4 minute read

A basic tutorial of how to create a simple MIDI file from scratch that contains only one note.

What You Will Learn

Using an example file, we’ll explain the meaning of each byte and how the MIDI file is constructed. After understanding the basics, we should be able to manually build a MIDI file with a simple HEX Editor or by writing a program.

However, not all topics and usages will be covered. Only the minimum information we need to complete this example project will be introduced.

This is the “music” that we are going to create:

The result is a .mid file with its content written in hexadecimal notation:

4D 54 68 64 00 00 00 06 00 00 00 01 00 60 4D 54 72 6B 00 00 00 0C 00 90 3C 64 60 80 3C 64 00 FF 2F 00

Let’s break it down and explain each section in detail.

Header Chunk (MThd)

The first 14 bytes of the sample file is the header chunk.

  Data(hex) Meaning
1. 4D 54 68 64 identifier, ascii chars ‘MThd’
2. 00 00 00 06 chunklen, 6 bytes follow
3. 00 00 format = 0
4. 00 01 ntracks = 1
5. 00 60 tickdiv = 96 ppqn
  1. The first 4 bytes is the header chunk identifier ‘MThd’.
  2. chunklen represents the number of data bytes in this chunk.
  3. format type set to 0 for single MTrk chunk.
  4. ntracks must be 1 for format 0.
  5. tickdiv is the number of divisions for one quarter note. 96 is commonly used. (ppqn = pulses per quarter note)

Track Chunk (MTrk)

Right after the header chunk is the track chunk, which is 20 bytes long in our example.

Data(hex) Meaning
4D 54 72 6B identifier, ascii chars ‘MTrk’
00 00 00 0C chunklen, 12 bytes of data follow
00 90 3C 64 Note On event
60 80 3C 64 Note Off event
00 FF 2F 00 End of Track event
  • The first eight bytes are identifier and chunklen respectively, same as those in a header track.
  • The following 12 bytes are delta-time/event pairs, which are introduced below.
  • If more events are added, the number of chunklen should be updated accordingly.

Delta-time/Event Pair

Delta time/event pairs are used to represent MIDI events and the distance relative to its former event. The basic structure of the data pair is illustrated below:

Delta-times

Delta-time is the number of tickdiv after the previous event. It’s specified using variable-length representation with 1 to 4 bytes. The most significant bit of each byte is occupied for determining whether that byte is the last one in the data sequence.

Some of the eligible numbers before and after carrying are shown in the table below:

Decimal Binary Hexadecimal
0 00000000 00
127 01111111 7F
128 10000001 00000000 81 00
16383 11111111 01111111 FF 7F
16384 10000001 10000000 00000000 81 80 00

Note that only the last byte has a prefix of 0, and the other bytes before it are all 1xxxxxxx. Thus, a delta-time of 81 00 represents 128 in decimal instead of 33024.

More examples, as well as detailed explanations, can be found here.

MIDI Events

Only three types of events are used in this sample. Other events including pitch bend, tempo, and instrument name are listed on the website here.

1. Note On Event

9n + note + velocity (3 bytes)

In our example: 90 3C 64

  • 9: for Note On
  • 0: MIDI channel number 0
  • 3C: starting note is 3C (see note number chart below)
  • 64: press velocity is 100 (0~127)

2. Note Off Event

8n + note + velocity (3 bytes)

In our example: 80 3C 64

  • 8: for Note Off
  • 0: MIDI channel number 0
  • 3C: ending note key is 3C (range: 00~7F)
  • 64: release velocity is 100 (0~127)

3. End of Track Event

In our example: FF 2F 00

Therefore, the data 00 90 3C 64 means “At delta-time 0 from the beginning of MIDI channel 0, press down middle C with velocity 100.” Similarly, 60 80 3C 64 means “At delta-time 96 from the previous event at MIDI channel 0, release middle C with velocity 100.”

MIDI Note Numbers

This chart displays all note numbers corresponding to each key and octave. The middle C is 3C in hex, which is especially easy to remember.

Note \ Octave -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
C 00 0C 18 24 30 3C 48 54 60 6C 78
C# / Db 01 0D 19 25 31 3D 49 55 61 6D 79
D 02 0E 1A 26 32 3E 4A 56 62 6E 7A
D# / Eb 03 0F 1B 27 33 3F 4B 57 63 6F 7B
E 04 10 1C 28 34 40 4C 58 64 70 7C
F 05 11 1D 29 35 41 4D 59 65 71 7D
F# / Gb 06 12 1E 2A 36 42 4E 5A 66 72 7E
G 07 13 1F 2B 37 43 4F 5B 67 73 7F
G# / Ab 08 14 20 2C 38 44 50 5C 68 74 -
A 09 15 21 2D 39 45 51 5D 69 75 -
A# / Bb 0A 16 22 2E 3A 46 52 5E 6A 76 -
B 0B 17 23 2F 3B 47 53 5F 6B 77 -

The same chart in decimal notation can be found here.

Quick Review

Interpreting the MIDI File

Files with the extension .mid can be read by various software and be viewed or edited in different notations. The following are two examples:

Staff

Our example project is converted into a quarter note on a standard five-line staff using MuseScore.

Piano Roll

Notes can also be shown on a MIDI piano roll editor in FL Studio.

Reference

This tutorial is based on the information of MIDI Flies Specification from Somascape.

This is a guest post written by @J1soon.

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