From alsa-devel-owner@alsa.jcu.cz  Sat Jan 23 23:24:35 1999
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From: Frank van de Pol <frank@vande-pol.demon.nl>
Message-Id: <199901232223.XAA05269@obelix.vande-pol.demon.nl>
Subject: Re: alsa midi player
To: emng@geocities.com (Fred Floberg)
Date: Sat, 23 Jan 1999 23:22:33 +0100 (MET)
Cc: alsa-devel@jcu.cz (alsa)
In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.4.05.9901231240590.3127-100000@cyphyn.219.org> from "Fred Floberg" at Jan 23, 99 01:04:52 pm
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 Fred Floberg wrote:
> I don't have much documentation on the OSS sequencer API, aside from
> soundcard.h, and not having much experience with midi hinders my understanding
> of what's being done in playmidi.

Guess that's about all there is...

> 
> playmidi has the capability of using not only an external midi port but also
> internal synth hardware, so the code is not as straightforward as I had hoped.
> The biggest problem though is the apparent lack of parallels between OSS's
> API paradigm (from what I can gather) and ALSA's.

Yep. problem is that an oss sequencer program has to deal with all the
(various) synths low-level details. Using level 2 calls (/dev/sequencer2) it
should perform patch management, using level 1 calls (/dev/sequencer1) it
also has to deal with voice allocation (!). This level 1 interface is really
_not_ meant for MIDI like events - it's more suitable for .MOD players.


> I'd really like to add real-time MIDI I/O to Csound using the ALSA sequencer
> driver, so it's not like I've lost interest. I'm just stumped for the time
> being.

AWESOME!!! If you can have the csound synthesis engine play notes on demand,
you can take the sequencer event decoder as a starting point, and use note
on/off and perhaps control change events to trigger your engine. Any MIDI
playback application (my old test program, or some newer/more fancy app) can
then be used to feed your csound synth. (ps: I've not actively followed alsa
seq development since september last year, some details might have changed.)

Regards,
Frank.

+---- --- -- -  -   -    - 
|Frank van de Pol                  -o)
|Frank@vande-pol.demon.nl          /\\
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|Linux - Why use Windows, since there is a door?
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