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C# MIDI Toolkit

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18 Apr 2007MIT18 min read 3.3M   41.8K   303  
A toolkit for creating MIDI applications with C#.
#region License

/* Copyright (c) 2006 Leslie Sanford
 * 
 * Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy 
 * of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to 
 * deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the 
 * rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or 
 * sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is 
 * furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
 * 
 * The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in 
 * all copies or substantial portions of the Software. 
 * 
 * THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR 
 * IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, 
 * FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE 
 * AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER 
 * LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, 
 * OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN 
 * THE SOFTWARE.
 */

#endregion

#region Contact

/*
 * Leslie Sanford
 * Email: jabberdabber@hotmail.com
 */

#endregion

using System;

namespace Sanford.Multimedia.Midi
{
	/// <summary>
	/// Converts a MIDI note number to its corresponding frequency.
	/// </summary>
	public sealed class MidiNoteConverter
	{
        /// <summary>
        /// The minimum value a note ID can have.
        /// </summary>
        public const int NoteIDMinValue = 0;

        /// <summary>
        /// The maximum value a note ID can have.
        /// </summary>
        public const int NoteIDMaxValue = 127;

        // Table for holding frequency values.
        private readonly static double[] NoteToFrequencyTable = new double[NoteIDMaxValue + 1];

        static MidiNoteConverter()
        {
            // The number of notes per octave.
            int notesPerOctave = 12;            

            // Reference frequency used for calculations.
            double referenceFrequency = 440;

            // The note ID of the reference frequency.
            int referenceNoteID = 69;

            double exponent;

            // Fill table with the frequencies of all MIDI notes.
            for(int i = 0; i < NoteToFrequencyTable.Length; i++)
            {
                exponent = (double)(i - referenceNoteID) / notesPerOctave;

                NoteToFrequencyTable[i] = referenceFrequency * Math.Pow(2.0, exponent);
            }
        }

        // Prevents instances of this class from being created - no need for
        // an instance to be created since this class only has static methods.
        private MidiNoteConverter()
		{
		}

        /// <summary>
        /// Converts the specified note to a frequency.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="noteID">
        /// The ID of the note to convert.
        /// </param>
        /// <returns>
        /// The frequency of the specified note.
        /// </returns>
        public static double NoteToFrequency(int noteID)
        {
            #region Require

            if(noteID < NoteIDMinValue || noteID > NoteIDMaxValue)
            {
                throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("Note ID out of range.");
            }

            #endregion

            return NoteToFrequencyTable[noteID];
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Converts the specified frequency to a note.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="frequency">
        /// The frequency to convert.
        /// </param>
        /// <returns>
        /// The ID of the note closest to the specified frequency.
        /// </returns>
        public static int FrequencyToNote(double frequency)
        {
            int noteID = 0;
            bool found = false;

            // Search for the note with a frequency near the specified frequency.
            for(int i = 0; i < NoteIDMaxValue && !found; i++)
            {
                noteID = i;

                // If the specified frequency is less than the frequency of 
                // the next note.
                if(frequency < NoteToFrequency(noteID + 1))
                {
                    // Indicate that the note ID for the specified frequency 
                    // has been found.
                    found = true;
                }
            }

            // If the note is not the first or last note, narrow the results.
            if(noteID > 0 && noteID < NoteIDMaxValue)
            {
                // Get the frequency of the previous note.
                double previousFrequncy = NoteToFrequency(noteID - 1);
                // Get the frequency of the next note.
                double nextFrequency = NoteToFrequency(noteID + 1);

                // If the next note is closer in frequency than the previous note.
                if(nextFrequency - frequency < frequency - previousFrequncy)
                {
                    // Move to the next note.
                    noteID++;
                }
            }

            return noteID;
        }
    }
}

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License

This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The MIT License


Written By
United States United States
Aside from dabbling in BASIC on his old Atari 1040ST years ago, Leslie's programming experience didn't really begin until he discovered the Internet in the late 90s. There he found a treasure trove of information about two of his favorite interests: MIDI and sound synthesis.

After spending a good deal of time calculating formulas he found on the Internet for creating new sounds by hand, he decided that an easier way would be to program the computer to do the work for him. This led him to learn C. He discovered that beyond using programming as a tool for synthesizing sound, he loved programming in and of itself.

Eventually he taught himself C++ and C#, and along the way he immersed himself in the ideas of object oriented programming. Like many of us, he gotten bitten by the design patterns bug and a copy of GOF is never far from his hands.

Now his primary interest is in creating a complete MIDI toolkit using the C# language. He hopes to create something that will become an indispensable tool for those wanting to write MIDI applications for the .NET framework.

Besides programming, his other interests are photography and playing his Les Paul guitars.

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