265 lines
8.2 KiB
Plaintext
265 lines
8.2 KiB
Plaintext
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Getting (Linux) ALSA midi support and MIDI networking working with Hatari
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=========================================================================
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If you don't have a real MIDI sequencer, you can use the MIDI synthesizer
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of your sound card (if available) or use a software synthetizer.
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For (Debian) package names and links to software referenced in this
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text, see end of the text. Most of the distros should have in their
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repositories packages at least for some of them though.
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Contents:
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- Using a soundcard with built-in MIDI synthesis capability
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- Making MIDI soft-synthetizer to work with ALSA
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- Using FluidSynth instead of Timidity
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- Other software synthetizers
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- Making it all to work with Hatari
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- MIDI and networking
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- Linux & Atari MIDI related software
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- Additional documentation
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Using a soundcard with built-in MIDI synthesis capability
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---------------------------------------------------------
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If your soundcard is capable of playing MIDI sound (i.e. you can play a .mid
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file with the "aplaymidi" command using the appropriate port), you can use this
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synthesis device for Hatari, too. However, you still might have to install and
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connect a virtual midi device, so that Hatari can access it through a
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/dev/snd/midiC*D* device file (see instructions below).
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Please note that you might also have to load instrument patches into your sound
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card first, for example with the program "sfxload" for AWE64 based sound cards,
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or with the program "sbiload" for OPL3 based sound cards.
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Making MIDI soft-synthetizer to work with ALSA
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-----------------------------------------------
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Make Timidity into an ALSA output device with:
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timidity -Os -iA
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(-O: output=alsa, -i: interface=alsa)
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To make it use less CPU and be more responsive, use:
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timidity -Os -iA -B2,8 -EFreverb=0 -EFchorus=0
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(-B: 2,8=set small buffers, -EFx=0: disable effects)
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Make vkeybd (virtual midi keyboard app) into an ALSA input device with:
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vkeybd
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Or use the newer & nicer looking "Virtual MIDI Piano Keyboard":
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vmpk
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View the resulting (software) ALSA input and output devices:
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aconnect -i -o
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Then connect the vkeybd output port to the timidity input port with:
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aconnect <vkeybd port> <timidity port>
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Or use one of the GUI programs for this like kaconnect, aconnectgui etc.
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Now you can use the virtual midi keyboard for testing the sound
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synthesis.
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Finally you can test how well midi files are played.
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Check which ALSA port Timidity provides:
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aplaymidi -l
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And use that port for playing a midi file:
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aplaymidi -p <port, e.g. 129:0> test.mid
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(or use 'pmidi')
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Note: Remember that you need to re-connect the (virtual) device
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ports each time you restart them.
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Using FluidSynth instead of Timidity
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------------------------------------
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Instead of Timidity, you also use other soft-synthetizers,
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like FluidSynth:
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fluidsynth --audio-driver=alsa --midi-driver=alsa_seq soundfont.sf2
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You could play a bit with other options to get more performance,
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sound volume etc:
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--reverb=no --chorus=no -o synth.polyphony=16 --gain=0.6
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And if you don't like the FluidSynth shell, use:
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--no-shell --server
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Qsynth provides a GUI for above:
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qsynth <soundfont>
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Note: FluidSynth v1.0.7a in older (obsolete) Linux distros has buffer
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overruns, but they're fixed in v1.0.8 or newer that are in the current
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Linux distros.
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Other software synthetizers
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---------------------------
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Of the other soft-synthetizers, I like also Horgand organ emulator
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as it has pretty good organ sound, but it needs Jack connection kit
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(+ e.g. qjackctl) for sound to work properly (not have sound underruns).
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Making it all to work with Hatari
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---------------------------------
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Hatari requires midi hardware devices to work, it doesn't support
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ALSA directly. To get the software synth ALSA devices to appear
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as HW midi devices, run following as *root*:
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modprobe snd-virmidi
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When you list your ALSA output devices with:
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aconnect -o
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You should see in addition to the soft-synth also 4 virtual hardware
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devices.
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Then connect (with aconnect or one of the GUIs) the first virtual
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HW port to the same soft-synth port where you connected the virtual
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midi keyboard.
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Check which number was assigned by ALSA to the new virtual midi card:
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cat /proc/asound/cards
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And give to Hatari the corresponding ALSA midi device. In my case
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VirMidi was Card 1 and as the port used above was first one, I give
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Hatari the following midi device:
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hatari --midi-out /dev/snd/midiC1D0
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(For the virtual midi keyboard, give same device with --midi-in option.)
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Note: In older (obsolete) Linux distros SDL_mixer may take exclusive
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access to the PCM (sound) device, but as the soft synthetizer is
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already connected to it, one may need to use --nosound option to get
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MIDI sound working. In recent distros this shouldn't anymore be
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a problem thanks to Pulseaudio.
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MIDI and networking
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-------------------
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If you direct the MIDI data to stdout, you can use just ssh to
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forward the MIDI output over network:
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hatari --midi-in "" --midi-out /dev/stdout --log /dev/stderr |\
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ssh user@remote.site "cat>/dev/snd/midiC1D0"
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(Note that logging is re-directed to stderr so that it doesn't
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mess the MIDI output to standard output and --midi-in is set
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empty in case you don't have MIDI input device locally.)
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MIDI-networking two Hatari emulators can be most easily done with socat.
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MIDI networking over normal TCP/IP network:
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@remote.site:
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socat -b1 PTY,raw,echo=0,link=/tmp/midi1 TCP4-LISTEN:33333 &
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hatari --midi-in /tmp/midi1 --midi-out /tmp/midi1 &
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@local.site:
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socat -b1 PTY,raw,echo=0,link=/tmp/midi2 TCP4:remote.site:33333 &
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hatari --midi-in /tmp/midi2 --midi-out /tmp/midi2 &
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Buffer size (-b) is set to one just in case (by default socat buffer
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size is 8K, but all the MIDI communication is done byte at the time).
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You may need to open a hole into your firewall for the given port
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(here 33333). Usually there's a hole for the www-traffic in firewalls,
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but the port for that (80) is below 1000, so if you use "www" as
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the port, most likely you need to run "socat" as root. To test this
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with a single machine, use "localhost" as the "remote.site".
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Local MIDI network:
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socat -b1 PTY,raw,echo=0,link=/tmp/midi1 PTY,raw,echo=0,link=/tmp/midi2 &
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hatari --midi-in /tmp/midi1 --midi-out /tmp/midi1 &
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hatari --midi-in /tmp/midi2 --midi-out /tmp/midi2 &
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If you don't have "socat" installed, local-midi-ring.sh script shows how
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to join several (local) Hatari emulators into a MIDI ring using fifos.
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Linux & Atari MIDI related Software
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-----------------------------------
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In Debian, the tools mentioned above come from following packages:
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- alsa-utils (aconnect, aplaymidi)
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- alsa-tools (sbiload)
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- awesfx (sfxload)
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- pmidi
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- vkeybd
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- vmpk
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- aconnectgui
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- qsynth
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- fluidsynth
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- fluid-soundfont-* (soundfonts)
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- timidity
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- horgand
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- qjackctl
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- socat
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See http://packages.debian.org/ for more details on them.
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Below are upstream links to some of these tools.
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Vkeybd:
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http://alsa.opensrc.org/Vkeybd
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Virtual MIDI Piano Keyboard (vmpk):
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http://vmpk.sourceforge.net/
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Patch (ALSA connecting) utilities:
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http://alsa.opensrc.org/AlsaMidiPatchbays
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FluidSynth:
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http://www.iiwu.org/fluidsynth/
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Horgand:
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http://horgand.berlios.de/
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Soundfonts:
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http://alsa.opensrc.org/SoundFontHandling
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List of some soft-synthetizers:
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http://alsa.opensrc.org/SoftSynths
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Kaconnect:
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http://alsamodular.sourceforge.net/
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QjackCtl:
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http://qjackctl.sourceforge.net/
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socat:
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http://www.dest-unreach.org/socat/
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As to Atari MIDI programs, here's an incomplete list
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of games supporting MIDI music:
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http://www.atari-forum.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=21473&start=25#p195632
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MidiMaze supports up to 16 players over MIDI network:
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIDI_Maze
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Additional documentation
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------------------------
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ALSA midi overview:
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http://alsa.opensrc.org/AlsaMidiOverview
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How to set up soundcards with hardware MIDI synthesis capability (AWE & OPL3):
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https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Midi/HardwareSynthesisSetup
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Virtual midi hardware setup:
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http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/MIDI-HOWTO-10.html
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Timidity Howto:
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http://lau.linuxaudio.org/TiMidity-howto.html
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Midi with ALSA (old):
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http://www.linuxfocus.org/English/September2002/article259.shtml
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Midi on Linux:
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http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/7773
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MIDI, Musical Instrument Digital Interface protocol:
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midi
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