How to Convert a Sheet Music PDF to MIDI in 2026

You have a sheet music PDF, or a printed book open on the stand, and you want to hear it, practice along with it, or drop it into your DAW. PDF to MIDI conversion does that: software reads the printed notes and writes a MIDI file you can play, slow down and edit. This guide shows how to convert sheet music to MIDI step by step, compares six converters, and lists the scan habits that decide whether the result is clean.

What PDF to MIDI conversion is, and what you get

PDF to MIDI conversion is optical music recognition (OMR) followed by a file export. Wikipedia describes OMR as a field of research that investigates how to computationally read musical notation in documents, and a survey in ACM Computing Surveys by Calvo-Zaragoza, Hajič and Pacha gives the field its full map in Understanding Optical Music Recognition. The software finds the staff lines, the clefs, the note heads, stems and beams, and rebuilds the pitches and rhythms.

Three file types come out of a good converter, and each does a different job:

• MIDI stores note events. On the MIDI page, each event specifies pitch, timing and velocity, and "MIDI itself contains no sound". You load it in a DAW, a piano app or a keyboard.
• MusicXML stores the notation. The W3C specification calls it a standard open format for exchanging digital sheet music, built for moving scores between notation programs.
• PDF is the engraved page again, useful for printing a clean copy.

The difference matters when you edit. Wikipedia's OMR article notes that MIDI files are not capable of storing engraving information, so slurs, beaming and the layout are lost in MIDI and kept in MusicXML.

Why printed scores convert and handwriting does not

Printed scores convert well because engraved symbols have consistent shapes, sizes and spacing. Handwriting breaks that consistency: stems lean, note heads blur into lines, and every writer draws a quarter rest differently. The OMR article states that the process gets significantly harder for poor scans or handwritten music, which many systems fail to recognize altogether.

How to convert a sheet music PDF to MIDI, step by step

Converting a sheet music PDF to MIDI in Piano Companion takes six steps on iPhone, iPad or Android.

1. Open Transcribe. In Piano Companion, open Transcribe a song. Sign in when the app asks, because your songs and credits are kept in your account.
2. Tap Scan sheet music. The app reads printed music only, so check that your page is engraved, not handwritten.
3. Choose your pages. Tap Scan with the camera for the document camera, Choose photos for pictures you already took, or, on iPhone and iPad, Choose a PDF or image file to pick a PDF from Files. On Android, use the camera scanner or photos from your gallery.
4. Confirm the cost. The Get the notes? sheet shows the page count and the line "1 credit reads up to 3 pages of printed music." You can send up to 12 pages at once. Each account gets one free preview, and for a scan it reads page 1.
5. Wait about 1 to 3 minutes. The app shows Read the pages, Find the notes and Build the song. You can leave the screen; the song appears in Transcribe when it is ready.
6. Play and export. Tap Practise with falling notes to play along, or save the files with Export MIDI, Export MusicXML or Share PDF.

The MIDI file opens in any DAW or sequencer, and the MusicXML file opens in a notation editor for corrections. Inside Piano Companion you can also slow the playback with the speed control and trim the part you want to practice.

The part people get wrong: scan quality

Scan quality decides most of the result, more than the app you pick. The Audiveris handbook recommends 300 DPI for a standard A4 or US Letter page, 400 DPI for small symbols, and nothing below 200 DPI. It also warns against rotation, warping and shadows, because the software uses the staff lines as its reference.

A phone photo follows the same logic: fill the frame with the page, hold the phone parallel to the paper, and avoid the shadow of your own hand.

PDF to MIDI converters compared

Six PDF to MIDI converters cover phones, the browser and the desktop. Each vendor's own site is the source for its row.

MIDI to sheet music: going the other way

MIDI to sheet music is the reverse job, and a notation editor does it. MuseScore Studio, which its site calls "completely free, no limitations", can open MusicXML and MIDI files and save MIDI and MusicXML again. Import the MIDI file, then fix the rhythms, note spelling and the split between the two staves, because MIDI carries no layout.

A MusicXML file of the same piece is always the better starting point, since it keeps the notation. That is why Piano Companion exports both: MIDI for your DAW, MusicXML for your editor.

Tips for a clean scan

A clean scan comes from five habits, and each one fixes a specific error.

• Lighting: an even light from above or beside the page, with no shadow across the staves. A dark band over two bars is the most common cause of missing notes.
• Flat page: press a book open with a hand outside the frame or a sheet of glass. A curved page near the spine bends the staff lines the software follows.
• One page per photo: a two-page spread halves the resolution of every note head. Take each page as its own picture and keep them in order.
• Clefs and signatures in frame: the clef, the key signature and the time signature set the pitch and the rhythm of every bar after them. A crop that cuts them off shifts the whole line.
• Multi-staff piano scores: keep both staves of every system and the brace in the picture, so the left-hand part stays with its right-hand part.

Worked example: a three-page piano piece

A three-page piano piece is a good first test. Photograph each page flat in daylight, choose the three photos in order, and the confirm sheet shows 1 credit, since 1 credit reads up to 3 pages. A fourth page would make it 2 credits, so a long sonata movement of 12 pages costs 4.

After the conversion, play the first line in the falling-notes view and read along on the paper. If you need a refresher on the marks you see, the sheet music symbols guide and the printable music theory cheat sheet cover them.

Common mistakes when you convert sheet music to MIDI

Most bad conversions trace back to the page, not the software.

• Handwritten pages: OMR is built for engraved notation. Copy the music into a notation editor first, or convert a printed edition.
• Cropped staves: a missing clef or bar line makes the software guess. Keep the margins in the picture.
• Low resolution: a page shot from across the room, or a PDF exported at low DPI, blurs note heads into the lines. Aim for the 300 DPI range or a close, sharp phone photo.
• Skipping the check: no converter is perfect. Play the result once against the page and fix wrong accidentals before you practice it.
• Expecting every marking in MIDI: MIDI carries pitch, timing and velocity, not the look of the page. Check dynamics, pedal and repeats in the exported file, and keep the MusicXML when the notation matters.

Edge case: lead sheets with chord symbols only

A lead sheet with a melody line and chord letters converts only partly. The melody staff is notation and converts like any other line, but the chord symbols above it are text, and an OMR app may not turn them into chord notes, so check that part of the result before you rely on it.

For the chords, build the progression yourself. Piano Companion's progression builder plays chords in a loop and exports them as MIDI, so you can layer them under the converted melody.

No PDF? Get the notes from a TikTok, YouTube or Instagram video

Piano Companion turns a video link into the same notes, MIDI, MusicXML and PDF when you have no sheet music at all. The best audio to MIDI converters compared side by side are in our separate guide. Use music you may use for your own practice and study; the confirm sheet asks you to tick "I use this music for my own practice and study" before it starts.

• A TikTok piano cover: in TikTok, tap Share and pick Piano Companion, then confirm with Get the notes.
• A YouTube video or an Instagram Reel: copy the link, open Transcribe, tap Paste under Paste a link, then Get the notes. Facebook links work the same way.
• What to expect: one instrument works best, and only public videos can be transcribed. Recordings run up to 12 minutes: 1 song credit covers up to 6 minutes, and 6 to 12 minutes uses 2.

The one free preview per account plays the first 20 seconds of a song, and a demo song shows a finished transcription without using a credit. A song that fails gives its credit back.

From an MP3 or MP4 file

An MP3 or MP4 file on your phone works too, which covers the "MP3 to sheet music" case. In Transcribe, tap Choose a video or audio file, pick the recording, and confirm. About 1 to 3 minutes later you get falling notes, a PDF of the sheet music, a MIDI file and MusicXML, the same set a scan gives you.

Your PDF to MIDI checklist and next steps

A PDF to MIDI conversion goes right when you check five things.

• Printed music: an engraved edition, not a handwritten page.
• Clean pages: flat, evenly lit, one page per photo, 300 DPI or a sharp close photo.
• Nothing cropped: clefs, key and time signatures, both piano staves and the bar lines in frame.
• Right file for the job: MIDI for a DAW or keyboard, MusicXML for a notation editor, PDF for printing.
• One check pass: play the result against the page and fix wrong notes before you practice.

Once the MIDI plays, practice the piece hands separately on the free online piano, and build reading speed with the sight reading trainer and the guide to sight reading music. Piano Companion keeps the whole loop on one phone: scan or link in, falling notes to play along, and MIDI, MusicXML and PDF out, next to 1,500+ piano chords, 10,000+ scales, a progression builder and a metronome. The Piano Companion page lists every tool.