9.2 Invoking midi2ly

Midi2ly translates a MIDI input file to a LilyPond source file. MIDI (Music Instrument Digital Interface) is a standard for digital instruments: it specifies cabling, a serial protocol and a file format.

The MIDI file format is a de facto standard format for exporting music from other programs, so this capability may come in useful when you want to import files from a program that has no converter for its native format.

midi2ly will convert tracks into Staff (lilypond-internals) and channels into Voice (lilypond-internals) contexts. Relative mode is used for pitches, durations are only written when necessary.

It is possible to record a MIDI file using a digital keyboard, and then convert it to .ly. However, human players are not rhythmically exact enough to make a MIDI to LY conversion trivial. midi2ly tries to compensate for these timing errors, but is not very good at this. It is therefore not recommended to use midi2ly for human-generated midi files.

Hackers who know about signal processing are invited to write a more robust midi2ly. midi2ly is written in Python, using a module written in C to parse the MIDI files.

It is invoked as follows:

             midi2ly [option]... midi-file

The following options are supported by midi2ly:

-a, --absolute-pitches

Print absolute pitches.

-d, --duration-quant=DUR

Quantise note durations on DUR.

-e, --explicit-durations

Print explicit durations.

-h,--help

Show summary of usage.

-k, --key=acc[:minor]

Set default key. acc > 0 sets number of sharps; acc < 0 sets number of flats. A minor key is indicated by ":1".

-o, --output=file

Write output to file.

-s, --start-quant=DUR

Quantise note starts on DUR.

-t, --allow-tuplet=DUR*NUM/DEN

Allow tuplet durations DUR*NUM/DEN.

-V, --verbose

Be verbose.

-v, --version

Print version number.

-w, --warranty

Show warranty and copyright.

-x, --text-lyrics

Treat every text as a lyric.

This page is for LilyPond-2.0.3 (stable-branch). Report errors to <bug-lilypond@gnu.org>.