26 Sep
2014
26 Sep
'14
11:15 p.m.
On Fri, 26 Sep 2014, Philipp Überbacher wrote:
Alles klar. Well, mostly. I guess that alsa_midi only
makes sense
when alsa is used as a backend, so I don't quite see why it is a server
option instead of a backend option. Anyway, using the -X alsa_midi as
server option works.
That is not true at all, Audio and MIDI are separate and so it is very
possible (even likely) that the backend for audio may not be relevant to MIDI.
MIDI is handled by ALSA, but is not treated as a part of the same audio
interface as the sound that goes with it. So the user who has a FW audio IF
with no MIDI would not be able to use a USB MIDI along with it if this was in
the backend only. Along the same lines is the FW user who does have MIDI in
their FW IF wants to use a lot of the older SW that creates ALSA MIDI ports
they are again stuck if it is only available in the ALSA back end.
The only thing I would like to see different in a2jmidi is the naming. (I am
not sure how jack1 works) a2j opens as one client called a2j that when expanded
has the alsa client name followed by the actual port name. This is hard to read
and use. It is also confusing to new users who ask where the port is just
because a2j has not been expanded. I would guess the best thing (from a user
POV) would be for a2j to open a new jack client for each ALSA client with the
ALSA name. I am not sure what other consequences this would have though :)
--
Len Ovens
www.ovenwerks.net