CSV serializer

With the CsvSerializer you can either serialize objects to CSV or deserialize them back from CSV.

In this article the comma (,) used as a values delimiter. You can change it with the Delimiter property of the CsvSerializationSettings.

Example

Here is a quick example of CSV:

0,"MThd",0,"Header",96
1,"MTrk",0,"Text",0,"A"
1,"MTrk",1,"Text",100,"B"
2,"MTrk",0,"Note",0,100,4,E7,127,0
2,"MTrk",1,"Note",100,100,3,D3,127,0
2,"MTrk",1,"Note",110,100,3,E2,127,0

The meaning of these lines:

  • The file has the time division of 96 ticks per quarter note.
  • Track chunk #1 contains two events:
    • #0: Text event with text of A;
    • #1: Text event with text of B.
  • Track chunk #2 contains two objects:
    • #0: note E7;
    • #1: chord with two notes: D3 and E2.

See detailed description of the format in the next section.

Format

Each record in CSV representation is in the following form:

ChunkIndex,ChunkId,ObjectIndex,ObjectName,ObjectData

ChunkIndex is a number of a MIDI chunk with an object. ChunkId is the ID of the chunk, for example, "MTrk" for a track chunk or "MThd" for a header one.

ObjectIndex is a number of an object within the chunk. Also note that if two notes have the same ObjectIndex, it means they form a chord. For example:

2,"MTrk",0,"Note",0,100,4,E7,127,0
2,"MTrk",1,"Note",100,100,3,D3,127,0
2,"MTrk",1,"Note",110,100,3,E2,127,0

Here we have a single note E7 (the object #0) and a chord (the object #1) with two notes: D3 and E2.

If ObjectName is "Header" then ObjectData will contain a single number – time division.

If ObjectName is "Note" then ObjectData will be in the following format:

Time,Length,Channel,Note,Velocity,OffVelocity

where Time, Length, Channel, Velocity and OffVelocity hold values of the corresponding properties of a Note object. You can change Time and Length representations via TimeType and LengthType properties of the CsvSerializationSettings correspondingly. Note can be either the note number or letter (C4, for example) depending on the NoteFormat property value.

In other cases of ObjectName it's assumed that this component represents the type of a MIDI event. For example, you can see "NoteOn" or "SequenceTrackName" as a value for ObjectName. ObjectData for such records will be in the following format:

Time,EventData

As for the Time, it holds the time of a TimedEvent object. You can change Time representation via the TimeType property of the CsvSerializationSettings. EventData depends on the type of an event:

ObjectName EventData Modifiers
"SequenceTrackName" Text
"CopyrightNotice" Text
"InstrumentName" Text
"Marker" Text
"CuePoint" Text
"Lyric" Text
"Text" Text
"ProgramName" Text
"DeviceName" Text
"SequenceNumber" Number
"PortPrefix" Port
"ChannelPrefix" Channel
"TimeSignature" Numerator,Denominator,ClocksPerClick,ThirtySecondNotesPerBeat
"KeySignature" Key,Scale
"SetTempo" MicrosecondsPerQuarterNote
"SmpteOffset" Format,Hours,Minutes,Seconds,Frames,SubFrames
"SequencerSpecific" Data BytesArray
"UnknownMeta" StatusByte,Data BytesArray
"NoteOn" Channel,Note,Velocity Note
"NoteOff" Channel,Note,Velocity Note
"PitchBend" Channel,PitchValue
"ControlChange" Channel,ControlNumber,ControlValue
"ProgramChange" Channel,ProgramNumber
"ChannelAftertouch" Channel,AftertouchValue
"NoteAftertouch" Channel,Note,AftertouchValue Note
"NormalSysEx" Data BytesArray
"EscapeSysEx" Data BytesArray
"ActiveSensing"
"Start"
"Stop"
"Reset"
"Continue"
"TimingClock"
"TuneRequest"
"MidiTimeCode" Component,ComponentValue
"SongSelect" Number
"SongPositionPointer" PointerValue

where Modifiers are: