Pitch-to-midi Newbie!, questions about osX pitch-to-midi Options

[nickgb]

Hello MacMusic!

I am new to this community, and pretty much unexperienced in the general realm of midi on the mac. So, my apologies if my questions are redundant or obvious...

Basically, I am interested in pitch-to-midi-to-sheet music transcription. I am a violinist, and would love to be able to play tunes at my iBook and have it turn those sounds into sheet music. I know this is possible, having combed the web for information on the technology. It seems that software has been around for years that can accomplish this.

However, I'm at a loss for what programs specifically to look into. My real interest lies not in MIDI editing or composition, but simply in generating transcriptions of my improvisations and such. (By the way, do any string players know if these programs can pick up double-stops?)

I have a 700mhz iBook running Jaguar (OS 10.2) with 640 megs of RAM. One limitation might be the audio-in capability - my computer comes only with a tiny microphone built into the frame of the screen.

So! My questions:

What software should I look into? I would prefer something under $100, but I don't know if that's at all possible.

Will I need another program to convert midi files to sheet music? Something like Finale or Sibelius? I know those are high-end, expensive programs. Is there something that combines those functions inexpensively?

Thanks so much!

Nick