Saxophone & horn transcription

Drop a horn recording to turn into MIDI, or select a file. It opens in the studio, ready to export.

WAV · AIF · AIFF · MP3 · M4A · FLAC · OGG

How to transcribe a saxophone or horn part

Horn players transcribe solos to learn them, and arrangers transcribe sections to steal them. They are different jobs. A solo is one fast line over a band. A section is four or five players moving together, and the question is not only which notes but who had them.

  1. Add your recording: Drop a WAV, AIFF, MP3, M4A, FLAC or OGG: a horn on its own, a section, or the whole record.
  2. Say what it is: One instrument, a section playing together, or a full mix. From a mix, the horns are separated from the band first, or a solo is read straight out of it.
  3. Take the parts: A solo as one MIDI line. A section as one part per player. Each can be engraved as a score, written at the transposition the player reads.

More ways to work with your music

Try our online tools to separate, transcribe and convert. Doseedo does it all.

Questions about the saxophone & horn transcription converter?

We have answers.

Can it transcribe a saxophone solo from a record?

Yes. The solo can be read straight from the mix, or the sax can be separated first and then transcribed.

Can it write out a horn section as separate parts?

Yes. Transcribed as an ensemble, a section returns one part per player rather than one line of chords.

Is it free?

Yes, to start. A free account comes with 120 credits a month, with no card needed to start: transcribing one part is 2 credits, and a full mix is separated first, which is 20. Pro has 2,000 a month.

Will the part be transposed for B flat or E flat instruments?

In the score, yes. MIDI is at concert pitch. Engraved as notation, a trumpet part is written a major second up and an alto sax part a major sixth up, with the key signature moved to match.

Which horns does it read?

Saxophones, trumpet, trombone, French horn and tuba, along with clarinet, flute, oboe and bassoon.

Try our free saxophone & horn transcription converter

  • A tracker that knows the register

    Winds and brass are read by a pitch tracker conditioned on register. A baritone sax and a soprano sax are told apart before a note is written, so the low horn is not written an octave high and the altissimo is not folded down.

  • A section is a question of chairs

    Five saxes voicing a chord are five lines, not one chord. Transcribed as an ensemble, a section comes back as a part per chair: lead alto, second alto, the tenors, the baritone. That is the chart, rather than a pile of notes that happen to be simultaneous.

  • The solo, straight off the record

    For a sax or trumpet solo there is a mode that reads the horn out of the full mix without separating it, tuned on fast solo playing. It is the quick route when all you want is the chorus the soloist played.

Saxophone to MIDI, horn transcription: one job

Saxophone to MIDI, sax transcription, trumpet to MIDI, trombone to MIDI and horn section transcription all name this one job. To pull the horns out of the recording as audio, use the instrument separator.

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