PDF sheet music to MIDI
Printed music played back
Open a PDF or a picture of printed sheet music. ScoreStarling reads the notes into an editable score you can listen to, correct and download as MIDI, MusicXML or a fresh PDF.
Drop a PDF or a picture of sheet music here
Clean printed staff notation reads best: up to 12 PDF pages, or a picture. MusicXML, MIDI and ABC files work too. Reading is free.
No file handy?
What goes in and what comes out
You bring
- A PDF of printed sheet music, up to 12 pages
- A scan or screenshot of a printed page (PNG, JPEG, WebP, TIFF)
- Or a MusicXML, MIDI or ABC file
You get
- An editable score with playback
- MIDI and MusicXML once the score is unlocked
- A new PDF, in staff notation or jianpu, free
- MP3 and WAV of the score, free
How it works
- Choose the PDF above. The workspace opens with it, after sign-in if needed. There is nothing to choose about instruments: sheet music is read, not transcribed.
- Reading takes under a minute a page in our tests. Play it and compare it with your page.
- Fix any misread note, key or rhythm on the staff.
- Unlock the score (15 credits, once) and download MIDI or MusicXML, or download a PDF for free.
Try it with this page
This one-page PDF is Beethoven’s theme as ScoreStarling engraves it. Use it as the input above (“Try a one-page PDF”), or download it with what it plays back as.
How well does it read?
On October 4, 2026 we rendered test pages from scores with known notes and compared the notes read back, bar by bar. Clean prints were read almost perfectly: three folk and fiddle melodies and four piano pieces scored between 0.88 and 1.00 on a scale where 1.00 means every note matched. A lead sheet with chord symbols scored 0.50, and simulated phone photos 0.04 and 0.42. Jianpu pages could not be read at all. That is why clean PDFs go straight in, and photos, jianpu and handwriting are better written out by an assistant.
| Page | Score |
|---|---|
| Three melodies, clean print | 1.00 |
| Four piano pieces, clean print | 0.88–1.00 |
| Lead sheet with chord symbols | 0.50 |
| Phone photos (two pages) | 0.04, 0.42 |
| Jianpu (three pages) | not read |
Good to know
- Repeats play once, as written. A MIDI file you upload keeps its notes but leaves out drum tracks and takes its first meter.
- Jianpu pages are not read automatically; to go the other way, from staff to jianpu, see sheet music to jianpu.
Questions and answers
Is it free?
Reading sheet music is free: no credits for the reading, the editing, listening or the PDF. MIDI and MusicXML need the score unlocked, 15 credits once per score; every account gets free credits each month.
Which PDFs work?
PDFs exported from notation software and clean scans of printed staff notation, up to 12 pages. Pictures work too, up to 60 megapixels. Handwriting, crooked phone photos, jianpu and lead sheets full of chord symbols are read poorly.
My page is a phone photo or handwritten. What then?
Ask an AI assistant that can see images, such as ChatGPT or Claude with ScoreStarling connected, to write the music out. It reads the picture, writes the notes and opens them as a score; compare it with the page before relying on it. See the connection guide.
Does the MIDI play the repeats?
Repeats are played once, as written; the MIDI follows the score’s tempo marks.