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MIDI File Controller (Lisp)

Description

Imports a Standard (Type 0) MIDI File, parses its data, and outputs a controller from a list of specified data types.

(make-controller 'midi-file ... )

Syntax and Default Values

The 'midi-file controller can be created using the following Lisp syntax:

(make-controller 'midi-file
                  dimension
                  filename
                  channel
                  data_type_list)

Parameters

The 'midi-file controller takes four arguments:

  • dimension: the number of output dimensions for the controller.
  • filename: pathname of MIDI file to be read. (in quotes.)
  • channel: the MIDI channel you want to extract data from (1-16).
  • data_type_list: a list of symbol and/or numbers defining what MIDI data will be used

The pathname of the MIDI file should be provided in quotes. The path is relative to the Modalys application, unless it begins with a slash, in which case it is an absolute path from the root directory of the hard disk. The syntax for the path follows the syntax rules of your operating system. The MIDI file itself should be a Type 0 (single track) MIDI file - multi-track (Type 1) MIDI files are not yet supported.

The channel parameter corresponds to the MIDI channel you want to extract data from. (There is currently no "omni" mode; to get this effect you'd have to make one midi controller for each channel, then write a 'foreign-call controller that merged all the data.)

The number of elements in the list given as the data_type_list should be the same as the number of dimensions in the controller. The list may be composed of MIDI data types, or numerical values, which represent MIDI continuous controller numbers. (More detailed information about this is given, below.)

Discussion

The MIDI File Controller allows you to read information from a Standard (Type 0) MIDI File and output it as a Modlays controller. A Basic example would be the following, which reads the Modulation Wheel MIDI Continuous Controller (MIDI controller 1) data from MIDI channel 1:

(make-controller 'midi 1 "/my-disk/my-folder/my-file.mid" 1 (list 1))
And the following example creates a 2-dimensional controller from MIDI continuous controller 2 (in this case a WX7 breath controller) and the MIDI note-on velocity data from the same file (both dimensions are graphed in the image, shown above):

(setq my-midi-ctl (make-controller 'midi-file 2 "Examples/midi/wx7-staccato.mid" 1 (list 2 'lastvelocity)))
As you can see, in addition to a numerical value representing a MIDI controller number, the other MIDI data tags can be used in the list to read that data from the file. The complete list of tags is:

  • 'pitchbend
  • 'aftertouch
  • 'noteon
  • 'noteoff
  • 'lastnote
  • 'lastvelocity

Note that 'lastnote and 'lastvelocity are not standard MIDI data types, but specific to this Modalys controller. The 'lastnote type designates here the last note-on or note-off that has been activated, and 'lastvelocity is the velocity of the 'lastnote.

If you want a midi-file controller with 3 dimensions, you specify the name of the file to read from, then you specify what MIDI channel you want to read from the file; finally you specify what 3 kinds of data you want to extract from the file. You can extract a separate MIDI data stream for each dimension of this controller, for example:

(make-controller 'midi 3 "my-file.mid" 1 (list 'pitchbend 13 'aftertouch))
This means a three dimensional controller, reading from MIDI channel 1, and of the 3 dimensions of the output, the first is the position of the pitch bend, the second is the value of continuous controller number 13, and the third is the value of the aftertouch — all output values are from 0 to 127.

Obviously, you can make several independent 'midi-file controllers in Modalys by reading the same MIDI file multiple times - once for each controller. You might do this if you want to use pitch bend data in one place, and continuous controller data some other place, etc... This saves you the hassle of needing to use the 'dimension-mapping controller to extract individual dimensions from a multi-dimensional controller.

Retro-Compatibility

This controller was formerly called (make-controller 'midi ... ). Older Modalys scripts should be updated accordingly.


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