From owner-freebsd-multimedia@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Feb 6 21:52:31 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-multimedia@FreeBSD.org Delivered-To: freebsd-multimedia@FreeBSD.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id CCCBA16A420 for ; Mon, 6 Feb 2006 21:52:31 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from conrads@cox.net) Received: from eastrmmtao02.cox.net (eastrmmtao02.cox.net [68.230.240.37]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2944C43D45 for ; Mon, 6 Feb 2006 21:52:31 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from conrads@cox.net) Received: from serene.no-ip.org ([68.14.59.177]) by eastrmmtao02.cox.net (InterMail vM.6.01.05.02 201-2131-123-102-20050715) with ESMTP id <20060206215232.PMWA14821.eastrmmtao02.cox.net@serene.no-ip.org> for ; Mon, 6 Feb 2006 16:52:32 -0500 Received: from serene.no-ip.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by serene.no-ip.org (8.13.4/8.13.4) with ESMTP id k16Lq9i2093831 for ; Mon, 6 Feb 2006 15:52:11 -0600 (CST) (envelope-from conrads@serene.no-ip.org) Received: (from conrads@localhost) by serene.no-ip.org (8.13.4/8.13.4/Submit) id k16Lq4al093825; Mon, 6 Feb 2006 15:52:04 -0600 (CST) (envelope-from conrads) Date: Mon, 6 Feb 2006 15:52:04 -0600 (CST) From: "Conrad J. Sabatier" Message-Id: <200602062152.k16Lq4al093825@serene.no-ip.org> To: freebsd-multimedia@FreeBSD.org X-Also-Posted-To: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc References: <43e7b6cf$1@news.broadpark.no> X-Newsreader: trn 4.0-test76 (Apr 2, 2001) Cc: Subject: Re: usb audio and midi support 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: Mon, 06 Feb 2006 21:52:31 -0000 [ Cc'ed to the multimedia list ] In article <43e7b6cf$1@news.broadpark.no>, Torfinn Ingolfsen wrote: > >Mike Scott wrote: >> I've a rather vague portable digital sound studio project in my mind, >> involving a laptop running fbsd, plus a usb-based audio and midi i/o box >> (something like the motu fastlane or one of the edirol boxes or..... [I >> did say vague :-)] ). The problem being that laptops seem to come sans >> midi and sans decent sound i/o facilities. >> >> But what's the chance something like this will be supported? >> >> Any ideas please about what might/will not work? > >Sound support (including usb audio) in FreeBSD has improved a lot lately >(the last year), and is still improving, thanks to the dedicated work of >the sound committers and other people that hang out at the >freebsd-multimedia mailing list. > >Midi, on the other hand is not in a very good shape. Right now, we have >approximately zero midi support in FreeBSD. A few people have stated >that they will work / are working on something, but it seems midi isn't >attracting a large enough audience yet, or we are missing a crucial few >dedicated developers with a special interest in midi. >The minimal audience also means that the amount of possible midi devices >to test and iron out bugs on are unknown. I was browsing the NetBSD and OpenBSD websites yesterday specifically to see what the state of their MIDI support looked like. Both OSes do support MIDI, using (I think) hacked versions of the old Voxware drivers which were also used by FreeBSD "once upon a time". I'm wondering how difficult it would be to merge in MIDI support from one or the other of FreeBSD's sibling OSes. This zero MIDI support has been going on for far too long (years!). Has anyone ever looked into this? -- Conrad J. Sabatier -- "In Unix veritas"