Baslinux mailing list

[Ron Clarke <ariadne AT acepia.net.au>]

Hi Sindi,

On Fri, 16 Jan 2004 21:20:37 -0500 (EST)
Sindi Keesan <keesan AT iamjlamb.com> wrote:

> On Sat, 17 Jan 2004, Ron Clarke wrote:
> >    I have got sound working on this machine, with an original SB16 
> > soundcard and
> > real kick-ass ex-HiFi speakers. I now do MIDI, MOD and MP3s.
> 
> What is MOD?

   MOD is an early form of sound file. It is rather larger than MIDI because 
it
includes its own sound patches INSIDE the file. Usually created with
"tracker"-type software. 
The advantage of that is that it will sound exactly the way you created it on 
any
other computer, unlike MIDI which is interpreted by different soundcards.


> I have some old SB16 cards with jumpers I can set.  Two of them even let 
> you put in 2 1M 30-pin SIMMS to give better sounding MIDI (something to do 
> with loading wavetables).  Unfortunately my fastest computer has no free 
> ISA slots as I have filled them both with the modem and my HGC card.  
> Is there some way to use linux with an ESS sound card?  Or audiopc card?

   Probably, but here I am guessing.

> They have large Win98 drivers (up to 8M).  Or I can try an older computer, 
> we have lots.  

   I think it is a matter of loading the correct module to fire up the sound
card. I refuse to use the on-board sound chips because of their poor 
reputation
with MIDI reproduction.

   For both MIDI and MOD, I have installed Timidity and the very best sound
patches I could find - all 23 MB of them. And now the reproduction is pretty
good, I am pleased to say.

> >   Xine was a bit of a disappointment, though I did get it to work - after 
> > a
> > fashion.
> 
> What is that?

    Oops ! I should have said XANIME was a disappointment.

    XINE is a multi-codec player like MPLAYER. It has so many bits and 
pieces, 
front-ends, codecs, main prog. etc, that I got thoroughly confused and gave 
up 
for the time being. 

> >   Heck, if I can install all of them, you surely can.   :)
> 
> I think you have more experience with this.

    Not really.  These things are the first .tar.gz format (i.e. non-.tgz) 
bits
that I have tried to install. It is all new territory for me.


> >   OTOH: Multimedia IS important to me - I sequence MIDIs, make MP3s and 
> > so on, so
> > I have some motivation to make it work.
> 
> What sort of MIDI files have you done and are they online?

    They are, well some of them.  See my sig. for Tadpole Tunes.

Regards,
         Ron



-- 
Ron Clarke 
AUSREG Consultancy      http://www.valylink.net.au/~ausreg/index.html
Tadpole Tunes           http://tadpole.mytunebook.de/
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