Free online TIFF to MIDI converter

What the TIFF format is

TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) is a raster image format used for high-resolution scans and page layouts. Sheet music commonly reaches TIFF through a scanner, music-notation software, or image editors such as Adobe Photoshop, GIMP, and Affinity Photo. A TIFF records staff lines, noteheads, rests, clefs, text, and page artifacts as pixels; it does not identify their musical meaning.

TIFF may contain lossless LZW or ZIP compression, lossy JPEG compression, grayscale or color data, and multiple pages. Optical music recognition (OMR) software must analyze those pixels to reconstruct pitches, durations, voices, tempo markings, and other notation.

What the MIDI format is

MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a standard for representing performance instructions rather than recorded sound. A MIDI file can contain note-on and note-off events, pitch, velocity, instrument assignments, controller data, tempo, meter, and track information.

MIDI is suitable for playback through software instruments, editing in DAWs and sequencers, transposing passages, and sending notes to electronic keyboards. It is much smaller than scanned notation or audio, but it does not preserve the visual page, engraving, lyrics layout, or the original instrument recording. Playback depends on the selected synthesizer or sound library.

How to actually convert TIFF to MIDI

A direct pixel-format converter cannot perform this task. Use an OMR-capable converter, or convert the recognized notation to MusicXML and then export MIDI.

Using the built-in online converter

1. Open the TIFF-to-MIDI converter on 101convert.com; it can be used for free without installing software.
2. Upload the TIFF containing clearly visible music notation.
3. Select MIDI as the output format and start the conversion. If the service offers an OMR or sheet-music recognition option, enable it; an ordinary image conversion option cannot create note events.
4. Download the resulting MIDI file and inspect it in a notation program or DAW. Correct pitches, rhythms, voices, tempo, and instruments manually where recognition errors occur.

Using desktop OMR software

1. Prepare a clean, upright scan at approximately 300–600 dpi. Crop borders, remove speckles, and use grayscale or black-and-white thresholding when it improves staff-line contrast.
2. Open the TIFF in Audiveris or another OMR application. In Audiveris, use File → Input or drag the image into the project, then run page recognition.
3. Review detected systems, measures, clefs, key signatures, time signatures, note values, ties, tuplets, and lyrics. Fix recognition errors before exporting.
4. Export the result as score.musicxml using the application’s MusicXML export command.
5. Open score.musicxml in MuseScore, then choose File → Export and select MIDI, saving the result as score.mid or score.midi.

MusicXML is used as an intermediate format because it retains notation structure more effectively than MIDI during the recognition and correction stages. Some commercial notation programs, including PhotoScore and SharpEye, can perform OMR and export MIDI directly or through MusicXML, depending on the edition.

Quality, compatibility, and limitations

Recognition accuracy depends on scan resolution, skew, contrast, staff-line damage, handwriting, multiple voices, ornaments, grace notes, tuplets, pedal markings, and whether the source is engraved or handwritten. A TIFF of a photograph, decorative score, or low-contrast fax may require substantial manual correction.

Multi-page TIFF files may be imported as separate pages or only partially supported; verify that every page appears in the OMR project. MIDI generally preserves sounding note events but may lose notation details such as enharmonic spelling, beaming, slurs, dynamics, lyrics, and page layout. Use MusicXML when editable notation is the primary requirement, and use MIDI when playback or sequencer control is the intended result.

Standard MIDI File Type 1 is usually preferable for multi-part scores because it keeps instruments or voices on separate tracks. Choose Type 0 only when a destination device requires a single-track file. Before transferring MIDI to hardware, check the device’s supported MIDI channels, program changes, tempo range, and maximum polyphony.