Update Feb 10th, 2023 - This is an old re-up from 2020 that was about 2 months behind the public demo here: https://midiblocks.firebaseapp.com/

The codebase is functional but dated

A visual, all-in-one MIDI mapping, scripting, and live coding platform for driving highly collaborative MIDI experiences.

🚧 This repo is still in development (target date 📅 10/26/20) 🚧

TL:DR;

git clone https://github.com/midiblocks/midiblocks
cd midiblocks
npm install
npm start
# Point your browser to http://localhost:8080

Contents

• About
  • The Studio
  • The Factory
  • The Library
• Motivation

• Contents
• About
  • The Studio
  • The Factory
  • The Library
• Motivation
• Keyboard Shortcuts
• Setup
  • Prereqs
  • Installing
  • Browser Support
• Dev
  • Command line scripts
  • window.app
  • localStorage
• License: MIT

About

Midiblocks is a visual, all-in-one MIDI mapping, scripting, and live coding platform for driving highly collaborative MIDI experiences.

Some things Midiblocks can (eventually) help you do:

• Quickly map MIDI to JavaScript variables, functions, and events on any web site or web service
• Use MIDI to drive custom apps with libraries like magenta.js, ml5.js, p5.js, handsfree.js, and others
• Send MIDI to your native Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs) and apps
• Work on mobile with no internet required
• Work on projects collaboratively

🚧 More info coming soon

The Studio

🚧 More info coming soon

The Factory

🚧 More info coming soon

The Library

🚧 More info coming soon

---

Motivation

🚧 More info coming soon

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Keyboard Shortcuts

Location	Shortcut	Action
Anywhere	s	Navigate to the Studio
Anywhere	f	Navigate to the Factory
Factory	ctrl + s	Save the current block

---

Setup

Prereqs

• Git
• This is an older project made NodeJS LTS (eg 12.x.x)
  • Try using nvm to downgrade if you have Node > 16: https://github.com/coreybutler/nvm-windows
  • Then: nvm install 12 and nvm use 12
  • If you get node-sass issues, you'll also need Python2: https://www.python.org/downloads/release/python-2716/
  • You may also need to enable legacy openssl for webpack with: $env:NODE_OPTIONS="--openssl-legacy-provider" (https://stackoverflow.com/questions/70582072/npm-run-fails-with-err-ossl-evp-unsupported)

Installing

• Open terminal and clone this repository with: git clone https://github.com/midiblocks/midiblocks
• Change into directory with: cd midiblocks
• Run npm install from the project root to install dependencies (> 250Mb)
  • If on Windows you'll need to have Python2: https://stackoverflow.com/a/72644081
• Run npm start from the project's root to start the app at localhost:8080

Browser Support

This project works in all browsers that natively support the Web MIDI API. Currently, the following browsers have built-in support:

• Chrome (macOS, GNU/Linux, Android & Windows)
• Opera (macOS, GNU/Linux, Windows)
• Android WebView component (KitKat and above)
• Edge (Windows)

For more info, including on how to support Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Safari see the WebMidi docs

Starting with version 77, Chrome deprecates Web MIDI usage on insecure origins. This means that, going forward, the page will need to be hosted on a secure origin (e.g. https://, localhost: or file:///) and the user will need to authorize usage (no matter if sysex is used or not). Firebase, Netflify, Github, and others provide free hosting.

---

Dev

Command line scripts

# DEVELOPMENT 
# -----------
# Start the app in development mode with localStorage
npm start

# PRODUCTION
# ----------
# Build the app for production with localStorage
npm run build

# DEPLOY
# ----------
# Push the app to firebase. Must have:
# - Firebase Tools: npm i -g firebase-tools
# - Initialized with: firebase init
npm run deploy

window.app

The following is available through your browser's dev console:

window.app = {
  $,        // Main Vue instance
  $studio,  // The Studio component (only present when on that route)
  $factory  // The Factory component (only present when on that route)
}

🚧 More info coming soon

localStorage

The following is available inside localStorage:

{
  blocks: [],           // All loaded Factory Blocks
  midiblocks: [],       // All loaded Studio Midiblocks
  currentFactory: {},   // The Factory's last state (autosave)
  currentStudio: {},    // The Studio's last state (autosave)
  splitter: 50
}

🚧 More info coming soon

---

License: MIT

Copyright 2020 midiblocks

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.