I had never heard of Transcribe before, thanks for that heads up Kenny. I will have to take a look at that one when I get a chance... and if I don't chime in, the thread will fall off my radar

OK this one goes out to the OP ,
 
I think you have gotten some excellent feedback and advice from a number of people in the know .
In a nutshell there is simply way too many artifacts present in the recording  you want to transcribe / make a Midi file of for an easy audio to midi conversion to happen ...
 
May I suggest something to you ?
For this recording I happen to think that we are all going about this the wrong way just because the door is closed doesn't  mean we cant open up the window .
 
Please allow me to explain to you why I feel this way ...
I saw the video one time ...visually it was impressive , but I don't care about that ..
all the time I have spent with the tune you put up has been spent in SONAR and Transcribe ..
The young energetic piano player has my respect for his performance , he did a wonderful job during his performance , yet he is not playing a thing that has me quaking in my boots over here ....
 
Before I say another word about music , let me explain to you a way of thinking that unlocks the limitations many of us willingly place upon our self's ....
Often times when another human being or a musician plays something we want to learn it means we have entered into the gravitational pull of the law of attraction ...they are embodying something we would like to express.
The interesting thing is the very reason we can recognize that in another person means that we already have it ...
If we did not have it inside our selfs we would not be able to recognize it in another ....
One of the frailty's of the human condition is "to not own it " by saying well he can do that but I never will be able to do that ...
OP I know that you don't feel that way because you are doing your best to make a midi file of this tune
for your son ....yet it has to be said ....and I'm gonna say it ....
 
What that guy played , I can play also ....
 
OK , I put your file in Transcribe and I was able to play along with it on my guitar and nail at least half to 2 thirds of what was played on the piano ...since I play guitar I concentrated on 3 distinct elements of the song ...one at a time
The Bass , The guide Tones / Chords and the melody / fills  ...
I did this at 70% speed  and after spending some time with the song I'm not over here quaking in my boots ...
If You take away the visual , then concentrate on the 3 elements I have mentioned , +roll up your sleves  and do a little work you will be able to transcribe this song ...
 
Having gotten that far after an hour or so I wanted to go deeper ...
I took the song and beat mapped it in SONY Acid Pro 7 only because it was fast and easy to do ....
I didn't do a perfect job but the song clocked in at around a use able 150 .9 BMP ..it doesn't have to be perfect .
What I did next was set the tempo in Acid pro to 120 ...the reason for that is I wanted to export a modestly slower file into SONAR Splat at the default setting of 120. BMP ...
When I imported the file into SONAR I made sure to import it as a split mono ...
The reason for that is because once imported into SONAR it was easy to see that one side of the file is bass heavy and the other side isnt ...this plays into it ....one side has less artifacts that are distracting ....
 
If you happen to still be w me I'm suggesting that you may want to try some of what I have been suggesting unless you think I'm plain old nuts
 
When I was in SONAR i took my guitar  and I played the bass part along with the song ...then I recorded some it it along with one side of the track ....BTW it is important  to be able to switch sides of the file to hear all the nuances ...
What I did next was to put an instance of true pianos up as a synth ...then I slid my guitar track over to the midi and had a decent section of the bass track .....VIA the  ARA conversion ....
then I took a little bit of the song and played some of the guide tones , recorded that and slid it over to another Piano since I can only get one instance of true pianos happening ....
 
Now here's the kicker ..I haven't done the whole song I'm not Einstein but I have done enough of the song to be able to tell you that getting this one down is very possible ..
Now here is a little trick you may want to try ...If you have done some of what I have suggested you will have played along with some of the song , laid down some skeleton parts of some of the songs  arrangement ...
if you have done that by that point you  will have sections of the song where you can mute the original file ...
even if it is for only 20seconds ....
Now is the time to pull out the big guns
Do an audio to midi conversion with one of the sides of the imported file , which ever one works the best ...
What you are gonna get is a pile of POOH ,,lol but I know a way out
Double click that monstrosity of a midi file that looks like fly $hit and open it up in SONARS piano roll ...
now is the time to make a hard ball decision ...do you want to play with one side of the audio file or do you want to play with some of the parts you tracked ?
Here's what you are gonna do , you can listen if you want , hit play while you are in the piano roll ...listen
the midi conversion is all over the place right ? good ....
While you are listening /looping delete all the bass notes from the low end in the piano roll up unto the point of a Bb below middle C .
What you will find is most of you problems have just went away ...that's where all the garbage was from a poor audio to midi conversion ...by that point you should have some chords that are not exactly right and the guide tones and the melody ...
Bear in mind there will be more editing to be done but you are gonna be a lot closer in the ball park ...
I'm running out of steam over here my friend , if you don't dig what I'm saying  here ...that s OK 
Do me a favor and at least consider approaching this song as three distinct elements .
A bass part , A chord part and a melody / fills ..if you do that you will be good
 
all the best ,
 
Kenny
 
 
 
 

You da man Kenny! Thanks for the heads up on Transcribe. Where has this been all my life?

HI there:)
 
@Noel
 
that's right, he plays it very hard, that's the problem!!
 
@kennywtelejazz
 
Transcribe is very fine!! I'm practising with it! (Speed Play Function)
 
Now we transcribe that Piece with this Program, Loop one bar, slow it down and listen. Would be great to do it faster, but time for my son to learn to transcribe by ears!!!
With Guitar and Bass Staff I have no problems, I hear it and write it down, that's what I do since about 40 years for my guitar students, but not with piano......
Thank you very much for your helpful posts;) Hope I can help you sometimes!
 
Greetings to all:)
Bassman.
 

HI again:)
 
Don't wonder why my sons don't learned many from myself:)
 
1. the Prophet has nothing to say in his own house:)
2. I don't wanted my sons to become musicians as a profession, as a hobby it is OK and one musician in the family is enough!
3. I let the piano teacher do his job and he dit it very well!!
 
The only thing they learned from his father is how to practise effectively, and the did it exactly like that!
 
Perhaps it helps someone:
 
1. Don't practise if you don't feel comfort in practising, go away and come back an hour later and try again (the day after, if point 9 is true).
2. Don't practise hours and hours, practise 10-15 minutes then go away and come back later, but practise 4-5 times a    day minimum!
   It's for to give your brain time to build the synapses for your special finger moves
3. Don't practise every day the same, but every second day
4. To speed up, practise in half time or less and sometimes play it double time, then increase your tempo. Important       to try it double time at every half time speed, finally it will work, maybe after weeks.
5. Increase, till it doesn't work anymore, then go back 2-3 steps and try it again. If not possible, go back to less than       half time and speed up again.
6. Do your scales you need every day!
7. Don't stop practising.
8. No Alkohol in practising days nor the day before, it throws you back a week.
9. If you drink, do not practise the day after, cause it will be ----> 1.
 
Happy practising;)
Bassman.
 
 

OMG, what an incredible coincidence the OP actually is. I was on my phone before so didn't open this piece until now but immediately recognized the name as I was putzing through the "chain of YouTube recommendations" last weekend which led me to "Smooth Criminal" by 2CELLOS... never heard of them but love cello so gave it a listen and was very impressed. Almost 17 million hits too, so thought it odd that I had never heard of them before (proof I truly live in a vacuum maybe). Then I began digging for more information on "2CELLOS" and that specific piece was recommended to Elkton John who immediately hired them after watching the YouTube video.
 
 
I just downloaded the OPs wav file as I want to take a look see into the content of this one as well.
 
Edit: Quick look at this piece with R-Mix (from X2), shows a lot of stereo content potentially added from a stereo imager, and is rather aggressive. As mentioned above, heavy harmonic content falls into the same scenario as trying to use Melodyne on a processed guitar signal. For a piano there is the additional downside that harmonics will actually resonate other higher strings. Kenny's comment about dissecting this in key ranges is a good recommendation, the video adds the benefit of watching the performance.

Michael M; if you like cellos check this out.

http://youtu.be/ve4cBOnSU9Q

Ethan used to be a Sonar user but left around the time he recorded this in Sonar.

That is a rather impressive video. The cello is an incredible instrument in the right hands, and I think Ethan captured a lot of its versatility in that single piece. Derailed the OP though, sorry about that.

brundlefly

kennywtelejazz
For a musician of your caliber...

Is there anything lower than .177? 
 
My first thought when I watched the Bence video was: "Thankfully I will never need to transcribe anything that difficult because I wouldn't be able to play it anyway!" 

 
Dave
You are far too humble for your own good my friend ...
Here's a reminder for you that you can play and write .
http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=5931730
You are certainly high caliber in my book
IMHO  you should have fired the guitar player because he over played on the guitar and rhodes .He may have effed up your song ...
don't even get me started on his mix

note to self ..... maybe I should do a remix and change a few instruments around now that I have a better idea of what I'm doing
 
 
tenfoot , mettelus & Basseman ,
 
I found Transcribe  VAI an online friend that recommended the program very highly .
I hope you each enjoy using Transcribe as much a I have
 
Basseman , here is a permalink to post about an audio to midi conversion that I did a couple of days ago ..
http://forum.cakewalk.com/FindPost/3365474
The recording I used in my conversion was very complex harmonically and dynamically  .
 
 
all the best ,
 
Kenny
 

Me thinks that their are too many overtunes associated with PIANO... add to that their are 3 strings per note (most notes), each with the own set of overtones plus room reflections and the converter gets overwhelmed.  Just by 2 cents.
 
But, I do agree, that the old fashion way is a much better skill to learn than to hit a button on a computer.  The old fashion way has a side benefit as well, it forces you to understand music better as well.
 
This post did give me pause though to watch more BENCE PETER videos.  He reminds me of a young LIBERACE which the theatrics that he adds to the performances.  Very talented obviously, wish he would use his skills on a bit more progressive type of music.
 
Jim