Audio to MIDI

About Audio-to-MIDI

Melodyne allows you to export audio notes as MIDI notes. When this is done, a file in Standard MIDI file format is created and saved to your hard disk. This file can then be loaded into your DAW, so you can use it, for instance, to double your vocals with a sound from a software synthesizer.

The MIDI notes are an exact representation of the audio notes in Melodyne. For each audio note, a MIDI note is created with the same position, length and pitch. The velocity of each MIDI note is derived from the amplitude of the audio note it represents.

That is equally true whichever algorithm is used, with a few algorithm-specific exceptions: In the case of vocals, breaths are not exported as MIDI notes; and if you save rhythmic material or material edited with the Universal algorithm as MIDI, all the MIDI notes will share the same pitch but take their position, length and amplitude from their audio equivalents in the rhythm track. You can use this technique, for example, to derive from a drum loop a quantization reference for other MIDI tracks in your DAW.

The generation of MIDI notes from audio material offers a wealth of different creative possibilities. Try it out for yourself!

Saving MIDI from the stand-alone implementation of Melodyne

To save audio material from the stand-alone implementation of Melodyne as a MIDI file on your hard disk, choose File > Export... Mute beforehand the tracks you do not wish to export.

In the Export window, you will find various options. First using the pop-up button on the left select MIDI in the first line; this will gray out the irrelevant options for exporting audio.

In the second line, select the Range (i.e. the portion of the timeline) you wish to export.

• Entire Length: Everything from the beginning to the end of your project.
• Cycle Range Only: Only the segment between the cycle locators.

The “Include tails” option should be selected when you wish to limit the length of the exported material to the cycle range but certain of its notes have not finished sounding when the end of the range is reached. If you choose “Include tails”, the exported segment will be extended just enough to prevent the tails being chopped off.

Click on Export to begin the MIDI export with the selected options. A file selector will open so that you can choose the storage location.