---
id: symusic
version: "0.6.0"
license: MIT License Copyright (c) 2023 廖奕凯 Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the… (full text in the JSON record)
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: active
---

# symusic — A high performance MIDI file parser with comprehensible interface.

License: permissive · Maintenance: active · Downloads: 99.5K/mo

## What it is and what it does

symusic is a symbolic music toolkit that loads and manipulates MIDI and ABC files at the note level, with a C++20 core exposed to Python via nanobind. It handles common music information retrieval tasks—parsing, time-unit conversion, beat/downbeat computation, piano roll generation, and vectorized transformations—much faster than pure-Python alternatives. The package also includes audio synthesis via SoundFonts and efficient serialization through pickle and NumPy exports.

You use it when you need to work with symbolic music data in research or production pipelines: load a MIDI file, apply transformations like transposition or velocity shifts, compute analysis features, and export the result. It targets music information retrieval (MIR) workflows where speed and a clean note-level API matter more than GUI-based editing.

Use it for:

- Parse large MIDI datasets for MIR model training without the speed penalty of pure-Python libraries
- Transpose, filter, or resample note sequences programmatically for data augmentation
- Compute piano rolls and beat grids from MIDI for feature extraction in music analysis
- Render MIDI to audio using built-in SoundFont synthesis for listening and validation
- Convert between MIDI and ABC formats while preserving note-level structure

## Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts above — verify before relying.

symusic parses and transforms MIDI and ABC files at note level with C++20-backed speed, exposing vectorized operations like pitch/velocity/time shifts and audio rendering through SoundFonts.

Yes, if you work with symbolic music data and need fast, note-level MIDI/ABC parsing and transformation. The C++20 backend, active maintenance, MIT license, and zero known vulnerabilities make it a solid choice. Install friction is moderate (compiled dependencies) but pre-built wheels cover most platforms. The Alpha status means the API may shift, so pin the version in production.

## Install

pip install symusic
uv add symusic
poetry add symusic

## Installing symusic

Before you install: Medium install friction due to compiled C++20 dependencies, but pre-built wheels cover Python 3.9–3.14 across Linux, macOS, and Windows including arm64. Active maintenance with recent commits and no known vulnerabilities.

License in practice: MIT License permits commercial and private use with minimal restrictions; you may use, modify, and distribute symusic freely provided you retain the license notice.

Quickstart:

pip install symusic

from symusic import Score

score = Score("example.mid")
score.shift_pitch(12)  # transpose up one octave
score.dump_midi("transposed.mid")

Requires a C++20-capable compiler and CMake if building from source; pre-built wheels available for most platforms.

Verify before relying:

- Exact performance multiplier ('hundreds of times faster') compared to pure-Python MIDI libraries in typical workflows
- Whether PyPy wheels for pp311 are actively maintained or tested alongside CPython releases
- Stability guarantees for the Alpha (Development Status 3) release in production pipelines

## Package facts

- License: MIT License Copyright (c) 2023 廖奕凯 Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the… (full text in the JSON record) (permissive)
- Python support: supports_current
- Install friction: medium
- Maintenance: active
- Downloads: 99.5K/month (top 15,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

MIDI file parser python, symbolic music processing, note-level MIDI manipulation, ABC music format, music information retrieval toolkit, MIDI to audio synthesis, fast music file parsing, music-processing, mir-toolkit, symbolic-music

[View on SkillFed](https://skillfed.io/packages/symusic) · [View on PyPI](https://pypi.org/project/symusic/)