Midi signal via serial seems wrong about pxt-midi HOT 9 CLOSED

I've just realised this when testing today- it's not actually sending MIDI over Serial at all, but is instead sending a string representation of it.

See: https://github.com/Microsoft/pxt-midi/blob/fb9de98860c6c5cd0a60844673f450f1bc55abbf/midi.ts#L80-L95

The practical upshot of this is that the "MIDI" is very human-readable, but unfortunately isn't readable by any off-the-shell Serial->MIDI bridge software I've come across.

The format is:

midi:<command>,<arg>,<arg> \r\n

(Not I've taken liberty with the amount of whitespace, but that is part of the output)

You could write your own client in Python that handles MIDI messages in this format and injects them directly into the system. It'd be relatively easy using serial.readline.

However I think this library needs a new block: "useRawSerial()"

This block would run the following code:

function send(data: Buffer): void {
    serial.writeBuffer(data)
}
midi.setTransport(send);

This writes the raw - not human readable - MIDI data directly out to the serial port, and I can confirm this works with Hairless MIDI <-> Serial Bridge.

from pxt-midi.

Using the new block "midi use raw serial" it works like a charm. Thanks a lot for your help!

from pxt-midi.

Anyone up to write a project on how to use this?

from pxt-midi.

This setup allows to connect any kind of instrument with a midi-input. I tested it with an e-piano and this little devices which was described in the German Make magazine.

from pxt-midi.

from pxt-midi.

from pxt-midi.

@pelikhan : Sure, 'would be cool to see more people using it.

@CaptainCredible : No long time tests run yet but I will work on a midi project soon, 'hope it works out.

from pxt-midi.

from pxt-midi.

In this case I think it should be a little bit extended to see the differences between polymorphic and single tones:

let Guitar: midi.MidiController = null
input.onButtonPressed(Button.A, () => {
    basic.showIcon(IconNames.EigthNote)
    Guitar.note(midi.frequencyToKey(262), music.beat(BeatFraction.Whole))
    basic.pause(100)
    Guitar.note(midi.frequencyToKey(330), music.beat(BeatFraction.Whole))
    basic.pause(200)
    Guitar.note(midi.frequencyToKey(440), music.beat(BeatFraction.Whole))
    basic.pause(300)
    basic.showIcon(IconNames.Yes)
})
input.onButtonPressed(Button.B, () => {
    basic.showIcon(IconNames.Heart)
    Guitar.noteOn(midi.frequencyToKey(262))
    Guitar.noteOn(midi.frequencyToKey(330))
    Guitar.noteOn(midi.frequencyToKey(440))
    basic.pause(800)
    Guitar.noteOff(midi.frequencyToKey(262))
    basic.pause(500)
    Guitar.noteOff(midi.frequencyToKey(330))
    basic.pause(500)
    Guitar.noteOff(midi.frequencyToKey(440))
    basic.showIcon(IconNames.Yes)
})
serial.redirect(
SerialPin.P0,
SerialPin.P1,
BaudRate.BaudRate31250
)
midi.useRawSerial()
basic.showIcon(IconNames.Yes)
Guitar = midi.channel(1)
Guitar.setInstrument(MidiInstrument.AcousticGuitarNylon)

from pxt-midi.