Re: [fluid-dev] Sending MIDI Events from a MIDI Keyboard on Mac OS X

[Pedro Lopez-Cabanillas]

On Tuesday 29 March 2011, mike wrote:
> On 03/27/2011 09:14 PM, Bastien Dejean wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > I thought by reading the man page that I could just plug my USB MIDI 
> > Keyboard, launch fluidsynth with a soundfont as argument and play.
> > But it seems I'm missing something.
> > I tried 'fluidsynth -d -m coremidi x.sf2' but I don't see any MIDI events 
> > being received.
> >
> > Any hints ?
> > Thx.
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > fluid-dev mailing list
> > address@hidden
> > http://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/fluid-dev
> >
> >    
> Hi
> 
> Can I ask the same question for Windows?  I'll be using Qsynth with 
> fluidsynth and I also have a USB MIDI keyboard connection.  I have the 
> software installed but haven't tried this part yet.
> 
> I tried previously with a different USB connection which installed the 
> drivers under USB instead of sound and could never figure out how to 
> make Qsynth see the driver.  That's why I'm asking here.
> 
> BTW I'm using the fluidsynth bundled with Qsynth (version 1.1.1) for 
> getting started purposes if it makes a difference.  Also the version of  
> Windows is XP Professional SP3. The MIDI/USB connection is a Cakewalk 
> branded MIDI/USB interface.  Again for getting started purposes I'd like 
> to use the default Windows drivers and not Roland's.
> 
> Previously Pedro wrote this:
> > Yes, FluidSynth can read from Windows MIDI ports. Using the command line 
> > interface program (fluidsynth.exe), you need to provide the exact port name 
> > (including spaces) in the command line:
> >
> > C:>  fluidsynth.exe -o midi.winmidi.device="port name"
> >
> > The list of available port names are listed in the sound settings of the 
> > windows control panel.
> >    
> In the worst case can "port name" be a USB port or should XP install 
> drivers that will map the USB into the sound settings of the control 
> panel?  Also, do I need an equivalent of the Patchbay application for 
> Mac OS X?

The port name given to FluidSynth must be the name provided by a MIDI device 
using a Windows MIDI driver. It doesn't matter if the device is connected 
externally to an USB computer port, or it is an internal PCI card, you need to 
install a specific Windows driver for your MIDI device, usually the driver 
provided by the manufacturer of the MIDI device.

The port names can be obtained using FluidSynth itself. To do so, plug and 
switch on all your devices, start fluidsynth.exe at the command prompt, and 
type this command in the FluidSynth shell: "info midi.winmidi.device". for 
Instance:

C:\>fluidsynth
FluidSynth version 1.1.1
Copyright (C) 2000-2009 Peter Hanappe and others.
Distributed under the LGPL license.
SoundFont(R) is a registered trademark of E-mu Systems, Inc.

Type 'help' for help topics.

> info midi.winmidi.device
midi.winmidi.device:
Type:          string
Value:         default
Default value: default
Options:       EDIROL UA-4FX, In From MIDI Yoke:  1, In From MIDI Yoke:  2, 
RedLocal, default
Real-time:     no

The line "Options" contains a list of all the available MIDI IN ports in my 
system, including the "EDIROL UA-4FX", which is an external USB MIDI and audio 
device.

About the MIDI patchbay question: No. You don't need a MIDI patchbay software, 
because unlike in Linux/ALSA and Mac OSX/CoreMIDI, FluidSynth reads MIDI data 
directly from a system device. Also, unlike in Linux and Mac, you can't connect 
directly the MIDI output of some other software (like VMPK, a virtual piano) to 
the MIDI input of FluidSynth. To do so, emulating in Windows some of the MIDI 
routing capabilities of other operating systems you can use virtual MIDI cables 
like MIDI Yoke and MIDI-OX, but this is not needed in your case if you only 
want to connect an external USB MIDI device to FluidSynth.

Regards,
Pedro