The short answer: Ableton Live has a built-in Convert Audio to MIDI (right-click an audio clip → Extract Harmony / Melody / Drums to MIDI), and for a clean, isolated, single-instrument clip it is the right tool — you stay in Live, the result is a MIDI clip you can keep editing. It runs into trouble on three cases this page is about: a chord (Live's melody and harmony extraction are monophonic — you get one moving line, not the chord), a dense mix (it smears or drops the quiet parts), and any time you need the output as data you can check. In those three cases, export the audio and run it through a separate converter. This site is one such converter, not a replacement for Live — its polyphonic mode holds up to 6 notes per frame (Live's melody mode holds one), it emits a CSV you can diff against your DAW, and on 11 known-answer clips it measured 86.7% recall / 91.5% precision. Use Live when it is enough; export when it is not.
1. What Live's built-in converter actually is
Live ships three audio-to-MIDI operations, all triggered from the same place: right-click an audio clip and pick Extract Harmony to MIDI, Extract Melody to MIDI, or Extract Drums to MIDI. Each one drops a new MIDI clip next to your audio. That is the whole feature — it runs inside the DAW, needs nothing installed, and the output is a clip you can keep working on.
One thing the menu does not tell you, and it decides most of the failures below: the melody and harmony extracts are monophonic. They follow a single pitch at a time. The drums extract is a separate path aimed at percussion. So the moment your source carries more than one note at once, the melody/harmony path has already chosen to track just one of them.
2. When Live's converter is enough
Use it, happily, when all of these are true:
- One instrument, one clip. A single vocal take, a bass line, a synth lead, a guitar phrase — anything that is genuinely one pitch most of the time.
- You want to stay in Live. The point is to keep sketching: warp it, replay it on a different instrument, flip it into a drum pattern. The built-in extract is the lowest-friction way to get there.
- You do not need to prove it is correct. You are using the MIDI as an idea, not as a transcript of record. Close enough is fine.
- The source is clean. Minimal bleed, clear attacks, not much else happening behind it.
If that is your clip, stop reading and use Live. The rest of this page is for the cases where that description does not hold.
3. When Live's converter has problems
These are the three situations where the built-in extract lets you down — not because it is bad, but because of what it is built to do.
A chord goes in, one line comes out
Feed a chord or any polyphonic passage into Extract Melody or Extract Harmony and you get one moving pitch, not the chord. The extraction is monophonic, so it picks the loudest voice and throws the rest away before you ever see it. If your goal was to capture the harmony, Live alone will not give it to you.
A dense mix smears or drops parts
On a busy clip — a full song, a loop with several things stacked — the melody extract latches onto the strongest line and the harmony extract does the same, so the quiet but important part simply is not in the output. The drums extract mis-pitches or skips the ghost notes. None of this is shown to you; you just get a thinner MIDI than you expected.
You cannot check the result
Live hands you a MIDI clip. That is great for playing, but it is not a note list you can audit. There is no per-note timestamp you can compare against your DAW, no velocity read you can trust beyond a rough envelope, and no “here is what was and was not detected” view. When accuracy matters, a clip you cannot inspect is a clip you cannot verify.
The same pitch-floor problem applies to every detector, including this one: notes below 55 Hz (A1) or above 1800 Hz (A6) are outside the readable range, so a sub-bass line or a very high piccolo will not come through on either tool. Know the boundary before you blame the converter.
4. When to export the file and use a separate converter
These are the mirror image of section 3 — the cases where pulling the audio out and running it through a dedicated converter (this site is one) is the better move:
| Your situation | Use Live's built-in | Export & use a separate converter |
|---|---|---|
| One clean instrument | Yes — stay in Live | Overkill |
| A chord / several parts at once | No — melody/harmony is monophonic | Yes — polyphonic mode holds up to 6 notes per frame |
| A dense mix | Risky — quiet parts get dropped | Better — you can separate stems first, then convert |
| You need to verify accuracy | No — output is a clip you cannot audit | Yes — a CSV with 4-decimal timestamps you diff against your DAW |
| You want a measured recall number | No | Yes — measured 86.7% recall / 91.5% precision on 11 known-answer clips |
| You are not in Live / just have a file | No — needs the DAW open | Yes — runs in the browser, nothing to install |
The point is not “this tool is better.” It is that the two cover different cases. Live is the fast, in-context option for a single clean line. A separate converter is the option for polyphony, for verification, and for when you are not even in Live.
5. How to do each
In Live
Right-click the audio clip → Extract Harmony / Melody / Drums to MIDI. The new MIDI clip appears next to it. Pick melody or harmony for pitched material, drums for percussion. Keep the original audio — the extract does not replace it.
Export and convert separately
Drag the clip onto the browser or desktop to get the audio file (or use File → Export Audio), then drop it into a converter. Switch Mono for a single line or Polyphonic for chords — on this converter, polyphonic mode returns up to 6 simultaneous notes per frame, while mono follows one pitch at a time. When the file is stereo, remember it is summed to mono before detection: out-of-phase content cancels and a hard-panned part loses 6.02 dB of loudness, which drops its velocity by 11 steps — something no sensitivity or mode setting can recover.
Questions
Does Ableton have audio to MIDI built in?
Yes. Since Live 9 the audio clip context menu has Convert Audio to MIDI, exposed as Extract Harmony, Extract Melody, and Extract Drums to MIDI. No plug-in and no extra purchase.
Why does Ableton only give me one note from a chord?
Because the melody and harmony extracts are monophonic — they follow one pitch at a time. A chord has several, so the extract keeps the loudest and discards the rest before you see it. For the full chord, export the audio and use a polyphonic converter.
Is Ableton's audio to MIDI accurate?
It is an idea tool, not a verified transcript. If you need to know how much it got right, use a converter that emits a CSV and a measured recall — this one measured 86.7% recall and 91.5% precision across 11 known-answer clips, and you can check every note against your DAW.
When should I export the audio and use a separate converter?
When the source is a chord or a dense mix (Live's melody/harmony path is monophonic and drops quiet parts), or any time you need the output as checkable data — a CSV, a velocity read, a recall number. Live alone gives you a clip you cannot audit.
Can Ableton's audio to MIDI handle drums?
There is an Extract Drums to MIDI path, but like every drum transcriber it mis-pitches and skips ghost notes — on this converter, 64 hi-hat hits alone came back as 360 notes, so neither tool is a magic drum reader. Separate the kit into stems first if the drums matter.
Can I use Max for Live to run audio to MIDI inside Ableton?
This converter is a browser tool, not a Max for Live device, so you do not load it into Ableton as a plug-in. Export the audio from your Live project — or bounce the track — and open it on this page; you get a .mid you can drag back into Live as a MIDI clip. The detection runs in the browser and is not tied to Max for Live, so it works the same whether or not you own that add-on. Nothing is uploaded while the audio is analysed.
This page explains Live's built-in converter and when a separate one helps. It is not affiliated with Ableton. Try the converter itself on the home page — drop a file, get a MIDI and a CSV, nothing uploaded.
Related guides
- Logic Pro audio to MIDIWhat the built-in capture can and cannot hold
- FL Studio audio to MIDIWhat every DAW's capture shares, and when to export
- Audio to MIDI pluginWhen to install one, and when the browser is enough
- MIDI converterWhat is actually inside a MIDI file
- Clean up a converted MIDIThe 5 passes that turn a raw export into a usable part
- Ableton importHow to bring a converter's .mid onto a MIDI track