Is there an easy way to find the key of a midi file?

Cubase
1

Hello,
is there any easy way of showing the key a midi file is in in Cubase 12?

Regards

2

Hi,

The easiest way is to learn the music theory in this case.

You can try to move the MIDI Part over the Chord Track. Hopefully, it will detect the Chords, display them and also dispalay the Scale based on the Chords.

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3

Hi Martin,
yeah unfortunately, there’s an obvious problem with my music theory skills haha. In some songs, I reach my limit.

But thank you for your reply. The chord track says, it’s E major in the first part, A major in the second part whereas Melodyne on the lead vocals says it’s B minor. Melodyne on the first part of the piano says Bb minor and Melodyne on the second part of the piano says C major. It could be some E whatever special key that the virtuosic piano player is using.

So I have to go with my ears.

4

Hi,

Are these the Chords, or the Scales?

5

its the scale, the one listed below. You can see in the attachment that if one drags the whole track to the chord track, it shows E major for the first part. If I cut and drag only the latter part on the chord track, it shows A major. But the singer sometimes sings tones like an A# which does not sound odd at that spot. If I change it with Melodyne to an A or a B, it does sound odd so it has to be an A# on that spot but the A# does not fit the scale E major nor A major.

grafik
grafik1978Ă—360 53.4 KB

grafik
grafik1859Ă—357 43.2 KB

BTW is there an online web site that computes the scale of the song by entering the chords used? The original pilot tracks were based on the chords F#m, A, E, C#m but the piano player played very virtuosically. I like his playing but he “destroyed” the simplicity of the chords.

6

Hi,

I would consider this as Amaj or rather F#min.

  • The A and F#min the parallel major/minor chords of each other.
  • The E and C#min are also the parallel major/minor chords of each other.

So we have the A (I) and E (V) in fact here.

7

Thanks but A# does not occur as a tone in those scales Amaj and F#min. Why is it ok?

8

Hi,

Why not, if it works, everything is allowed. :wink:

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