polyphonic audio to MIDI with ease.

Message was edited by: Jim Frazier

Yes and no. The technology did not (I believe) exist to transform a polyphonic audio file into midi, but it now does. Here's an FAQ for Melodyne:

http://www.celemony.com/cms/index.php?id=dna_qa

However, the software isn't coming out until autumn. I'm pretty sure this is the only thing around that can do this so far.

So I guess in summary -?

Any note event represented as quavers and so on can be translated into standard music annotation.
A modern sequencer like Logic can translate a "piano AUDIO file" object.

I wish I could do it as well.

😉

A modern sequencer like Logic can translate a "piano AUDIO file" object.

Yeah? Have you actually tried to convert even a simple polyphonic piano audio file into the corresponding MIDI performance?

Go on, give it a go... and we'll see if your opinion doesn't change... 😉

In short, no DAW can transcribe polyphonic audio to MIDI yet. The next version of Melodyne promises to be able to do this, but how well it works still remains to be seen.

CodLBi wrote:

Note Macpapas said "piano AUDIO file".

Yes, it was noted.
When you can improvise your music on a piano, GarageBand can print the music.
Believe me, I just tried it.

Just so we're clear here...

You're improvising on a real piano, set up with a couple of mics, and recording the audio of this piano into Garage band, and then printing out sheet music of your improvisation?

Or are you improvising on a piano sample software instrument, within Garageband, and then printing out the sheet music?

You seem to be having difficulty understanding what we are talking about. An *audio file*, not MIDI data. IE, downloading a piano song from iTunes as an audio file, and transcribing that automatically into MIDI. It's not a trival task.

Of course any sequencer can load a MIDIfile, but turning a polyphonic *audio file* into MIDI is a very different ballgame...

All data received at the sequencer input can be recorded as a MIDI region.

Yes, it seems what the poster is asking is whether he can take a prerecorded piece of improvised piano to transcribe, as opposed to transcribing improvisations he or others are recording now. The former, as others have noted, is very difficult. The latter would be doable as you have suggested, by having the piano player improvise into a DAW as MIDI input. But that is not the question that was originally posted.

All right, the advice Logical offered is valid, for me as well.

BJ's conclusive advice offers the most practical solution.

The way to "convert" an audio file to sheet music is to download it from iTunes and transcribe it into midi, automatic and not a trivial task.

My advice is to drag the midi file into GarageBand and print the "audio file" to sheet music.

GarageBand can transcribe and print to sheet music.
Select (highlight) the piano track.
Click on the music note that appears in "segment".

(I do agree with Logical however)

Note Macpapas said "piano AUDIO file".

Yes, it was noted.
When you can improvise your music on a piano, GarageBand can print the music.
Believe me, I just tried it.

All data received at the sequencer input can be recorded as a MIDI region.

[Transcribe!|http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/audio/transcribe.html] reads audio from many different types of audio file and audio CD.

He can.