Audio → MIDI transcription
Turn piano audio into MIDI,
right on your Mac.
Drop a piano recording into LumaKeys and it becomes editable MIDI: falling notes you can play, a piano roll you can reshape, and a piece that lives in your library. Transcription runs on-device on your Mac — no upload, no account, no per-song credits. You get 5 transcriptions free; Pro is $99 one-time and makes them unlimited. The free beta is open now, and beta testers lock the $69 founding price.
A real transcription in LumaKeys: audio in, playable falling notes out.
How it works
- 1
Drop the recording in
Drag a piano audio file into LumaKeys — a voice memo from your phone, an old performance, a practice take. No account, no upload form, no queue.
- 2
It becomes MIDI, on your Mac
LumaKeys transcribes the recording on-device into editable MIDI: every note with its timing and velocity. Your audio never leaves your computer.
- 3
Play it, fix it, keep it, export it
The result is a real piece in your library: falling notes you can learn from, a piano roll where you can correct or reshape anything, and export as MIDI or as a video up to 4K.
On-device vs. online converters
Many online piano converters are built around upload, conversion, and download — often as sheet music, PDF, MusicXML, or MIDI. LumaKeys is built differently: transcription happens on your Mac, and the result is a piece you can immediately play, edit, and export.
| Aspect | Online converters | LumaKeys |
|---|---|---|
| Where transcription runs | Their servers — you upload your audio | On your Mac — nothing uploaded |
| Pricing model | Subscription or per-song credits | 5 free · unlimited with Pro ($69 founding · $99 regular) |
| What you get back | A MIDI / PDF / MusicXML download | A playable, editable piece in your library |
| Fixing mistakes | Re-import the file into another editor | Built-in piano roll, right there |
| What happens after | You need more tools to learn or present it | Learn it from falling notes, style it, export video |
Compared July 2026. Cloud tools are the right pick if what you want is printable sheet music (PDF/MusicXML) — that's their focus, and LumaKeys doesn't do notation.
What people transcribe
Write down what you played
You improvised something good and only have a phone recording. Transcribe it, clean it up in the piano roll, and it's a piece you can keep and relearn.
Recover your old recordings
Performances from years ago become editable MIDI — loop them, slow them down, and learn your own playing back.
Learn public-domain classics
Chopin, Scriabin, Rachmaninoff — recordings of public-domain works you have rights to become falling notes you can practice section by section.
Skip the manual note-typing
Instead of reconstructing a piece note by note in an editor, start from a transcription that's already 90% there and correct the rest.
Use recordings you made yourself or otherwise have the rights to — your own playing, recordings shared with permission, and public-domain works.
How accurate is it, honestly?
Good enough to be the fastest starting point, and not magic. Clean solo-piano recordings transcribe well: notes, timing, and dynamics land where you played them. Heavy pedal, very dense chords, or noisy phone recordings will produce some extra or merged notes — every piano transcriber on the market has this trade-off, cloud or not.
The difference is what happens next. In a cloud tool, a wrong note means downloading the file and opening yet another editor. In LumaKeys, the piano roll is one click away: fix the note, and keep going. Transcription plus editing in the same app is the whole point.
Questions & answers
Is my audio uploaded anywhere?
No. Transcription runs on-device on your Mac (Apple Silicon). LumaKeys has no account and uploads nothing — your recordings stay on your computer.
How many transcriptions are free?
Five, on the Free tier, so you can properly test it on your own recordings. Pro is $99 one-time and makes transcription unlimited. The free beta is open now, and beta testers lock the $69 founding price.
What audio works best?
Solo piano with a reasonably clean recording. Dense, pedal-heavy passages can come out with extra or merged notes — that's true of every piano transcriber — and in LumaKeys the piano roll is right there to fix them.
Can I edit the transcription?
Yes. Every transcription becomes a normal piece in LumaKeys: open the piano roll, correct notes, adjust timing, split hands, and reshape it however you want.
Can I export the result as a MIDI file?
Yes. You can export the MIDI to use anywhere else, or stay in LumaKeys and export a falling-note video up to 4K/60.
Does it transcribe other instruments or full songs?
It's built for piano. A full band mix or vocals aren't the target — for solo piano recordings, that focus is exactly why it works well.
More on how LumaKeys compares: LumaKeys vs Synthesia · the best Synthesia alternatives · pricing
Sources & proof
Sources checked 12 July 2026. This guide is about LumaKeys' on-device workflow; other products are linked only to show the different output and delivery models.
- Original LumaKeys transcription demo on this page
- LumaKeys pricing and transcription limits
- Piano2Notes online transcription workflow
- Ivory's score-first transcription workflow
Join the LumaKeys beta now.
One-time purchase · No subscription