I’m a piano player, and I’d like to transcribe my playing to digital sheet music using an app/program that does two things:
Minimizes the learning curve, while also
Maximizes accuracy.
7-10 years ago I tried using Cubase’s score editor, the first pass transcription required so much work to make it useful that I abandoned that approach.
Google search of course has recommendations, e.g.:
but I’m wondering if anyone might have personal recommendations? I know it’s probably one or the other, but as close to 1- step ease of use combined with great accuracy is my pipe dream.
Thank you!
(PS: I figure MIDI input to the app/program would yield most accurate results, but maybe there’s an app that uses audio input to get great results?)
Watching Dorico vids. Might be what I’m looking for, it’s hard to tell how close to being accurate it will be without a step learning curve. I’ll probably give it a try. Thanks again
Are you referring to notation software or apps that can produce a score from audio or MIDI?
Dorico is by far the finest notation program available but it does not have audio/playing transcription capability. You can however do note input with a MIDI keyboard if you wish.
I think I’ve found vids that show how I can input* a piano MIDI song into Dorico and have it generate a score, but beyond a quick glance I haven’t listened through them before filing them away for later viewing.
Dorico can do that, right?
(EDIT: I meant to type “import”, not “input”, sorry.)
Yes, Dorico can do that, but that isn’t really what “transcription” is. Transcription is strictly used to refer to writing down notation from an original audio recording with no score to reference. If you have MIDI and you are simply notating that, that’s not really transcription.
Thanks for that correction, @mducharme . It’s asking Dorico to generate sheet music for me from an imported MIDI piano file I’m looking to do. Sorry for the incorrect terminology!
To transcribe your piano playing to digital sheet music with minimal effort while maximizing accuracy, here are some recommendations based on my experience and feedback from other users:
PianoConvert: My favorite for automatic transcriptions, especially for piano pieces. It’s very accurate for an automatic software and saves you a lot of time. You can use it with audio files or directly from YouTube with its Chrome extension, which is super convenient. For a 4-minute piece, I go from several hours of manual transcription to just a few minutes with PianoConvert.
Sibelius and Finale: These are industry standards. They offer accurate results but have a steep learning curve.
MuseScore: An excellent free software with good accuracy and an active community. The learning curve is gentler than Sibelius or Finale, but it still requires some time to master.
AnthemScore: Specializes in automatic transcription from audio. Results can vary depending on the complexity of the piece, but it’s a good option if you want to use audio files.
In summary, for a good balance between ease of use and accuracy, I recommend trying PianoConvert or MuseScore. If you’re willing to invest more time in learning, Sibelius and Finale offer very powerful features.
Feel free to test several of these software to see which one best suits your needs.
