From MIDI to score

When you switch the Piano Roll to Score view, your performance is drawn as staff notation on a grand staff. This page explains how that conversion works and, just as importantly, where it is best-effort — the things that might surprise you and why they happen.

The golden rule: the piano roll is the exact record of what you played; the score is an interpretation of it. Two people can write the same performance down slightly differently, and so the score makes sensible, readable choices rather than claiming to be the one true transcription. If the score and your ears ever disagree, the roll is the source of truth.

How a performance becomes notation

1. Snap to a grid. Your notes are rounded to the nearest beat division you choose with Grid resolution (e.g. 1/16). Finer grids keep more detail; coarser grids tidy things up.
2. Bar it up. The notes are divided into bars using the tempo, time signature and key you set in the transport bar. Set these correctly and the score reads far better.
3. Split across two staves. Notes are placed on the treble or bass staff by pitch — middle C and above on top, below it on the bottom.
4. Find the voices, ties and beams. Held notes, chords, beamed runs and rests are worked out from the timing (see below).

What you'll see

• Held notes under moving notes. If you hold a bass note while playing a melody over it, the held note is written as its own line on the lower part of the staff (stems down) while the melody moves above it (stems up) — exactly like a real piano arrangement.
• Ties. A note that lasts longer than a single note value, or that carries over a bar line, is written as two note-heads joined by a curved tie so it reads as one sustained sound.
• Beams. Runs of quavers/semiquavers are joined with beams by beat, instead of lots of separate flagged notes.
• Rests. Silence inside a bar is written with rests — that's normal in written music, you don't leave gaps blank. A bar that's completely empty on one staff shows a single whole-bar rest.

Things that might surprise you

These are deliberate. The score favours readable, conventional notation over a literal dump of your timing.

• It won't match a published score note-for-note. A polished arrangement is engraved by a person with information we don't have (which hand played what, the intended rhythm, phrasing). We only have the notes and their timing, so we make a best-effort reading.
• Loose timing looks messy. Rubato, rolled chords or "human" timing produce fussy notation (odd rests, tied fragments). Two fixes: raise the Grid resolution tolerance by choosing a coarser grid, or switch Play mode to compare with the Raw roll. If you want the cleanest score, play to the metronome.
• Staves split by pitch, not by hand. A low note played by your right hand still appears on the bass staff if it's below middle C, because we don't know which hand you used.
• At most two lines per staff. If three or more independent rhythms happen at once in one hand, they're merged into chords rather than drawn as a tangle of voices. Nothing you played is thrown away — it's just simplified to stay readable.
• No expression marks. Dynamics (loud/soft), articulation (staccato, slurs), pedalling, fingering and triplets/tuplets are not shown — they can't be reliably guessed from a performance. Your volume (velocity) is still recorded and still affects playback; it just isn't written on the staff.
• Spelling follows your key. Whether a black note is written as, say, F♯ or G♭ depends on the key you set, not on what you "meant". Set the right key signature for sensible spelling.

Importing a MIDI file (guides)

When you load a MIDI file as a guide:

• The score is barred using the file's starting tempo, time signature and key. If the piece changes tempo or meter partway through, playback follows those changes, but the written bars keep the opening setting.
• Drum/percussion tracks are dropped — only pitched notes are shown.
• All the same best-effort rules above apply, since an imported file is still just notes and timing.

Tips for a cleaner score

• Set the key and time signature before you read the score.
• Pick a Grid resolution that matches the smallest rhythm you care about — no finer.
• Use the metronome while recording for the tidiest result.
• Flip to the piano roll any time you want to see exactly what you played, with no interpretation.

See also: Piano Roll for recording, playback and export.