How do I convert WAV or MP3 music to BAM music?

BAM format is no longer the preferred music format. BAM is still supported, but MIDI is a better choice

This article is no longer part of the F.A.Q.. It answers an obsolete FAQ question. It does not apply to the current version.

It's almost (but not completely) impossible

WAV and MP3 are both Digital formats. That means that they are a recording of the actual sound frequencies

MIDI and BAM are both Synthetic formats. That means they are just a series of notes to be played back with a predefined instrument, kinda like sheet music.

Converting synthetic music into digitial music is fairly easy. You just play back the "sheet music" with the predefined instruments and record the sound it makes. Converting the other way, from digital to synthetic, however, is far more difficult. Thats like listening to a song and trying to write down what the sheet music for it would sound like. Thats even hard for a well-experienced human to do, let alone a stupid computer.

There are a few programs that attempt this feat, but in my experience they work poorly... but if you feel like enjoying some frustration, you can search for one. Such WAV-to-MIDI converters only work on WAV files with a single sound track to them, such as a piano solo, or a single person humming. There is absolutely no hope of, for example, converting an MP3 of Elvis's Jailhouse Rock into a MIDI that sounds like anything more than noise and static and bleeps

Trust me. All the best BAM music is either composed in NOTATE, or composed as a MIDI and converted with MIDI2BAM.

See Also

• How do I use NOTATE.EXE to make BAM music?
• How do I use MIDI2BAM to make BAM music?