Baslinux mailing list

["Samual Acorn" <sam.acorn AT gmail.com>]

On 26/06/06, sindi keesan <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org> wrote:
> 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.

same here

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

same here

> Playmidi -e -D0 and -D1 play nothing.

-D0 played nothing (nothing is connected to the midi port) -D1 played
to the AWE (see the device listing)

> Playmidi -e -D2 plays to the piano
> So my external device is -D2.
>
> Playmidi -4 = opl3

opl3 in four operator mode....

> Playmidi -a = awe

playmidis version of awe .. .. best to use -e to send data to the
driver rather than let playmidi try to interpret it... that way sysex
messages are sent properly....

> > 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'.

according to the man page a lot of things should work the way they dont.....


> 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.

if you load the SBlives soundfont (the one included with the lives
driver) the awe will sound just as good as most GM/GS keyboards....
the files name is 'ct2mgm.sf2' and is around 2.1MB...

> 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)).

boot with syslinux or lilo.... please.... quit booting linux from dos...


> 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.

boot bl3 with syslinux and use isapnp

> 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

the mpu401 can be disabled with a jumper.... look for total hardware
99 on the web... it will show you the location if you cant find it on
the card...

> > 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?

should be there when you load the sound modules... if not you can try;
cat /dev/sndstat
if -that- file doesnt exsist then try making it;
mknod /dev/sndstat c 14 16
then try 'cat'ing it again....

> >>> 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?

when sb.o and uart401.o is loaded i would assume....  (uart401.o
should load when sb.o loads)

if opl3 or awe_wav are loaded first then things might be in a
different order.... i dunno ive never tried loading them in a
different order...

> >>> 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
>
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--
--sam
http://mephitus.renamon.org/
"When you've done something right, no one will be sure you've done
anything at all." -- Futurama
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