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Midifile: C++ MIDI file parsing library

Midifile is a library of C++ classes for reading/writing Standard MIDI files. The library consists of 6 classes:

MidiFile The main interface for dealing with MIDI files. The MidiFile class appears as a two dimensional array of MidiEvents: the first dimension is a list of tracks, and the second dimension is a list of MidiEvents.
MidiEvent The primary storage unit for MidiMessages in a MidiFile. The class consists of a (delta)tick timestamp and a MIDI (or meta) message.
MidiEventList A data structure that manages the list of MidiEvents in a track.
MidiMessage The base class for MidiEvents. This is a vector<uchar> of bytes in a MIDI (or meta) message.
Binasc A helper class for MidiFile which allows reading/writing of MIDI files in an ASCII format describing the bytes of the binary Standard MIDI Files.
Options A convenience class used for parsing command-line options in the example programs. This class can be removed from the library since it is not needed for using the MidiFile class.

Documentation is under construction at http://midifile.sapp.org. Essential examples for reading and writing MIDI files are given below.

Downloading

You can download as a ZIP file from the Github page for the midifile library, or if you use git, then download with this command:

git clone https://github.com/craigsapp/midifile

or

git clone https://cm-github.stanford.edu/craig/midifile

This will create the midifile directory with the source code for the library.

Compiling with GCC

The library can be compiled with the command:

make library

This will create the file lib/libmidifile.a which can be used to link to programs that use the library. Example programs can be compiled with the command:

make programs

This will compile all example programs in the src-programs directory. Compiled example programs will be stored in the bin directory. To compile both the library and the example programs all in one step, type:

make

To compile only a single program, such as createmidifile, type:

make createmidifile

You can also place your own programs in src-programs, such as myprogram.cpp and to compile type:

make myprogram

The compiled program will be bin/myprogram.

MIDI file reading examples

The following program lists all MidiEvents in an input MIDI file. The program iterates over each track, printing a list of MIDI events in the track. For each event, the tick timestamp for the performance time of the MIDI message is given, followed by the message itself as a list of hex bytes.

#include "MidiFile.h"
#include "Options.h"
#include <iostream>
#include <iomanip>

using namespace std;

int main(int argc, char** argv) {
   Options options;
   options.process(argc, argv);
   MidiFile midifile;
   if (options.getArgCount() > 0) {
      midifile.read(options.getArg(1));
   } else {
      midifile.read(cin);
   }

   int tracks = midifile.getTrackCount();
   cout << "TPQ: " << midifile.getTicksPerQuarterNote() << endl;
   if (tracks > 1) {
      cout << "TRACKS: " << tracks << endl;
   }
   for (int track=0; track < tracks; track++) {
      if (tracks > 1) {
         cout << "\nTrack " << track << endl;
      }
      for (int event=0; event < midifile[track].size(); event++) {
         cout << dec << midifile[track][event].tick;
         cout << '\t' << hex;
         for (int i=0; i<midifile[track][event].size(); i++) {
            cout << (int)midifile[track][event][i] << ' ';
         }
         cout << endl;
      }
   }

   return 0;
}

The program will read the first filename it finds on the command-line, or it will read from standard input if no arguments are found. Both binary Standard MIDI Files and ASCII representations of MIDI Files can be input into the program. For example, save the following text in a file called twinkle.txt to use as input data. This content represents the hex bytes for a MIDI file, which will automatically be parsed into a Standard MIDI File by the MidiFile class.

4d 54 68 64 00 00 00 06 00 01 00 03 00 78 4d 54 72 6b 00 00 00 04 00 ff 2f 
00 4d 54 72 6b 00 00 00 76 00 90 48 40 78 80 48 40 00 90 48 40 78 80 48 40 
00 90 4f 40 78 80 4f 40 00 90 4f 40 78 80 4f 40 00 90 51 40 78 80 51 40 00 
90 51 40 78 80 51 40 00 90 4f 40 81 70 80 4f 40 00 90 4d 40 78 80 4d 40 00 
90 4d 40 78 80 4d 40 00 90 4c 40 78 80 4c 40 00 90 4c 40 78 80 4c 40 00 90 
4a 40 78 80 4a 40 00 90 4a 40 78 80 4a 40 00 90 48 40 81 70 80 48 40 00 ff 
2f 00 4d 54 72 6b 00 00 00 7d 00 90 30 40 78 80 30 40 00 90 3c 40 78 80 3c 
40 00 90 40 40 78 80 40 40 00 90 3c 40 78 80 3c 40 00 90 41 40 78 80 41 40 
00 90 3c 40 78 80 3c 40 00 90 40 40 78 80 40 40 00 90 3c 40 78 80 3c 40 00 
90 3e 40 78 80 3e 40 00 90 3b 40 78 80 3b 40 00 90 3c 40 78 80 3c 40 00 90 
39 40 78 80 39 40 00 90 35 40 78 80 35 40 00 90 37 40 78 80 37 40 00 90 30 
40 81 70 80 30 40 00 ff 2f 00 

Below is the output from the example program given the above input data. The TPQ value is the ticks-per-quarter-note value from the MIDI header. In this example, each quarter note has a duration of 120 MIDI file ticks. The above MIDI file contains three tracks, with the first track (the expression track, having no content other than the end-of-track meta message, "ff 2f 0" in hex bytes. The second track starts with a MIDI note-on message "90 48 40" (in hex) which will start playing MIDI note 72 (C pitch one octave above middle C) with a medium loudness (40 hex = 64 in decimal notation).

TPQ: 120
TRACKS: 3

Track 0
0	ff 2f 0 

Track 1
0	90 48 40 
120	80 48 40 
120	90 48 40 
240	80 48 40 
240	90 4f 40 
360	80 4f 40 
360	90 4f 40 
480	80 4f 40 
480	90 51 40 
600	80 51 40 
600	90 51 40 
720	80 51 40 
720	90 4f 40 
960	80 4f 40 
960	90 4d 40 
1080	80 4d 40 
1080	90 4d 40 
1200	80 4d 40 
1200	90 4c 40 
1320	80 4c 40 
1320	90 4c 40 
1440	80 4c 40 
1440	90 4a 40 
1560	80 4a 40 
1560	90 4a 40 
1680	80 4a 40 
1680	90 48 40 
1920	80 48 40 
1920	ff 2f 0 

Track 2
0	90 30 40 
120	80 30 40 
120	90 3c 40 
240	80 3c 40 
240	90 40 40 
360	80 40 40 
360	90 3c 40 
480	80 3c 40 
480	90 41 40 
600	80 41 40 
600	90 3c 40 
720	80 3c 40 
720	90 40 40 
840	80 40 40 
840	90 3c 40 
960	80 3c 40 
960	90 3e 40 
1080	80 3e 40 
1080	90 3b 40 
1200	80 3b 40 
1200	90 3c 40 
1320	80 3c 40 
1320	90 39 40 
1440	80 39 40 
1440	90 35 40 
1560	80 35 40 
1560	90 37 40 
1680	80 37 40 
1680	90 30 40 
1920	80 30 40 
1920	ff 2f 0 

The default behavior of the MidiFile class is to store the absolute tick times of MIDI events. Within Standard MIDI files, the tick values are in delta format, where the tick value indicates the duration to wait since the last message. To access the delta tick values, you can either (1) subtrack the current tick time from the previous tick time in the list, or call MidiFile::deltaTime() to convert the absolute tick values into delta tick values.

The MidiFile::joinTracks() function can be used to convert multi-track data into a single time sequence. The joinTrack() operation can be reversed with the MidiFile::splitTracks() function. Here is a sample of output data for the same example if joinTracks() is called before printing the MIDI events:

#include "MidiFile.h"
#include "Options.h"
#include <iostream>
#include <iomanip>

using namespace std;

int main(int argc, char** argv) {
   Options options;
   options.process(argc, argv);
   MidiFile midifile;
   if (options.getArgCount() > 0) {
      midifile.read(options.getArg(1));
   } else {
      midifile.read(cin);
   }

   cout << "TPQ: " << midifile.getTicksPerQuarterNote() << endl;
   cout << "TRACKS: " << midifile.getTrackCount() << endl;

   midifile.joinTracks();
   // midifile.getTrackCount() will now return "1", but original
   // track assignments can be seen in .track field of MidiEvent.

   cout << "TICK    DELTA   TRACK   MIDI MESSAGE\n";
   cout << "____________________________________\n";

   MidiEvent* mev;
   int deltatick;
   for (int event=0; event < midifile[0].size(); event++) {
      mev = &midifile[0][event];
      if (event == 0) {
         deltatick = mev->tick;
      } else {
         deltatick = mev->tick - midifile[0][event-1].tick;
      }
      cout << dec << mev->tick;
      cout << '\t' << deltatick;
      cout << '\t' << mev->track;
      cout << '\t' << hex;
      for (int i=0; i < mev->size(); i++) {
         cout << (int)(*mev)[i] << ' ';
      }
      cout << endl;
   }

   return 0;
}

Below is the new single-track output. The first column is the absolute tick timestamp of the message; the second column is the delta tick value; the third column is the original track value; and the last column contains the MIDI message (in hex bytes).

TPQ: 120
TRACKS: 3
TICK    DELTA   TRACK   MIDI MESSAGE
____________________________________
0	0	1	90 48 40 
0	0	2	90 30 40 
0	0	0	ff 2f 0 
120	120	1	80 48 40 
120	0	2	80 30 40 
120	0	2	90 3c 40 
120	0	1	90 48 40 
240	120	2	80 3c 40 
240	0	1	80 48 40 
240	0	2	90 40 40 
240	0	1	90 4f 40 
360	120	2	80 40 40 
360	0	1	80 4f 40 
360	0	1	90 4f 40 
360	0	2	90 3c 40 
480	120	2	80 3c 40 
480	0	1	80 4f 40 
480	0	2	90 41 40 
480	0	1	90 51 40 
600	120	2	80 41 40 
600	0	1	80 51 40 
600	0	1	90 51 40 
600	0	2	90 3c 40 
720	120	1	80 51 40 
720	0	2	80 3c 40 
720	0	2	90 40 40 
720	0	1	90 4f 40 
840	120	2	80 40 40 
840	0	2	90 3c 40 
960	120	2	80 3c 40 
960	0	1	80 4f 40 
960	0	2	90 3e 40 
960	0	1	90 4d 40 
1080	120	1	80 4d 40 
1080	0	2	80 3e 40 
1080	0	2	90 3b 40 
1080	0	1	90 4d 40 
1200	120	1	80 4d 40 
1200	0	2	80 3b 40 
1200	0	2	90 3c 40 
1200	0	1	90 4c 40 
1320	120	1	80 4c 40 
1320	0	2	80 3c 40 
1320	0	1	90 4c 40 
1320	0	2	90 39 40 
1440	120	1	80 4c 40 
1440	0	2	80 39 40 
1440	0	1	90 4a 40 
1440	0	2	90 35 40 
1560	120	1	80 4a 40 
1560	0	2	80 35 40 
1560	0	2	90 37 40 
1560	0	1	90 4a 40 
1680	120	1	80 4a 40 
1680	0	2	80 37 40 
1680	0	2	90 30 40 
1680	0	1	90 48 40 
1920	240	1	80 48 40 
1920	0	2	80 30 40 
1920	0	1	ff 2f 0 
1920	0	2	ff 2f 0 

MIDI file writing examples

Here are some examples of MIDI file writing. MidiFiles can be created in either delta or absolute tick timestamp modes. For now, see the createmidifile example program source code, or a higher-level example using convenience functions for creating MIDI events: createmidifile2.

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