public class

MetaMessage

extends MidiMessage
java.lang.Object
   ↳ javax.sound.midi.MidiMessage
     ↳ javax.sound.midi.MetaMessage

Class Overview

A MetaMessage is a MidiMessage that is not meaningful to synthesizers, but that can be stored in a MIDI file and interpreted by a sequencer program. (See the discussion in the MidiMessage class description.) The Standard MIDI Files specification defines various types of meta-events, such as sequence number, lyric, cue point, and set tempo. There are also meta-events for such information as lyrics, copyrights, tempo indications, time and key signatures, markers, etc. For more information, see the Standard MIDI Files 1.0 specification, which is part of the Complete MIDI 1.0 Detailed Specification published by the MIDI Manufacturer's Association (http://www.midi.org).

When data is being transported using MIDI wire protocol, a ShortMessage with the status value 0xFF represents a system reset message. In MIDI files, this same status value denotes a MetaMessage. The types of meta-message are distinguished from each other by the first byte that follows the status byte 0xFF. The subsequent bytes are data bytes. As with system exclusive messages, there are an arbitrary number of data bytes, depending on the type of MetaMessage.

See Also

Summary

Constants
int META Status byte for MetaMessage (0xFF, or 255), which is used in MIDI files.
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Inherited Fields
From class javax.sound.midi.MidiMessage
Public Constructors
MetaMessage()
Constructs a new MetaMessage.
Protected Constructors
MetaMessage(byte[] data)
Constructs a new MetaMessage.
Public Methods
Object clone()
Creates a new object of the same class and with the same contents as this object.
byte[] getData()
Obtains a copy of the data for the meta message.
int getType()
Obtains the type of the MetaMessage.
void setMessage(int type, byte[] data, int length)
Sets the message parameters for a MetaMessage.
[Expand]
Inherited Methods
From class javax.sound.midi.MidiMessage
From class java.lang.Object

Constants

public static final int META

Status byte for MetaMessage (0xFF, or 255), which is used in MIDI files. It has the same value as SYSTEM_RESET, which is used in the real-time "MIDI wire" protocol.

See Also
Constant Value: 255 (0x000000ff)

Public Constructors

public MetaMessage ()

Constructs a new MetaMessage. The contents of the message are not set here; use setMessage to set them subsequently.

Protected Constructors

protected MetaMessage (byte[] data)

Constructs a new MetaMessage.

Parameters
data an array of bytes containing the complete message. The message data may be changed using the setMessage method.
See Also

Public Methods

public Object clone ()

Creates a new object of the same class and with the same contents as this object.

Returns
  • a clone of this instance

public byte[] getData ()

Obtains a copy of the data for the meta message. The returned array of bytes does not include the status byte or the message length data. The length of the data for the meta message is the length of the array. Note that the length of the entire message includes the status byte and the meta message type byte, and therefore may be longer than the returned array.

Returns
  • array containing the meta message data.
See Also

public int getType ()

Obtains the type of the MetaMessage.

Returns
  • an integer representing the MetaMessage type

public void setMessage (int type, byte[] data, int length)

Sets the message parameters for a MetaMessage. Since only one status byte value, 0xFF, is allowed for meta-messages, it does not need to be specified here. Calls to getStatus return 0xFF for all meta-messages.

The type argument should be a valid value for the byte that follows the status byte in the MetaMessage. The data argument should contain all the subsequent bytes of the MetaMessage. In other words, the byte that specifies the type of MetaMessage is not considered a data byte.

Parameters
type meta-message type (must be less than 128)
data the data bytes in the MIDI message
length the number of bytes in the data byte array
Throws
if the parameter values do not specify a valid MIDI meta message
InvalidMidiDataException