pw-midi2play

Play MIDI 2 (UMP) files through PipeWire

TLDR

Play a MIDI 2 (UMP) file

$ pw-midi2play [path/to/file.midi2]

Play to a specific PipeWire target node

$ pw-midi2play --target [node_id] [path/to/file.midi2]

Force the legacy MIDI 1 byte-stream format instead of UMP

$ pw-midi2play --force-midi midi [path/to/file.midi2]

Play with verbose output

$ pw-midi2play -v [path/to/file.midi2]

Read MIDI 2 data from stdin

$ cat [file.midi2] | pw-midi2play -

SYNOPSIS

pw-midi2play [options] [FILE | -]

pw-midi2play sends MIDI 2 events into the PipeWire graph for playback. It is an alias of pw-cat(1) invoked with the TYPE_MIDI2 data type, which expects Universal MIDI Packet (UMP) containers as defined by the MIDI 2.0 specification.UMP packets carry both legacy MIDI 1 messages and MIDI 2 features such as 32-bit-per-channel resolution, per-note controllers, and 16 groups of 16 channels. The tool itself does not synthesise audio: events are routed through the PipeWire graph to a MIDI 2 capable synthesiser or hardware device that renders sound.When - is given as the file argument, MIDI data is read from standard input.

PARAMETERS

-h, --help

Show help and exit.

--version

Show version information.

-v, --verbose

Enable verbose output.

-R, --remote NAME

Connect to the named PipeWire daemon.

--target VALUE

Target node serial or name. 0 disables linking.

--latency VALUE

Set node latency, e.g. 100ms, 2048 samples.

-P, --properties JSON

Extra stream properties as a JSON object.

-M, --force-midi FORMAT

Force MIDI format, midi (legacy bytes) or ump (Universal MIDI Packets, default).

CAVEATS

Requires the destination synthesiser, plugin, or hardware to understand MIDI 2 / UMP. Without a downstream renderer the playback is silent. Standard .mid (SMF) files use MIDI 1 byte streams and are typically played with pw-midiplay(1) instead, or with --force-midi midi.

HISTORY

MIDI 2 support arrived in PipeWire alongside the broader pw-cat MIDI 2 (UMP) work, complementing the older pw-midiplay/pw-midirecord pair. PipeWire was created by Wim Taymans at Red Hat and first released in 2017 and is now the default audio server in major Linux distributions. The MIDI 2.0 specification was ratified by the MMA in 2020.