midicube

Midicube allows you to play MIDI notes in realtime or from MIDI files within the browser using soundfonts converted to Javascript.

midicube is a fork of Mudcube's great but abandonware MIDI.js adding ES6 modules and support to it and updating it for changes in web browsers and security.

To use in a javascript project:

$ npm install midicube

then in code (ES6 modules):

import * as MIDI from 'midicube';

MIDI.loadPlugin({
    // this only has piano. 
    // for other sounds install the MIDI.js 
    // soundfonts somewhere.
    soundfontUrl: "./examples/soundfont/",
    onerror: console.warn,
    onsuccess: () => {
        MIDI.noteOn(0, 60, 0);
    }
});

Or as a script tag:

<script src="releases/midicube.js"></script>
<script>
MIDI.loadPlugin({
    // config as above...
});
</script>

Note that nearly all playing will start asynchronously after the soundfont has been loaded. On modern web browsers you will also need interaction from the user such as a click to start sound.

Code examples - from the repo

• Basic - the most basic implementation.
• MIDIPlayer - how to parse MIDI files, and interact with the data stream.
• WhitneyMusicBox - a audio/visual experiment by Jim Bumgardner

Related repositories

• MIDI Soundfonts: Pre-rendered General MIDI soundfonts that can be used immediately with MIDI.js
• music21j: library for working with music scores; integrates midicube.
• MIDI Pictures: Pictures of the 128 standard instruments on MIDI piano keyboards

Demos based on the older MIDI.js library

• 3D Piano Player w/ Three.js by Borja Morales @reality3d
• Brite Lite by Daniel Christopher @uxmonk
• Color Piano by Michael Deal @mudcube
• Euphony 3D Piano by Xueqiao Xu @qiao
• Gbloink! by Phil Jones
• Piano Typewriter by Andrew Levine
• Ragamroll by Mani Balasubramanian
• Simon Says by Daniel Christopher @uxmonk
• Spiral Keyboard by Patrick Snels
• VexFlow by Mohit Muthanna @11111110b

Generating Base64 Soundfonts

There is two generators for MIDI.js soundfonts:

• NodeJS package for creating soundfonts from WAV files - by Patrick Wolleb
• Ruby package for creating soundsfonts from SF2 files - by Mohit Muthanna

To dive in quickly Benjamin Gleitzman has created a package of pre-rendered sound fonts.

API

MIDI - Decides which framework is best to use

// interface to connect, download soundfont, then execute callback;
MIDI.loadPlugin(onsuccess);
// simple example to get started;
MIDI.loadPlugin({
    instrument: "acoustic_grand_piano", // or the instrument code 1 (aka the default)
    instruments: [ "acoustic_grand_piano", "acoustic_guitar_nylon" ], // or multiple instruments
    onsuccess: function() { }
});

// after loadPlugin succeeds these will work:

MIDI.noteOn(channel, note, velocity, delay);
MIDI.noteOff(channel, note, delay);
MIDI.chordOn(channel, [note, note, note], velocity, delay);
MIDI.chordOff(channel, [note, note, note], delay);
MIDI.keyToNote = object; // A0 => 21
MIDI.noteToKey = object; // 21 => A0

MIDI.Player.js - Plays encoded MIDI

Note that the ES6 interface requires new before MIDI.Player() but multiple MIDI.Player instances can appear on the same page.

const Player = new MIDI.Player();
Player.currentTime = integer; // time we are at now within the song.
Player.endTime = integer; // time when song ends.
Player.playing = boolean; // are we playing? yes or no.
Player.loadFile(url_or_base64data, onsuccess); // load .MIDI from base64 or binary XML request.
Player.start(); // start the MIDI track (you can put this in the loadFile callback)
Player.resume(); // resume the MIDI track from pause.
Player.pause(); // pause the MIDI track.
Player.stop(); // stops all audio being played, and resets currentTime to 0.

Listener for when notes are played

const Player = new MIDI.Player();
Player.removeListener(); // removes current listener.
Player.addListener(function(data) { // set it to your own function!
    const now = data.now; // where we are now
    const end = data.end; // time when song ends
    const channel = data.channel; // channel note is playing on
    const message = data.message; // 128 is noteOff, 144 is noteOn
    const note = data.note; // the note
    const velocity = data.velocity; // the velocity of the note
    // then do whatever you want with the information!
});

Smooth animation interpolating between onMidiEvent calls

const Player = new MIDI.Player();
Player.clearAnimation(); // clears current animation.
Player.setAnimation(function(data) {
    const now = data.now; // where we are now
    const end = data.end; // time when song ends
    const events = data.events; // all the notes currently being processed
    // then do what you want with the information!
});

Effects available for WebAudioContext via Tuna.js

MIDI.setEffects([
        {
 		type: "MoogFilter",
		bufferSize: 4096,
		bypass: false,
		cutoff: 0.065,
		resonance: 3.5
	},
	{
		type: "Bitcrusher",
		bits: 4,
		bufferSize: 4096,
		bypass: false,
		normfreq: 0.1
	},
	{
		type: "Phaser",
		rate: 1.2, // 0.01 to 8 is a decent range, but higher values are possible
		depth: 0.3, // 0 to 1
		feedback: 0.2, // 0 to 1+
		stereoPhase: 30, // 0 to 180
		baseModulationFrequency: 700, // 500 to 1500
		bypass: 0
	}, {
		type: "Chorus",
		rate: 1.5,
		feedback: 0.2,
		delay: 0.0045,
		bypass: 0
	}, {
		type: "Delay",
		feedback: 0.45, // 0 to 1+
		delayTime: 150, // how many milliseconds should the wet signal be delayed? 
		wetLevel: 0.25, // 0 to 1+
		dryLevel: 1, // 0 to 1+
		cutoff: 20, // cutoff frequency of the built in highpass-filter. 20 to 22050
		bypass: 0
	}, {
		type: "Overdrive",
		outputGain: 0.5, // 0 to 1+
		drive: 0.7, // 0 to 1
		curveAmount: 1, // 0 to 1
		algorithmIndex: 0, // 0 to 5, selects one of our drive algorithms
		bypass: 0
	}, {
		type: "Compressor",
		threshold: 0.5, // -100 to 0
		makeupGain: 1, // 0 and up
		attack: 1, // 0 to 1000
		release: 0, // 0 to 3000
		ratio: 4, // 1 to 20
		knee: 5, // 0 to 40
		automakeup: true, // true/false
		bypass: 0
	}, {
		type: "Convolver",
		highCut: 22050, // 20 to 22050
		lowCut: 20, // 20 to 22050
		dryLevel: 1, // 0 to 1+
		wetLevel: 1, // 0 to 1+
		level: 1, // 0 to 1+, adjusts total output of both wet and dry
		impulse: "./inc/tuna/impulses/impulse_rev.wav", // the path to your impulse response
		bypass: 0
	}, {
		type: "Filter",
		frequency: 20, // 20 to 22050
		Q: 1, // 0.001 to 100
		gain: 0, // -40 to 40
		bypass: 1, // 0 to 1+
		filterType: 0 // 0 to 7, corresponds to the filter types in the native filter node: lowpass, highpass, bandpass, lowshelf, highshelf, peaking, notch, allpass in that order
	}, {
		type: "Cabinet",
		makeupGain: 1, // 0 to 20
		impulsePath: "./inc/tuna/impulses/impulse_guitar.wav", // path to your speaker impulse
		bypass: 0
	}, {
		type: "Tremolo",
		intensity: 0.3, // 0 to 1
		rate: 0.1, // 0.001 to 8
		stereoPhase: 0, // 0 to 180
		bypass: 0
	}, {
		type: "WahWah",
		automode: true, // true/false
		baseFrequency: 0.5, // 0 to 1
		excursionOctaves: 2, // 1 to 6
		sweep: 0.2, // 0 to 1
		resonance: 10, // 1 to 100
		sensitivity: 0.5, // -1 to 1
		bypass: 0
	}
]);

synesthesia.js: Note-to-color mappings.

Used on the MIDIPlayer.html demo.

Libraries

• colorspace.js: Color conversions, music isn’t complete without!

Original URLs

The original version of MIDI.js was made by Mudcube.

• Original repo: where it began.
• His site: including Michael's work on Sketch.IO

The midi-js npm package is unrelated to this project, hence the rename to "midicube" in honor of Mudcube.

Many thanks to the authors of these libraries

• Web MIDI API: W3C proposal by Jussi Kalliokoski & Chris Wilson
• Web Audio API: W3C proposal by Chris Rogers
• <audio>: HTML5 specs
• Flash package: SoundManager2 by Scott Schiller
• jasmid: Reads MIDI file byte-code, and translats into a Javascript array.
• base642binary.js: Cleans up XML base64-requests for Web Audio API.

Similar projects

• Wild Web MIDI by @BlurSpline

ES6 Conversion

ES6 Conversion by Michael Scott Asato Cuthbert:

• Github
• cuthbertLab Github

Development

Build midicube by first running npm install once, and then running.

npm run dev

this will run webpack but watch for changes in the code and build a non-minimified version. Start a webserver and navigate to the examples and use the _dev.html versions such as Basic_dev.html to use the dev script for debugging.

To build a full version you can run:

npm run build

To publish a new version change the version tag in package.json and run

npm publish

which will also build the version.