Writing Midi software in Java

0
votes

recently I was thinking about writing some midi related stuff. I've planned to use the sequencer for real-time midi processing, like for example interactive arrangers - given a chord they would produce a real-time sequence of commands, etc.

Since java is my primary language so the choice was obvious to me with it javax.midi package :) But then I thought - Java... garbage collection... real-time stuff... Hm - will it really sound good - no glitches, no delays? Needless to say, I have no previous experience in writing midi software.

So I would like to know is it possible to really write a midi software in Java, are some general rules of thumb I should be aware of when writing such a thing?

Can you recommend some thirdparty libraries for the task I've explained?

Thanks a lot in advance

1
javamidi
Have you tried javax.midi package yet? It sounds like you're prematurely optimizing it already without writing any code. Garbage collection is fine if you're using the latest version of Java. - Spoike
Thanks for the answer! I've tried the basic stuff like playing midi file - worked great. I admit that the question is too common... I wanted to understand just if its feasible to develop a non-trivial midi programs in Java. Maybe I was supposed to ask what are best options to develop midi software and if java is not among them, ask why. - Mark Bramnik
Check out JFugue - paulsm4

1 Answers

0
votes

I have a Java implementation of MIDI up on Google Code; it's just the bare-bones format to read and write MIDI data, but it might be a good place to start. In my experience little real-time performance hick-ups are pretty unavoidable in Java, but smart implementation can usually keep it to an acceptable level.