Re: Creating midi file that is not empty

[Guy Stalnaker]

Claire - just confirming, Lilypond itself does not, and can not, play MIDI files. You must use some type of midi-capable program to play the MIDI files (e.g. timidity on *nix systems can play midi files, as can pmidi; for WindowsOS, I use Frescobaldi [a Lilypondwith VirtualMIDISynth to play the MIDI files directly from within Frescobaldi; MacOS requires other tools). Like Hwaen Ch'uqi said, the LP compile output is nothing like your provided ouput, which looks to me like some type of midi player output ("Playing pianoClarinetUriTzion.midi")?

To help you, we'd need more information about the operating system you are using and your midi setup (fluidsynth? VirtualMidiSynth? found font?).

On Fri, Aug 7, 2020, 7:56 PM Gilles Sadowski <gilleseran@gmail.com> wrote:

Hello.

2020-08-08 2:33 UTC+02:00, Claire Meyer
<claire.meyer.bourhis.lilypond@gmail.com>:
> Hi everyone,
>
> I have read the documentation and have gone through the archives of the
> mailing list, and don't understand what I've got wrong. The midi file I
> generate is empty and doesn't contain music. My .ly file is as follows :
>
> \score {
>      {c''4 c'' c''}
>      \layout {}
>      \midi {\context {
>          \Score tempoWholesPerMinute = #(ly:make-moment 120 4)
>          }
>      }
> }
>
> The terminal doesn't give any errors at compilation, and says that :
>
> Requested buffer size 32768, fragment size 8192
> ALSA pcm 'default' set buffer size 32768, period size 8192 bytes
> Playing pianoClarinetUriTzion.midi
> MIDI file: pianoClarinetUriTzion.midi
> Format: 1  Tracks: 2  Divisions: 384
> Sequence:
> Text: creator:
> Text: GNU LilyPond 2.20.0
> Track name: \new:
> No instrument mapped to tone bank 0, program 0 - this instrument will not
> be heard

The above signals that some instrument will not be heard.
If there is only one instrument, silence will result. :-}
It's a MIDI player configuration issue.

One thing to try is perhaps setting the MIDI instrument explicitly.[1]
---CUT---
\set Staff.midiInstrument = "clarinet"
---CUT---

Regards,
Gilles

[1] https://lilypond.org/doc/v2.20/Documentation/notation/midi-instruments

> No pre-resampling cache hit
> Last 1 MIDI events are ignored
> Playing time: ~4 seconds
> Notes cut: 0
> Notes lost totally: 0
>
> When I try to read my midi file. Can someone help me ?
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Claire
>