How to import your MIDI into Ableton Live, FL Studio, and Logic Pro

A transcription is a starting point, not a finished part. Once you've exported a .mid file from MelodyTrace, the actual work of turning it into a track happens in your DAW. Here's how to bring it in cleanly in the three most common ones, plus what to check before you build on top of it.

Before you import: set the tempo first

Basic Pitch transcribes pitch and timing, but it doesn't know your song's original tempo — the exported MIDI's note timing is accurate in seconds, not in bars and beats at a specific BPM. If you import at the wrong project tempo, your melody will drift out of sync with everything else. Two ways to handle this:

1. Set your DAW's tempo to match the original recording first (tap it in, or use a tempo-detection plugin), then import the MIDI.
2. Import first, then time-stretch the MIDI clip to fit your project tempo — most DAWs let you warp/stretch a MIDI clip's length without changing pitch, which re-maps the notes onto your grid.

Either works; picking the tempo before import is usually less fiddly for a full track.

Ableton Live

1. Drag the .mid file from Finder/Explorer directly into a MIDI track in the Session or Arrangement view.
2. Live creates a new clip with the notes already laid out. Double-click it to open the piano roll (MIDI Editor) and check note alignment against Live's grid.
3. Assign an instrument: drag any Instrument Rack, Wavetable, or a sampled instrument onto the track — the imported MIDI has no sound of its own, only notes.
4. If the clip's timing looks off-grid, select it and use Warp (for audio-adjacent workflows) or simply quantize the MIDI clip (Cmd/Ctrl+U with notes selected) to snap it to your project's grid.

FL Studio

1. Go to File → Import → MIDI file, or drag the .mid file directly into the Playlist.
2. FL Studio will offer to create new channels/patterns per MIDI track — for a single-melody transcription, one channel is usually enough; accept the default unless you exported multiple instrument parts.
3. Open the Piano Roll on the new pattern to review notes. Use Quantize (the magnet icon or Alt+Q) if the transcription's timing is slightly loose.
4. Assign an instrument from the Channel Rack — the default FL Keys or any plugin synth will let you hear the part immediately.

Logic Pro

1. Drag the .mid file into an empty area of the Tracks area, or use File → Import → MIDI File.
2. Logic creates a new Software Instrument track with the imported region. Double-click the region to open the Piano Roll editor.
3. Logic auto-assigns a default instrument (usually a piano). Change it via the track's instrument slot in the Inspector — any Alchemy, Sampler, or third-party instrument works.
4. If note starts feel imprecise, select the region and use Functions → MIDI Transform → Quantize, or Logic's Region inspector quantize field, to tighten timing to the nearest subdivision.

After import: what to actually fix

Across any DAW, the same three things are worth checking before you build further:

• Wrong or extra notes — these are usually easier to catch and fix in MelodyTrace's piano roll before export than after the MIDI is already sitting in a DAW project with other tracks around it.
• Note length / sustain — transcribed notes can run slightly long or short compared to how you'd naturally play them; trim or extend in the DAW's piano roll once you can hear it against a real instrument sound.
• Octave placement — pitch detection is usually correct in pitch class but can occasionally land an octave off on low or ambiguous notes; a quick visual scan of the piano roll against the original recording catches this fast.

Related

• How accurate is audio-to-MIDI transcription? — what to expect from the transcription itself, by instrument, before it reaches your DAW.
• MP3 to MIDI · Audio to Sheet Music — export the same transcription as notation instead of (or alongside) MIDI.