FreeBSD MIDI support
Yuriy Tsibizov
Yuriy.Tsibizov at gfk.ru
Mon Jul 10 07:18:29 UTC 2006
> Are there any projects regarding this topic? I recently
> started coding
> kernel modules, however, there are some design issues
> involving "way" of
> MIDI implementation, so i hoped to contact somebody who's
> working on the
> same thing, or to join develop. team if there is any project underway.
MIDI support in HEAD does not have maintainer, and, as I know, noone was
willing to continue its development. Hardware support is limited to two
or three cards. If you know MIDI well, you can take this project in your
hands.
>
> Anyways, the first dillema i have is about softsynth
> rendering, naturally
> early-stage drivers wouldn't use sc's onboard wavetables and their
> hardware means of MIDI rendering, so i would rather use
> software MIDI
> playback. Usage of hardware functionality should come later.
> The thing
> that bugs me, is it worth coding this inside of kernel
> module? Meaning
> that some /dev device inputs midi messages to kern.module,
> witch uses
> built-in software synthessis based on SF2 specification for MIDI
> rendering. There are already userland programs that do that,
> like timidiy
> and fluidsynth.
I don't use this software right now, but if they can listen on a pipe for MIDI
sequence than kernel "softsynth" module will not be very useful for me.
> Maybe it would be better to start on hardware
> functionalty
> at once, eg. pure device drivers that control soundcard's MIDI port,
> however, allaround kernel module should bring a decent degree of
> standardization. This is the way software MIDI is implemented
> on Windows
> and MacOSX, kernel mode rendering through software
> synthersizer (altrough
> i think they use DLS synthessis rather than SF2, but that
> really isnt
> important). So the question is, what is the best goal for
> MIDI on FreeBSD,
> a quickest way of controlling external synths/MIDI hardware
> (meaning ditch
> the software synth and set your mind on various hardware
> specs),
It should work in -CURRENT, but supportred sound card list is short.
It should be easy to add midi HW driver for your sound card, because
MIDI I/O needs only to "put byte" and "get byte"/"get status" to & from
MIDI port.
> or an all-around MIDI drivers providing playback without "3rd
> party" userland apps?
Not shure about this... It will be very limited, because most consumer
sound cards does not provide MIDI wavetable synthesizer acceleration.
Yuriy.
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