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1.1     ! root        1: 
        !             2: Getting (Linux) ALSA midi support and MIDI networking working with Hatari
        !             3: =========================================================================
        !             4: 
        !             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.
        !            11: 
        !            12: Contents:
        !            13: - Using a soundcard with built-in MIDI synthesis capability 
        !            14: - Making MIDI soft-synthetizer to work with ALSA
        !            15: - Using FluidSynth instead of Timidity
        !            16: - Making it all to work with Hatari
        !            17: - MIDI and networking
        !            18: - Software
        !            19: - Additional documentation
        !            20: 
        !            21: 
        !            22: Using a soundcard with built-in MIDI synthesis capability 
        !            23: ---------------------------------------------------------
        !            24: 
        !            25: If your soundcard is capable of playing MIDI sound (i.e. you can play a .mid
        !            26: file with the "aplaymidi" command using the appropriate port), you can use this
        !            27: synthesis device for Hatari, too. However, you still might have to install and
        !            28: connect a virtual midi device, so that Hatari can access it through a
        !            29: /dev/snd/midiC*D* device file (see instructions below).
        !            30: 
        !            31: Please note that you might also have to load instrument patches into your sound
        !            32: card first, for example with the program "sfxload" for AWE64 based sound cards,
        !            33: or with the program "sbiload" for OPL3 based sound cards.
        !            34: 
        !            35: 
        !            36: Making MIDI soft-synthetizer to work with ALSA
        !            37: -----------------------------------------------
        !            38: 
        !            39: Make Timidity into an ALSA output device with:
        !            40:   timidity -Os -iA
        !            41: (-O: output=alsa, -i: interface=alsa)
        !            42: 
        !            43: To make it use less CPU and be more responsive, use:
        !            44:   timidity -Os -iA -B2,8 -EFreverb=0 -EFchorus=0
        !            45: (-B: 2,8=set small buffers, -EFx=0: disable effects)
        !            46: 
        !            47: Make vkeybd (virtual midi keyboard app) into an ALSA input device with:
        !            48:   vkeybd
        !            49: 
        !            50: View the resulting (software) ALSA input and output devices:
        !            51:   aconnect -i -o
        !            52: 
        !            53: Then connect the vkeybd output port to the timidity input port with:
        !            54:   aconnect <vkeybd port> <timidity port>
        !            55: Or use one of the GUI programs for this like kaconnect, aconnectgui etc.
        !            56: 
        !            57: Now you can use the virtual midi keyboard for testing the sound
        !            58: synthesis.
        !            59: 
        !            60: 
        !            61: Finally You can test how well midi files are played.
        !            62: Check which ALSA port Timidity provides:
        !            63:   aplaymidi -l
        !            64: 
        !            65: And use that port for playing a midi file:
        !            66:   aplaymidi -p <port, e.g. 129:0> test.mid
        !            67: (or use 'pmidi')
        !            68: 
        !            69: Note: Remember that you need to re-connect the (virtual) device
        !            70: ports each time you restart them.
        !            71: 
        !            72: 
        !            73: Using FluidSynth instead of Timidity
        !            74: ------------------------------------
        !            75: 
        !            76: Instead of Timidity, you also use other soft-synthetizers,
        !            77: like FluidSynth:
        !            78:   fluidsynth --audio-driver=alsa --midi-driver=alsa_seq soundfont.sf2
        !            79: 
        !            80: You could play a bit with other options to get more performance,
        !            81: sound volume etc:
        !            82:   --reverb=no --chorus=no -o synth.polyphony=16 --gain=0.6
        !            83: 
        !            84: And if you don't like the FluidSynth shell, use:
        !            85:   --no-shell --server
        !            86: 
        !            87: Qsynth provides a GUI for above:
        !            88:   qsynth <soundfont>
        !            89: 
        !            90: FYI: FluidSynth v1.0.7a (in Debian Etch & Ubuntu Hardy) has buffer
        !            91: overruns, but they're fixed in v1.0.8 (in Debian Lenny etc).
        !            92: 
        !            93: 
        !            94: Making it all to work with Hatari
        !            95: ---------------------------------
        !            96: 
        !            97: Hatari requires midi hardware devices to work, it doesn't support
        !            98: ALSA directly.  To get the software synth ALSA devices to appear
        !            99: as HW midi devices, run following as *root*:
        !           100:   modprobe snd-virmidi
        !           101: 
        !           102: When you list your ALSA output devices with:
        !           103:   aconnect -o
        !           104: You should see in addition to Timidity also 4 virtual hardware
        !           105: devices.
        !           106: 
        !           107: Then connect (with aconnect or one of the GUIs) the first virtual
        !           108: HW port to the same Timidity port where you connected the virtual
        !           109: midi keyboard.
        !           110: 
        !           111: Check which number was assigned by ALSA to the new virtual midi card:
        !           112:   cat /proc/asound/cards
        !           113: 
        !           114: And give to Hatari the corresponding ALSA midi device.  In my case
        !           115: VirMidi was Card 1 and as the port used above was first one, I give
        !           116: Hatari the following midi device:
        !           117:   hatari --midi /dev/snd/midiC1D0
        !           118: 
        !           119: FYI: SDL_mixer (at least in Ubuntu Feisty) takes exclusive access to
        !           120: the PCM (sound) device, but as the soft synthetizer was already
        !           121: connected to it, I neded to use --nosound option to get MIDI sound
        !           122: working. This isn't a problem anymore in Debian Lenny.
        !           123: 
        !           124: 
        !           125: MIDI and networking
        !           126: -------------------
        !           127: 
        !           128: If you direct the MIDI data to stdout, you can use just ssh to
        !           129: forward the MIDI output over network:
        !           130:   hatari --midi-in "" --midi-out /dev/stdout --log /dev/stderr |\
        !           131:     ssh [email protected] "cat>/dev/snd/midiC1D0"
        !           132: 
        !           133: (Note that logging is re-directed to stderr so that it doesn't
        !           134: mess the MIDI output to standard output and --midi-in is set
        !           135: empty in case you don't have MIDI input device locally.)
        !           136: 
        !           137: 
        !           138: MIDI-networking two Hatari emulators can be most easily done with socat.
        !           139: 
        !           140: MIDI networking over normal TCP/IP network:
        !           141:   @remote.site:
        !           142:     socat -b1 PTY,raw,echo=0,link=/tmp/midi1 TCP4-LISTEN:33333 &
        !           143:     hatari --midi-in /tmp/midi1 --midi-out /tmp/midi1 &
        !           144:   @local.site:
        !           145:     socat -b1 PTY,raw,echo=0,link=/tmp/midi2 TCP4:remote.site:33333 &
        !           146:     hatari --midi-in /tmp/midi2 --midi-out /tmp/midi2 &
        !           147: 
        !           148: Buffer size (-b) is set to one just in case (by default socat buffer
        !           149: size is 8K, but all the MIDI communication is done byte at the time).
        !           150: 
        !           151: You may need to open a hole into your firewall for the given port
        !           152: (here 33333).  Usually there's a hole for the www-traffic in firewalls,
        !           153: but the port for that (80) is below 1000, so if you use "www" as
        !           154: the port, most likely you need to run "socat" as root.  To test this
        !           155: with a single machine, use "localhost" as the "remote.site".
        !           156: 
        !           157: Local MIDI network:
        !           158:   socat -b1 PTY,raw,echo=0,link=/tmp/midi1 PTY,raw,echo=0,link=/tmp/midi2 &
        !           159:   hatari --midi-in /tmp/midi1 --midi-out /tmp/midi1 &
        !           160:   hatari --midi-in /tmp/midi2 --midi-out /tmp/midi2 &
        !           161: 
        !           162: If you don't have "socat" installed, local-midi-ring.sh script shows how
        !           163: to join several (local) Hatari emulators into a MIDI ring using fifos.
        !           164: 
        !           165: 
        !           166: Software
        !           167: --------
        !           168: 
        !           169: In Debian, the tools mentioned above come from following packages:
        !           170: - alsa-utils (aconnect, aplaymidi)
        !           171: - alsa-tools (sbiload)
        !           172: - awesfx (sfxload)
        !           173: - pmidi
        !           174: - vkeybd
        !           175: - aconnectgui
        !           176: - qsynth
        !           177: - fluidsynth
        !           178: - fluid-soundfont-* (soundfonts)
        !           179: - timidity
        !           180: - socat
        !           181: See http://packages.debian.org/ for more details on them.
        !           182: 
        !           183: Below are upstream links to some of these tools.
        !           184: 
        !           185: Vkeybd:
        !           186:   http://alsa.opensrc.org/Vkeybd
        !           187: 
        !           188: Patch (ALSA connecting) utilities:
        !           189:   http://alsa.opensrc.org/AlsaMidiPatchbays    
        !           190: 
        !           191: FluidSynth:
        !           192:   http://www.iiwu.org/fluidsynth/
        !           193: 
        !           194: Soundfonts:
        !           195:   http://alsa.opensrc.org/SoundFontHandling
        !           196: 
        !           197: List of some soft-synthetizers:
        !           198:   http://alsa.opensrc.org/SoftSynths
        !           199: 
        !           200: Kaconnect:
        !           201:   http://alsamodular.sourceforge.net/
        !           202: 
        !           203: socat:
        !           204:   http://www.dest-unreach.org/socat/
        !           205: 
        !           206: MidiMaze:
        !           207:   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIDI_Maze
        !           208: 
        !           209: 
        !           210: Additional documentation
        !           211: ------------------------
        !           212: 
        !           213: ALSA midi overview:
        !           214:   http://alsa.opensrc.org/AlsaMidiOverview
        !           215: 
        !           216: How to set up soundcards with hardware MIDI synthesis capability (AWE & OPL3):
        !           217:   https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Midi/HardwareSynthesisSetup
        !           218: 
        !           219: Virtual midi hardware setup:
        !           220:   http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/MIDI-HOWTO-10.html
        !           221: 
        !           222: Timidity Howto:
        !           223:   http://lau.linuxaudio.org/TiMidity-howto.html
        !           224: 
        !           225: Midi with ALSA (old):
        !           226:   http://www.linuxfocus.org/English/September2002/article259.shtml
        !           227: 
        !           228: Midi on Linux:
        !           229:   http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/7773
        !           230: 
        !           231: MIDI, Musical Instrument Digital Interface protocol:
        !           232:   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midi

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