RtMidi for Unity

This is a wrapper library of RtMidi for Unity that allows Unity programs to access MIDI devices within C# scripts.

Note that this library only provides a thin wrapper of the original C language implementation. There are lots of unsafe and inconvenient elements in the library. In other words, this is a kind of a raw device driver provided for plugin developers -- It's not recommended to use directly in application code.

System Requirements

• Unity 2019.1 or later
• Windows, macOS or Linux
• Only supports 64-bit architecture

How To Install

This package uses the scoped registry feature to resolve package dependencies. Please add the following sections to the manifest file (Packages/manifest.json).

To the scopedRegistries section:

{
  "name": "Keijiro",
  "url": "https://registry.npmjs.com",
  "scopes": [ "jp.keijiro" ]
}

To the dependencies section:

"jp.keijiro.rtmidi": "1.0.4"

After changes, the manifest file should look like below:

{
  "scopedRegistries": [
    {
      "name": "Keijiro",
      "url": "https://registry.npmjs.com",
      "scopes": [ "jp.keijiro" ]
    }
  ],
  "dependencies": {
    "jp.keijiro.rtmidi": "1.0.4",
    ...

Examples

There is an example implementation of low-level wrapper class for using the plugin to input/output MIDI messages. Please see the script files under the Assets directory in this repository for details.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nice! So is it possible to implement a music sequencer with Unity?

Unfortunately, it's quite hard -- I'd say it's almost impossible.

The script behaviors in Unity are hard-locked to screen refreshing. Due to this limitation, you can't achieve enough temporal resolution that is required to keep a correct tempo.

If the display is refreshing at 60 Hz, and the tempo of the song is 120 BPM, it could work correctly. But how about 130 BPM? What if the display is refreshing at 50 Hz?

You may have to create a separate thread and use a media-timer API or something like that. However, this plugin is only tested in a non-threaded fashion. You may have to test it on supported platforms too.

There might be more things to be considered. Does it worth investing time? Or isn't it better to create a new plugin from scratch? There is no clear yes/no answer to it. I just think it's quite hard.