WebMIDIfier

The WebMIDIfier was created as a web-based application that takes a URL as input, reads the web site at that URL, and converts the content to a binary MIDI file which is played back to the user. At its most base, the WebMIDIfier creates repetitive noise., however, with some sites it is able to assemble interesting musical structures from the characters represented.

At present this project is basic in its algorithm. It simply converts any a-g character in a web site's text to a note a-g. Letters h-l are converted into sharps. All notes generated from one word are played vertically. The duration of events is determined from the sum of the ASCII values of all characters in the word, whether used as a note or not. Therefore, the word 'a' is the shortest note played, but only slightly shorter than 'am'.

The WebMIDIfier was featured in the FILE Electronic Language International Festival in Brazil, 2005 and was highlighted in Rhizome.org's Raiders of the Lost ArtBase in 2004.

The WebMIDIfier relies on a library file GNMidi for which I no longer have a license.

Examples

Some results that turned out favorably...

• Happy Accident
• Morton Subotnick 2
      http://www.newalbion.com/artists/subotnickm/
• Tokyo Ale
      http://www.tokyo-ale.com/e/news/index.html
• Data Beautification
      http://generative.net/papers/MIDI::Realtime/