midiPix

Turn an image into MIDI notes on a clip in Ableton Live.

Download

Download midiPix-1.1.0.ablx

Use

1. Open Live's Settings → Extensions and drag the .ablx onto it.
2. Right-click a MIDI clip → Image to MIDI….
3. Drag in an image, adjust the controls, and click Create Notes.

Parameters

midiPix samples the image into a grid and traces its outline (Sobel edge detection) onto the note grid — columns are time, rows are pitch.

Control	What it does
Width	How many columns the image is sliced into across the clip. Higher = finer timing and more notes.
Height	How many rows tall the image is. Each row is one semitone, so this is the pitch range.
Base pitch	MIDI note of the bottom row; the image stacks upward from there.
Edge thresh.	Minimum edge strength a pixel needs to become a note. Higher drops faint detail; lower traces more of the image.
Connect	Largest gap (in empty steps) that's bridged into one sustained note on the same row. Higher = more legato and fewer retriggers; 0 only joins directly touching cells.
Velocity from luminosity	On: note velocity comes from pixel brightness. Off: velocity comes from edge strength.
Snap to scale	Snaps every note to the nearest pitch in Live's current scale (shown in the label). Defaults on/off to match Live's global Scale Mode, but you can toggle it either way.

Build from source

npm install
npm run package   # → midiPix-1.1.0.ablx