TiMidity(1)TiMidity(1)NAME
TiMidity - MIDI to WAVE converter and player
SYNOPSIStimidity [-options] filename [filenames ...]
DESCRIPTION
TiMidity is a MIDI to WAVE converter using Gravis Ultrasound-compatible
patch files to generate digital audio data from General MIDI files.
The data can be stored in a file for processing, or played in real time
through an audio device.
OPTIONS
The following command line options are accepted by version 0.2i of
TiMidity:
-o filename
Place output on filename, which may be a file, device, or HP-UX
audio server, depending on the output mode selected with the -O
option. The special filename ``-'' causes output to be placed on
stdout.
-O mode
Selects the output mode from the compiled-in alternatives. mode
must begin with one of the supported output mode identifiers.
Run TiMidity with the -h option to see a list. The following
identifiers should be available in all versions:
-Or Generate raw waveform data. All format options are sup‐
ported. Common formats include:
-OrU uLaw
-Or1sl 16-bit signed linear PCM
-Or8ul 8-bit unsigned linear PCM
-Ow Generate RIFF WAVE format output. If output is directed
to a non-seekable file, or if TiMidity is interrupted
before closing the file, the file header will contain
0xFFFFFFFF in the RIFF and data block length fields. The
popular sound conversion utility sox is able to read such
malformed files, so you can pipe data directly to sox for
on-the-fly conversion to other formats.
Format options
Option characters may be added immediately after the mode
identifier to change the output format. The following
options are recognized:
8 8-bit sample width
1 16-bit sample width
l Linear encoding
U uLaw (8-bit) encoding
M Monophonic
S Stereo
s Signed output
u Unsigned output
x Byte-swapped output
Note that some options have no effect on some modes. For exam‐
ple, you cannot generate a byte-swapped RIFF WAVE file, or force
uLaw output on a Linux PCM device.
-s frequency
Sets the resampling frequency. Not all sound devices are capa‐
ble of all frequencies -- an approximate frequency may be
selected, depending on the implementation.
-a Turns on antialiasing. Samples are run through a lowpass filter
before playing, which reduces aliasing noise at low resampling
frequencies.
-f Toggles fast envelopes. Some MIDI files sound better when notes
decay slower -- it gives the impression of reverb, which TiMid‐
ity doesn't currently support.
-e Make TiMidity evil. On Win32 version, this increases the task
priority by one. It can give better playback when you switch
tasks at the expense of slowing all other tasks down.
-p voices
Sets polyphony (maximum number of simultaneous voices) to
voices.
-A amplification
Multiplies the master volume by amplification%.
-C ratio
Sets the ratio of sampling and control frequencies. This deter‐
mines how often envelopes are recalculated -- small ratios yield
better quality but use more CPU time.
-L directory
Adds directory to the library path. Patch, configuration, and
MIDI files are searched along this path. Directories added last
will be searched first. Note that the current directory is
always searched first before the library path.
-c file
Reads an extra configuration file.
-I number
Uses the program number as the default instrument. Any Program
Change events in MIDI files will override this option.
-P file
Uses the patch file for every program except drums. Program
Change events will be ignored. This is useful for testing new
patches.
-D channel
Marks channel as a drum channel. If channel is negative, chan‐
nel -channel is marked as an instrumental channel. If channel
is 0, all channels are marked as instrumental.
-Q channel
Causes channel to be quiet. If channel is negative, channel
-channel is turned back on. If channel is 0, all channels are
turned on.
-F Turns on fast panning to accommodate MIDI pieces that expect
panning adjustments to affect notes that are already playing.
Some files that don't expect this have a habit of flipping bal‐
ance rapidly between left and right, which can cause severe pop‐
ping when the -F flag is used.
-U Instructs TiMidity to unload all instruments from memory between
MIDI files. This can reduce memory requirements when playing
many files in succession.
-i interface
Selects the user interface from the compiled-in alternatives.
interface must begin with one of the supported interface identi‐
fiers. Run TiMidity with the -h option to see a list. The fol‐
lowing identifiers may be available:
-id The dumb interface -- plays files in sequence, prints
messages according to verbosity level. The trace mode
shows the current and total playing time.
-im The motif interface -- X Window interactive interface.
-ik The Tcl/Tk interface -- X Window interactive interface.
-in The ncurses full-screen interface with interactive con‐
trols.
-is The S-Lang full-screen interface with interactive con‐
trols.
Interface options
Option characters may be added immediately after the
interface identifier. The following options are recog‐
nized:
v Increases verbosity. This option is cumulative.
q Decreases verbosity. This option is cumulative.
t Toggles trace mode. In trace mode, TiMidity
attempts to display its current state in real
time. For the Linux sound driver, this is accom‐
plished through the use of short DMA buffer frag‐
ments, which can be tuned via the -B option.
-B fragments
For the Linux sound driver, selects the number of buffer
fragments in interactive mode. Increasing the number of
fragments may reduce choppiness when many processes are
running. It will make TiMidity seem to respond slug‐
gishly to fast forward, rewind, and volume controls, and
it will throw the status display off sync. Specify a
fragments of 0 to use the maximum number of fragments
available.
FILES
TiMidity looks for the configuration file timidity.cfg at
startup, before processing any options. If it can't be
accessed, and the library path is changed with a -L option on
the command line, then the default file will be sought again
along the new library path after processing all options, unless
another configuration file was specified with the -c option.
Configuration files define the mapping of MIDI programs to
instrument files. Multiple files may be specified, and state‐
ments in later ones will override earlier ones. The following
statements can be used in a configuration file:
dir directory
Adds directory to the search path in the same manner as
the -L command line option.
source file
Reads another configuration file, then continues process‐
ing the current one.
bank number
Selects the tone bank to modify. Patch mappings that
follow will affect this tone bank.
drumset number
Selects the drum set to modify. Patch mappings that fol‐
low will affect this drum set.
number file [options]
Specifies that the the MIDI program number in the current
tone bank or drum set should be played using the patch
file. options may be any of the following:
amp=amplification
Amplifies the instrument's volume by amplification
percent. If no value is specified, one will be
automatically determined whenever the instrument
is loaded.
note=note
Specifies a fixed MIDI note to use when playing
the instrument. If note is 0, the instrument will
be played at whatever note the Note On event trig‐
gering it has. For percussion instruments, if no
value is specified in the configuration file, the
default in the patch file will be used.
pan=panning
Sets the instrument's default panning. panning
may be left, right, center, or an integer between
-100 and 100, designating full left and full right
respectively. If no value is specified, the
default in the patch file will be used. Note that
panning controls in MIDI files will override this
value.
keep={loop|env}
By default, percussion instruments have their loop
and envelope information stripped. Strangely
shaped envelopes are removed automatically from
melodic instruments as well. keep can be used to
prevent stripping envelope or loop data. For exam‐
ple, the Short and Long Whistle percussion instru‐
ments (General Midi numbers 71 and 72) need to
have ``keep=loop keep=env'' specified in the con‐
figuration file.
strip={loop|env|tail}
Force removal of loop or envelope information from
all patches in the instrument, or strip the tail,
i.e. all data after the loop. Some third-party
instruments have garbage after the loop, as evi‐
denced by a clicking noise whenever the instrument
is played, so adding the strip=tail option will
markedly improve sound quality.
NOTE: Whenever any filename ends in one of the compiled-in com‐
pression identifiers, such as .gz, or .sht, TiMidity will pipe
the file through the appropriate decompressor. MIDI files often
compress very well, so the ability to handle compressed files
can be useful.
The special filename ``-'' can be used on the command line to
indicate that a MIDI file should be read from stdin.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (C) 1995 Tuukka Toivonen.
TiMidity is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as pub‐
lished by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the
License, or (at your option) any later version.
TiMidity is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MER‐
CHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
General Public License for more details.
AVAILABILITY
The latest release is available on the TiMidity Home Page, URL
http://www.clinet.fi/~toivonen/timidity/.
BUGS
8-bit and low-rate output sounds worse than it should.
Eats more CPU time than a small CPU-time-eating animal.
AUTHORS
Tuukka Toivonen <toivonen@clinet.fi>
HP-UX audio code, X-Motif interface, icons and antialiasing fil‐
ter by Vincent Pagel <pagel@loria.fr>
Tcl/Tk interface by Takashi Iwai <iwai@dragon.mm.t.u-
tokyo.ac.jp>
Windows 95/NT audio code by Davide Moretti <dmoretti@iper.net>
DEC audio code by Chi Ming HUNG <cmhung@insti.physics.sun‐
ysb.edu>
S-Lang user interface by Riccardo Facchetti <ric‐
cardo@cdc8g5.cdc.polimi.it>
8 Sep 1995 TiMidity(1)
