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WEBMIDI.js v3 is available now!

· 3 min read
Jean-Philippe Côté

After a lot of work and testing, I am happy to announce today that version 3 of the go-to MIDI library for JavaScript has been released! You can try it out right now!

About WEBMIDI.js​

WEBMIDI.js exists to make it easier for developers to use the Web MIDI API. The Web MIDI API is a really exciting addition to the web platform allowing a web page to interact directly with MIDI musical instruments and devices.

While great, many developers will find the API to be too low-level for their needs. Having to perform binary arithmetic or needing to constantly refer to the 300-page MIDI spec is no fun (trust me on this!). So, the goal for WEBMIDI.js is to get developers and musicians started with their web-based MIDI projects as efficiently as possible.

As of today, WEBMIDI.js generates over 744K hits a month on jsDelivr. It is downloaded over 4.4K times a month on NPM and has been starred by over 1000 developers on GitHub. Not too bad for a niche library that grew out of a personal passion project. 😀

About the New Version 3​

Version 3 has been rewritten from scratch to make it both future-proof and backwards-compatible. It uses a modern development paradigm and now has its own dedicated website at webmidijs.org. The library offers numerous new features such as:

  • Long-awaited support for Node.js (thanks to the jzz module by Jazz-Soft). The exact same code can be used in supported browsers and in Node.js.

  • Distribution in 3 flavours: ESM (ECMAScript module for modern browsers), CJS (CommonJS module for Node.js) and IIFE (Immediately Invoked Function Expression for legacy browsers and ad hoc usage).

  • TypeScript Support. Every new release includes a TypeScript definition file for CJS and ESM in the dist directory.

  • New InputChannel and OutputChannel objects. You can now work with a single MIDI channel if that's appropriate for your needs.

  • New Note object. Makes it easier to work with notes and pass them around from one method to the next.

  • New Message object that allows easier routing of MIDI messages, including the ability to automatically forward inbound MIDI messages to one, or more, outputs (much like the good ol' physical THRU port).

  • Improved support for system exclusive (sysex) messages.

  • Support for promises while preserving legacy callback support.

  • Improved support for RPN/NRPN messages.

  • Addition of hundreds of unit tests to make sure the library remains stable at all times.

  • and lots more...

Try it out!​

The documentation section of the new website has all the information to get you started. If you need help, you can exchange with fellow users and myself using the GitHub Discussions platform.

If you use the library and find it useful, please think about sponsoring 💜 the project.

Cheers!

Jean-Philippe