Transcription Vendor Requirements

(2022)

Piano Roll Transcription

We would like transcriptions from audio (i.e. WAV files) featuring a variety of solo instruments
(including drums) to a “piano roll” representation (MIDI files). This is different from transcription
to sheet music because (at least initially) we don’t require high-level semantic information like
key signatures, measure boundaries, etc. However, we do require precise timing information for
each note, within ~100 milliseconds.

Here’s an example of what such a piano roll would look like. Notice that there is no quantizing of
when notes begin and end.

Transcription Workflow
We will provide a single-instrument WAV file and a MIDI file with our current best automated
transcription for each track to be transcribed. The completed work product should be a new
MIDI file with all transcription errors corrected.

Errors in the provided MIDI file could range from only a few extra notes that need to be deleted
to entire sections of the music being missing.

We expect transcribers to use whatever tools work best for them. While the primary output we
expect is a MIDI file with the corrected notes and timings, we would also like to receive any
other files created by tools used in the transcription process (e.g., Ableton project file, Sibelius
scores, etc.).

Transcription Priorities
Here are our priorities (in order) for the transcriptions:

1. Remove notes in the MIDI file that are not in the audio file.
2. Add any notes to the MIDI file that are in the audio but missing from the MIDI.
 3. Ensure that note onsets in the MIDI file appear in the same order as in the audio file. If
notes in the audio file are not played at the same time, they should be similarly
separated in the MIDI file.
4. Try to get note onsets in the MIDI file to within ~100ms of when they occur in the audio
file. We recognize that for some tracks, more or less precision may be possible. Don’t
spend too much time trying to get onsets more precise than this. We’ll be able to do
some more precise alignment automatically once all the notes are correct.
5. For drum tracks, don’t worry about note offset times. As long as the drum hit has any
duration greater than 0, that’s fine.
6. For pitched instruments, try to get note offsets in the MIDI file to within a few 100s of
milliseconds of when they occur in the audio file. We realize this is going to be difficult to
pin down, especially for instruments like guitar that don’t always have an obvious ending
to notes. We ask that transcribers just extend each note to the point where they don’t
hear it in the audio any more. +/-20% accuracy is fine.
7. For some instruments, the definition of “note” is going to get more complex. For
example, pitch bends/slides, strumming, etc. In general, as a new pitch is played it
should be represented as a new note (so slides would be a series of notes). Please
reach out to us if you have any questions about how something should be represented.
8. Each track should have a single MIDI program. See below for how to select which MIDI
program to use. Don’t spend too much time trying to find the perfect match. In most
cases, the choice will be obvious, and for others, just pick something reasonable.

Drum Hit Vocabulary

We use a limited vocabulary of drum hits to simplify transcribing the huge variety of percussive
sounds possible.

All drum hits should be assigned one of these options:

MIDI Pitch Description

36 Kick drum, bass drum

38 Snare, X-stick, handclap

48 Toms, Conga

46 Hi-hat, Tambourine, Maracas

51 Ride cymbal

53 Ride bell, cowbell

49 Crash cymbal

75 Clave, sticks
 MIDI Instruments
We use a limited set of MIDI programs to simplify transcription choices. Each track should have
a single instrument selected from this list:

Name MIDI Program

Acoustic Piano 1
Electric Piano 5
Chromatic Percussion 9
Organ 17
Acoustic Guitar 25
Clean Electric Guitar 27
Distorted Electric Guitar 30
Acoustic Bass 33
Electric Bass 34
Violin 41
Viola 42
Cello 43
Contrabass 44
Orchestral Harp 47
Timpani 48
String Ensemble 49
Synth Strings 51
Choir and Voice 53
Orchestral Hit 56
Trumpet 57
Trombone 58
Tuba 59
French Horn 61
Brass Section 62
Soprano 65
Tenor Sax 67
Baritone Sax 68
Oboe 69
English Horn 70
Bassoon 71
Clarinet 72
Pipe 74
Synth Lead 81
Synth Pad 89

Vendor Skills
Vendors should be comfortable with doing the piano roll transcription task outlined above for
both pitched and percussive instruments. This means they need both general music training and
experience using MIDI editing software.