Blog
Notes from the workbench
What we measure, build and learn while turning recordings into sheet music: transcription models, engraving, file formats and AI assistants.
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How guitar TAB chooses strings and frets
One note can sit in six places on a guitar neck. How MuseScore picks one, when that reads badly, and why TAB from a MusicXML file can come out an octave high.
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Does MP3 hurt music transcription? We measured WAV vs MP3
Three transcription engines, the same recordings as WAV, MP3 and AAC. At 320 kbit/s, MP3 moved onset F1 by at most 0.002 and kept every file’s length.
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Our MCP App in ChatGPT on mobile: what we learned
On a phone, ChatGPT counted its message box in a bottom inset of about 127 px and rebuilt our MCP App from old results. Four bugs, fixes and tests that catch them.
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Autoscaling workers from one Postgres queue on Railway
How we moved transcription onto 1–4 Railway workers that share one Postgres jobs table: the claim, the 120 s lease, queue-depth scaling and an API bug.
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Can ChatGPT or Claude turn a recording into sheet music?
Not on their own. Connected to a transcription tool over MCP, Claude and ChatGPT can turn a recording into an editable score. Setup, a sample session, limits.
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How accurate is AI music transcription? We measured it
We scored Basic Pitch and Mirelo on 12 public guitar recordings and a 60-second band excerpt: onset F1 in plain words, the results, and the caveats.
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Why MIDI imports look messy in MuseScore, and how to fix them
MIDI stores a performance, not notation. What that did to 12 guitar transcriptions, why MuseScore re-guesses key and tempo, and the prep that fixes most of it.
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How to turn a voice memo into sheet music
Record one voice at a steady tempo, export the .m4a, supply the BPM or let it be detected, then check the draft by ear. Tips, steps and current limits.
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MCP servers for sheet music: what each one does
We opened 26 sheet music MCP servers on October 3, 2026: recording to score, rendering notation, MuseScore and Dorico control, music21 analysis.
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MusicXML vs MIDI vs PDF: which file do you need?
MusicXML keeps the written score, MIDI keeps the performance, PDF keeps the printed page. What each file stores, which to export, and .mxl vs .musicxml.
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Remote MCP server OAuth: what we learned shipping it
How our hosted MCP server signs people in with OAuth 2.1 and Supabase Auth: the 401 challenge, RFC 9728 metadata, client registration, token audience, refresh.
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Where should an MCP server live? We checked 33 addresses
We probed 33 public MCP endpoints on October 2, 2026. 14 of the 22 services that asked for sign-in used mcp.<domain>/mcp. How we chose ours and moved it.
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Mozart’s starling: the bird behind our name
On May 27, 1784, Mozart paid 34 kreuzer for a starling that sang his new K. 453 finale theme, adding a pause and a G sharp. We checked the record.