1.04 Start and Basics

Pyknon offers to easily generate midi files, rather to modify the MIDI-file directly and manually with noteOn and noteOff commands.

from pyknon.genmidi import Midi
from pyknon.music import Rest, Note, NoteSeq
import numpy as np

Pyknon

There exist two different notations one with the Note() function and a simplified plain text version

Note(value , octave , dur , volume)

• value: integer, note hight in semitones, 0 = middle C = midi 60
• octave: octave number
• dur: duration, 0.25 = quarter note
• volume: from 1 to 127

def tune_A():
    notes1 = NoteSeq(      "C4 D E F G A B C''")   # Apostroph ' = "gestrichen" = Höhe der Oktave
    notes2 = NoteSeq("r1 r1 C4'' B' A G F E D C")   # r = rest = Pause; Zahl = Länge der Pause
    return notes1, notes2

def tune_B():
    notes1 = NoteSeq("Db4- F#8 A Bb4")   # Zahl = Länge des Tones: 1=ganz, 4=Viertel
    notes2 = NoteSeq([Note(2, dur=1/4), Note(6, dur=1/8), Note(9, dur=1/8), Note(10, dur=1/4)])
    return notes1, notes2

def tune_C():
    major = [0,2,4,5,7,9,11]
    minor = [0,2,3,5,7,8,10]
    track1 = major + [12]
    track2 = minor[::-1]                           # reverse
    notes1 = NoteSeq( [Note(no) for no in track1] )
    notes2 = NoteSeq( [Rest(2)] + [Note(no) for no in track2] )
    return notes1, notes2

def generate_midi():
    #--- choose the tune
    notes1, notes2 = tune_C()

    #--- squezze into a MIDI framework
    m = Midi(2, tempo=120)     #
    m.seq_notes(notes1, track=0)
    m.seq_notes(notes2, track=1)

    #--- write the MIDI file
    midi_file_name =  "tune_C.mid"       # set the name of the file
    m.write(midi_file_name)
    return midi_file_name

generate_midi()

'tune_C.mid'

MIDI: Play and Generate audio-file

External players offered a better sound quality in comparison with python libraries. We use VLC and Musescore.

import subprocess
default_soundfont = '/usr/share/sounds/sf3/MuseScore_General.sf3'

def midi_play(midi_in, soundfont= default_soundfont):
    subprocess.call(['cvlc', midi_in , 'vlc://quit'])   # cvlc = vlc without gui

def midi_audio(midi_in, name_out = 'none', soundfont= default_soundfont):
    if name_out == 'none' :
        name_out = midi_in.replace('.mid', '.flac')
    else:
        name_out = name_out + '.flac'
    subprocess.call(['mscore', '-o', name_out, midi_in]) # -o = export as

def midi_png(midi_in, name_out = 'none'):
    if name_out == 'none' :
        name_out = midi_in.replace('.mid', '.png')
    else:
        name_out = name_out + '.png'
    subprocess.call(['mscore', '-o', name_out, '-T', '2', midi_in]) # -o = export as , -T 0 = cut page with 0 pixel


midi_play('tune_C.mid')
midi_audio('tune_C.mid')
midi_png('tune_C.mid')

tune_A
tune_B
tune_C

tune_C