How can we help?

Anyone can sign up. Go to scorestarling.com/login and continue with Google, or choose Create an account to use your email and a password. You can also ask for a one-time sign-in code by email. A voice, one instrument or solo piano is free; band recordings use credits, and every account gets 100 free credits each month, 50 a month from 2027 (pricing).

Open the workspace and choose New score. Use Choose a file or drop audio, video, a PDF/picture or a score file. You can also press Record, paste a supported link, or choose Paste ABC or MusicXML to type or paste notation. For a recording choose what is playing: one instrument or voice, solo piano, or a band. More options holds the tempo and how the score is shown: Staff, Staff and TAB, Jianpu or Jianpu 1=C. Choose Create score, then check it against the recording or the page. A quick listen may start before you choose Create score; nothing is kept until then.

Yes. Paste or drop a link to a video or song on YouTube, Bilibili, TikTok, SoundCloud and many other sites (short share links work too), or to the file itself, such as an MP3, a video file or a PDF of sheet music, up to 100 MB. Only the sound is fetched, and from a long video only its first five and a half minutes. Dropbox and Google Drive share links work when the file is shared publicly. Spotify and Apple Music encrypt their music, so they can’t be used, and some sites (Douyin and Xiaohongshu among them) may not let our server download a video: then save it and drop the file instead. In ChatGPT or Claude, paste the link in the chat.

Yes: PDF, PNG/JPEG/WebP/TIFF/GIF, MusicXML/MXL, MIDI and ABC. Clean printed staff music reads best. PDFs are limited to 12 pages, pictures to 60 megapixels, and notation playback to ten minutes. Password-protected PDFs are refused; MIDI drum tracks are omitted and repeats play once. Paste ABC/MusicXML in the workspace, or ask a connected assistant to create a score from text. An assistant that can see images can attempt a photo or jianpu reading; it still needs source comparison. All input limits.

One instrument or voice suits singing and a single instrument. Solo piano reads both hands, chords and the sustain pedal. Both are free. When a recording has chords, the workspace asks whether it’s solo piano. Band or several instruments writes every instrument on its own staff and uses credits; you see the price before it starts. The tempo is found from the recording unless you set it. For a band you can also choose a time signature, one fixed tempo or alignment to the beat when you check its instruments; the finished score says what was applied.

Record one instrument or voice, close to the microphone, with little reverb or background noise. The tempo is detected; if you know it, set the BPM before transcribing so the notation lines up with the beat. An instrument tuned away from A440 is retuned before it is read. Busy mixes and several instruments at once make the first draft harder to read. Treat the result as a first draft: listen to it beside the original and correct what you hear. Recording tips

No. A WAV, AIFF or FLAC file is kept as a high-quality MP3 (320 kbps) once it arrives; in our tests every option reads that copy as accurately as the original. MP3, M4A and other compressed files are kept as you sent them.

Open the task from your library. If it offers Try again, use that instead of uploading another copy. A band transcription marked Needs review keeps its credits on hold: contact support with the job ID before trying again, or use Recover the result if it is offered. An interrupted call can already have succeeded, so inspect the status first.

Open Score settings → Recording and choose what is playing, even the same choice as before. It makes a new score from the stored recording, keeps the first score and its notation choice, and finds the tempo again. It is unavailable for sheet music, notation text or a recording no longer stored. A band uses credits, with the price shown before it starts; an agent in your browser can only start the free options.

One instrument or voice now writes a melody as one line on one staff, and a chord part on one staff with its notes kept. An older score keeps its earlier layout. For a single-part recording, open Score settings → Layout and choose One melody line, One staff (chords kept), or Two staves for a piano sound. Two staves splits only a wide range, so a narrow line can stay on one staff. You can also choose the shortest note value. Apply layout rewrites the notes from your recording. One melody line also mutes the extra notes; check what it kept, and use Undo to bring them back. It is intended for one instrument or voice.

A free account can have one score in progress at a time, and an account with Plus five. A voice, one instrument or solo piano covers the first five minutes and is free, up to three transcriptions a day (as a fair-use limit, 100 a day with Plus). Scores from Plus and from accounts with credit-pack credits go first in the queue; free scores still run, after them. A band recording covers five minutes too; it uses 40 credits a minute and shows its exact price before it starts (how credits work). Uploads can be up to 100 MB. Imports are read without transcription fees; notation text has a separate limit of 60 new scores per 24 hours. Editing, previews and downloads do not start another transcription.

In Staff notation, click or drag across notes to select them; double-click selects a bar. On a phone, tap, or hold and drag. Use the notation palette for pitch, accidentals, duration and dots, or the quick edits for dynamics and velocity. Top, Side and Follow placement is remembered in this browser. Add comments on a passage in the comments sidebar. In a supporting chat panel, the selection card instead takes your request for the assistant. Numbered notation is read-only; return to Staff to edit.

Yes. Undo and Redo sit above the score, also on Cmd/Ctrl+Z and Shift+Cmd/Ctrl+Z. Every change is saved as a new version, so nothing you did earlier is lost.

Yes, in the score’s settings: key, clef, time signature, pickup bars, beaming, transposition by interval, title and credits.

Choose a jianpu in More options when making a score, or later with Staff | Jianpu in the player under the score. Press Jianpu again to choose 1 = the song’s key (movable do), 1 = C (fixed do, where each black key keeps its flat) or Melody only (the top line). The score remembers this in the workspace and chat panel, and Download’s PDF is the view you chose. Numbered notation is read-only from the last saved revision; edit in Staff and wait for saving to finish. Supported lyrics, repeats/endings, grace notes, dynamics and key/meter changes are carried over. Voices on a staff are combined; lyrics/structure follow the leading part. Triplets and groups of five and seven are written under an arc with their number. Score playback still plays repeats once. Jianpu details.

Choose Staff and TAB in More options when making a score, or press TAB in the player under the score; it is there for a guitar, bass or ukulele part, or a score with one part. Press TAB again to choose TAB only. In Score settings, under Guitar TAB, set the tuning, a capo up to the 12th fret and how strings are chosen: Lowest frets, as notation apps write TAB, or Fewest hand shifts; with several parts, choose the part at the top of Score settings first. Select a note to move it to another string at the same pitch or to type a fret; Alt (Option on a Mac) and Shift with the up or down arrow moves it a string. A note no string can play as written turns red. The playing stays the same unless you type a fret. The PDF prints the TAB, TAB as text under More formats writes it for a message or a forum post, and MusicXML carries the TAB staff once the score is unlocked. Bends, slides and hammer-ons aren’t written. How strings and frets are chosen.

It leaves your score list and waits under Trash. Restore it to keep editing and to get new download links. Moving a score to the trash doesn’t refund credits already used.

PDF to print or read from a tablet: it is the score as you are viewing it, staff, TAB or jianpu. On a free score every PDF page has a small footer line, “Made with ScoreStarling · scorestarling.com”. MusicXML to keep editing in MuseScore, Dorico, Sibelius or Finale, and MIDI for a DAW: both need the score unlocked (15 credits, once; see below). MP3 to hear the score is free. All parts gives every instrument at once, a folder each in one ZIP; on a free score each part comes as a PDF with the footer line, and its MusicXML and MIDI come once the score is unlocked. Under More formats are WAV audio, free; Images of the pages (SVG and PNG), free with the footer line on a free score; TAB as text for a guitar, bass or ukulele part, free with the same footer line; and ABC text, which needs the unlock like MusicXML. MusicXML vs MIDI vs PDF

Ask for a format that needs it (MusicXML, MXL, MIDI, ABC or MEI) in the workspace, or ask ChatGPT or Claude for the file. You are shown the cost, 15 credits, and nothing is spent until you confirm. Unlocking is once per score: after that every format downloads as often as you like, edits included, and the PDF has no footer line. A band transcription paid with credits is already unlocked, an account with Plus has every score unlocked while it lasts, and scores made before these rules stay fully open. Without enough credits you can still edit, listen and download the PDF, MP3 and WAV. How unlocking works

MIDI and rendered audio need every note linked to the performance. The PDF is always available for exchanging the score, and MusicXML once the score is unlocked.

Export that version again from the score. There’s no need to transcribe the audio again.

Through MCP. Add the server https://mcp.scorestarling.com/mcp in your client, sign in to ScoreStarling and allow access; no API key is needed. The MCP guide has the steps for ChatGPT, Claude, Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, VS Code and more. Then attach a recording and ask for sheet music, or ask to open ScoreStarling and choose the file in its panel. These integrations are still in testing.

WebMCP Beta needs a browser exposing the native API and an agent able to call this tab’s tools. Open the signed-in workspace and keep the tab open; the page registers tools automatically when supported. They share your session and the workspace’s ownership/revision checks. Ask for previews of agent suggestions and inspect changes before applying. Ordinary chats and remote MCP connections do not automatically access browser tools. Browser setup, examples and permission limits.

Check which account you signed in with, then disconnect ScoreStarling in your assistant and connect again. If it still fails, contact us as described below.

Claude sends attachments from its code sandbox, which blocks outside connections unless you allow them. The MCP guide shows the settings. Or skip it: choose the file in the ScoreStarling panel, or upload it in the workspace.

On the sign-in page choose Forgot password?, then use the code or the link in the email to choose a new password. Each code works once and expires in ten minutes; check your spam folder too.

Your Google identity, email and basic profile, which identify your account; your profile picture appears in the account menu. We don’t request access to Gmail, Google Drive or contacts.

Only your account. An MCP client reaches your projects only after you allow it in the consent step, and only your own. If you tick “Let our team listen to this recording” when rating a score, our team may play that one recording and read its score. The privacy policy covers storage and analytics.

Every account has an invitation link, scorestarling.com/r/ followed by your code, on its Share page. When a friend joins with it and finishes a first transcription of a recording, free ones included, you both get 100 credits, valid 30 days; up to five friends earn rewards. Invitations are for new accounts that have not made a score yet. A beta code gives 300 credits, valid 30 days, and each account can use one: open its link, or enter it on the Share page under “Have a code?”. Every account also gets 100 free credits each month, 50 a month from 2027. Where credits come from

Email support from the address you sign in with and say what you’d like deleted. We may ask for information that confirms you own the account.