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1.1 root 1:
2: Getting (Linux) ALSA midi support to work with Hatari
3: =====================================================
4:
1.1.1.3 ! root 5: If you don't have a real MIDI sequencer, you can use the MIDI synthesizer
! 6: of your sound card (if available) or use a software synthetizer.
! 7:
! 8: For (Debian) package names and links to software referenced in this
! 9: text, see end of the text. Most of the distros should have in their
! 10: repositories packages at least for some of them though.
1.1 root 11:
12: There are also some notes about midi networking.
13:
14:
1.1.1.3 ! root 15: Using a soundcard with built-in MIDI synthesis capability
! 16: ---------------------------------------------------------
! 17:
! 18: If your soundcard is capable of playing MIDI sound (i.e. you can play a .mid
! 19: file with the "aplaymidi" command using the appropriate port), you can use this
! 20: synthesis device for Hatari, too. However, you still might have to install and
! 21: connect a virtual midi device, so that Hatari can access it through a
! 22: /dev/snd/midiC*D* device file (see instructions below).
! 23:
! 24: Please note that you might also have to load instrument patches into your sound
! 25: card first, for example with the program "sfxload" for AWE64 based sound cards,
! 26: or with the program "sbiload" for OPL3 based sound cards.
! 27:
! 28:
1.1 root 29: Making MIDI soft-synthetizer to work with ALSA
30: -----------------------------------------------
31:
32: Make Timidity into an ALSA output device with:
33: timidity -Os -iA
34: (-O: output=alsa, -i: interface=alsa)
35:
36: To make it use less CPU and be more responsive, use:
37: timidity -Os -iA -B2,8 -EFreverb=0 -EFchorus=0
38: (-B: 2,8=set small buffers, -EFx=0: disable effects)
39:
40: Make vkeybd (virtual midi keyboard app) into an ALSA input device with:
41: vkeybd
42:
43: View the resulting (software) ALSA input and output devices:
44: aconnect -i -o
45:
1.1.1.3 ! root 46: Then connect the vkeybd output port to the timidity input port with:
! 47: aconnect <vkeybd port> <timidity port>
! 48: Or use one of the GUI programs for this like kaconnect, aconnectgui etc.
1.1 root 49:
50: Now you can use the virtual midi keyboard for testing the sound
51: synthesis.
52:
53:
54: Finally You can test how well midi files are played.
55: Check which ALSA port Timidity provides:
56: aplaymidi -l
57:
58: And use that port for playing a midi file:
59: aplaymidi -p <port, e.g. 129:0> test.mid
60: (or use 'pmidi')
61:
62: Note: Remember that you need to re-connect the (virtual) device
63: ports each time you restart them.
64:
65:
66: Using FluidSynth instead of Timidity
67: ------------------------------------
68:
69: Instead of Timidity, you also use other soft-synthetizers,
70: like FluidSynth:
71: fluidsynth --audio-driver=alsa --midi-driver=alsa_seq soundfont.sf2
72:
73: You could play a bit with other options to get more performance,
74: sound volume etc:
75: --reverb=no --chorus=no -o synth.polyphony=16 --gain=0.6
76:
77: And if you don't like the FluidSynth shell, use:
78: --no-shell --server
79:
1.1.1.3 ! root 80: Qsynth provides a GUI for above:
! 81: qsynth <soundfont>
! 82:
1.1.1.2 root 83: FYI: FluidSynth v1.0.7a (in Debian Etch & Ubuntu Hardy) has buffer
84: overruns, but they're fixed in v1.0.8 (in Debian Lenny etc).
1.1 root 85:
86:
87: Making it all to work with Hatari
88: ---------------------------------
89:
90: Hatari requires midi hardware devices to work, it doesn't support
91: ALSA directly. To get the software synth ALSA devices to appear
92: as HW midi devices, run following as *root*:
93: modprobe snd-virmidi
94:
1.1.1.2 root 95: When you list your ALSA output devices with:
1.1 root 96: aconnect -o
97: You should see in addition to Timidity also 4 virtual hardware
98: devices.
99:
1.1.1.3 ! root 100: Then connect (with aconnect or one of the GUIs) the first virtual
1.1 root 101: HW port to the same Timidity port where you connected the virtual
102: midi keyboard.
103:
1.1.1.2 root 104: Check which number was assigned by ALSA to the new virtual midi card:
1.1 root 105: cat /proc/asound/cards
106:
107: And give to Hatari the corresponding ALSA midi device. In my case
108: VirMidi was Card 1 and as the port used above was first one, I give
109: Hatari the following midi device:
110: hatari --midi /dev/snd/midiC1D0
111:
1.1.1.3 ! root 112: FYI: SDL_mixer (at least in Ubuntu Feisty) takes exclusive access to
! 113: the PCM (sound) device, but as the soft synthetizer was already
! 114: connected to it, I neded to use --nosound option to get MIDI sound
! 115: working. This isn't a problem anymore in Debian Lenny.
1.1 root 116:
117:
1.1.1.3 ! root 118: MIDI and networking
! 119: -------------------
! 120:
! 121: If you direct the MIDI data to stdout, you can use just ssh to
! 122: forward the MIDI output over network:
! 123: hatari --midi-in "" --midi-out /dev/stdout --log /dev/stderr |\
1.1 root 124: ssh [email protected] "cat>/dev/snd/midiC1D0"
125:
1.1.1.3 ! root 126: (Note that logging is re-directed to stderr so that it doesn't
! 127: mess the MIDI output to standard output and --midi-in is set
! 128: empty in case you don't have MIDI input device locally.)
1.1 root 129:
1.1.1.3 ! root 130:
! 131: MIDI-networking two Hatari emulators can be most easily done with socat.
! 132:
! 133: MIDI networking over normal TCP/IP network:
1.1 root 134: @remote.site:
1.1.1.3 ! root 135: socat -b1 PTY,raw,echo=0,link=/tmp/midi1 TCP4-LISTEN:33333 &
! 136: hatari --midi-in /tmp/midi1 --midi-out /tmp/midi1 &
1.1 root 137: @local.site:
1.1.1.3 ! root 138: socat -b1 PTY,raw,echo=0,link=/tmp/midi2 TCP4:remote.site:33333 &
! 139: hatari --midi-in /tmp/midi2 --midi-out /tmp/midi2 &
1.1 root 140:
1.1.1.3 ! root 141: Buffer size (-b) is set to one just in case (by default socat buffer
! 142: size is 8K, but all the MIDI communication is done byte at the time).
1.1 root 143:
1.1.1.3 ! root 144: You may need to open a hole into your firewall for the given port
! 145: (here 33333). Usually there's a hole for the www-traffic in firewalls,
! 146: but the port for that (80) is below 1000, so if you use "www" as
! 147: the port, most likely you need to run "socat" as root. To test this
! 148: with a single machine, use "localhost" as the "remote.site".
! 149:
! 150: Local MIDI network:
! 151: socat -b1 PTY,raw,echo=0,link=/tmp/midi1 PTY,raw,echo=0,link=/tmp/midi2 &
! 152: hatari --midi-in /tmp/midi1 --midi-out /tmp/midi1 &
! 153: hatari --midi-in /tmp/midi2 --midi-out /tmp/midi2 &
! 154:
! 155: If you don't have "socat" installed, local-midi-ring.sh script shows how
! 156: to join several (local) Hatari emulators into a MIDI ring using fifos.
! 157:
! 158:
! 159: Software
! 160: --------
! 161:
! 162: In Debian, the tools mentioned above come from following packages:
! 163: - alsa-utils (aconnect, aplaymidi)
! 164: - alsa-tools (sbiload)
! 165: - awesfx (sfxload)
! 166: - pmidi
! 167: - vkeybd
! 168: - aconnectgui
! 169: - qsynth
! 170: - fluidsynth
! 171: - fluid-soundfont-* (soundfonts)
! 172: - timidity
! 173: - socat
! 174: See http://packages.debian.org/ for more details on them.
1.1 root 175:
1.1.1.3 ! root 176: Below are upstream links to some of these tools.
1.1 root 177:
178: Vkeybd:
179: http://alsa.opensrc.org/Vkeybd
180:
181: Patch (ALSA connecting) utilities:
182: http://alsa.opensrc.org/AlsaMidiPatchbays
183:
184: FluidSynth:
185: http://www.iiwu.org/fluidsynth/
186:
187: Soundfonts:
188: http://alsa.opensrc.org/SoundFontHandling
189:
190: List of some soft-synthetizers:
191: http://alsa.opensrc.org/SoftSynths
192:
1.1.1.3 ! root 193: Kaconnect:
! 194: http://alsamodular.sourceforge.net/
! 195:
1.1 root 196: socat:
197: http://www.dest-unreach.org/socat/
198:
199: MidiMaze:
200: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIDI_Maze
201:
202:
1.1.1.3 ! root 203: Overviews
! 204: ---------
1.1 root 205:
206: ALSA midi overview:
207: http://alsa.opensrc.org/AlsaMidiOverview
208:
1.1.1.3 ! root 209: How to set up soundcards with hardware MIDI synthesis capability (AWE & OPL3):
! 210: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Midi/HardwareSynthesisSetup
! 211:
1.1 root 212: Virtual midi hardware setup:
213: http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/MIDI-HOWTO-10.html
214:
215: Timidity Howto:
216: http://lau.linuxaudio.org/TiMidity-howto.html
217:
218: Midi with ALSA (old):
219: http://www.linuxfocus.org/English/September2002/article259.shtml
220:
221: Midi on Linux:
222: http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/7773
1.1.1.3 ! root 223:
! 224: MIDI, Musical Instrument Digital Interface protocol:
! 225: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midi
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