Turn a recording into a score
The hard part of transcribing by ear is not hearing the notes — it is writing them down at the right rhythmic value against the right bar line. That is the part this automates.
Notes are the easy half
Pitch detection is a solved-enough problem for most material. What separates a usable transcription from a pile of note events is metrical interpretation: is that a dotted eighth or a triplet, does the phrase start on the beat or before it, and where exactly is bar one.
Getting that wrong produces notation that is technically correct and completely unreadable. So tempo, downbeat and meter are detected first, and the notes are fitted to that grid rather than the grid being inferred afterwards.
Rubato is not an error
Real performances breathe. A pianist slows into a cadence; a singer sits behind the beat. A transcriber that assumes a fixed tempo will smear all of that into wrong rhythms.
The tempo map here is allowed to move, so an expressive performance is transcribed against the tempo it was actually played at rather than being forced onto a click.
Where it goes next
The result is note data with a tempo map and chord symbols, which is what a notation program or a DAW both want. Export to a Logic or Ableton session keeps the tempo map intact, so the notes stay where the performance put them.
FAQ
Will it produce publication-ready engraving?
No. It produces accurate notes, rhythms, tempo and chords — the transcription. Final engraving decisions (spelling, voicing, layout) are editorial and belong in a notation editor.
Does it handle multiple instruments at once?
Yes, by separating the mix first and transcribing each part on its own, so an arrangement comes back as separate staves rather than one collapsed line.
What about chord symbols?
Chords are detected as part of the same pass, including over a moving tempo, and come through as a chord track alongside the notes.