[LAU] Fwd: Yet another audio interface post

Pedro Ferreira ilzogoiby at gmail.com
Mon Jul 12 17:26:50 UTC 2010


> I'm not sure if I got all your questions right, but I'd summarize the
> situation as follows.
>
> - The Native Instruments Audio Kontrol 1 is fully supported by Linux. It
>  can playback and record audio just like under Windows or Mac OS X.

Great!

> - It can also receive and send out MIDI messages over the standard 5-pin
>  connectors. The userspace interface is standard ALSA MIDI.

Awesome :)

> - The LEDs are controlable via the ALSA mixer/control interface (see the
>  amixer command line control interface for example)

But aren't the LEDs dependent on the hardware switches?

> - The three buttons and the wheel are exported as Linux input interface,
>  just like the buttons on the Rig Kontrol 2 and 3. You would need to
>  write your own software to actually use them (which is easy), or write
>  some mappings for existing software (which should even be easier).
>  Renato explained that nicely in his reply to your post.

Yes. I think i can hack something that emulates a MIDI interface,
using ALSA or JACK.

> - Don't let the NI manuals confuse you. What NI says about the buttons
>  producing MIDI events only refers to their own mapping application. We
>  transport button events etc. via a propietary kernel interface on OS X
>  and Windows, and the NI mapping application takes this information and
>  can optionally feed faked MIDI messages into the MIDI stream.
>  The Linux driver itself doesn't do anything like that, but you're free
>  to write a similar application that does the same thing under Linux.

Yes, that's what I had in mind :)

> - There are currently no devices ready for purchase that comply to the
>  USB audio class version 2 standard.

So, I assume this one is not standard... well, otherwise it'd be using
usb-audio instead, no?

> This is mainly because the
>  standard wasn't implemented in any operating system until some months
>  ago. That situation has changed for ALSA and Mac OS X recently, and
>  so we can expect to see more devices in the future. They'll be all
>  supported then without any special driver. Stay tuned for a brave new
>  world ;)

Great :)

> Hope that answers (most) of your questions. If you want any more
> information, please let me know. Feel free to forward this mail to the
> LAU mailing list.

Thanks a lot for your very detailed answer!

Cheers,

Pedro


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