[linux-audio-user] Some questions

[Ivica Bukvic]

Hi, first off, you'll be able to find answers to all of these questions
by visiting their respective Webpages.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: linux-audio-user-bounces at music.columbia.edu [mailto:linux-audio-
> user-bounces at music.columbia.edu] On Behalf Of David Baron
> Sent: Monday, December 29, 2003 3:25 AM
> To: Linux Audio Users
> Subject: [linux-audio-user] Some questions
> 
> 1. Are alsa drivers multi-client? (Two applications can read/write
> simultaneously to the in or out--i.e. a patch controller and a
sequencer
> doing notes).
> 

This depends on audio hardware not on drivers. However, from your
question I am assuming you are referring to MIDI, not audio. In that
case you can have multi-client setting as long as you have a MIDI
interface with multiple inputs/outputs.

> 2. Can dummy MIDI devices be installed (virmidi?) to be used for
> pipelining
> midi-out from one program to midi-in to another or for overcoming
> single-client problems (Windows examples MidiYoke, MidiMatrix,
Hubi's).
>

Yes. There are dummy devices which can be defined in ALSA, as well as
some third-party projects which do a similar thing. Finally, perhaps the
best option is aconnect (please someone correct me if I am wrong here)
which enables you to route MIDI data from any port to any or multiple
apps.
 
> 3. Seeing as wine sessions successfully enumerate the MIDI devices and
> actually played to one! but no native program such as Rosegarden
has--KDE
> has
> a MIDI-mapper dialog similar to windows. Must they be set up there
from
> /dev/
> mid0 .... references?

Not sure what you are referring to here. Most apps will offer you the
option of connecting to one of the MIDI ports in the case you happen to
have multiple MIDI devices. If you happen to have only one device, then
there is no point of having to select a preferred device. It is
important to note that this is usually on the app-level, rather than
OS-level.

> 
> 4. Jack has been recommended. What precisely is this and how does this
> work?

This is a software-based REWIRE equivalent, but on steroids. Audio can
be shared and routed between multiple apps, it is very low latency, and
it is sample accurate.

> 
> 5. Can the recommended Ardour/Jack rpm for Madrake be used on Debian?

No. There are most likely Debian-packaged versions of the aforementioned
software, so try looking into the apt-get.

In addition to this I would strongly suggest you read more about these
features by visiting projects' respective Webpages.

Hope this helps!



Ivica Ico Bukvic, composer & multimedia sculptor
http://meowing.ccm.uc.edu/~ico