I like Chopin

A funny program to play like Chopin. (tribute to Gazebo)

"In memory of all the electric pianos bought for children who no longer use them."

Description

"I like Chopin" is a very special MIDI player for Linux, Mac and Windows that uses Python3 with three operating modes: simple MIDI player, passthrough, and playback. The last allows you to play like Chopin. It is an awesome mode that ensures any key you press on the keyboard will always play the correct note from a selected MIDI file. You need a physical MIDI keyboard or piano connected to the computer, the selection of music is done by an internal web server, at the URL http://127.0.0.1:8888.

Bring your piano back to life and impress your friends with this musical magic trick!

Usage

Installation

Python3 and the Python package and project manager uv are assumed to be already installed on your computer.

On Linux, you need utility libraries for X C Binding libxcb-cursor0 or xcb-cursor0.

apt install libxcb-cursor0

On Linux, you need to use rt-audio.

usermod -a -G audio $USER

Edit /etc/security/limits.conf and add at the end:

# rt-audio
@audio - rtprio 90
@audio - nice -10
@audio - memlock 500000

Run

cd ./src
uv run i-like-chopin.py

Connections

With a Virtual Synth	With Piano in Daw Mode	With Rack Synth

Programs and libraries used

• Python >=3.10, <3.13
• PySide6 6.7.1
• mido 1.2.10
• python-rtmidi 1.4.7
• netifaces2 0.0.22
• qrcode 7.4.2
• pillow 10.4.0
• bottle 0.13.2
• unidecode 1.3.8

Utilities

No native virtual MIDI driver is provided with Windows, but there are a number of them available for free:

• loopMIDI developed by Tobias Erichsen, who also programmed a version of the Network MIDI driver for Windows.
• MIDI Yoke which is part of the MIDI OX utility (32 bits only).

Raspberry Pi5

❗ The Raspberry USB 2.0 port has issues detecting MIDI keyboard keys. This problem does not occur when using the USB 3.0 port.

Tested with...

• Linux Debian 12 on Raspberry Pi 4 Model B and Raspberry Pi 5 8Go
• Linux Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
• Linux Mint 22 Cinnamon
• Windows 10 / VirtualMIDISynth (load and play soundfonts, but set buffer to zero for best latency) + MIDIMapper (Midi mapper)
• MacOS 14.6.1
• USB to Midi CME U2MIDI Pro
• Steinberg UR22mkII
• Modartt Pianoteq Stage
• Keyboard Arturia Keystep 37
• Keyboard Arturia Keylab 61 Essential
• Piano Yamaha Clavinova CLP-123 -> LOCAL OFF = press MIDI/TRANSPOSE then PIANO1 (must lite)

Thanks

Thank you to cyri11e for carrying out the program tests on MacOS and for his great patience.