Scheduling MIDI Events

MIDI events can be scheduled on any object that implements the Midi.Sink interface, current implementations include Midi.Output and Lv2.Plugin.

Audio Setup

For this example we'll show scheduling events on a synth plugin that accepts MIDI input. We connect this synth plugin directly to a stereo output:



synth <- Lv2.Plugin("http://calf.sourceforge.net/plugins/Monosynth", "Velo Bee")
synth => Audio.StereoOutput("main", true)

Scheduling MIDI Notes

The Midi.Note class can be used to schedule single MIDI notes. When we create a MIDI note we specify the following values:

Pitch: should be in the range 0-127
Velocity: should be in the range 1-127
Duration: how long the note should be played in fractions of a measure e.g. "0.25" for a quarter note

Here we use a loop to schedule a single measure of quarter notes with rising pitch on the first measure:



for(local b = 0; b < 4; b++) {
	local note = Midi.Note(48 + b, 64, 0.25)
	synth.schedule(note, 1 + b * 0.25)
}

Scheduling MIDI Patterns

We can use the Midi.Pattern class to group notes together into a timed pattern:



pattern <- Midi.Pattern()
pattern.add(Midi.Note(48, 64, 0.25), 1.0) // start of the pattern is measure 1.0
pattern.add(Midi.Note(49, 64, 0.125), 1.25)
pattern.add(Midi.Note(50, 64, 0.125), 1.375)
pattern.add(Midi.Note(51, 64, 0.5), 1.5)

Note we can access the note events in a pattern by using array-like indexing and we can also iterate over all the events using the foreach loop:


	
pattern[0] // the first event in the pattern 
	
foreach(event in pattern) {
    println(event.note.pitch + " @ " + event.measure)
}

Let's schedule this pattern to play at measure 2:


synth.schedule(pattern, 2.0)

Scheduling Raw MIDI Messages

It is also possible to schedule lower-level MIDI messages directly e.g. we can send Midi.Control (CC) messages to those plugins that support it.

Here we'll schedule a couple of notes using NOTEON and NOTEOFF messages directly:



synth.schedule(Midi.NoteOn(48, 64), 3.0)
synth.schedule(Midi.NoteOff(48, 64), 3.5)
synth.schedule(Midi.NoteOn(51, 64), 3.5)
synth.schedule(Midi.NoteOff(51, 64), 4.0)

Scheduling MIDI Sequences

Just as the Midi.Pattern class above can group MIDI notes, the Midi.Sequence class can be used to group Midi messages.

We can create a Midi.Sequence directly:



sequence <- Midi.Sequence()
sequence.add(Midi.NoteOn(48, 64), 1.0)
sequence.add(Midi.NoteOff(48, 64), 1.5)
sequence.add(Midi.NoteOn(51, 64), 1.5)
sequence.add(Midi.NoteOff(51, 64), 2.0)
synth.schedule(sequence, 4.0)

Also via custom MIDI tablature notation:


tabreader <- Midi.Tab()
tabreader.velocity("x", 99)

tab <- tabreader.sequence(@"
48|x~--|
51|--xx|
")
synth.schedule(tab, 5.0)

Also via ABC Notation:


abc <- Midi.abc("C2C2_E2_E2|CC_E_E CC_E_E|CC_E_E CC_E_E")
synth.schedule(abc, 6.0)

MML (music macro language) is also supported.

Default Clock

All events scheduled in this example use the script default clock, it is also possible to schedule against other clocks, please see the sequencing clocks example.

To start the default clock and play the scheduled events:



Time.def.start()

Complete Script

synth <- Lv2.Plugin("http://calf.sourceforge.net/plugins/Monosynth", "Velo Bee")
synth => Audio.StereoOutput("main", true)

for(local b = 0; b < 4; b++) {
	local note = Midi.Note(48 + b, 64, 0.25)
	synth.schedule(note, 1 + b * 0.25)
}

pattern <- Midi.Pattern()
pattern.add(Midi.Note(48, 64, 0.25), 1.0) // start of the pattern is measure 1.0
pattern.add(Midi.Note(49, 64, 0.125), 1.25)
pattern.add(Midi.Note(50, 64, 0.125), 1.375)
pattern.add(Midi.Note(51, 64, 0.5), 1.5)

	
pattern[0] // the first event in the pattern 
	
foreach(event in pattern) {
    println(event.note.pitch + " @ " + event.measure)
}

synth.schedule(pattern, 2.0)

synth.schedule(Midi.NoteOn(48, 64), 3.0)
synth.schedule(Midi.NoteOff(48, 64), 3.5)
synth.schedule(Midi.NoteOn(51, 64), 3.5)
synth.schedule(Midi.NoteOff(51, 64), 4.0)

sequence <- Midi.Sequence()
sequence.add(Midi.NoteOn(48, 64), 1.0)
sequence.add(Midi.NoteOff(48, 64), 1.5)
sequence.add(Midi.NoteOn(51, 64), 1.5)
sequence.add(Midi.NoteOff(51, 64), 2.0)
synth.schedule(sequence, 4.0)

tabreader <- Midi.Tab()
tabreader.velocity("x", 99)

tab <- tabreader.sequence(@"
48|x~--|
51|--xx|
")
synth.schedule(tab, 5.0)

abc <- Midi.abc("C2C2_E2_E2|CC_E_E CC_E_E|CC_E_E CC_E_E")
synth.schedule(abc, 6.0)

Time.def.start()

List of All Examples • Demo Applications

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