Frequently Asked Questions

Songscription is an AI-powered platform that turns audio into sheet music, MIDI, guitar tabs, and an interactive piano roll. Upload an audio or video file (MP3, WAV, FLAC, AAC, M4A, MP4, MOV, and more), paste a YouTube, Instagram, or TikTok link, record in your browser, or import a MIDI or MusicXML file. We transcribe piano, guitar, bass, double bass, violin, flute, trumpet, saxophone, drums, and vocals one at a time, or every instrument in a song at once with Multi-Instrument. We also write piano covers at five difficulty levels, add piano finger numbers and chord symbols, and let you fix anything in the editor yourself or by asking Annie, our AI assistant. Export as PDF, MIDI, MusicXML, or Guitar Pro.

Musicians, music teachers, students, composers, and producers who want a recording turned into something they can read, play, or edit. Pianists use it for piano covers at their level with finger numbers, teachers and band directors use Multi-Instrument to get a part for each player from one recording, and producers use multitrack MIDI to rebuild a song in their DAW. We support piano, guitar, bass, double bass, violin, flute, trumpet, saxophone, drums, vocals, and more, and many users come to us for audio-to-MIDI or MIDI-to-score conversion.

Yes! Songscription.ai is available worldwide. You can upload files from any location, and we'll generate your sheet music, MIDI, and guitar tablature in minutes. Every transcription also comes with an interactive piano roll for anyone who prefers it to notation. Recent additions include Multi-Instrument for full-band recordings, piano covers at five difficulty levels, automatic piano finger numbers, chord detection, and Annie, an AI assistant that edits your score when you describe the change.

Our transcription is optimized for Western notation. Single-instrument transcription covers piano, guitar, bass, double bass, violin, flute, trumpet, saxophone, drums, and vocals, and Multi-Instrument also recognizes strings, brass, woodwinds, and synths in a mixed recording. Many users from non-Western regions have successfully transcribed traditional and regional styles. Notes between the twelve Western pitches come back as the nearest standard note. We're expanding our models based on user demand, so feel free to suggest an instrument or notation through our feedback form!

Yes, Songscription runs in your mobile browser, so you can upload, transcribe, and view your results on your phone. For learning songs on piano, we also make Anything Piano, an iPhone and iPad app that turns any song into an interactive piano roll, splits it into parts you learn one at a time, and listens as you play. It works with a MIDI keyboard, or through the microphone on an acoustic or digital piano, shows finger numbers on the roll, and lets you slow a song down, loop a section, and use Wait mode. It's a separate app with its own subscription, and Android users can join the waitlist at playanything.com/anythingpiano.

Songscription turns a recording into sheet music, MIDI, MusicXML, and tabs that you can edit and export, for piano or any instrument we support. Anything Piano is our iPhone and iPad app for learning songs on piano: it turns a song into a piano roll rather than sheet music, splits it into parts, shows finger numbers on the notes, follows your playing, and shows which notes you hit and missed. Use Songscription when you want the music written down, and Anything Piano when you want to practice it. They are separate apps with separate subscriptions.

Yes. Choose piano cover and we'll write a solo piano arrangement of any song from its recording, even when the original has no piano in it. Pick one of five difficulty levels: Adaptive, which stays closest to the recording, then Beginner–Intermediate, Intermediate, Intermediate–Advanced, and Advanced. If the result doesn't fit, regenerate it at another level in about 30 seconds. You can also arrange a song as a piano accompaniment, a lead sheet, or piano + vocal.

Piano covers come in five levels. Adaptive, the default, stays as close to the recording as possible. Beginner–Intermediate uses simpler textures with fewer notes under each hand, Intermediate is fuller but still comfortable, Intermediate–Advanced adds denser harmony and more movement, and Advanced keeps the most detail. Each level is a fresh arrangement of the recording rather than a copy with notes deleted, and switching takes about 30 seconds. To simplify a MusicXML score you already have, use the Sheet Music Leveler.

Pick a song you want to learn, run it through Songscription as a piano cover at the Beginner–Intermediate level, and practice it on the piano roll or the sheet music. Turn on finger numbers to see which finger plays each note. If it still feels hard, regenerate it a level easier; if it feels thin, go a level up. If you'd rather practice with feedback on a real piano, Anything Piano, our iPhone and iPad app, listens as you play along.

Yes. Piano scores get finger numbers automatically, from 1 for the thumb to 5 for the pinky. They appear as labels on the piano roll and on the sheet music once you switch on Finger numbers. They're generated for MIDI and MusicXML files you import as well as for songs transcribed from audio. Fingering is for piano only, and like any suggested fingering it's a starting point that a teacher or your own hand may adjust.

Every transcription comes with an interactive piano roll that shows each note as a bar above the key it belongs to, so you can see what to play without reading notation. Finger numbers can appear on the roll too, and you can slow playback down to follow along. The sheet music view shows the same notes, so you can start reading whenever you're ready.

Yes. Songscription listens for the chords in the recording and writes chord symbols above the score, lined up with the piano roll as the song plays. That gives you the harmony even if you only want to strum or comp along, and you can arrange the song as a lead sheet to get the melody and chord symbols on one page.

Yes. Choose drums and Songscription listens for the kit in the recording, even in a full mix, and writes it out as drum notation you can export as PDF, MusicXML, or MIDI. Drums are also one of the parts Multi-Instrument writes out when you transcribe a whole band. Like every instrument other than piano, drum transcription is in beta, so busy fills and cymbal-heavy passages may need some cleanup in the editor.

Yes. Every transcription opens in an editor where you can fix pitches, move or delete notes, reassign notes between the left and right hand, and adjust timing, either in the sheet music view or the piano roll. You can also ask Annie, the editor's AI assistant, to make changes for you in plain words, from fixing a note to transposing the whole score. Your edits are saved to the transcription, and you can re-export a corrected PDF, MIDI, MusicXML, or Guitar Pro file whenever you like.

Annie is the AI assistant inside the Songscription editor. Tell her what to change in plain words and she makes the edit on the score: transpose a part or the whole song to a new key, change the key or time signature, fix wrong notes, add lyrics, dynamics, articulations or repeats, insert bars, or show finger numbers and chord symbols. You can listen back and undo anything you don't want. Annie is available on every signed-in account, free accounts included. She edits music you already have; she doesn't compose new music.

Accuracy is highest on clean recordings of a single instrument, like a solo piano or guitar track. Piano is our most mature model, and the other instruments are in beta. Busy mixes, heavy background noise, and recordings with many overlapping instruments transcribed with Multi-Instrument are harder, so results there may need some cleanup. Because you can edit every note directly on the platform, you can quickly correct anything the model misses. Our models also keep improving, so it's worth re-running an older file every few months.

You can upload audio files (MP3, WAV, FLAC, AAC, M4A) and video files (MP4, MOV, WebM) that we pull the audio from. You can also paste a YouTube, Instagram, or TikTok link, record audio directly in your browser, or import a MIDI or MusicXML file to edit and convert.

No. Songscription transcribes sound, so it works from audio, video, and links, and it can import MIDI and MusicXML files. It can't read a PDF, a photo, or a paper score. If your notation software can export the piece as MusicXML, import that file instead, and you can edit it, play it on the piano roll, add finger numbers, or simplify it.

Yes. Paste the link into Songscription, choose the instrument you want, and we'll pull the audio and transcribe it into sheet music, MIDI, tabs, and a piano roll. This works for YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram links, so you can turn a clip or sound you found online and have the rights to into notation you can actually play.

You can download as a PDF (printable sheet music), MIDI (for DAWs like Ableton, Logic Pro, FL Studio, and GarageBand), MusicXML (for MuseScore, Finale, Sibelius, Dorico, etc.), and Guitar Pro (for Guitar Pro, PowerTab, etc.). All formats are generated from the same transcription, so you can download multiple from a single upload.

Yes. Choose Multi-Instrument and we'll transcribe a mixed recording in one pass, with a separate track for each instrument across keys, guitars, bass, strings, brass, woodwinds, saxophones, synths, voice, and drums. Sung parts come back as one voice track, so a choir is not split into separate voices. You get sheet music and multitrack MIDI you can open in your DAW, and every keyboard part is split into left and right hands. Multi-Instrument keeps improving over time. If you need one part as clean as possible, choose that instrument on its own instead: our AI focuses on just that part and ignores the rest of the mix.

Yes! You can share a public link which we provide with every transcription. We encourage you to share your compositions broadly, and if you add us on social media, we'll follow back and promote your posts :).

Yes, there's a Free plan with free 30-second transcriptions, always available and no card required. You can also start a 14-day free trial (no card needed) to unlock longer transcriptions. Our Plus plan includes 60 minutes of transcription per month, unlocks PDF, MIDI, MusicXML, and Guitar Pro exports, and supports up to 15 minutes per transcription. Our Pro plan includes 300 minutes per month plus priority support. Refer 5 friends who each transcribe a song and you'll earn a free month of Plus. We also offer discounts for students, educators, and nonprofits, and for API or bulk transcription needs you can reach us at hello@songscription.ai.

Yes! If you're a music teacher, student, or representative from a music-related nonprofit, reach out via email at hello@songscription.ai. We'll be in touch regarding a discount.

You can cancel anytime from your account settings. You'll keep access to your plan's features until the end of your current billing period, and you can upgrade or downgrade to another plan whenever you like from the same place.

By default, we may use the audio and transcriptions you submit to help improve our AI models. Plus and Pro subscribers can opt out at any time from account settings, after which we won't use your data for model training. Your transcriptions stay tied to your account and are only shared when you choose to share a transcription's public link. For full details, see our Privacy Policy.

The transcription we generate is yours to download, edit, print, and use. You're responsible for making sure you have the rights to the underlying song, since the original composition and recording may still be protected by copyright. If you plan to sell, publish, or perform an arrangement publicly, check the rights to the source material first.

First, try a cleaner recording with less background noise. For a full-band track, choose the one instrument you need instead of Multi-Instrument: the model then focuses on that part and ignores the rest of the mix, and a separated stem of that instrument gives the cleanest result of all. You can also fix any missed notes in the editor, by hand or by asking Annie, rather than starting over. Our models improve continuously, so re-running the same file in a few months often gives a better result.

Feel free to email us at support@songscription.ai. We respond to users within 24 hours on business days and 48 hours over weekends.