Hi, I'm not interested in a detailed how-to here, just an indication of how 
straightforward the task might be. I use a home-developed C++ Win32 app for 
professional performance which uses the Win32 Multimedia API, basically it 
reads MIDI messages and then sends them out with some conversion in the 
middle, such as converting some specific note messages to program changes. 
Are there available Linux libraries for that sort of thing, in a form that 
would make it 'not too difficult' to port my code?  TIA 

--{ Bruce Varley a plop� ceci: }--

> Hi, I'm not interested in a detailed how-to here, just an indication of how 
> straightforward the task might be. I use a home-developed C++ Win32 app for 
> professional performance which uses the Win32 Multimedia API, basically it 
> reads MIDI messages and then sends them out with some conversion in the 
> middle, such as converting some specific note messages to program changes. 
> Are there available Linux libraries for that sort of thing, in a form that 
> would make it 'not too difficult' to port my code?  TIA 

   Look at http://caoua.org/midish/
   stand-alone, low-cost, (not so) easy to use...


-- 
________ http://la.buvette.org/cv.html ________

In article <ab-dnYZjlbSjalnVnZ2dnUVZ8jqdnZ2d@westnet.com.au>,
Bruce Varley <bxvarley@weastnet.com.au> wrote:
>Hi, I'm not interested in a detailed how-to here, just an indication of how 
>straightforward the task might be. I use a home-developed C++ Win32 app for 
>professional performance which uses the Win32 Multimedia API, basically it 
>reads MIDI messages and then sends them out with some conversion in the 
>middle, such as converting some specific note messages to program changes. 
>Are there available Linux libraries for that sort of thing, in a form that 
>would make it 'not too difficult' to port my code?  TIA 
>
I don't think I can do much to answer your question -- yet... (:-/)
Because I'm in much the same situation, having just installed a brand new
Ubuntu system for development, including MIDI.

I've been writing my own software for years (under BeOS -- never Windows (:-))
and I'm not going to stop using that, but I'd really like to see what I
can do under Linux, too.

From what I can see, the ALSA system now gives Linux a fairly nippy
audio/MIDI interface.  I understand this is pretty much the standard
for the OS now, though it's fairly new -- especially apparently for MIDI.
The problem I've found is getting information about it! [Often the problem
with Linux]  The main article by the author of the ALSA 'Sequencer' (not
a "Sequencer" program, but a midi-stream interconnector) was written *before*
the software itself, which I gather now exists (on my machine).

(I also understand that the original sound system ("OSS") had pretty
crappy MIDI facilities, with terrible latency.  This is one reason I
wanted to update to Ubuntu  [Also because I just picked up the CD at
LinuxWorld a couple of weeks ago...])

I found one tutorial on ALSA coding in general, including MIDI, that I've 
looked at briefly.  It's here:

   http://www.suse.de/~mana/alsa090_howto.html

From what I can see, there's a bit of boilerplate code needed to set things
up, but after that reading and writing MIDI should be fairly straightforward.

My investigations will continue, and if I turn up anything particularly
interesting, I'll try to remember to report here.

				-- Pete --



-- 
============================================================================
The address in the header is a Spam Bucket -- don't bother replying to it...
(If you do need to email, replace the account name with my true name.)
============================================================================

"Pete" <neverland@GOODEVEca.net> wrote in message 
news:Z_CdnXpdaKbs9lrVnZ2dnUVZ_gudnZ2d@lmi.net...
> In article <ab-dnYZjlbSjalnVnZ2dnUVZ8jqdnZ2d@westnet.com.au>,
> Bruce Varley <bxvarley@weastnet.com.au> wrote:
>>Hi, I'm not interested in a detailed how-to here, just an indication of 
>>how
>>straightforward the task might be. I use a home-developed C++ Win32 app 
>>for
>>professional performance which uses the Win32 Multimedia API, basically it
>>reads MIDI messages and then sends them out with some conversion in the
>>middle, such as converting some specific note messages to program changes.
>>Are there available Linux libraries for that sort of thing, in a form that
>>would make it 'not too difficult' to port my code?  TIA
>>
> I don't think I can do much to answer your question -- yet... (:-/)
> Because I'm in much the same situation, having just installed a brand new
> Ubuntu system for development, including MIDI.
>
> I've been writing my own software for years (under BeOS -- never Windows 
> (:-))
> and I'm not going to stop using that, but I'd really like to see what I
> can do under Linux, too.
>
> From what I can see, the ALSA system now gives Linux a fairly nippy
> audio/MIDI interface.  I understand this is pretty much the standard
> for the OS now, though it's fairly new -- especially apparently for MIDI.
> The problem I've found is getting information about it! [Often the problem
> with Linux]  The main article by the author of the ALSA 'Sequencer' (not
> a "Sequencer" program, but a midi-stream interconnector) was written 
> *before*
> the software itself, which I gather now exists (on my machine).
>
> (I also understand that the original sound system ("OSS") had pretty
> crappy MIDI facilities, with terrible latency.  This is one reason I
> wanted to update to Ubuntu  [Also because I just picked up the CD at
> LinuxWorld a couple of weeks ago...])
>
> I found one tutorial on ALSA coding in general, including MIDI, that I've
> looked at briefly.  It's here:
>
>   http://www.suse.de/~mana/alsa090_howto.html
>
> From what I can see, there's a bit of boilerplate code needed to set 
> things
> up, but after that reading and writing MIDI should be fairly 
> straightforward.
>
> My investigations will continue, and if I turn up anything particularly
> interesting, I'll try to remember to report here.
>
> -- Pete --
>
Thanks, I'm planning to install Ubuntu over the next few months, and to 
progressively wean myself off Windows in time to avoid Vista. Likewise, if I 
come across anything that looks useful I'll post it here. 

In article <p6WdnRAFdM1LPVrVnZ2dnUVZ8sPinZ2d@westnet.com.au>,
Bruce Varley <bxvarley@weastnet.com.au> wrote:
>
>"Pete" <neverland@GOODEVEca.net> wrote in message 
>news:Z_CdnXpdaKbs9lrVnZ2dnUVZ_gudnZ2d@lmi.net...
>> My investigations will continue, and if I turn up anything particularly
>> interesting, I'll try to remember to report here.
>>
>>
>Thanks, I'm planning to install Ubuntu over the next few months, and to 
>progressively wean myself off Windows in time to avoid Vista. Likewise, if I 
>come across anything that looks useful I'll post it here. 
>
Ubuntu seems pretty nice -- once one climbs over the inevitable roadblocks
in a new system.  The machine I installed it on is 9 years old, and I had
to stuff in more memory to make it acceptable at all (256Mb is the minimum).
And when I did get it in place, at first I thought I'd made a disastrous
mistake, and almost got to the point of tossing it!   The display was slow
as molasses and kept locking up.  Turned out the default "theme" didn't
agree with my old video card, and when I switched to the 'clean' one,
it works fine (and still looks pretty good).  Program loading is slow,
but the GUI is perfectly nippy.

Sound seems to "just work".  I downloaded Csound (with Ubuntu's installer)
and it fired up and played the stuff I tried straight off.  I need to buy
a MIDI<->Gameport connector before I can try the MIDI, but it looks OK.

					-- Pete --


-- 
============================================================================
The address in the header is a Spam Bucket -- don't bother replying to it...
(If you do need to email, replace the account name with my true name.)
============================================================================

Bruce Varley wrote:

> Are there available Linux libraries for that sort of thing, in a form
> that would make it 'not too difficult' to port my code?  TIA 

My guess is there's likely a PERL module to do what you want.  I haven't
looked for that specifically (check http://cpan.perl.org/), but I did
take a moment to find a few URLs that I hope will be useful to you:

http://linux-sound.org/midi.html (see especially the section entitled
                                  "MIDI Programming Resources")
http://www.midi-howto.com/
http://ccrma-www.stanford.edu/~craig/articles/linuxmidi/

The extent of my use of MIDI with Linux has (so far) involved little
more than "cat file.syx > /dev/midi" (to send sound banks to a synth),
or using Rosegarden to play a sequence through a hardware synth, or
using a synth's keyboard to control some synthesizer emulations.

I hope I've helped.

-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Sylvain Robitaille                              syl@alcor.concordia.ca

Network and Systems analyst                       Concordia University
Instructional & Information Technology        Montreal, Quebec, Canada
----------------------------------------------------------------------