What is midish?

Midish is an open-source MIDI sequencer/filter for Unix-like operating systems (developped and tested on OpenBSD and Linux). Implemented as a simple command-line interpreter (like a shell) it's intended to be lightweight, fast and reliable for real-time performance.

Important features:

multiple MIDI devices handling
synchronisation to external midi devices
real-time MIDI filtering/routing (controller mapping, keyboard splitting, ...)
track recording, metronome
basic track editing (insert, copy, delete, ...)
track quantisation
import and export of standard MIDI files
tempo and time-signature changes
system exclusive messages handling
...

Midish is open-source software distributed under a 2-clause BSD-style license (compatible with GPL). Currently in development (contributions are welcome), it can safely be used for sequencing and filtering.

News

aug 19, 2007
midish-0.3.0 released, improved usability, new features (see the changelog)
jun 19, 2006
a new snapshot and new MP3s are available.
oct 27, 2005
midish-0.2 released, new features, improved stability and documentation (see the changelog)
oct 24, 2005
added new features: system excusive messages support, synchronisation on external midi devices.
aug 13, 2005
a mailing-list about midish is now available
mar 11, 2005
first release: midish 0.1

Support

A brief user manual (in progress) is available in the source tar-ball. There is also a mailing-list about midish (archives are here); feel free to send your questions, bug reports and feedback to midish[at]caoua[dot]org.

Download

Refer to the documentation for the installation procedure.

Source tar-balls:

midish.tar.gz - development snapshot from jun 29, 2008 (recommended)
midish-0.3.2.tar.gz - stable release, updated jun 29, 2008 (bug fixes)

Precompiled binary packages are also available.

Music

The provided MP3s are produced with the following hardware/software:

pentium 200MHz box running OpenBSD
Roland XV-2020 midi sound module
M-Audio keystation-61es midi keyboard
USB M-Audio "Mobilepre" sound card (for audio recording)

Short MP3 sequences:

reg-disto.mp3 / reg-disto.ogg
a short song using the "advanced mode" of the Roland XV-2020 sound module.
latin.mp3 / latin.ogg
another short song (same hardware).
sample.mp3 / sample.ogg
the sample file shipped in the sources tar-ball played on the above hardware. Uses the sound-module in general-midi "compatibility" mode.

How to contribute

Contributions to midish are welcome:

test midish and send us feedback
help improve documentation
help add new features
share your midish scripts to help other users
provide/maintain midish packages for your favorite OS

Feel free to ask questions and send contributions on the midish mailing-list.