[linux-audio-user] Linux midi players that don't require download of large patch or sample files??

[Stefan Scheffler]

If the 7018 is similar to the 7012 in my laptop it only supports   
external midi. That means there is no way around the big downloads ^^

If you just want to play back midi files I'd recommend to go with  
timidity and best of all, it isn't that hard to set up ^^.

just download it from www.timidity.jp and compile/install as usual or  
get it from your favourite binary repository

this is my "configure line" it adds the X and gtk interface ... warning  
the CFLAGS are optional and highly machine dependent

./configure --prefix=/usr/ --sysconfdir=/etc/ --disable-more-warnings  
--disable-debug CFLAGS=' -O2 -fomit-frame-pointer -march=athlon-tbird - 
m3dnow' LDFLAGS=' -O3 -s ' --enable-gtk --enable-xaw --enable- 
spectrogram

Go to http://dodo.nurs.or.jp/~iz/guspat/tim-patches.html (japanese) and  
download all the guspat-* files. According to the fish are aq to aw  
optional. Then extract them to <prefix-of-timidity-install>/share/ so  
in my case /usr/share/

test timidity with :

timidity <midifile>

add -ia/-ig to get a nice X/gtk interface

hope that was of help :)

Am 21.02.2004 13:47:33 schrieb(en) Ruth A. Kramer:
> Sorry, this is probably a very newbie question, and I haven't lurked
> very long or searched the archives (partly because I don't have a  
> good
> idea of keywords to search for).
> 
> I've used Linux for a few years, but sound isn't normally a concern.
> My
> son is trying to make the switch from Windows to Linux (and has, for
> some things) and now wants to play midi files.
> 
> His impression is that, on Windows, sound players use synthesizer's
> (and
> "patches"/"samples") built into the sound card while on Linux those
> patches/samples (??) have to be downloaded and he talks about 40 MB
> worth of files in some cases.
> 
> Maybe the difference is that we also changed computers, and his
> current
> computer has an on-board SiS 7018 sound thingie while his previous
> computer (IIRC) had a separate sound card, possibly with something
> like
> the Yamaha OPL xxx on it.
> 
> Any light anybody can shed on this would be appreciated.  (I did skim
> through a Linux Sound HOWTO (that was actually a little bit more like
> an
> FAQ), and saw some hints, but I really don't know how to interpret
> them.)
> 
> Keywords to use to search the archives or Google, or pointers to
> simple
> documentation that focuses on this subject could also be helpful.
> 
> No doubt what ever I learn will end up on a WikiLearn page
> (http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Wikilearn/WebChanges).
> 
> thanks,
> Randy Kramer
> 
> 
> 
> 
>