thanks for all your answers. here is what i really want, free if possible:
I record something with my whistle with goldwave. that will then be a wav file. this wav file I want to convert into a midi file. this midi file I want to run through a program which will give me the dots I can print out. now…is there an easy way?
Cheers. 
I already told you.
But the proggies aren’t free.
cheers matey, will check 'em. 
Hey Amar!
The latest version of Finale does exactly what you are proposing, but without the middle step of having to digitize a performance first. It simply analyzes the pitch coming through the sound card/mic/audio input and automatically converts it to MIDI and the appropriate dot on the page.
It is really very easy to use. There are some sensitivity parameters to set to get it to go really accurately but in as little as an evening of playing around with it you can get very good results.
Keep in mind that this isn’t the only thing this software does. It will do much more, so don’t expect to launch it and there will be a button that says Click for perfect mic notation. Expect a bit of a learning curve. (But not what people used to pull their hairs out for a decade ago with Finale.) All the help is on-line and cross referenced with links so the learning and tutorials are pretty fast in building the skills you will need to put together a nice page of printed music.
It costs though. But not too much for incredibly full featured software. The cheapest package that you can get that still has the MicNotator® module is Finale PrintMusic. It is only $70 US. I have used the full version of this software and it notated what ever I played as fast as I could play it. Jigs and reels are no problem – at speed!
One last caveat. Writing music is much like writing a language. Even if you know how to speak that language very well, imagine how difficult it may be to use a typewriter if you have never learned to read that language. This will be a similar endeavor.
Good Luck!
~Scott
Thanks for the link Scott. And pertaining to your caveat, you see, the dots wouldn’t be for me anyway, they’d be for a friend who’d then learn the tune.
A suggestion: as you’re trying this out, work with someone who reads notation. Otherwise, how will you know when your computer is producing gobbledegook?
The last time I did audio-to-MIDI-to-notation was 14 years ago, using a hardware gizmo called an IVL Pitchrider, which later turned into that horrible thing they used on Cher’s “I Believe In Love” single. Maybe I’ll try it again.
A sudden thought… the Auto Tuner for PC (and MAC) is free, and provides all sorts of functionality apart from being a chromatic tuner.
If nothing else, it’ll tell you the name of the notes you’re playing. It provides for a number of different instruments and is actually very cool
Check it out at: