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  From: Alan Kennington <akenning@dog.topology.org>
  To  : David Lloyd <lloy0076@rebel.net.au>
  Date: Wed, 8 Nov 2000 17:15:02 +1030

Re: Sound Card Support

On Wed, Nov 08, 2000 at 04:56:52PM +1030, David Lloyd wrote:
> 
> > Has anyone else got a card based on this chip that got MIDI working on
> > it?
> 
> Although I haven't attempted an ALSA download, my MIDI doesn't work
> either. Can someone tell me whether MIDI is done by the hardware or in
> software? That is to say, are the MIDI instructions intercepted by the
> software device driver, translated and sent to the sound card, or do
> sound cards do that themselves?

Not that I really understand this kind of thing, but....

I've used the ALSA software, and since each kind of card is different,
it seems like it creates kind of pseudo-devices or pseudo-MIDI-synths
to which programs like pmidi can send MIDI commands.

Thus when you run "pmidi -l", it lists all of the available
pseudo-MIDI-devices.
In my case, I use device 64:0 on my card which uses the es1371 driver
software.

Here's a list of modules which I used for the pseudo-synths:

=======================================================
emu:~ # lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by
snd-seq                35892   0  (autoclean)
snd-timer               7488   0  (autoclean) [snd-seq]
snd-seq-device          3004   0  (autoclean) [snd-seq]
snd                    33228   0  (autoclean) [snd-seq snd-timer snd-seq-device]
parport_probe           3204   0  (autoclean)
parport_pc              7264   1  (autoclean)
lp                      4572   0  (autoclean)
parport                 6884   1  (autoclean) [parport_probe parport_pc lp]
soundcore               2148   0  (autoclean) [snd]
eepro100               15848   1  (autoclean) 
=======================================================

But there's also a sort of raw driver for the sound-blaster card that I
use:

=======================================================
emu:~ # modprobe es1371
emu:~ # lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by
es1371                 25696   0  (unused)
snd-seq                35892   0  (autoclean)
snd-timer               7488   0  (autoclean) [snd-seq]
snd-seq-device          3004   0  (autoclean) [snd-seq]
snd                    33228   0  (autoclean) [snd-seq snd-timer snd-seq-device]
parport_probe           3204   0  (autoclean)
parport_pc              7264   1  (autoclean)
lp                      4572   0  (autoclean)
parport                 6884   1  (autoclean) [parport_probe parport_pc lp]
soundcore               2148   4  (autoclean) [es1371 snd]
eepro100               15848   1  (autoclean)  
=======================================================

The ALSA software loads up drivers like snd-seq-XXXX for each
sound card, and these are located by ALSA applications.

Hmmm. It seems like although you need to load up es1371.o for things
like realplayer, it uses the same resource as the snd-card-ens1371.o
module wants to use. So....

======================================================
emu:/lib/modules/2.2.16/misc # modprobe snd-card-ens1371
emu:/lib/modules/2.2.16/misc # lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by
snd-card-ens1371        1964   0  (unused)
snd-seq-midi            2972   0  (unused)
snd-seq-midi-event      2460   0  [snd-seq-midi]
snd-ens1371             9036   0  [snd-card-ens1371]
snd-pcm                27928   0  [snd-ens1371]
snd-rawmidi             8408   0  [snd-seq-midi snd-ens1371]
snd-ac97-codec         23840   0  [snd-ens1371]
snd-mixer              22160   0  [snd-ens1371 snd-ac97-codec]
snd-seq                35892   0  (autoclean) [snd-seq-midi snd-seq-midi-event]
snd-timer               7488   0  (autoclean) [snd-pcm snd-seq]
snd-seq-device          3004   0  (autoclean) [snd-seq-midi snd-rawmidi snd-seq]
snd                    33228   1  (autoclean) [snd-card-ens1371 snd-seq-midi snd-seq-midi-event snd-ens1371 snd-pcm snd-rawmidi snd-ac97-codec snd-mixer snd-seq snd-timer snd-seq-device]
parport_probe           3204   0  (autoclean)
parport_pc              7264   1  (autoclean)
lp                      4572   0  (autoclean)
parport                 6884   1  (autoclean) [parport_probe parport_pc lp]
soundcore               2148   2  (autoclean) [snd]
eepro100               15848   1  (autoclean)
emu:/lib/modules/2.2.16/misc # pmidi -l
 Port     Client name                       Port name
 64:0     External MIDI 0                   MIDI 0-0 
======================================================

So now I get a midi device 64:0 to send midi to, which goes down the
cable. But you can also set it up to send MIDI to the built-in synths
inside cards by loading up the right modules.

More info in links on this page:
http://www.topology.org/midi.html

Cheerio,
Alan Kennington.

-- 
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