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[sindi keesan <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org>]

On Mon, 26 Jun 2006, Samual Acorn wrote:

> sindi you're not going to believe this....
>
> try this; 'playmidi -e -D0 midifile.mid'

Using playmidi-2.4 for libc6 or 2.5 for libc5:

Playmidi -e and -a play AWE.

Playmidi -D0 or -D1 or -D2 (no -e) play as FM synth.

Playmidi -e -D0 and -D1 play nothing.
Playmidi -e -D2 plays to the piano 
So my external device is -D2.

Playmidi -4 = opl3
Playmidi -a = awe

> apparently when you specify an external device to play to you also
> need to tell it to play to that external device.... figured specifing
> a device would be common sense that i wanted it to play to that
> device.... IMHO if the programmer wanted to take that confusing route
> it would have been nice if he would have put it in the manual... but
> the '-D' option isnt even -in- the manual... ugh...
It is mentioned in QuickStart, but -e is probably not.

According to the man page, external is supposed to be default 'as 
distributed'.

The libc6 BL2 (2.5) version at my site was converted from an RPM.  If I 
don't specify device with -4 -a or -e -D2 it does not play anything.

I compiled the libc5 BL3 (2.4) version at my site with awe as default. 
'playmidi filename.mid' plays to awe as expected.

I can now choose between playing midis on harpsichord or organ using FM or 
AWE synthesis (as specified by whoever put together the midi, or changed 
with -p and the number for harpsichord or organ found by playmidi -I) or 
on my external device with a better set of piano sounds.

Onward to recording midis.

> now for the menus in rosegarden.... rather than click once to get them
> to come down click and hold.... drag the mouse down the menu to the
> item you want to select and then to select that item let the mouse
> button go...

I will attempt this again after putting Rosegarden on the music computer 
It does not work with Xvesa unless I bypass startup files (himem.sys 
interferes with Xvesa - illegal instruction - even when running DOS 7.1), 
and in BL3 the S3 server (and a Trio32 or 64 card, or svga server with S3 
or trident) displays black text on black background (in Opera, anyway)).

My options are to give up on BL3 and use BL2 and S3 server, or to bypass 
startup files but run CTCM from the command line to set the sound properly 
in DOS (or use isapnp in linux) and use Xvesa.  Or to change computers.

I tried another computer with SB32 card (and working Xvesa with himem.sys) 
but mpu401 is disabled (maybe by jumper, have to open it up and look).
SB16 diagnose says so, and none of the mpu addresses work with sb.o

> tell me if the playmidi example above works cos rosegarden doesnt do a
> very good job on importing midi files... but for composing it will
> work well... point and click sheet music editor and midi recorder...


Works but with -D2 not -D0.  Are the devices listed somewhere?

> > On Sun, 25 Jun 2006, Samual Acorn wrote:
> >
> > > forgot to show you my discovery with rosegarden.... (which works quite well)
> > >
> > > ---
> > > [samacorn@scritch samacorn]$ cat /proc/sound
> > > OSS/Free:3.8s2++-971130


cat /proc/sound?  No such device or filename.
Was I supposed to load rosegarden first?

> > > Load type: Driver loaded as a module
> > > Kernel: Linux scritch 2.2.16-22 #1 Tue Aug 22 16:16:55 EDT 2000 i686
> > > Config options: 0
> > >
> > > Installed drivers:
> > >
> > > Card config:
> > >
> > > Audio devices:
> > > 0: Sound Blaster 16 (4.13) (DUPLEX)
> > >
> > > Synth devices:
> > > 0: Yamaha OPL3
> > > 1: AWE32-0.4.3 (RAM2048k)
> > >
> > > Midi devices:
> > > 0: Sound Blaster 16
> > > 1: AWE Midi Emu
> > >
> > > Timers:
> > > 0: System clock
> > >
> > > Mixers:
> > > 0: Sound Blaster
> > > ---
> > >
> > > in that list -- in 'midi devices' "0: Soundblaster 16" is the external
> > > midi port....

Or in my case apparently 2 is the external port.  What sets it?

> > > rosegarden can record from it while you play the keyboard in real time
> > > and it can play back to it.... playmidi on the other hand is horrid
> > > broken mess... best to look for another player that will let you pick
> > > from a list of devices like that shown above (card used was awe32) or
> > > import midi files into rosegarden and play them from it....


> > > playmidi does have an option to play to a specific device (the -D
> > > option) but it doesnt work... every device i select always goes back
> > > to FM synth as tho that command was completely ignored....

Now it works.

Thanks, Samuel, for figuring out the instructions.
David, did you also specify a -DN?

Sindi