miditoolkit

Introduction to Miditoolkit

Miditoolkit is a Python package designed for effortless interaction with MIDI files. MIDI files are a crucial component in digital music production, representing musical information in a format that can be processed by various software and devices. Miditoolkit simplifies this process by providing intuitive tools for loading, editing, and visualizing MIDI data.

Core Features

MIDI Management

Miditoolkit offers robust capabilities for handling MIDI data across several dimensions:

• Global Settings: Users can manage ticks per beat, tempo changes, key signatures, time signatures, and even add lyrics and markers. These features allow for comprehensive control over the musical structure and expression encoded in MIDI files.

• Instrument Control: The package supports modifications to control changes and pitch bends, which are essential for fine-tuning the nuances of musical performance.

• Editing Tools: It provides tools for chunking and cropping, helping users manage large MIDI files by segmenting them into more manageable parts.

• Input/Output: Miditoolkit enables reading and writing MIDI files using BytesIO, an in-memory byte-stream tool, facilitating efficient data handling.

Piano-roll Manipulation

A standout feature of Miditoolkit is its ability to convert MIDI tracks into piano-roll representations. Piano-rolls are a graphical representation of musical notation used in sequencing and visualization. The package includes tools for:

• Converting notes to piano-rolls and vice versa.
• Creating chromagrams, which visualize the distribution of pitches over time.

These features enhance the user's ability to analyze, modify, and visualize MIDI data effectively.

External Libraries

Miditoolkit also integrates with external libraries like sf_segmenter for structure analysis, broadening its functionality for more complex musical analysis tasks.

Planned Enhancements

The developers of Miditoolkit are committed to ongoing improvements. Upcoming tasks include:

• Enhancing documentation for better usability.
• Refining piano-roll methods for clearer visualization.
• Implementing a feature to switch between tick and second time units in the entire MIDI file.
• Improving functionalities for cropping control changes and bars.
• Introducing symbolic features and advanced structural analysis.

Installation

Installing Miditoolkit is straightforward. It is available on PYPI and can be installed using pip:

pip install miditoolkit

For those who wish to access the latest updates and features, Miditoolkit can also be installed directly from its GitHub repository:

pip install git+https://github.com/YatingMusic/miditoolkit

Example of Use

Here's a simple example demonstrating how to use Miditoolkit to load a MIDI file and inspect its contents:

from miditoolkit import MidiFile
from miditoolkit.midi.utils import example_midi_file

path_midi = example_midi_file()
midi_obj = MidiFile(path_midi)

print(midi_obj)

This code snippet reads a sample MIDI file and prints its key properties, such as ticks per beat, maximum tick, and the number of tempo changes, time signatures, and other features.

Design Philosophy

Miditoolkit is developed with simplicity and performance in mind. It is built on top of mido, a library known for handling low-level MIDI messages, and is inspired by pretty_midi, which operates in seconds time units. However, Miditoolkit focuses on maintaining MIDI events in their native tick time unit, allowing for more precise and efficient handling of MIDI data. Additionally, it offers functionalities such as piano-roll conversion, tick-to-second mapping, and chromagram analysis, making it a versatile tool for musicians and developers working with symbolic music data.

In summary, Miditoolkit provides a user-friendly and powerful solution for engaging with MIDI files, catering to both introductory use and advanced manipulation. Whether for transcription, analysis, or composition, it streamlines the MIDI handling process with its array of features and planned enhancements.