Songscription — AI Audio to Sheet Music, MIDI & Tabs

Workflow · Three steps

From upload to engraved score.

No install, no plugin management, no format juggling. Feed the atelier an audio source, correct the AI's guess in the built-in editor, export to whichever format your next tool needs.

Feed the workbench

Drop in an MP3, WAV, FLAC, M4A or a video file. Paste a YouTube, Instagram or TikTok link. Or hit record and play a phrase into your browser. All three inputs go through the same notation engine.

Read the transcription

The AI returns a full score in the browser — staff notation, an interactive piano roll and MIDI playback of what it heard. The built-in editor lets you fix rhythm, split hands, add articulations and adjust the key without opening another app.

III

Export in four formats

One click each: PDF sheet music for the music stand, MIDI for your DAW, MusicXML for MuseScore, Sibelius, Finale or Dorico, Guitar Pro (.gp5) for fretted tab playback. Same transcription, four outputs, no reconversion.

Signature output

One transcription, four professional formats.

Every other transcription tool ships one or two formats and leaves you to convert. Songscription's engine emits all four from a single upload — because the score, the MIDI file, the MusicXML and the tab are just different views of the same underlying notation graph.

.PDF

Sheet music

Printable, readable staff notation with key signature, time signature, articulations and expressive markings.

FOR Music stand · Print

.MID

MIDI file

Note events with velocity, timing and channel data. Drop straight into your DAW and reassign instruments.

FOR Logic · Ableton · Cubase · Reaper · Pro Tools

.MUSICXML

MusicXML

Full notation semantics preserved — articulations, expression, layout hints. The professional interchange standard.

FOR MuseScore · Sibelius · Finale · Dorico

.GP5

Guitar Pro tab

Fret-based tablature with playback in Guitar Pro. Bends, slides, hammer-ons preserved where the audio makes them detectable.

FOR Guitar Pro 7 & 8 · Ultimate Guitar

One input · Notation engine · Four outputs

audio.mp3FILE

youtube.com/…URL

browser recordingLIVE

notation
engine

v2026.7

score.pdfPDF

score.midMIDI

score.musicxmlXML

score.gp5GP5

Party of four · Who it's for

Built for people who read the staff.

Songscription is a transcription tool, not a generator or a stem splitter. If you play from sheet music, teach from it, or arrange from it, this is the atelier.

Students

Learn any song from the recording you love. Slow it down, split hands, transpose to a comfortable key without losing accuracy.

Teachers

Generate arrangements at student skill level. Print band parts the same afternoon. Music leveling turns a weekend chore into a click.

Composers

Capture ideas played into your phone as engraved manuscript. Iterate in the editor. Ship MusicXML to Sibelius for a final pass.

Performers

Fast lead sheets from live recordings. Solo transcriptions from your favourite record. Sheet music of your own improvisations preserved.

Field survey · Honest reading

How Songscription stands next to the field.

The transcription market has real specialists. Songscription's edge is output breadth and the built-in editor, not universal instrument coverage or DAW-plugin form. Straight look.

Capability	Songscription	Klangio	AnthemScore	Sibelius PhotoScore
Export formats from single pass	PDF · MIDI · MusicXML · GP5	MIDI · MusicXML	MIDI · MusicXML	MusicXML · Sibelius
Built-in score editor	Yes · in-browser	External	In-app	In Sibelius
YouTube / URL input	Yes · IG · TikTok too	Files only	Files only	PDF / image only
DAW plugin form	Web only	Native plugin	Standalone	External
Music leveling for teachers	Native	Not available	Not available	Not available
Piano cover mode	Yes	Not available	Not available	Not available
Free tier	30-sec unlimited	Limited demo	30-day trial	Paid only
Instrument breadth	9 · piano strongest	Wider coverage	Piano focus	Any staff notation

Dispatches · From the desk

What users write, edited lightly.

Excerpts from Songscription's own launch blog, TechCrunch coverage and forum posts. One is a three-star — pretending everyone is thrilled is how you lose trust.

★★★★★

I honestly didn't expect any transcription AI to perform well on the piece I gave it, based on its difficulty and fast pace. Songscription proved me wrong. Sat down and played it back the same afternoon.

Jamal T.

Jazz piano student

★★★☆☆

Great on solo piano and clean fingerstyle guitar. Full-band pop mixes still need real manual work in the editor. Fair for the price on the free tier, but I would not trust a first pass without checking every bar.

Sofía M.

Arranger & music tutor

★★★★★

There are so many songs I've written throughout my life that I hold in my hands but have never been able to pass on. Songscription opened a new door. For the first time I have a lasting time capsule.

Robert N.

Songwriter · via launch blog

Dossier · The story

A Stanford launch that raised on a very specific promise.

Songscription launched in June 2025 with founding CEO Andrew Carlins, a Stanford MBA and Master of Arts in Education student. TechCrunch called it a Shazam for sheet music. The company came out of StartX and closed a $5 million seed round led by Reach Capital. The pitch was narrow and easy to test: use AI to close the gap between the songs musicians love and the sheet music they can sit down and play.

By launch day the platform had processed 20,000 transcriptions for 3,000 users across 150 countries, with a 60 percent monthly growth rate and a first commercial contract with a music company for its audio-to-MIDI model — reportedly the best out there in their evaluation. The product surface expanded to nine instruments, a built-in editor, an interactive piano roll, music leveling for teachers, and a companion iOS app for piano learners called Anything Piano.

Honest trade-offs. Songscription is web-only for the main product — Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge on desktop or tablet. There is no DAW plugin form, so producers who want transcription inside Logic or Ableton look elsewhere (Klangio for that specific need). Polyphonic full-band accuracy is the ceiling — solo and single-instrument recordings are the sweet spot, dense pop mixes still need a human in the editor. The interface is English-only. The Pro tier at 29.99 a month is on the higher end for casual users; the free 30-second tier and referral month exist precisely because the team knows this.

What you get in return: four professional formats from one pass, an editor that saves the round trip to Sibelius, and a specific mission — empower musicians worldwide to learn and play the songs they love. Read the launch story on TechCrunch.

Debrief · FAQ

Questions worth asking straight.

Nine answers, no hedging. If a feature is missing or does not fit, we say so.

What does Songscription do?

Songscription turns audio into notation. Feed it an MP3, a WAV, a YouTube link or a live browser recording, and it returns readable sheet music, a MIDI file for your DAW, MusicXML for MuseScore or Sibelius, and Guitar Pro tabs for fretted instruments — all from the same neural network pass. The core promise is that a musician who could not read a track before can now sit at their instrument with an actual score in front of them.

Which instruments does Songscription transcribe?

Nine at the time of writing: piano, guitar, bass, violin, flute, trumpet, saxophone, drums and vocals. The piano engine is the most reliable — accurate enough that jazz piano students throw fast, dense pieces at it and get usable results back. Guitar, bass and single-instrument classical work well. Drums and vocals are supported but expect more manual cleanup than on piano.

Is Songscription free?

Yes on the entry tier. The free plan gives unlimited 30-second transcriptions — enough to test a phrase, learn a riff or verify quality on your own material before paying. Plus starts around ten dollars a month and unlocks longer transcriptions with all export formats. Pro at 29.99 a month gives 300 minutes per month plus priority support. Referrals earn free months, and there are honest discounts for students, teachers and music nonprofits.

What export formats do I get?

Four professional-grade outputs from a single upload. PDF sheet music for printing and reading. MIDI for dropping into Logic, Ableton, Cubase, Reaper or Pro Tools. MusicXML for opening the score in MuseScore, Sibelius, Finale or Dorico with all articulations intact. Guitar Pro (.gp5) for fretted-instrument tab playback. This breadth is unusual — most transcription tools ship one or two formats and leave you to convert manually.

Is there a native mobile or desktop app?

The main product is web-only — Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge on desktop, tablet or phone browser. No install, no update treadmill. There is a companion iOS app called Anything Piano that lets piano learners practise any transcribed song on an interactive piano roll with real-time feedback, currently in early access. If you need transcription to run inside a music production tool as a plugin, Songscription is not that — competitors like Klangio offer DAW plugins.

How accurate is the transcription really?

Honest answer with the sweet spots. Solo piano recordings, single-instrument classical, and clean fingerstyle guitar tend to produce studio-usable output on the first pass. Dense full-band mixes are the hardest case — polyphonic separation and inference is the ceiling of the field, and Songscription is not magic there. The built-in editor exists precisely because AI transcription still needs a human to make final calls on edge cases. Try the free tier on your own material before subscribing.

How does the sheet music editor work?

The editor opens the AI transcription in a browser-native score view. You can move notes, change rhythms, adjust time and key signature, add or remove articulations, and split notes into left and right hands for piano. Playback is one click. When the score reads right, export straight to PDF, MIDI, MusicXML or Guitar Pro. No round trips to another app for basic fixes.

What is music leveling and who uses it?

Music leveling automatically adapts an arrangement to a target skill level — beginner, intermediate, advanced. A high school band teacher can drop a pop song in, generate parts that fit their students, and print sheet music the same afternoon. That workflow is a chore in traditional notation software. Teachers, tutors and ensemble directors are the heavy users of this feature.

Who is behind Songscription?

Songscription launched in June 2025 with founding CEO Andrew Carlins, a Stanford MBA and Master of Arts in Education student. The company closed a five-million-dollar seed round led by Reach Capital and was accepted into StartX. By launch, the platform had generated 20,000 transcriptions for 3,000 users across 150 countries, with a 60 percent monthly growth rate. It is a specialist audio-AI team, not a hobby project.

Any audio, on the staff in minutes.