MIDI-to-MakeCode-Arcade

A Python tool to convert a MIDI file to a MakeCode Arcade song! (Work in progress) Supports General MIDI 1 (all 128 melodic instruments and the standard drum kit), the extended drum note range of General MIDI 2, and some Roland GS/ Yamaha XG SysEx commands.

Install

1. Download and install Python.
2. Clone this repo.
3. install all requirements in requirements.txt (into a virtual environment if you want).

Usage

Run src/main.py at the root of the repository in the terminal (it is a CLI app).

As of the time of this writing, this code outputs velocity information properly but the MakeCode Arcade song playback will ignore it - per chord velocity is only available in beta.

Example commands

To convert the MIDI file Never Gonna Give You Up.mid:

python src/main.py -i "Never Gonna Give You Up.mid" -p "example/instrument_params.yaml"

This will print out the song buffer which you can paste into MakeCode Arcade. It will use example/instrument_params.yaml, which is an instrument parameter file that defines what each of the general MIDI 1's 128 melodic instruments and standard drum kit sound like. An instrument parameter file is always required.

If the output is too big to easily copy from the terminal, use -o to write to a file: (this will overwrite it)

python src/main.py -i "Never Gonna Give You Up.mid" -p "example/instrument_params.yaml" -o "Never Gonna Give You Up.ts"

If you would like to visualize your song output, you can import https://github.com/UnsignedArduino/Song-Visualizer and replace the code at the top with the output of this command:

python src/main.py -i "Never Gonna Give You Up.mid" -p "example/instrument_params.yaml" --generate-extra-code

The --generate-extra-code flag will write out extra information that the visualizer above can use to make the visuals more accurate. Here is an example (once again, at the time of writing, per-chord velocity is in beta, so import into the beta editor if desired). In the visualizer, you can press B to open the track list and use arrow keys to highlight a particular track if desired.

MIDI standards/features supported

Standards:

• General MIDI 1 melodic instruments (0-127) and standard drum kit notes (35-81)
• General MIDI 2 extended drum note range (27-87) on the standard drum kit only
• Roland GS/Yamaha XG SysEx messages for track switching to standard drums only

Features:

• Tempo changes
• MIDI ports and channels
• Common control changes and Roland GS/Yamaha XG SysEx messages to switch a track to a drum track and back (will only use the standard drum kit notes)
• Per note velocity (MakeCode Arcade will ignore this for now, but it is song's output - MakeCode Arcade beta at the time of writing supports it)

Defining your own instrument parameter file

If you would like to create your own instrument parameter file, you can look at instrument_params.yaml in the example directory, which was tuned by me, to see what the YAML format looks like. instrument_params_2.yaml was generated completely by Claude and sounds interesting.

You can use something like SpessaSynth as it is a simple web app that you can use to reference your favorite MIDI sound font files when defining your own file. (it is a good MIDI visualizer as well)

Defining melodic instruments

This tool supports all 128 general MIDI 1 instruments. The following commands can be helpful as you write or tune melodic instruments, alongside this tool by @riknoll.

basic_test.mid can be a simple song written for the piano or any other instrument. --test-ask-to-replace-all-melodics-with will prompt you to replace it with a melodic MIDI instrument (0-127). --test-generate-code will output code ready to play, and --test-copy-result-to-clipboard will work if pyperclip is installed (use pip install pyperclip). And obviously, substitute -p with the file you are working on. --test-force-instrument-param-load is used as the file you are working on may not have all instruments defined yet.

python src/main.py -i "basic_test.mid" -p "example/instrument_params.yaml" --test-ask-to-replace-all-melodics-with --test-generate-code --test-force-instrument-param-load --test-copy-result-to-clipboard --debug

--test-sample-melodic-instruments will replace the melodic instruments in the MIDI file multiple times and generate a script, useful to compare multiple instruments in a family together. Use commas to separate what you want (e.g. 1,2,4-6 -> [1, 2, 4, 5, 6]).

python src/main.py -i "basic_test.mid" -p "example/instrument_params.yaml" --test-sample-melodic-instruments "3-6" --test-force-instrument-param-load --debug

Defining drum notes

This tool only supports the standard drum kit, so define notes 27 through 87.

Similar to the first command above, --test-ask-to-replace-all-drums-with will prompt you to replace all the drum instruments in a MIDI file with a drum note (27-87).

python src/main.py -i "testing/basic_test_3/basic_test_3.mid" -p "example/instrument_params.yaml" --test-ask-to-replace-all-drums-with --test-generate-code --test-force-instrument-param-load --test-copy-result-to-clipboard --debug

Help text

usage: main.py [-h] --input INPUT
               --input-instrument-params INPUT_INSTRUMENT_PARAMS
               [--output OUTPUT] [--generate-extra-code] [--debug]
               [--test-replace-all-melodics-with TEST_REPLACE_ALL_MELODICS_WITH]
               [--test-ask-to-replace-all-melodics-with]
               [--test-sample-melodic-instruments TEST_SAMPLE_MELODIC_INSTRUMENTS]
               [--test-replace-all-drums-with TEST_REPLACE_ALL_DRUMS_WITH]
               [--test-ask-to-replace-all-drums-with] [--test-generate-code]
               [--test-force-instrument-param-load]
               [--test-copy-result-to-clipboard]

Convert a MIDI file to a MakeCode Arcade song.

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  --input, -i INPUT     Input MIDI file.
  --input-instrument-params, -p INPUT_INSTRUMENT_PARAMS
                        Input instrument parameter mapping file.
  --output, -o OUTPUT   Output TypeScript file path, otherwise will write to
                        stdout. If specified, this will overwrite the file if
                        it already exists, and the parent directories must
                        exist.
  --generate-extra-code
                        Generate extra code to help song visualizers display
                        properly. The output will be valid TypeScript code.
                        Incompatible with test options that sample melodic
                        instruments.
  --debug               Include debug messages. Defaults to info and greater
                        severity messages only.

Testing options:
  --test-replace-all-melodics-with TEST_REPLACE_ALL_MELODICS_WITH
                        Replace all melodic tracks in a song with the specific
                        MIDI instrument.
  --test-ask-to-replace-all-melodics-with
                        Prompt the user to replace all melodic tracks in a
                        song with a specific MIDI instrument.
  --test-sample-melodic-instruments TEST_SAMPLE_MELODIC_INSTRUMENTS
                        Pass in a range of MIDI instruments to sample, such as
                        "0,2,4-10" to replicate the song several times and
                        replace all melodic tracks in the song with the
                        specific MIDI instrument. Basically does what `--test-
                        replace-all-melodics-with` and `--test-generate-code`
                        but with a bunch of specified instruments.
  --test-replace-all-drums-with TEST_REPLACE_ALL_DRUMS_WITH
                        Replace all drum notes in a song with the specific
                        drum note.
  --test-ask-to-replace-all-drums-with
                        Prompt the user to replace all drum notes in a song
                        with a specific drum note.
  --test-generate-code  Generate the MakeCode Arcade code to play the song.
  --test-force-instrument-param-load
                        Forcibly load the instrument parameter mapping file,
                        even if it would normally cause errors.
  --test-copy-result-to-clipboard
                        If pyperclip (pip install pyperclip) is available and
                        this option is specified, the output will also be
                        copied to the clipboard.