Merik

Merik — A Live MIDI Player Built for Musicians

Merik is a modern, performance-focused MIDI player designed specifically for live musicians who need reliability, speed, and hands-on control on stage. Inspired by dedicated hardware MIDI players — but without their limitations — Merik combines a clean interface with a workflow optimized for real gigs.

Merik plays standard MIDI files and outputs either to an internal SoundFont-based GM synth or to any external MIDI device. You load a MIDI file, press play, and it just works.

What sets Merik apart is its instrument family concept. Instead of dealing with 16 individual MIDI channels, instruments are grouped into musical families (drums, bass, guitars, keys, brass, strings, etc.). Each family has its own fader, allowing instant mix adjustments during a performance.

Playing with a real bassist? Pull the bass family down. Want extra keys in a chorus? Push one slider.

Merik is intentionally simple, fast, and open.

No proprietary formats. No locked ecosystems. No expensive hardware.

Just a practical tool that stays out of your way on stage.

Key Features:

Live MIDI Playback:

• General MIDI playback using SoundFonts (internal synth) or external MIDI modules or both.
• Very fast loading and playback start (up to 4× faster in recent versions).
• Robust MIDI reader that tolerates imperfect or non-standard MIDI files.

Performance Control:

• Instrument family faders for real-time mixing.
• Output to multiple MIDI ports simultaneously.
• Auto-gain leveling to normalize volume between different MIDI files.
• Panic / All Notes Off safety handling.

Transpose:

• Per-song transpose.
• Chords and lyrics transpose along with the music.
• Transpose control available both in the main GUI and the web interface.
• Stored with the song inside setlists.

Lyrics & Chords:

• Smooth scrolling lyrics, stable under tempo changes.
• Chord display with progress indicators.
• Countdown indicator showing time to the next lyric entry during instrumental gaps.
• Lyrics and chords available locally or via browser.

Web Interface / Remote Control:

• Control playback, family faders, and transpose from any tablet or phone.
• Works over local network in any modern browser.
• Optional hidden "control mode" for stage safety.

Setlists & Workflow:

• Drag & drop songs between setlists.
• Fast setlist loading.
• Compact, uncluttered main window optimized for live use.
• Optional hiding of detailed 16-channel MIDI information.

Cross-Platform:

• macOS (Apple Silicon) and Windows.
• Consistent behavior across platforms and browsers.
• Dark / light mode support.

Recent Development Highlights (v0.9.x):

• Per-song transpose with chord and lyric support.
• Much faster MIDI loading and playback start.
• Improved MIDI playback stability, especially during GUI updates.
• Output to multiple MIDI ports.
• Improved chord detection.
• More tolerant MIDI file parsing.
• Web control panel can be temporarily hidden during performance.

Merik is free to use and in active development.

Feedback, testing, and real-world gig reports are very welcome.