From owner-freebsd-multimedia@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Dec 21 21:15:18 2008 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-multimedia@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6835B1065673 for ; Sun, 21 Dec 2008 21:15:18 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from tl32@next.online.no) Received: from mail43.e.nsc.no (mail43.e.nsc.no [193.213.115.43]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id BFB528FC13 for ; Sun, 21 Dec 2008 21:15:17 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from tl32@next.online.no) Received: from [84.202.252.151] (084202252151.customer.alfanett.no [84.202.252.151]) (authenticated bits=0) by mail43.nsc.no (8.13.8/8.13.5) with ESMTP id mBLKA084017500 for ; Sun, 21 Dec 2008 21:10:00 +0100 (MET) Message-ID: <494EA098.20808@next.online.no> Date: Sun, 21 Dec 2008 21:01:28 +0100 From: Tore Lund User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.12 (X11/20080229) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: freebsd-multimedia@freebsd.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: MIDI input device X-BeenThere: freebsd-multimedia@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Multimedia discussions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 21 Dec 2008 21:15:18 -0000 Asking about MIDI here may be somewhat like flogging an absent horse. There seems to be little if any information on mailing lists and other forums about MIDI, so I have to ask: Does MIDI input work at all on FreeBSD? And if so, with what sort of MIDI interface? I wanted to try out the software synths available on FreeBSD. So I dug out my old Roland A30 keyboard and my SoundBlaster PCI64 card, which is based on Ensoniq 1370 and which has a game/MIDI port. The sound card is recognized all right by FreeBSD, but not the MIDI port - doing a "cat /dev/midistat" gives me "No devices installed". It occurred to me that I should try out the rest of the synthesizer software before going any further. Hence I installed jack-keyboard and some of the necessary infrastructure. Following the documentation, I first ran "jackd -d oss", then "ghostess whysynth.so" and then "jack-keyboard". This setup works very well - makes me look forward to trying out other synth stuff in /usr/ports/audio. But I need a real keyboard in order to play music. Am I missing some command or configuration that will recognize my MIDI port as an input device? Or, if my old SoundBlaster cannot be used, will FreeBSD pick up any of the new USB interfaces? Thanks for any hints. -- Tore