7 Dec
2004
7 Dec
'04
6:10 p.m.
Hi,
I've been thinking about building a simple MIDI router with Python
and ALSA. My main motivation is to (a) save, process, and write back
bulk data from my master keyboard, and (b) map control change events
from the keyboard to GUI events, but of course note events and such
should be handled as well.
Does anything like this exist? If not, does some part of it exist?
For instance, it would be extremely helpful to have a Python wrapper
for ALSA structs such as snd_seq_event_t. Any thoughts would be
appreciated.
Best,
Peter
7 Dec
7 Dec
7:18 p.m.
Hi Peter,
Does anything like this exist? If not, does some part
of it exist?
For instance, it would be extremely helpful to have a Python wrapper
for ALSA structs such as snd_seq_event_t. Any thoughts would be
appreciated.
I've worked on something that has many parts of what you are looking
for, but it won't run if compiled with g++ 3.0 or later. The project
is discontinued, but the sources are here: quitte.de/nam.html if you
happen to feel adventurous.
FWIW, I'm working on a g++ 3+ compatible redesign but it's only a few
days old, so no ALSA seq in sight yet.
Cheers, Tim
15 Dec
15 Dec
9:21 p.m.
New subject: [linux-audio-dev] pyseq - MIDI routing with Python and ALSA
Hi Tim,
I've worked on something that has many parts of
what you are looking
for, but it won't run if compiled with g++ 3.0 or later. The project
is discontinued, but the sources are here: quitte.de/nam.html if you
happen to feel adventurous.
I remember that I looked at nam a while ago, but I must
admit that I
didn't get very far with it. When I looked at your page again just now,
I noticed that the tar ball nam*.tgz has disappeared.
FWIW, I'm working on a g++ 3+ compatible redesign
but it's only a few
days old, so no ALSA seq in sight yet.
In the meantime, I've put together a
little MIDI routing module for
Python and ALSA. I'm tentatively calling it pyseq, and you can find
it at
http://www.math.tu-berlin.de/~brinkman/software/pyseq.tgz
if you're interested. I'm using ctypes to expose the snd_seq_event
struct and ALSA functions to Python.
It's still rather rudimentary, but it works. Right now, I'm using it
to capture, save, and transmit bulk data from my MIDI keyboard. My
real goal, however, is a lot more ambitious. I really like the way
the ALSA Modular Synthesizer binds MIDI control events to parameters
of its modules, and I'd like to have this sort of feature in other
programs. The solution I have in mind is to have Python map MIDI
control events to X events, which would, in theory anyway, let me
add MIDI controls to almost any GUI. I have a hunch that this idea
may not fly in practice, but I'm having fun thinking about it.
Best,
Peter
16 Dec
16 Dec
10:17 a.m.
New subject: [linux-audio-dev] pyseq - MIDI routing with Python and ALSA
Hi Peter,
I remember that I looked at nam a while ago, but I must
admit that I
didn't get very far with it. When I looked at your page again just now,
I noticed that the tar ball nam*.tgz has disappeared.
Sorry, my fault. It's up now FWIW.
In the meantime, I've put together a little MIDI
routing module for
Python and ALSA. I'm tentatively calling it pyseq, and you can find
it at
http://www.math.tu-berlin.de/~brinkman/software/pyseq.tgz
if you're interested. I'm using ctypes to expose the snd_seq_event
struct and ALSA functions to Python.
Ah, an interesting little piece of code. There seems to be a memory
leak in startMidiLoop() -- the pfds are never free()'d.
I've been busy too in the meantime and added snd_seq_* support to the
nam successor. Announcement following sometime soon.
[...] The solution I have in mind is to have Python map
MIDI
control events to X events, which would, in theory anyway, let me
add MIDI controls to almost any GUI. I have a hunch that this idea
may not fly in practice, but I'm having fun thinking about it.
Python won't fly supersonic anyway; so as long as you're not expecting
sub-millisecond latency from your MIDI -> X signal path I don't see
why it shouldn't work. However, binding to certain widgets might prove
hard if they don't come with their own X Window ID. In that case,
you'd probably need to build in cross-process support for specific X
toolkits, which may prove more fun to think about than to actually
implement ...
I would like to suggest patching the applications you want to control
to support OSC; it might turn out to be the same amount of work, but
with more public benefit and less dependency on particular widget and
keybinding organisation (which can be a volatile thing). Unless, of
course, you want to control non-music applications, whose authors will
likely show little favour for OSC-enabling patches.
Cheers, Tim
7:42 p.m.
New subject: [linux-audio-dev] pyseq - MIDI routing with Python and ALSA
Hi Tim,
Nope, that's not a
leak, as you already pointed out in your followup.
That's one of the
reasons why I think it may not work. My main concern
is that any such tool would require a lot of calibration, and it be
rather sensitive to any changes in the target GUIs.
In the
meantime, I've put together a little MIDI routing module for
Python and ALSA. I'm tentatively calling it pyseq, and you can find
it at
http://www.math.tu-berlin.de/~brinkman/software/pyseq.tgz
if you're interested. I'm using ctypes to expose the snd_seq_event
struct and ALSA functions to Python.
Ah, an interesting little piece of code. There seems to be a memory
leak in startMidiLoop() -- the pfds are never free()'d. I've been busy too in the meantime and added
snd_seq_* support to the
nam successor. Announcement following sometime soon.
Cool. I'm looking forward
to seeing the new version.
[...] The
solution I have in mind is to have Python map MIDI
control events to X events, which would, in theory anyway, let me
add MIDI controls to almost any GUI. I have a hunch that this idea
may not fly in practice, but I'm having fun thinking about it.
Python won't fly supersonic anyway; so as long as you're not expecting
sub-millisecond latency from your MIDI -> X signal path I don't see
why it shouldn't work. However, binding to certain widgets might prove
hard if they don't come with their own X Window ID. Unless, of course, you want to control non-music
applications, whose
authors will likely show little favour for OSC-enabling patches.
Well, at the very
least I'd like to keep the option of creatively
misusing MIDI events (how about a game of Pong, with paddles controlled
by MIDI sliders;).
Peter
20 Dec
20 Dec
7:39 p.m.
New subject: [linux-audio-dev] pyseq - MIDI routing with Python and ALSA
Hi Tim,
Python won't fly supersonic anyway; so as long as
you're not expecting
sub-millisecond latency from your MIDI -> X signal path I don't see
why it shouldn't work. However, binding to certain widgets might prove
hard if they don't come with their own X Window ID.
Quick update: I've
built a basic tool for mapping MIDI control events to
X events. The current version maps MIDI events to one of three possibilities:
Mouse clicks, keystrokes, and mouse drags. It's got a little GUI that lets
you calibrate those mappings on the fly, and I can already use it to control
programs like jamin, for example. You can find the current version at
http://www.math.tu-berlin.de/~brinkman/software/pyseq.tgz
if you're interested.
Best,
Peter
7221
days inactive
7234
days old
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Peter Brinkmann -
Tim Goetze