Re: Features for a new release. (was Re: [Denemo-devel] Midi output faulty for whole measure rests in 4/2 time)

[Richard Shann]

On Thu, 2008-10-30 at 08:33 -0500, Jeremiah Benham wrote:
> On Thu, 2008-10-30 at 08:34 +0000, Richard Shann wrote:
> > On Wed, 2008-10-29 at 23:18 -0500, Jeremiah Benham wrote:
> > > feels closer to a piano than most keyboards. It only cost me $250.
> > My eyebrows rose at the word "only"!
> 
> I am talking American dollars not euro. I can't find a keyboard around
> that price that is not a toy.
I guess that's the problem - these things are made for people to play
music on, not for data entry to a computer. So the manufacturers spend
effort on the feel of the keyboard and synthesizing sounds and a heap of
stuff; the pure midi controllers come no cheaper because the market is
so much smaller.
>   
> 
> > >  I
> > > purchased it on sale at Guitar Center. I am currently connecting it
> > > with
...
> > > 
> > > I think you asked in a previous email about how these work with linux.
> > > After you have loaded the appropriate firmware to the device 
> > ??? What is this bit? 
> 
> IIRC when you plug the maudio uno in hal recognized the vender id and
> product id. It uploads this openfirmware that is part of the alsa
> project into the device using this software called fxload. Its been a
> while. This was approximately in 2003. I believe there is a proprietary
> firmware also that comes from MAudio. 
It sounds like at least at that time they did need some code installed
on the host computer...
> 
> > I did a bit more hunting around and found that
> > these USB-midi things talk about being plug and play, meaning no drivers
> > needed; is it the transactions that go on when you plug the device in
> > that you are referring to as "loaded the appropriate firmware"?
> 
> That is mentioned above. 
> 
> > Also, these things vary in price by a factor of three - are there
> > quality issues that anyone knows of?
> 
> I can't answer that. midi was originally transported over a serial
> connection. It was design to react quick over a slow connection. I
> suppose you can probably read customer reviews on newegg.com 

Thanks for the leads - I'm currently looking at the ESI MIDIMATE which 
apparently
packs the electronics into the connectors.

Richard