How Do I Turn a MIDI File Into a Falling-Notes Piano Video?
To turn a MIDI file into a falling-notes piano video, open Piano Fall in BeamTracer's Audio Visualizers, drop in your song, and press LOAD MIDI under NOTES to load the song's MIDI file. Each note falls onto its key exactly when it plays. Then choose RENDER and RENDER VIDEO to save an MP4 with the audio.
This is the STAGE look: the keyboard lies on a dark stage, the notes come down onto the keys, and the camera sweeps around while the piece plays. The piece is First Light, the short sample built into Piano Fall.
Twelve seconds of the built-in sample with the cinematic camera. The left hand is gold and the right hand is pale yellow-white; this demonstration is silent.
Here is a 45-second excerpt rendered straight from Piano Fall in 4K with its sound, on Orbital Perlin Blob with no MIDI file loaded, so the notes are the ones Piano Fall hears in the track:
What's the quickest way to try Piano Fall?
Press PLAY SAMPLE. It plays First Light, a short piano piece that comes with its own MIDI file, so you can watch every note land on its key before you prepare your own song. Nothing downloads.
- Open Piano Fall.
- Open NOTES in the settings panel.
- Press PLAY SAMPLE.
NOTES FROM, at the top of NOTES, always says where the notes come from. After PLAY SAMPLE it names the sample's MIDI file.
How do I make the notes match my own song exactly?
Load the MIDI file of your song. Piano Fall places every note on your song's own clock, so a note reaches its key at the moment it sounds. There is no tempo to set, and it stays in sync when you skip around or render.
- Drag your audio file (MP3, WAV, FLAC, OGG, AAC or M4A) onto the canvas.
- Under NOTES, press LOAD MIDI and choose the song's
.midfile. - Play the song and watch the first notes land.
- If the notes are early or late, set ALIGNMENT (s); a positive value starts them later.
- Choose RENDER, then RENDER VIDEO, wait for VIDEO READY, and press SAVE VIDEO for the MP4.
Use RENDER RANGE in the render dialog to render a few seconds first. REMOVE unloads the MIDI file.
What if I don't have a MIDI file?
Piano Fall still works, but the notes are approximate. Without a MIDI file, it shows the notes BeamTracer hears in your track. NOTES FROM tells you which of these you are seeing. A MIDI file that matches the song is the only way to get every note exactly right.
If you want the notes as an overlay on another visualizer instead, see how to add a piano roll and note highway.
How do I color the left and right hands differently?
Set COLOR BY to HANDS and keep HANDS FROM on FROM FILE. Many piano MIDI files put each hand on its own track or channel, and Piano Fall colors each hand by its own part. A right-hand note below middle C still shows in the right hand's color.
- Open COLOR and set COLOR BY to HANDS.
- Pick the LEFT HAND and RIGHT HAND colors.
- Leave HANDS FROM on FROM FILE and read the line under it, which names each hand's part.
- If your file keeps both hands together, set SPLIT to the first key of the right hand; 60 is middle C.
Left: FROM FILE. Right: SPLIT KEY. Near the middle, the right hand's A below middle C is cyan on the left and blue on the right.
A part named for a hand, such as "LH", "Right" or "Melody", is that hand. Otherwise, the lower part is the left hand. SPLIT KEY ignores the file's parts and always splits at SPLIT.
How do I get a 3D or cinematic camera?
Open CAMERA and change VIEW. FRONT looks straight at the keys. ORBIT lays the keyboard flat on a 3D stage with the notes coming down behind it; drag to turn around it and scroll to zoom. CINEMATIC sweeps the camera around the stage on its own.
The same moment in FRONT, ORBIT and CINEMATIC, left to right.
ORBIT SPEED sets how fast the cinematic camera moves, and DISTANCE sets how far away it stands. If you drag during CINEMATIC, you steer for a few seconds before the sweep glides back. TILT leans the fall back in every view. The STAGE and COSMOS looks start on the cinematic camera.
Can I play a MIDI keyboard into it?
Yes. Connect a MIDI keyboard in Chrome or Edge and play. Your notes grow up out of their keys while you hold them and float away when you let go, on top of the file's falling notes. Turn LIVE NOTES off under NOTES to show only the file. Notes you play live show while you perform but are not drawn into a rendered video.
Can I practice the piece on my MIDI keyboard?
Yes. Turn on PRACTICE under NOTES and the fall waits for you. The notes fall at your pace and stop on the keys, which pulse, until you play them; then the fall moves on to the next chord.
- Load the piece's MIDI file with LOAD MIDI, or press PLAY SAMPLE.
- Pause the track; practice runs on its own clock.
- Turn on PRACTICE under NOTES.
- Choose PRACTICE HANDS: BOTH, LEFT or RIGHT. The other hand's notes keep falling.
- Play each chord when its notes reach the keys. PRACTICE SPEED starts at the piece's tempo; lower it to slow the piece down.
Is it free, and do I need to install anything?
Piano Fall runs in the browser with nothing to install. It needs WebGPU; Chrome and Edge are the tested choices (browser support). Rendering at 1080P is available on every plan. Free renders carry a BeamTracer watermark and count toward a monthly allowance. 4K comes with Bundle and Studio, and other plans get one trial 4K export. Details are on the video export page.
Which settings change how the notes look?
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| LOOK AHEAD | How many seconds of music show above the keys; lower makes the notes fall faster |
| KEYS | FIT shows only the octaves the music uses; 61 and 88 show a fixed keyboard |
| COLOR BY | PITCH, HANDS or SINGLE |
| NOTE GLOW, HIT FLASH, SPARKS | Brightness of the notes, the flash on the hit line and the sparks where notes land |
| BLOOM | How far the glow spreads |
All the controls are described in the Piano Fall guide.
Open Piano Fall and press PLAY SAMPLE to start.