Date: Sun, 18 May 2003 18:41:36 +0000 (CDT) From: jimd@siu.edu To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: MIDI on SB Live! ? (fwd) Message-ID: <20030518183909.U570@freebsd2.localnet10>
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---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Sun, 18 May 2003 18:08:45 +0000 (CDT) From: jimd@siu.edu To: Mathew Kanner <mat@cnd.mcgill.ca> Subject: Re: MIDI on SB Live! ? I have two MIDI keyboards: small, inexpensive Casiotone MT-240 that has very nice builtin piano samples; large, moderately expensive Yamaha PSR-210 with nice builtin brass, woodwind, and string samples. I use a simple "midi connector" with a serial cable with two OUT's, two THRU's, and one IN. I oftentimes use both keyboards for playback instruments along with the Amiga builtin 4-channel sound chip. I have Dr. T's KCS, Sonix, and DeluxeMusic Amiga S/W, all of which are MIDI capable. I also have "Pipes" and some other Amiga music S/W, but don't really use them. KCS is very "complete" (ie; complex) including signal/note quantization. I don't use its exhanced features, really. I use KCS mostly for live MIDI input recording from keyboard. Sonix and DeluxeMusic are used for note/score generation and playback, including MIDI output. Yes - I have a pretty good "ear", notwithstanding tinitus. Yes - I can test modules - I have a small 4GB SCSI HD with just enough space to compile a kernel and relatively small modules. I have two other larger SCSI drives that I would like to "protect". I have FBSD-5.1-BETA on the small and one large SCSI drives, and FBSD-4.8-STABLE on the other larger SCSI drive. Any "mangle-testing" I would like to limit to the 4GB HD. On Sun, 18 May 2003, Mathew Kanner wrote: > On May 15, jimd@siu.edu wrote: > > I, for one, would really like to see full/complete MIDI capabilities under > > FreeBSD. I have an Amiga-2000 system that I have been using for MIDI with > > two MIDI keyboards (playback and input) for quite a few years, and have a > > SoundBlaster Live! soundcard under FreeBSD. > > > > So far, I have not been able to find any useful music generating and MIDI > > software available for FreeBSD (yes - I have tried/looked at just about > > everything available from SourceForge, most of which doesn't work under > > FreeBSD, or is too limited in capability if it works at all). > > > > I have tried KDE and Gnome applications, and others for those > > environments, to no avail. The Amiga Unix Emulation works fairly well for > > the music software, but I cannot get any MIDI functions to work, and I > > would prefer native FreeBSD applications. > > > > I tried the 4Front OSS package once, but it didn't help and it caused > > problems with some music/sound applications. I am going to try OSS again > > under FreeBSD-5.1-BETA. I don't have much installed yet, so don't have as > > much to lose. > > > > I might be willing to offer non-programming support for (EMU10K1) MIDI > > development support, depending on what is needed. > > Hello jimd, (jimmy d?) > Sorry for taking so long to respond. Anyway, yes midi is > lacking in FreeBSD. I'm working on a new implementation (in > retrospect it would have been several times easier to just patch the > old one). > Consider this a status report: > raw midi access:%100 > mpu401's: %100 > synth: %40 > pseudo-midi: %0.1 > > That's over %240. But anything under a billion is probably > incomplete. > > A quick aside here, it occurred to me that last night that > Apple should have a midi implementation in their Darwin kernel. The > bad news: browsing the source isn't so easy and their licenses doesn't > let me rip it off it. The good news: there *is* easily accessible > documentation on writing and using device drivers and knowledge to be > learned from it. > > What's slowing me down is that *no-one* remembers how midi is > even supposed to work and I haven't really heard of other people with > external midi hardware using fbsd. That makes it a "priority: fun" > project. > > So onto a lack of (userland) software support. I'm intrigued > by your reference to "Amiga Unix Emulation", could provide a link? > I've used playmidi from the ports, it compiles with some minor > fixing. Midimoutain works (won't build on -current) but sequencer > input is broken. > Newer applications seems to be written with alsa in mind. It > pains me that people are ignoring a perfectly good standard (oss on > /dev/music) but considering how hard it is to decipher some times, I > don't blame them. From my limited experience Alsa apps (I've looked > at on-line docs but haven't actually used it) link to a library and > don't directly deal with hardware. We could create a stub library or > campaign to bring back the older, more compatible ways. (I hear the > discordian society will back us) > > > Have you ever used midi before? Can your ear recognize good > timing from bad timing? Do you have external midi hardware? Can you > test kernel modules that cause heart-ache and no reward. Then you can > help. > > --Mat > -- > There only two things I hate, lactose intolerant societies and cows > _______________________________________________ > freebsd-current@freebsd.org mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-current > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-current-unsubscribe@freebsd.org" >
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