[linux-audio-user] Mapping MIDI events to X events

Ivan, I know what you mean. Matthias Nagorni's ALSA Modular Synthesizer made me realize how nice it is to be able to control parameters in a hands-on fashion. It occurred to me that it would be really neat to be able to control all sorts of software with the buttons, dials, and sliders on my MIDI keyboard, even if the software isn't actually designed to accept MIDI input. So, I went ahead and built a little tool that maps MIDI events to X events. You can find it at http://www.math.tu-berlin.de/~brinkman/software/pyseq.tgz if you're interested. Some features: - You can record sequences of mouse and keyboard events and assign them to buttons on the MIDI keyboard. - Sliders and dials on the keyboard can be mapped to a number of different mouse dragging events, so that one can control parameters of soft synths and effects and such from the MIDI keyboard, even if the software doesn't expect MIDI input. - Basic support for receiving and sending bulk data from keyboards. - A simple game of Pong, controlled by MIDI events. Not terribly useful or fancy, but it illustrates the general idea of creative misuse of MIDI events. Here's a simple application that I actually found useful: - I mapped three buttons on my keyboard to Play, Stop, and Record in rosegarden. - I mapped a number of buttons to mouse clicks on differents tracks in rosegarden, followed by the Delete key, so that pushing a button on the keyboard would activate and clear a track. With this simple setup, I was able to record a piece consisting of several tracks straight from the MIDI keyboard, without touching the mouse or console at all. Some requirements: - The package uses Python, Tkinter, and ctypes. Some instructions: - Unpack the tar archive with tar xzf pyseq.tgz and build the binaries with make. If you wish to install the package system-wide, you can say make install - In order to use the MIDI mapping features, just say python midimap.py in a shell window and connect the MIDI In port of midimap.py to the source of MIDI controller events (using the connection window of qjackctl, for instance). Then, if you move a slider or push a button, a dialog will pop up that'll let you choose how to handle such events. Some warnings: - The software is brand-new (I added the most recent features on Sunday night), and it's hardly documented yet. However, the main part, midimap.py, comes with a graphical user interface that is supposed to be self-explanatory. If there's sufficient interest, I'll sit down and document everything properly. - So far, I've only tested the package under DeMuDi 1.2, with an Edirol PCR-30 keyboard. Your mileage may vary. I'd be eager to hear any comments/criticism/etc. regarding this tool. Best, Peter