Samplab is shutting down: where to move your workflow
Samplab's hosted service ends after 17 September 2026. After that you can't upload new audio, and older versions of the software stop working entirely. Yearly subscriptions extending past that date are being refunded. If your workflow depended on it, the honest first step isn't picking a replacement — it's exporting what you still need while the service is up.
Do this first, before the 17th
- Open every project you might come back to and export the MIDI.
- Export the rendered audio too, for anything where you edited notes and want the result preserved.
- Save your stems separately if you used the stem split — those aren't recoverable later.
- Only then start testing replacements, with files you already have.
What you're actually losing
Samplab did four things in one place: polyphonic audio-to-MIDI, stem separation, chord detection, and note editing that preserved the original timbre. That last one is the hard part. Most tools give you MIDI; Samplab let you change a note insidethe sample and still sound like the sample. No free tool replaces that, and it's worth being clear about it rather than pretending a converter is a like-for-like swap.
The rest — conversion, stems, chords — is well covered, including free. So the right replacement depends on which part of Samplab you actually used.
The options
| Tool | Cost | Replaces | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|---|
| AudioForges (this site) | Free | Audio-to-MIDI, stem separation, key/BPM — in the browser, no account | No note editing inside the audio; you get MIDI and stems, not a resynthesised sample |
| Basic Pitch (Spotify) | Free | Audio-to-MIDI only | Conversion alone — no stems, no chord detection, no editing |
| Melodyne | From ~$99, Editor $399+ | Polyphonic note editing with timbre preserved | The real replacement for Samplab's core trick, at a serious price |
| Hit'n'Mix Infinity | ~$249 | Polyphonic note editing, processed offline | One-time purchase and fully offline, but a steep learning curve |
| Your DAW | Already paid for | Basic audio-to-MIDI (Ableton 11+, Logic, Cubase) | Fine on monophonic and drums, weaker on polyphonic material |
Pick by what you used it for
- You converted loops to MIDI to re-voice them: the AudioForges audio-to-MIDI converter does this free with no length limit, and shows the result on a piano roll so you can hear it before downloading. Basic Pitch works too.
- You split a sample then converted a part: run the stem splitter first, then convert the isolated part — same two-step flow, free, no install.
- You needed the key and tempo to match samples: the key & BPM finder covers that step.
- You edited notes inside audio and kept the timbre: Melodyne or Hit'n'Mix. There is no free equivalent, and any page telling you otherwise is selling something.
- You worked inside a DAW via the plugin: check what your DAW already ships before buying anything — Ableton, Logic and Cubase all have audio-to-MIDI built in.
One takeaway worth keeping
Samplab shutting down with eight days' notice is a reminder to keep your work in formats that outlive the tool. MIDI, WAV and MusicXML open anywhere in twenty years; a proprietary project file opens as long as the company exists. Export the portable version while you still can — of everything, not just Samplab.