In which I ask Chat GPT to do boring stuff for me.

I have been tinkering with a side-project to learn about the WebAudio API

https://github.com/jonathanhudak/audio.hudak.land

I thought it would be cool to give my rudimentary synthesizer computer keyboard event mapping so you could play it like in Ableton Live. So I filed an issue in my own repo https://github.com/jonathanhudak/audio.hudak.land/issues/1

Today it occurred to me that I could easily ask Chat GPT to do this for me. So I did.

Me

Could you produce dictionary in javascript of keyboard key codes to piano keyboard following the MAX mapping?

Chat GPT

Sure, here is an example of a JavaScript dictionary that maps keyboard key codes to piano keyboard notes following the MAX mapping:

const keyCodeToPianoKey = {
  90: "C3",
  83: "C#3",
  88: "D3",
  68: "D#3",
  67: "E3",
  86: "F3",
  71: "F#3",
  66: "G3",
  72: "G#3",
  78: "A3",
  74: "A#3",
  77: "B3",
  188: "C4",
  76: "C#4",
  190: "D4",
  186: "D#4",
  191: "E4",
  222: "F4",
  219: "F#4",
  221: "G4",
  220: "G#4",
};

You can use this dictionary to map keyboard key codes to piano keys in your code. For example:

document.addEventListener("keydown", (event) => {
  const pianoKey = keyCodeToPianoKey[event.keyCode];
  if (pianoKey) {
    console.log(`Key pressed: ${pianoKey}`);
  }
});

Note that the above mapping is based on the MAX mapping and may not be suitable for other mappings.

me

can you extend keyCodeToPianoKey so that it includes the full range of the piano that a keyboard will produce? Also can you us the keydown event's key property instead of keyCode?

Chat GPT

Certainly! Here's an updated version of the keyCodeToPianoKey dictionary that includes the full range of a standard piano keyboard and uses the key property of the keydown event:

const keyCodeToPianoKey = {
  a: "C3",
  w: "C#3",
  s: "D3",
  e: "D#3",
  d: "E3",
  f: "F3",
  t: "F#3",
  g: "G3",
  y: "G#3",
  h: "A3",
  u: "A#3",
  j: "B3",
  k: "C4",
  o: "C#4",
  l: "D4",
  p: "D#4",
  ";": "E4",
  "[": "F4",
  "'": "F#4",
  "]": "G4",
  "\\": "G#4",
  z: "C5",
  x: "C#5",
  c: "D5",
  v: "D#5",
  b: "E5",
  n: "F5",
  m: "F#5",
  ",": "G5",
  ".": "G#5",
  "/": "A5",
  1: "C6",
  2: "C#6",
  3: "D6",
  4: "D#6",
  5: "E6",
  6: "F6",
  7: "F#6",
  8: "G6",
  9: "G#6",
  0: "A6",
  "-": "A#6",
  "=": "B6",
};

Here's an example of how you could use this dictionary to log the corresponding piano key when a keyboard key is pressed:

document.addEventListener("keydown", (event) => {
  const pianoKey = keyCodeToPianoKey[event.key];
  if (pianoKey) {
    console.log(`Key pressed: ${pianoKey}`);
  }
});

me

could you convert that into the REAL mapping?

Chat GPT

Of course! Here's an updated version of the keyCodeToPianoKey dictionary that uses the REAL mapping:

const keyCodeToPianoKey = {
  a: "C2",
  w: "C#2",
  s: "D2",
  e: "D#2",
  d: "E2",
  f: "F2",
  t: "F#2",
  g: "G2",
  y: "G#2",
  h: "A2",
  u: "A#2",
  j: "B2",
  k: "C3",
  o: "C#3",
  l: "D3",
  p: "D#3",
  ";": "E3",
  "[": "F3",
  "'": "F#3",
  "]": "G3",
  "\\": "G#3",
  z: "A3",
  x: "A#3",
  c: "B3",
  v: "C4",
  b: "C#4",
  n: "D4",
  m: "D#4",
  ",": "E4",
  ".": "F4",
  "/": "F#4",
  1: "G4",
  2: "G#4",
  3: "A4",
  4: "A#4",
  5: "B4",
  6: "C5",
  7: "C#5",
  8: "D5",
  9: "D#5",
  0: "E5",
  "-": "F5",
  "=": "F#5",
};