AKAI APC Key 25 based synthesizer in the style of SoundBlaster FM (YM3812)
Project goals:
- Emulate a synthesizer in the style of the Yamaha YM3812 chip, as used on SoundBlaster devices.
- Provide a controller for the AKAI APC Key 25 MIDI keyboard/controller to setup and use the synthesizer
- Be a testbed for more cool stuff on computer music.
There are some library dependencies to enable MIDI access and sound output.
Install the following packages (version numbers denote package versions with have been tested, anything below can and anything above should work):
- python3-mido:1.2.9-3
- libasound2-dev:1.2.4-1
- libjack-dev:0.125.0-2 or libjack-jackd2-dev:1.9.17~dfsg-1
- libportmidi0:1:217-6
sudo apt-get install python3-mido libasound2-dev libjack-jackd2-dev libportmidi0
With python-rtmidi 1.5.4 the alsa libraries are expected in an un-Debian place. A quick fix is:
sudo mkdir -p /usr/lib64/alsa-lib
sudo ln -s /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/alsa-lib/libasound_module_conf_pulse.so /usr/lib64/alsa-lib/Please check the requirements file for additional Python libraries.
Make sure that to install the exact dependencies, as there are some variants around the rtmidi package. If there are caveats on certain systems, feel free to add a sub-section here and hand in a PR. Contributions are appreciated!
Attach the MIDI Controller via USB and start the application:
python3 AKAI_Synth.py
Press any key to quit.
This is a very basic first go:
- Control pads and knobs can be read from and written to. There is also a UI around showing where the knobs should be, as their positions cannot be set via MIDI.
- The synthesizer has basic generator cells and can add/fm them together.
- Sound generation is live and cached. Optimization pending.
Immediate roadmap:
- Extend the synthesizer to support all functions of the YM3812
- Be able to store, edit and load more instruments
- Add the ability to create loops and record into loops
- Add the ability to play pre-defined samples
- Introduce virtual controllers and command routing for the knobs/control panel
- Add a cool number display on the control pad when knobs are turned
- If no MIDI controller is available, use the default MIDI input. This allows more complex MIDI routing and playbacks.
- Persist settings and created instruments
- Allow to tune the system to other (native) instruments
Further out:
- Add a Web-based UI to show settings on a screen and allow a more complex control of the sythesizer
- Add more complex music generation, taking scales, chords and genres into account
- Find a way to adapt playback/generation speed to other people in the ensemble, e.g. by monitoring keyboard input
- Analyze the music generation and allow to generate further music on the fly, e.g. by calculating the chroma vectors, finding rhythms, …
- Allow to record, sound-effect and playback other band members
This project is mostly, but not necessary solely, maintained by Stefan Haun ([email protected]).
Contributions by:
- Stefan Haun [email protected], known on GitHub as @penguineer
Contributions are welcome. Please consider the roadmap for your contributions. The maintainers are happy to answer questions.
To contribute, fork the repository and create a feature branch. Please do not add commits on the master branch, as these will not be accepted. Create a PR to have your contribution reviewed and eventually accepted into the code base. Write access to this repository is only granted to maintainers. Any contribution should come from a fork via pull request.
Bugs or wished may be reported with an issue. You can also open an issue to state the intention of a certain contribution. Please mark this as an extension and comment in the issue that you are going to work on this.
This project is licensed under the MIT License. Instead of quoting the full license text in each source file, this project uses SPDX license tags.
All included libraries are distributed under MIT, BSD or LGPL license. Please refer to the respective package documentation.
See LICENSE.txt for further reading.
