Samplab Is Shutting Down: The Best Alternatives
Last updated July 15, 2026
If you came here because Samplab is closing, you read it right. Samplab — a longtime favorite for turning audio into MIDI, splitting stems, and editing notes while keeping the original timbre — is winding down. This is a straight look at what you are losing and the best places to move your workflow, free and paid.
Convert an isolated part to MIDI free, in your browser — then re-voice it on cleared instruments and keep building.
Try Selekt's converter free →What is happening to Samplab
Samplab's site now shows a wind-down notice — the service is going offline, with the hosted tools ending after September 17, 2026 and feature pages already coming down. If your projects relied on it, now is the time to line up a replacement rather than get caught when it goes dark.
What you are losing
Samplab stood out for a few things at once: polyphonic audio-to-MIDI, stem separation, chord detection, and note editing that preserved the sample's timbre — all in a free browser tool plus a plugin. No single free tool replaces every one of those, so the practical move is to reassemble that workflow from the best-in-class parts.
The best alternatives
For a fuller breakdown of each, see the best free audio-to-MIDI converters.
- Spotify Basic Pitch — the free, open-source benchmark for converting a single clean instrument. Fast and private, but a bare demo with no stem-splitting and no workflow after the file.
- Selekt — converts guitar, vocal, and melody parts free and on-device (nothing uploaded), routes bass/piano/drums to cloud models, splits full songs into stems, and — unlike the others — lets you rebuild the result on cleared instruments afterward.
- AnthemScore — a paid desktop app if you mainly want audio to sheet music, with MIDI as one export.
- Songscription — a polished web converter with instrument isolation; useful, though it stops at the download.
How to move your stem-to-MIDI workflow over
Samplab's real value was doing the whole chain — split, then transcribe — in one place. You can rebuild that: run the song through a stem separator to isolate each part, then convert the parts you want in the audio-to-MIDI converter. On Selekt the stem separator can extract MIDI for every stem in the same pass, which is the closest single-flow replacement for what Samplab did — and everything you rebuild lands on cleared, documented sounds.
Split a song into stems and convert the parts to MIDI in one flow — then rebuild on cleared instruments.
Open the audio-to-MIDI converter →Frequently asked questions
Is Samplab shutting down?
Yes. Samplab's site shows a wind-down notice and its hosted service is going offline, with the tools ending after September 17, 2026. Its users are actively looking for replacements.
When does Samplab go offline?
Per its shutdown notice, the service ends after September 17, 2026, and some feature pages are already down. Move any active workflow over before then so you are not caught out.
What is the best Samplab alternative?
There is no single drop-in replacement for everything Samplab did. For free single-instrument conversion, Basic Pitch and Selekt are the strongest; for the split-then-convert workflow Samplab was known for, pair a stem separator with an audio-to-MIDI converter — Selekt does both in one pass.
Is there a free Samplab alternative?
Yes. Selekt converts guitar, vocal, and melody parts free and on-device with no upload and no signup, and Spotify's Basic Pitch is free and open-source for a single clean instrument.
What replaces Samplab's stem-to-MIDI?
Split the track into stems, then convert the isolated parts. Selekt's stem separator can split a song and extract MIDI for each stem in a single pass, which is the closest single-flow equivalent to Samplab's split-and-transcribe workflow.
Key takeaways
- Samplab is shutting down — its service ends after September 17, 2026.
- It combined polyphonic audio-to-MIDI, stem separation, chord detection, and timbre-preserving note editing.
- No single free tool replaces all of it; reassemble the workflow from best-in-class parts.
- For free single-instrument conversion: Basic Pitch or Selekt (on-device, no upload).
- For the split-then-convert flow: Selekt's stem separator extracts stems and their MIDI in one pass, then rebuild on cleared sounds.
