🎵 BitBuzzer - Musical Notes Library

A simple and lightweight C++23 library for defining musical notes with their frequencies and durations.

📋 Description

This library provides:

• 📦 A simple header-only interface for musical notes
• 🎶 A comprehensive set of musical notes from B0 (31 Hz) to DS8 (4978 Hz)
• ⏱️ Support for note durations using std::chrono::milliseconds
• ✨ A Note structure to represent a musical note with its frequency and duration
• 🎹 Predefined constants for all notes from B0 (31 Hz) to DS8 (4978 Hz)
• ⏱️ Duration support with std::chrono::milliseconds

🎼 Available Notes

The library defines all notes of the Western musical system across 8 octaves:

🎹 Octave 0-1

• B0 (31 Hz) to B1 (62 Hz)

🎹 Octave 2

• C2 (65 Hz) to B2 (123 Hz)

🎹 Octave 3

• C3 (131 Hz) to B3 (247 Hz)

🎹 Octave 4 (Middle Octave)

• C4 (262 Hz) to B4 (494 Hz)
• A4 = 440 Hz (Concert pitch reference)

🎹 Octave 5

• C5 (523 Hz) to B5 (988 Hz)

🎹 Octave 6

• C6 (1047 Hz) to B6 (1976 Hz)

🎹 Octave 7

• C7 (2093 Hz) to B7 (3951 Hz)

🎹 Octave 8

• C8 (4186 Hz) to DS8 (4978 Hz)

🔇 Special Notes

• silent (0 Hz) - For rests/pauses

📝 Notation

• Natural notes: C, D, E, F, G, A, B
• Sharps (♯): CS, DS, FS, GS, AS (suffix 'S' for Sharp)
• Flats (♭): DB3, EB3 (suffix 'B' for Flat) - Enharmonic equivalents available for some notes

🏗️ Note Structure

struct Note
{
  uint16_t frequency;                  // Frequency in Hz
  std::chrono::milliseconds duration;  // Note duration
};

🔧 Constructors

// With std::chrono::milliseconds
Note(uint16_t freq, std::chrono::milliseconds dur);

// With uint32_t (automatically converted to milliseconds)
Note(uint16_t freq, uint32_t dur);

📦 Project Integration: Direct Inclusion

1. Copy the pitches folder to the root of your project or into a subfolder like external/ or libs/

2. In your CMakeLists.txt, add the path to includes:

# Add the pitches folder to includes
target_include_directories(your_project PRIVATE
    ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/pitches
)

3. Include the header in your code:

#include <pitches/pitches.h>

💡 Usage Examples

🎯 Example 1: Create a Simple Note

#include <pitches/pitches.h>

int main()
{
    // A4 note (440 Hz) for 500ms
    pitches::Note note1(pitches::A4, 500);

    // C5 note for 1 second
    pitches::Note note2(pitches::C5, std::chrono::milliseconds(1000));

    // 200ms rest/silence
    pitches::Note pause(pitches::silent, 200);

    return 0;
}

🎶 Example 2: Simple Melody

#include <pitches/pitches.h>
#include <vector>

std::vector<pitches::Note> createMelody()
{
    using namespace pitches;

    return {
        Note(C4, 250),  // Do
        Note(D4, 250),  // Re
        Note(E4, 250),  // Mi
        Note(F4, 250),  // Fa
        Note(G4, 250),  // Sol
        Note(A4, 250),  // La
        Note(B4, 250),  // Si
        Note(C5, 500)   // Do (higher octave)
    };
}

🔊 Example 3: Note Playback Function

#include <pitches/pitches.h>
#include <thread>
#include <iostream>

void playNote(const pitches::Note& note)
{
    if (note.frequency == pitches::silent) {
        std::cout << "Silence for " << note.duration.count() << "ms\n";
    } else {
        std::cout << "Playing frequency " << note.frequency 
                  << " Hz for " << note.duration.count() << "ms\n";
        // Here: code to generate sound with the given frequency
    }

    std::this_thread::sleep_for(note.duration);
}

int main()
{
    using namespace pitches;

    std::vector<Note> melody = {
        Note(E5, 200),
        Note(E5, 200),
        Note(silent, 200),
        Note(E5, 200),
        Note(silent, 200),
        Note(C5, 200),
        Note(E5, 400),
        Note(G5, 400)
    };

    for (const auto& note : melody) {
        playNote(note);
    }

    return 0;
}

🔌 Example 4: With Hardware Buzzer (Arduino-style)

#include <pitches/pitches.h>

class Buzzer
{
public:
    void play(const pitches::Note& note)
    {
        if (note.frequency > 0) {
            tone(buzzerPin, note.frequency);
            delay(note.duration.count());
            noTone(buzzerPin);
        } else {
            delay(note.duration.count());
        }
    }

private:
    int buzzerPin = 9;  // Buzzer pin
};

⚙️ Requirements

• C++ Standard: C++23 (or C++17 minimum for std::chrono)
• CMake: Version 3.23 or higher
• Compiler: C++23 compatible (GCC 11+, Clang 14+, MSVC 2022+)

🔍 Technical Notes

• ⚡ All constants are constexpr for compile-time evaluation
• 📊 Frequencies are stored as uint16_t (0-65535 Hz)
• 🎯 Note structure is constexpr-compatible for static melodies
• 📄 Header-only: no separate compilation needed

📜 License

This project is licensed under CC0 1.0 Universal (Public Domain Dedication).

To the extent possible under law, the author has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this work. You can copy, modify, distribute and perform the work, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission.

🤝 Contributing

Sylvain Schneider (mailto:s.schneider.fr54@gmail.com)