From owner-freebsd-multimedia  Wed Oct 15 10:54:59 1997
Return-Path: <owner-freebsd-multimedia>
Received: (from root@localhost)
          by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) id KAA07492
          for multimedia-outgoing; Wed, 15 Oct 1997 10:54:59 -0700 (PDT)
          (envelope-from owner-freebsd-multimedia)
Received: from whqvax.picker.com (whqvax.picker.com [144.54.1.1])
          by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) with SMTP id KAA07479
          for <multimedia@FreeBSD.ORG>; Wed, 15 Oct 1997 10:54:51 -0700 (PDT)
          (envelope-from rhh@ct.picker.com)
Received: from ct.picker.com by whqvax.picker.com with SMTP;
          Wed, 15 Oct 1997 13:52:49 -0400 (EDT)
Received: from elmer.ct.picker.com by ct.picker.com (4.1/SMI-4.1)
	id AA02277; Wed, 15 Oct 97 13:52:48 EDT
Received: by elmer.ct.picker.com (SMI-8.6/SMI-SVR4)
	id NAA04361; Wed, 15 Oct 1997 13:48:29 -0400
Message-Id: <19971015134829.31569@ct.picker.com>
Date: Wed, 15 Oct 1997 13:48:29 -0400
From: Randall Hopper <rhh@ct.picker.com>
To: Luigi Rizzo <luigi@labinfo.iet.unipi.it>
Cc: multimedia@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject: Re: Who is interested in /dev/midi and /dev/synth ?
References: <19971014170052.18238@ct.picker.com> <199710151614.RAA09458@labinfo.iet.unipi.it>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
X-Mailer: Mutt 0.81
In-Reply-To: <199710151614.RAA09458@labinfo.iet.unipi.it>; from Luigi Rizzo on Wed, Oct 15, 1997 at 05:14:09PM +0100
Sender: owner-freebsd-multimedia@FreeBSD.ORG
X-Loop: FreeBSD.org
Precedence: bulk

Luigi Rizzo:
 |> Luigi Rizzo:
 |>  |My audio driver does not support /dev/midi and /dev/synth at the
 |>  |moment. There are stubs for them though, and one (/dev/midi) is
 |...
 |> Does this include /dev/sequencer too?  I use this device all the time via
 |
 |yes it does.
 |
 |> drvmidi, xgmod, and some other apps on my AWE32 for playing MIDIs, MODs,
 |> 669s, etc. with AWE synth.
 |
 |in fact I believe timidity is a possible alternative to this. it takes
 |a midi file as input and produces the pcm samples using GUS-like patch
 |files. It takes some CPU but at current prices it is probably cheaper
 |to run timidity than buying a suitable sound card (and you can use the
 |extra cpu capacity for other things when you are not playing sounds...)

I use timidity on my Sparc at work and have used it on Linux boxes.  Nice
program if you don't have a card with wavetable support (which BTW are dirt
cheap nowadays).  However it sucks serious CPU, and the sound quality with
GUS patches doesn't touch that with the AWE wavetable.  I think I'll stay
with the awe driver for this type of stuff.

 |What I don't know is if it supports other file formats than midi. some
 |investigation would be more than welcome...

>From the man page, it sounds like just MIDIs, compressed or uncompressed.

Randy