Samplab Shutdown: What to Use Instead

Samplab was a neat idea: drop audio in, get notes you could move around. If you used it to lift piano parts, the shutdown notice on its homepage set a deadline, and that deadline has now passed.

If you still have projects in Samplab, the files come first and the replacement comes second, so that is the order this piece takes. Our companion page on what to do now that Samplab is offline covers logins, old projects and refunds in more detail.

What Samplab says will happen

The notice is titled "Samplab is going offline" and gives the reason plainly: "After many years of working on Samplab, we have made the decision to pursue a new opportunity. As a result, we will discontinue the service after an interim wind-down period."

The practical points, all from that page and its FAQ:

• Uploads stop. After 17 September 2026 the site goes offline and new audio cannot be uploaded.
• Old builds die. Older versions of Samplab and of Resynthesizer "will stop working entirely" after that date.
• There is a last version. Samplab says it created a new version "that allows you to continue working with your existing projects", and offline builds of Resynthesizer for anyone who purchased it or is subscribed to Samplab Complete. A ResynthesizerLegacy build lets past trial and subscription users open existing oneshots, but the FAQ says it "does not allow to load new audio files".
• Downloads disappear with the site. The FAQ is explicit: you cannot download the installers after the shutdown, so save them somewhere safe now.
• Accounts are deleted, and TextToSample stops working.
• Refunds. Samplab says it cancelled all active subscriptions and will refund the remaining balance of yearly subscriptions extending beyond 17 September 2026, handled through Paddle and MuseHub, which "might take some time".

Do this before the site goes dark

1. Download the installers for the latest Samplab and, if you are entitled to them, Resynthesizer and ResynthesizerLegacy. Keep a copy in a backup, not only on your working machine.
2. Export every project to MIDI. A MIDI file outlives any app, and every DAW and notation program opens it. If you are unsure what it does and does not carry, see our explainer on what a MIDI file is.
3. Export or bounce the audio too, so you can re-transcribe later with a different tool if the MIDI turns out to be rough.
4. Save your source recordings under names you will recognise in two years.
5. Check your billing so you notice whether the refund arrives.

What you are actually replacing

Samplab's footer listed four tools: audio to MIDI, chord detection, stem splitter, and BPM and key detection. That bundle is why no single product is a drop-in replacement. Most people used one or two of those features, so the honest question is which one you need.

If you came for piano, you want a tool trained on piano, not a general-purpose pitch detector, and ideally one that gives you notation rather than a raw note grid.

Audio-to-MIDI and transcription tools, compared

Vendor pages read on 19 September 2026. Some vendors display localised prices; where a page showed euros for us, we print euros rather than invent a dollar figure. Klangio's and AnthemScore Web's prices load by script; we read them in a rendered browser page.

Spotify Basic Pitch

Free, open source, and the closest thing to a default. The project describes it as "instrument-agnostic" with support for polyphonic instruments, and says plainly that it "works best on one instrument at a time". You get a MIDI file with pitch bends, plus optional CSV note events if you run it from the command line.

What it will not do is hand you a score. That gap is the subject of our piece on why Basic Pitch gives you MIDI, not sheet music.

Klangio Piano2Notes

Built specifically for piano, and it exports the three files that matter: PDF, MIDI (quantised and unquantised) and MusicXML. The free demo transcribes the first 20 seconds and can be used unlimited times, which is enough to judge it on your own playing. Klangio's help centre says it sells monthly or annual subscriptions and also gift cards holding a fixed number of tickets that do not expire, so it is not subscription-only.

AnthemScore

The desktop app is sold as a one-time licence, which matters if a service closing has put you off subscriptions. Lunaverus states that "No automatic or recurring charges are ever made" and that the activation key has no expiration. Lite exports PDF only; Professional and Studio add MIDI and musicXML. The desktop trial is capped at 30 seconds per song and 100 transcriptions. There is also a browser version, AnthemScore Web, on a subscription.

Melodyne

Not a notation tool, but the closest in spirit to what Samplab felt like: you see the notes inside the audio and move them. Celemony says the DNA polyphonic algorithm is in Melodyne 5 editor and Melodyne 5 studio, and there is a 30-day free trial. Melodyne 5 editor was US$399 in Celemony's US shop when we checked. Our page on Melodyne to sheet music covers what its MIDI export holds and what you still build.

Ableton Live's Convert commands

If you already own Live, you may not need to buy anything. Live's manual documents four commands, including Convert Harmony to New MIDI Track, which "identifies the pitches in a polyphonic audio recording and places them into a clip on a new MIDI track". The manual also states the caveats: use material with clear attacks, and isolated instruments, since notes that fade in or swell may not be detected.

What to do with the projects you cannot re-open

If a Samplab project only exists as a Samplab project, the MIDI export is your lifeboat. But MIDI is a performance record, not a score: it has note numbers, timings and velocities, and nothing about clefs, hand splitting or note spelling. Open it in notation software and expect to spend a while fixing rhythms and splitting the staves by hand before it reads cleanly. MuseScore Studio is free and can open MIDI files, but the handbook's own page on working with MIDI is an unwritten placeholder, so do not count on import settings.

The alternative, if you still have the original audio, is to re-transcribe it with a tool that produces notation directly. For solo piano, that usually costs less time than repairing a MIDI import. Our step-by-step guide to converting a piano recording to sheet music walks through the whole route.

Which handles polyphonic piano best?

We are not going to publish an accuracy league table: we have no measured results for these tools, and accuracy depends heavily on your recording. What the vendors' own pages say is consistent:

• One instrument at a time. Basic Pitch's repository says it "works best on one instrument at a time", and Ableton's manual advises working with recordings of isolated instruments.
• Clear attacks. Ableton's manual warns that notes that fade in or swell may not be detected.
• Well-recorded, piano-focused material. Klangio says Piano2Notes performs best with it, while also saying it can isolate the piano when other instruments play.
• Dense pedalled passages are a known weak spot of automatic transcription generally, because sustain blurs where notes end. Expect to check note lengths.

That is exactly why the export format matters more than the marketing. A tool that gives you MusicXML lets you fix the two bars it got wrong in your notation program. A tool that gives you a PDF only makes you retype the whole thing.

A short checklist for choosing

• Do you want to own software? AnthemScore's one-time licence is the clearest fit.
• Do you need it once, this week? Look at tools that sell one piece at a time: ours is $4.99, and Klangio's gift cards hold tickets that do not expire.
• Do you live in a DAW? Live's Convert commands or Melodyne keep you in one window.
• Do you need free and do not mind editing? Basic Pitch, then notation software.
• Do you need a readable score at the end? Choose a tool that exports MusicXML, whichever one it is.

If you want to hear what a transcription sounds like before you decide, the demo on the home page shows the engraved result, and the pricing section lists both options.

Frequently asked questions

When exactly does Samplab shut down?

Samplab's own site says the service was supported until 17 September 2026, after which the page goes offline and no new audio can be uploaded. Older versions of Samplab and Resynthesizer stop working entirely after that date, and the site says all accounts will be deleted. The notice was still displayed when we read it on 19 September.

Can I keep using Samplab offline after the shutdown?

Partly. Samplab published a new version that lets you keep working with existing projects, plus offline builds of Resynthesizer for people who bought it or subscribed to Samplab Complete. Its FAQ says the installers cannot be downloaded once the site is offline, so if you saved them, keep them backed up.

Will I get a refund on my subscription?

Samplab says it cancelled all active subscriptions and will refund the remaining balance of yearly subscriptions that run past 17 September 2026. It also notes refunds go through its partners Paddle and MuseHub, so they may take a while to arrive.

What is the closest free replacement for Samplab's audio to MIDI?

Spotify's Basic Pitch is free and open source under the Apache 2.0 licence, and it outputs MIDI with pitch bends. It is instrument-agnostic and supports polyphonic instruments, though the project notes it works best on one instrument at a time. It does not produce sheet music.

Which tool should I use for polyphonic piano specifically?

Use a tool aimed at piano rather than a general converter. Klangio's Piano2Notes, AnthemScore and Piano to Sheet Music all export MusicXML so you can correct the result, and each has a free preview or trial. Test the same recording on each before paying, because we publish no measured accuracy for any of them.

Does anything replace Samplab's stem splitter as well?

No single tool covers every Samplab feature. Samplab combined audio to MIDI, chord detection, stem splitting and BPM and key detection. Replacing it usually means pairing a stem separator with a dedicated transcription tool, rather than finding one drop-in substitute.

Sources

• Samplab homepage and shutdown FAQ, read 19 September 2026 (FAQ answers read in a rendered browser page)
• Basic Pitch and the Basic Pitch repository
• Klangio Piano2Notes and Klangio help: What are Klangio Subscriptions?
• AnthemScore purchase page and AnthemScore Web pricing
• Celemony: what is Melodyne and the Celemony US shop listing for Melodyne 5 editor
• Ableton Live manual: Converting Audio to MIDI
• MuseScore Studio handbook: Working with MIDI