October wrote:
Some of the google searchs I've read seem to be of
the
opinion that USB MIDI under linux is not yet ready for
prime time.
That's wrong.
Would my live drive (with MIDI ports) suffice ...?
Yes. Connecting a keyboard with MIDI would be much cheaper than
having to buy a separate USB MIDI interface. This doesn't prevent you
from using a USB MIDI keyboard directly, of course. :)
what sort of flaming hoops can I expect to jump
through
in regards to getting drivers and such in place?
You wouldn't need any driver for MIDI keyboards (the MIDI port is
handled by the snd-emu10k1 driver). USB MIDI keyboard from Edirol,
Evolution and Yamaha work with the standard snd-usb-audio driver.
For M-Audio USB devices, you would need to install a separate firmware
loader.
I've been considering some of the Edirol
products.
Will all the extra knobs and sliders be useful under
linux or this a waste of money?
These can be used to control parameters of your synthesizer in real
time. For example, ALSA's SB wavetable synthesizer has the following
controls: volume, expression, pan, pitch bend, vibrato, filter cutoff/
resonance, attack, release.
HTH
Clemens