Current project status
PySynth is no longer being actively developed by me and has therefore been removed from PyPI.
If you would like to take over as maintainer of the project, please fork it now!
This repo may be deleted in the future.
Overview
PySynth is a simple music synthesizer for Python 2 or 3. The goal is not to produce many different sounds, but to have scripts that can turn ABC notation or MIDI files into a WAV file without too much tinkering.
The current release of the synthesizer can only play one note at a time. (Although successive notes can overlap in PySynth B and S, but not A.) However, two output files can be mixed together to get stereo sound.
Synthesizer scripts
| Synth | Synthesis method | Approximate timbre | Note decay | Needs NumPy? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | additive (3 sine waves) | flute, organ, piano | variable (depends on note length) | no |
| B | additive (5 sine waves) | acoustic piano | medium | yes |
| C | subtractive (sawtooth wave) | bowed string, analog synth pad | none | no |
| D | subtractive (square wave) | woodwind, analog synth lead | none | no |
| E | FM/phase modulation (6 sine waves) | DX7 Rhodes piano | medium | yes |
| P | subtractive (white noise) | untuned percussion hit | very fast | no |
| S | Karplus-Strong (physical modeling) | plucked string, guitar, koto | fast | yes |
| beeper | additive | Nokia phone ringtone | none | no |
| samp | sampler | Salamander Grand Piano | medium | yes |
Installation
Linux
Clone the repository:
git clone git@github.com:mdoege/PySynth.git
or
git clone https://github.com/mdoege/PySynth.git
Enter the directory (cd PySynth) and run
python3 setup.py install
Sample usage
Basic usage:
import pysynth as ps
test = (('c', 4), ('e', 4), ('g', 4),
('c5', -2), ('e6', 8), ('d#6', 2))
ps.make_wav(test, fn = "test.wav")More advanced usage:
import pysynth_b as psb # a, b, e, and s variants available
''' (note, duration)
Note name (a to g), then optionally a '#' for sharp or
'b' for flat, then optionally the octave (defaults to 4).
An asterisk at the end means to play the note a little
louder. Duration: 4 is a quarter note, -4 is a dotted
quarter note, etc.'''
song = (
('c', 4), ('c*', 4), ('eb', 4),
('g#', 4), ('g*', 2), ('g5', 4),
('g5*', 4), ('r', 4), ('e5', 16),
('f5', 16), ('e5', 16), ('d5', 16),
('e5*', 4)
)
# Beats per minute (bpm) is really quarters per minute here
psb.make_wav(song, fn = "danube.wav", leg_stac = .7, bpm = 180)Read ABC file and output WAV:
python3 read_abc.py straw.abc
Documentation
More documentation and examples at the PySynth homepage.
