[PlanetCCRMA] Trying MIDI for the first time

[Mark Knecht]

Fernando,
   Ok, I'm at a point where I want to be careful about how I proceed. To get
Ardour working with the newer version of jack (0.37.0) I had to do the
rpm -e thing on the jack package that was installed. Now if I try to do an
apt-get for pd, it's telling me it's going to install the PlanetCCRMA
version of jack. I think this is going to mess up Ardour, isn't it?

   This is exactly what we were talking about earlier today. Bummer...

   cat /proc/asound/oss/sndstat says (among other things)

Midi devices
0: MPU-401 (UART)

so that's a good sign. Looks like at least MIDI stuff is loaded.

   Is there any easy way for me to fool the PlanetCCRMA RPMs into not
loading the older jack? Or maybe I should let it load, but then reinstall
the new jack? No, that will break ardour I think.

   Possibly I just have to do Pd or Muse from source code because of this?
That seems drastic. I just want a little tiny app the show a key getting hit
when I press the MIDI keyboard. ;-) Just to see it work! ;-)

Thanks very much,
Mark

-----Original Message-----
From: Fernando Pablo Lopez-Lezcano [mailto:nando@ccrma.Stanford.EDU]
Sent: Thursday, October 10, 2002 8:38 PM
To: Mark Knecht
Cc: Planet-CCRMA
Subject: Re: [PlanetCCRMA] Trying MIDI for the first time


>    I've got an external synth hooked to the MIDI input of my AP2496 card.
> The machine is dual boot, and I've checked that the synth, cables and
AP2496
> card are working under Windows using GigaStudio. I then boot into Linux.
> What do I do next?

In the past I have used pd to test midi. Just start it with "pd -alsa
-mididev 1" and see what happens (it should not complain about not being
able to open the midi ports). This assumes the card is the first soundcard
in the system. Pd uses oss emulation and the raw interface.

If pd does not complain go to "Help" and the "Test audio and midi", a
panel will pop up that you can use to test both. Clicking on the small
square below "MIDI OUT" should start sending notes (one a second, I
think). Playing on the keyboard should generate numbers in the boxes below
the "MIDI IN" legend. You can also send an audio test tone and verify
audio input.

>    I looked at http://www.djcj.org/ at the MIDI HOWTO. It talked about
doing
> 'cat /dev/sndstat', but that tells me 'No such device'. (/dev/sndstat does
> exist...)

That is for oss and under alsa it is in /proc/asound/oss/sndstat

You can also fire up muse and use it to test midi in and out.

>    Are there any simple answers here? I don't want to just load apps, but
> would rather understand how this basically works.

Ooops, too late :-) "cat /proc/asound/devices" should show you what you
have as native alsa devices, I don't have a midi interface here at home to
show you how it looks like. Poking around in /proc/asound/oss will show
you what you have in the oss emulation world.

-- Fernando