Scratch

It would be nice if there was MIDI input.

Being able to import MIDI files is extremely necessary imo - sometimes a song sounds simply great as MIDI but when ran through fancy converters with "realistic" soundfonts it sounds like that: A MIDI file attempting to sound realistic and failing miserably 

MIDI is also a very lightweight format. You could fit a whole game soundtrack while still using less than half a MB, but if you were to use MP3 you couldn't upload the Scratch project due to the size.

But, I see you're actually talking about receiving and sending MIDI commands... Perhaps that could be done with broadcasts? Say, you could name a broadcast "note_60", and if the MIDI note 60 (middle C) is played from your piano a "When I receive (note_60)" block would be triggered    If it's too complicated for Scratch (it's a program for little kids after all), at least as a slightly hidden function (like Mesh) it'd be great 

TL;DR: Sending/receiving MIDI commands would be good, but one thing we really need is importing .MID files for smaller project sizes.

Last edited by technoguyx (2011-08-04 14:17:59)

I really like the idea of Scratch converting MIDI files into note blocks. I wonder how hard that would be to implement?

456bingo123 wrote:

Maybe it could be in a scratch MOD...

But even better in Scratch 2.0, as we would be able to upload it here 

I think there should be a site that runs on ScratchR that is for mods. 

I'm going to see if I can submit this to the scratch suggestions. I'll put a link here soon if you guys want to support it.

I like this idea.  But instead of receiving as play note [] for () beats, I think it should receive similar to the sensor board (it's called a PicoBoard, I think...)

I did! http://suggest.scratch.mit.edu/forums/60449-suggestions/suggestions/2115147-importing-midi-using-midi-devices-on-scratch-

Let's get more supporters!!! (Unfortunately, 456bingo123 can't because he's out of votes.)

Last edited by a1130 (2011-08-05 15:50:34)

Don't forget one and all, to help support this by going to http://suggest.scratch.mit.edu/forums/60449-suggestions/suggestions/2115147-importing-midi-using-midi-devices-on-scratch-    to vote on this idea! Thanks in advanced!

Jonathanpb wrote:

MyRedNeptune wrote:

I really like the idea of Scratch converting MIDI files into note blocks. I wonder how hard that would be to implement?

Probably really hard and complicated and the result would be kinda unorganized but who cares I want it        

Well, you can drag animated GIFs into Scratch and Scratch will convert it into costumes. That wasn't so hard to implement, right? Once again, the Scratch note blocks are MIDI based    The only problem with converting MIDI into note blocks is what happens when there is a chord/polyphony in the MIDI file? Then it will have to create a couple of seperate scripts, like this:

 The first script somewhat like this:
{when flag clicked}
[play note (60) for (0.5) beats]
[play note (62) for (0.5) beats]

The second script somewhat like this:
{when flag clicked}
[rest for (0.5) beats]
[play note (67) for (0.5) beats]

Also, I think in MIDI files (or maybe just in NoteWorthy Composer?), you have a "piano pedal" feature (Scratch doesn't have a "pedal" block, as in the damper pedal on a piano) which might be hard to implement, unless a pedal block is made in Scratch 2.0.

Last edited by a1130 (2011-08-09 17:48:36)