Midi Note Naming Reference - Keith McMillen Instruments SoftStep Reference Manual

5.9 MIDI Note Naming Reference

MIDI notes are numbers between 0 and 127, while music notes are lettered A through G# (in
traditional Western notation) — there must be a way to convert between the two. There are actually
multiple standards for naming MIDI note numbers, which can make things tricky.
Keith McMillen Instruments follows the C3=60 standard for naming/numbering notes. Below is a chart
that can help with converting note numbers to note names and vice versa.
Octave
C
0
-2
12
-1
24
0
36
1
48
2
60
3
72
4
84
5
96
6
108
7
120
8
Note: Other software/hardware may follow the C4=60 naming scheme (or even C5=60), which
can lead to some confusion when MIDI mapping or setting up SoftStep. All MIDI notes will appear to
be an octave off, but in MIDI-land they have the same note number — which is all that matters.
Note Names / Numbers
C# D D#
1 2 3
13 14 15
25 26 27
37 38 39
49 50 51
61 62 63
73 74 75
85 86 87
97 98 99
109 110 111
121 122 123
E F F#
4 5 6
16 17 18
28 29 30
40 41 42
52 53 54
64 65 66
76 77 78
88 89 90
100 101 102
112 113 114
124 125 126
(C3=60)
G G# A
7 8 9
19 20 21
31 32 33
43 44 45
55 56 57
67 68 69
79 80 81
91 92 93
103 104 105
115 116 117
— —
127
A# B
10 11
22 23
34 35
46 47
58 59
70 71
82 83
94 95
106 107
118 119
— —