Launched this week
Backbeat Forge
Turn drum audio into a score you can actually edit
102 followers
Turn drum audio into a score you can actually edit
102 followers
Drop in a full mix or an isolated drum stem. Backbeat Forge puts the performance on a five-line drum score you can check against playback and correct by hand. When the chart feels right, export it as a printable PDF or General MIDI file. It all runs locally.
The drum transcription accuracy is impressive for a local tool. One thing that would really round it out is adding a confidence indicator on each detected hit so you know where to focus your manual corrections first, maybe color coding notes the algorithm is less sure about.
Backbeat Forge
@emelzgbk Thanks, Emel. A per-hit confidence indicator makes a lot of sense, especially for ghost notes, cymbal bleed, and dense fills where the model is less certain.
Color-coding lower-confidence notes could turn the editor into a much faster review workflow, since you could focus on the questionable areas instead of checking every hit equally. I’ve added this to the list of improvements I want to explore.
The local processing is the part worth paying attention to. A lot of transcription tools quietly send your audio to a server, which matters alot!
Backbeat Forge
@mohammed_messeguem Exactly. That was one of the main reasons I built it this way. Your audio stays on your own machine, so you don’t have to upload rehearsal takes, demos, or unreleased tracks somewhere just to get a transcription. Thanks for noticing that.
This is cool, did you make it out of your own need or what inspired you?
Backbeat Forge
@ankur_jeswani A bit of both. I kept running into the same problem: drum transcription takes a lot of time, and most tools either focus on melody or give you something that isn’t really editable. I wanted a workflow that could turn audio into a usable starting point, then let you clean up the score yourself.
The correct-by-hand-then-export flow is the actual selling point for me — most audio-to-score tools trap the result in their own editor. When I hand-fix a hit — say move a stray note from the hi-hat lane to the ride, or delete a ghost snare — does that edit carry into the General MIDI export as the right instrument on the correct GM drum note, or does export re-run detection and drop my corrections? And does the printable PDF keep the same five-line kit-piece lane mapping I see on screen?
Dropped in a drum stem and was honestly surprised how clean the notation came out, even with some messy ghost notes. Being able to hand-fix the chart and export straight to MIDI without anything leaving my machine is a really nice touch.
Backbeat Forge
@kran273214 Thanks, Şükran! Ghost notes are exactly where automatic transcription can get messy, so I’m really glad the editable score made those corrections manageable. Keeping the audio and exports local was a non-negotiable part of the design for me.
Dropped in a stem and the transcription came out close enough that I only had to nudge a few hits by hand, which is way better than I expected. The PDF export looks clean and ready to print for a real chart.
Backbeat Forge
@aykutq0yd Thanks, Aykut! That’s exactly the workflow I was aiming for: get close enough automatically that you’re adjusting a few hits rather than building the entire chart from scratch. Really glad the PDF came out clean enough to use as an actual printed score.
The GM MIDI export is what sells me here — an editable staff you can actually pull back into a DAW beats a static PDF every time. As a producer I live in swung and triplet-feel grooves (trap hats, shuffle) — does it transcribe those to real triplet subdivisions or snap everything to a straight grid? That's usually where audio-to-score tools fall apart for me.