Free online KAR to ABC converter

What the KAR format is

KAR is a karaoke file based on Standard MIDI. It stores note events, instruments, tempo, controller data, and usually lyric or karaoke timing events in MIDI tracks. Karaoke players and MIDI sequencers commonly create or use it, and you may encounter it in karaoke song collections or files exported from karaoke authoring software.

A KAR file normally contains performance instructions rather than recorded sound. The file therefore remains small, but its tracks may include accompaniment, melody, percussion, and non-musical karaoke metadata. Some MIDI applications can open a KAR file directly; others require a copy with the .mid extension.

What the ABC format is

ABC notation is a plain-text music format for melodies and scores. It represents pitches, durations, key signatures, meter, chords, repeats, ornaments, lyrics, and other notation using readable characters. ABC files are used by notation editors, folk-music databases, music-search tools, and programs that render notation or generate MIDI.

ABC is useful when you need an editable, text-based representation that can be versioned, searched, copied, or processed without a binary MIDI editor. It is not an audio format, and it cannot preserve every KAR feature, such as detailed controller messages, karaoke display commands, or the exact sound of a MIDI instrument.

How to convert KAR to ABC

The most practical desktop method is abcMIDI, whose midi2abc utility converts MIDI note events into ABC notation. It is available for common desktop operating systems and is intended for MIDI-to-ABC conversion.

1. Make a backup of the original song.kar file.
2. Try opening the file directly with midi2abc:

midi2abc -f song.kar -o song.abc

If the utility rejects the extension, make a copy named song.mid; changing the extension does not alter the file contents. Then run:

midi2abc -f song.mid -o song.abc

3. Open song.abc in an ABC-compatible editor or renderer and inspect the meter, key, tempo, note lengths, and track selection.
4. If the file contains several MIDI tracks, run the conversion with the abcMIDI options for selecting or splitting tracks, then compare the resulting ABC voices. A karaoke file often contains accompaniment and melody on separate tracks.
5. Save or export the corrected notation from the ABC editor after fixing incorrect accidentals, bar lines, rests, and octave marks.

You can also use the free converter on 101convert.com without installing software. Upload the KAR file, select ABC as the output format, start the conversion, and download the resulting .abc file. For private, copyrighted, or unreleased material, a local abcMIDI conversion avoids uploading the file.

Quality and compatibility limits

MIDI stores note start times and durations, not necessarily the notation a composer intended. midi2abc must infer note lengths, bar boundaries, ties, voices, and key signatures from performance data, so quantization settings may be needed for loosely played or heavily edited tracks.

KAR lyric events are not guaranteed to become ABC w: lyric lines. If lyrics are required, copy them into the ABC file and align syllables with the converted notes using the ABC editor. Karaoke-specific text, graphics, channel settings, program changes, and effects may be discarded.

Review the output in a notation renderer rather than relying only on the source text. A MIDI file can sound correct while producing awkward notation because of pickup measures, overlapping notes, triplets, drum tracks, or multiple simultaneous voices. Keep the original KAR file because ABC conversion is generally one-way and may lose performance and karaoke metadata.