<p>My 19 year old son rediscovered the piano. It was the bane of his childhood, and now he can't stop playing, go figure! Anyway, I was hoping some of you could recommend some cool computer software we could give him as a gift. Software that maybe turns played music into sheet music? Does something like that exist? If it makes any difference, he's into jazz- and classical-inspired contemporary stuff (think Tori Amos, Miyazaki composer Joe Hisaishi, some Lady Gaga pieces.)</p>
<p>AudioScore is a program that would be able to (attempt to) transcribe raw audio (CD, Mp3, etc; as opposed to MIDI) files into sheet music. It comes bundled with Sibelius 7, which is music notation software.</p>
<p>Also, if your son has a MIDI/electronic keyboard that can attach to a computer, then there exists a large wealth of programs that can turn MIDI files or even live input into sheet music.</p>
<p>Most of the major music programs (Finale, Sibelius) have Midi to sheet music interfaces, that can convert either live playing on a midi keyboard or reading a midi format file and turn it into sheet music. One warning, from the little i have seen of those programs, they aren’t perfect, they usually require ‘cleaning up’, depending on the complexity of the music. I would suspect on a technical level the same thing would apply to programs that can read MP3 files and such.</p>
<p>Aw… I knew I could count on the CC crowd for advice. Thank you so much. And if you have some other thoughts - something you enjoyed or that worked for you - let me know.</p>
<p>If your Son is playing with a keyboard controller into the computer and would like it to sound as close to an acoustic piano as possible there is a software package called Ivory from Synthogy that is worth every dime. My older kid has been using it for years to record with and people are stunned to learn that it was not a mic’d acoustic.
Best of Luck - check out the samples here.</p>
<p>[url=<a href=“404”>http://www.synthogy.com/]Synthogy[/url</a>]</p>
<p>Yeah, I think the O/P (or the son) needs to be a little bit more specific.</p>
<p>Back when I was considering such things, the ability of software to recognize pitch, dynamics, multiple notes at same time (polyphony), etc, in an audio file and convert it into MIDI or music notation very accurately, I don’t think existed. At least not in my price range.</p>
<p>One poster’s suggestion to get a MIDI controller keyboard makes the best sense.</p>
<p>If, by chance, WAVE to MIDI is a practical option, maybe this site will help (from 2006, though):</p>
<p>[Convert</a> from music WAV/MP3 to MIDI - software roundup](<a href=“http://www.skytopia.com/project/articles/mp3-to-midi.html]Convert”>Convert from music WAV/MP3 to MIDI - software roundup)</p>
<p>And this company says they have a product that can do it:</p>
<p>[Wav</a> to MIDI conversion and music transcription software - Solo Explorer](<a href=“http://www.recognisoft.com/]Wav”>http://www.recognisoft.com/)</p>
<p>The other posters are far more educated than I am in this, but I can offer you this. My son is studying composition with a mentor who is a professional in the field and was told that Sibelius is what most of those guys are using, at least where he works in LA. We sat in the studio last night during a recording and there was more than one Mac open in the room running Sibelius. If he has any thought about taking his music to the next level, you might want to consider something that can take him there. </p>
<p>By the way, my son is also a huge fan of Joe Hisaishi.</p>
<p>^^^^
Avid/Sibelius is a software company with about 20 different products.
And yes, Sibelius First * and Finale are probably the two most popular “professional” music composition and notation software products.
Again, don’t know how accurate the audio transcribing is.</p>
<h2>If anyone does know, would love to hear.</h2>
<ul>
<li>In the “old days” it used to be called Sibelius 7.
Don’t know what the difference is.</li>
</ul>
<p>My daughter has always used Finale. A lot of her peers use Sibelius, but the company may be shutting down; at least, the London office has closed.</p>
<p>We are not techies in our family. We have an electric piano (none of us are real pianists). I seem to remember buying a long cable that went from the piano to the one desktop computer we had at the time (no laptops yet!). My daughter played one of her early compositions, and it was recorded on a CD. Pretty cool for primitives like us.</p>
<p>But I have no idea how to convert a recording to sheet music. I have heard that my daughter, who writes by hand, could play her handwritten score on the piano, and Finale would record the notes on a score, but she does it by hand anyway, from manuscript paper to computer. Nevertheless, apparently it is possible.</p>
<p>^^ Compmom, yes this would be very tangential to the OP, but there have been some startling recent developments re: Sibelius.</p>
<p>Sibelius is not “shutting down” per se, but the company that owns Sibelius (Avid) has recently decided that it will not develop the software further. Sibelius itself (along with its users and musicians everywhere, including those that use Finale) have condoned Avid’s “abandonment” and have been strongly protesting Avid to either, keep supporting Sibelius, or sell it to another company.</p>
<p>This is major bad news for the entire music notation industry. Without Sibelius on the market, there is no incentive/competition for Finale to improve.</p>
<p>The employees at Sibelius have been very active over the internet and on social networking websites gathering their fans and users to protest to Avid. There is a large Facebook page devoted to these current events at this moment.</p>
<p>Thanks EarlGr8. This info will be helpful to others.</p>
<p>Did you mean that Sibelius has “NOT condoned…”???</p>
<p>.
“Sibelius itself (along with its users and musicians everywhere, including those that use Finale) have condoned Avid’s ‘abandonment’ and have been strongly protesting”</p>
<p>Without Sibelius, I would also think Finale could set a price that might be too high.</p>
<p>Sorry for the tangent, folks.</p>
<p>Wow, I didn’t know that about Avid!</p>
<p>They also make Pro Tools, one of the most popular DAWs / sequencers in the industry.</p>
<p>Wonder if that is effected too.</p>
<p>Haha, compmom, I think I must’ve meant to type “condemned”!</p>
<p>BTW - it is worthy to note that Sibelius is not being discontinued, nor is it at the risk of being so anytime soon. It’s just the office that develops Sibelius was shut down last month. Avid claims that this will make no difference to the software or to technical support for its users. But of course, fans of the software are crying doomsday nonetheless. Unless Avid sells off the software, I wouldn’t expect any further updates to Sibelius 7, forget about Sibelius 8.</p>
<p>And ProTools is not affected. In fact, one of the reasons of Avid closing down Sibelius’ development studio last month was for the company to focus its dwindling money on ProTools.</p>
<p>Speaking of which, ProTools may also be another software to consider buying for your son (to get back to the OP). You would need to buy additional hardware (like an MBox USB interface; this will require further research), but if your son has interests in e.g. top-quality recording/editing, then ProTools is one of the top-of-the-line things in the industry.</p>
<p>^^^^
Thanks for the info.
For a DAW, I use Acoustica’s Mixcraft:
[Mixcraft</a> 6](<a href=“http://www.acoustica.com/mixcraft/]Mixcraft”>http://www.acoustica.com/mixcraft/)
It is very inexpensive and extremely easy to use.
For USB input, I found M-Audio to be ok but it did not support phantom power mics, so I got a Yamaha Audiogram:
[AUDIOGRAM</a> - Interfaces (FireWire/USB) - Music Production Tools - Products - Yamaha United States](<a href=“Interfaces (FireWire/USB) - Synthesizers & Music Production Tools - Products - Yamaha USA”>Interfaces (FireWire/USB) - Synthesizers & Music Production Tools - Products - Yamaha USA)</p>