MIDI beginner - need to play one note

Question

I don't know very much about Java's MIDI function. In fact, it utterly bewilders me. what I'd like to do however is just build a simple application that will play one note.

How to play a single MIDI note using Java Sound?

The support for this out on the web is almost nonexistent, and I am totally at a loss.

What tutorial have you gone through so far and how is it not working? — Hovercraft Full Of Eels, May 09 '13 at 13:26
Go through the resources linked from the [Java Sound info. page](http://stackoverflow.com/tags/javasound/info). There is also a short source that should play a MIDI tune. — Andrew Thompson, May 09 '13 at 13:29
"Head First Java" by Sierra and Bates has example code for this. — Phil Freihofner, May 10 '13 at 19:09
None of these comments is helpful. (Please do not punish newbies by answering their questions literally, saying RTFM, or refusing to think about what they're really asking.) — Ed Poor, Feb 28 '14 at 17:11

score 25 · Answer 1 · edited Sep 03 '20 at 20:18

I know this is a really old question, but, as a novice programmer, I had a very difficult time figuring out how to do this, so I thought I would share the following hello-world-style program that gets Java to play a single midi note in order to help anyone else getting started.

import javax.sound.midi.*;

public class MidiTest{

    public static void main(String[] args) { 
      try{
        /* Create a new Sythesizer and open it. Most of 
         * the methods you will want to use to expand on this 
         * example can be found in the Java documentation here: 
         * https://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/javax/sound/midi/Synthesizer.html
         */
        Synthesizer midiSynth = MidiSystem.getSynthesizer(); 
        midiSynth.open();
    
        //get and load default instrument and channel lists
        Instrument[] instr = midiSynth.getDefaultSoundbank().getInstruments();
        MidiChannel[] mChannels = midiSynth.getChannels();
        
        midiSynth.loadInstrument(instr[0]);//load an instrument
    
    
        mChannels[0].noteOn(60, 100);//On channel 0, play note number 60 with velocity 100 
        try { Thread.sleep(1000); // wait time in milliseconds to control duration
        } catch( InterruptedException e ) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
        mChannels[0].noteOff(60);//turn of the note
    
    
      } catch (MidiUnavailableException e) {
         e.printStackTrace();
      }
   }

}

The above code was primarily created by cutting, pasting, and messing around with code found in several online tutorials. Here are the most helpful tutorials that I found:

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/it/it-0801art38/

This is a great tutorial and probably has everything you are looking for; however, it may be a little overwhelming at first.

http://patater.com/gbaguy/javamidi.htm

Features nonworking code written by a 15 year old. This was - surprisingly - the most helpful thing I found.

score 3 · Answer 2 · edited Apr 01 '18 at 01:52

3

Here you go :

MIDI Tag Info on stackoverflow

edited Apr 01 '18 at 01:52

Blunderchips

534
4
22

answered May 09 '13 at 13:33

Alpesh Gediya

3,706
1
25
38

I also want to add another link that was very helpful for me: https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~music/cmsip/readings/MIDI%20tutorial%20for%20programmers.html – Yolomep Aug 29 '20 at 22:54

MIDI beginner - need to play one note

2 Answers2

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