[linux-audio-user] Newbie Linux user Struggling with MIDI

PhilJackson pjfjacks at swbell.net
Sat Jul 30 20:05:44 EDT 2005


Thanks very much for the info!   When I did the aconnect -i and aconnect 
-o I didn't see any of the through-ports - bad sign?
  client 0: 'System' [type=kernel]
    0 'Timer           '
    1 'Announce        '
client 64: 'CS46XX' [type=kernel]
    0 'CS46XX          '
fractalvibes at PhilLinux:~$ aconnect -o
client 64: 'CS46XX' [type=kernel]
    0 'CS46XX          '

thanks,

Phil J.

>not suprising that you'd find it confusing. it is confusing.
>
>1) sending MIDI to a h/w synth on a souncard
>    a) you need to find out which ALSA sequencer port is representing 
>       the synth. the simplest way to find out is from the command line
>       with the command:
>
>	 aconnect -o
>
>       the output should give you some clue about a pair of numbers
>       to use that correspond to your soundcanvas. For example:
>
>---- output from aconnect -o on my system -------
>client 0: 'System' [type=kernel]
>    0 'Timer           '
>    1 'Announce        '
>client 62: 'Midi Through' [type=kernel]
>    0 'Midi Through Port-0'
>client 72: ' MIDI 1' [type=kernel]
>    0 ' MIDI 1         '
>   32 ' MIDI 2         '
>--------------------------------------------------
>
>        that third client, mysteriously enough, is an RME HDSP
>	with 2 h/w MIDI ports. the first h/w port would be
>	sequencer port 72:0, the second 72:32.
>
>	the pattern is: <client ID>:<port ID>
>
>    b) then get hold of pmidi, a nice command line tool
>       for sending MIDI to an ALSA sequencer port. use this
>       command to do what you want:
>
>	   pmidi -p <clientID>:<portID> yourmidifile.mid
>     
>       changing the values of <clientID>, <portID> and the name
>       of the file to something more appropriate, such as
>	 
>	   pmidi -p 72:0 bach_tocatta_and_fugue.mid
>
>
>2) getting audio back
>
>      This is actual much harder to describe. It depends on the
>      intimate and ugly details of your Soundscape's builtin
>      h/w mixer, and without access to it, it will be hard
>      to describe what you need to do. Every h/w mixer in every
>      card is different, despite the presence of a few 
>      "standards" for such things.
>
>      What you will need is an ALSA program to manipulate the
>      h/w mixer. I like alsamixer, which runs in a terminal
>      window; I like it because it shows me everything and
>      doesn't try to be all cute like a generic windows mixer app.
>      
>      The goal is to identify which signal stream corresponds
>      to the output of the MIDI h/w synth, and select it
>      as the capture source (in alsamixer, done by moving
>      the "focus" to that mixer/signal stream, and pressing
>      the spacebar.
>
>      After that, every app that records from the soundscape
>      will be listening to the output from the MIDI synth.
>
>If this all appears arcane and absurd, don't worry, it is.
>
>The problem on linux is that we (generally) attempt to use generic tools
>that are independent of the particular h/w installed. For very simple
>things, this works well, but audio + MIDI interfaces really do not tend
>to benefit from the current approach that has been taken, and it
>requires a lot of knowledge on the part of the user to make sense of the
>information that is presented.
>
>--p
>
>
>               
>
>
>  
>




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