MIDI(TheMidiBus) + Variable Fonts

Hello everyone,

I’m a type design student and for my diploma project I’m looking into possibilities of combining processing with variable fonts. In this specific case, I’m working with the interaction between sound (MIDI) and variable font. To do that I have started using The Midibus Library in processing. Since I’m quite a beginner, I was wondering:

  • Is there a way to assign letters to midi pitch?
  • Could I import a variable font and change the axis using the data from MIDI? (For example the velocity determines the weight of the variable font)
    I would really appreciate your help on this subject!
    Thank you!

Hello @Giaco
What you’re describing seems possible. It sounds like you’re new to Processing too, so it might be easier to break your project into smaller bits and ask for help on more specific questions.

Hello @haschdl ,
Thank you for your response. I’ve already started a sketch in processing following the videos by Thomas Castleman :

In this example he draws ellipses that change in size according to the velocity value. I was wondering if there is a way to display specific letters to a specific value of the pitch instead of having ellipses. For example: A= Pitch48 W=Pitch49 S=Pitch50 and so on…

There are certainly many ways of doing it. You could a simple example for 2 or 3 letters, using a switch statements that checks the value of pitch (like in the example above). Check the Processing documentation for switch.