Free online MOV to MID converter

A DAW, notation program, synthesizer, or educational device may require MIDI instead of a video file to edit or play individual notes. Because MIDI stores musical events rather than recorded sound, converting a MOV file normally requires extracting its audio and transcribing that audio into notes.

What the MOV format is

MOV is a multimedia container developed by Apple for QuickTime. It can hold video, audio, subtitles, timecode, and metadata using codecs such as H.264, HEVC, ProRes, AAC, or PCM.

Video cameras, iPhones, screen-recording applications, and editing programs such as Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premiere Pro commonly create MOV files. QuickTime Player, VLC, Windows Media Player with suitable codecs, and most video editors can open them.

What the MID format is

MID is a filename extension for Standard MIDI files; .midi is an equivalent extension. A MID file contains note numbers, durations, velocities, tempo changes, controller events, program changes, and sometimes lyrics or track names. It does not contain video or recorded audio.

MIDI is useful when you need to change individual notes, assign a different instrument, edit a melody in a notation program, or control a hardware or software synthesizer. Its files are usually very small because they store performance instructions rather than waveforms.

How to actually convert MOV to MID

For a quick online attempt: open 101convert.com, choose its MOV-to-MID converter, upload the .mov file, select MID as the output, start the conversion, and download the resulting file. This requires no installed software, but the result depends on whether the service can detect notes in the source audio.

For a more controllable desktop workflow:

1. Check that the MOV contains an audible musical track. A video-only MOV cannot produce MIDI notes.
2. Install FFmpeg, then extract the audio as an uncompressed WAV file:

ffmpeg -i input.mov -vn -ac 1 -ar 44100 audio.wav

3. Install Spotify Basic Pitch, an audio-to-MIDI transcription tool:

pip install basic-pitch

4. Transcribe the extracted audio:

basic-pitch midi-output audio.wav

The generated MIDI file will be placed in midi-output. Open it in a DAW or notation application, correct detected notes and timing, then export or save it as .mid if the program uses another MIDI extension.

Quality and compatibility limitations

FFmpeg can extract audio from MOV, but it cannot directly turn audio into MIDI because MIDI conversion requires pitch, onset, duration, and instrument detection. An audio-to-MIDI tool estimates those values and can produce incorrect notes, extra notes, missed notes, or inaccurate timing.

Monophonic recordings with one clearly isolated instrument or vocal melody generally transcribe better than full mixes. Drums, chords, reverb, background noise, speech, and overlapping instruments reduce accuracy. Separate stems or a clean melody track usually give better results than the complete MOV soundtrack.

The output MIDI does not preserve the original singer, instrument tone, effects, or video. Choose a MIDI instrument or soundfont in the destination program, and verify that the program supports Standard MIDI Files and the required track type.