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Current project status

PySynth is no longer being actively developed by me and has therefore been removed from PyPI.

There is now a maintained fork of PySynth at g4brielvs/PySynth.


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.