Falling notes video maker

From audio to falling notes

Falling notes videos, the “Synthesia-style” piano roll where coloured blocks drop onto a keyboard, normally start from a MIDI file. That means you need the song in MIDI, or a digital piano connected to a computer. This tool skips that step. It listens to the recording itself and works out which notes are played and when, then draws them falling onto the keys in time with the music.

Pitched instruments go through Basic Pitch, a small open-source note-detection model from Spotify. The detected notes are then checked against the audio again: notes that are really another instrument bleeding through, octave mistakes and near-silent ghosts are dropped. Drums are handled separately by an onset detector that splits the spectrum into bands and sorts hits into kick, snare, hi-hat and cymbals.

One panel per instrument

On a full mix, every instrument ends up on one keyboard, which gets busy fast. For a clearer video, separate the song first in the Instruments tab (the same AI as the stem splitter). Each instrument then gets its own panel, stacked in the frame, and you can choose how each one is drawn:

Untick any instrument you don’t want to show. Two or three panels usually read best on a vertical phone video; 16:9 has room for more.

Preview before you export

After Find the notes, press play and the preview runs live with the song, so you can check the panels and timing before spending time on the export. If the notes reach the keys a touch before or after you hear them, nudge them with Notes earlier or Notes later. Finding notes takes a few seconds per instrument. Creating the video takes longer than an audio download, because every frame is drawn and encoded on your device.

Ideas for falling notes videos

• Piano covers: record yourself on any piano or keyboard, even an acoustic one with a phone, and turn the recording into a piano roll video without MIDI.
• Music lessons: show students how the bass line and the chords fit together, with each part on its own keyboard.
• Remixes: combine it with the effects on this site, for example a slowed + reverb version of a song with its piano falling in slow motion.
• Drum breakdowns: separate the drums and show them on pads to make a groove easy to follow.

Tips for a clean falling notes video

• Separate first, even for piano songs. If a piano song also has vocals or strings, separating keeps their notes off the keyboard. Then untick everything except Piano.
• Choose the display to match the part. Piano keys suit anything you want people to play along with. Glow lanes look tidier for vocals and synths, which use only a handful of notes.
• Keep the frame readable. On 9:16 phone video, two or three panels are plenty. Use 16:9 if you want four or more instruments.
• Add a title. The title appears at the top of the video, which helps when the clip is shared without its caption.
• Trim to the best part. Short clips do better on TikTok, Reels and Shorts. Drag the handles on the waveform to export only the section you want; the notes follow the trim.

Audio-based vs MIDI-based piano videos

Apps that start from MIDI, such as Synthesia-style players, show exactly the notes in the file, so they are perfect when you have a clean MIDI performance. Starting from audio trades a little accuracy for convenience: you can use any recording, any instrument and any song you have as a file, with no keyboard connected and nothing to install. For covers you play yourself, the audio route is often the quicker one.

What to expect

Automatic note detection is good but not perfect. Expect a few missed notes in dense passages, and occasional wrong octaves on instruments with strong overtones. Sustain pedal and long reverb tails can make notes appear held longer than they were played. If you need exact notation, use the video as a guide rather than a transcription. Solo piano and clear melodies give the cleanest results; if your recording is a mix, isolating the part with the vocal remover or stem splitter first helps a lot.

Video details

Videos are 1080p MP4 (H.264 with 256 kbps AAC audio) in 9:16 (1080 × 1920), 16:9 (1920 × 1080) or 1:1, ready for TikTok, Reels, Shorts or YouTube. You can add a title, and a small slowed-reverb.com credit appears in the corner. Everything is processed in your browser, so the song is never uploaded. If you post a video of someone else’s recording, the usual copyright rules apply; our guide to posting on TikTok and YouTube covers the basics.