Re: [fluid-dev] ALSA Raw connection (Re: Reading input from a MIDI device)

[Aere Greenway]

On 01/03/2014 03:13 PM, Vesa Paatero wrote:
> But... how?  OK, let's "think aloud":  I have the MIDI device that sends
> data. ALSA seems to connect to it automatically because the device
> becomes visible to "aconnect -lio". So I just need need to figure out
> the connection from ALSA to FluidSynth.. or should I say that I need
> to tell FluidSynth where to look for the MIDI data to be forwarded
> to the sound card. I guess I still have to specify the avenue of input
> by the command line somehow but I haven't found anything appro-
> priate. 
Vesa:

I am a fluidsynth user (not a developer).

From my experience, I can suggest some ways to connect to fluidsynth.

Assuming you are using Linux (therefore having ALSA), you can use 
qjackctl (the ALSA tab of the dialog that appears when you click its 
"Connect" button) to connect a MIDI application that sends MIDI to 
fluidsynth.  With fluidsynth running in a terminal, fluidsynth is 
visible in the ALSA tab of qjackctl's "Connect" window.

There are MIDI keyboard applications such as VMPK which can be used to 
test connecting to it.  VMPK (using Edit...Connections) provides you a 
way to connect to MIDI devices (such as fluidsynth).  I think in the 
past it didn't have that, because when I used it, I always used qjackctl 
to connect it to whatever device.

The way I usually use, is rather than using the fluidsynth 
command-line-interface, I use qsynth, which provides a GUI interface for 
using fluidsynth.  But my preferences are for GUI interfaces.

But if what you are using to transmit to fluidsynth does not provide an 
ALSA device driver, you will have to use qjackctl (or something else, 
such as aconnect) to connect it (as described above).

I wrote an application that does provide an ALSA device driver, and it 
can see all the ALSA devices, and connect to them itself, under user 
control.  Providing an ALSA device driver is a fair amount of work.

I have not tried aconnect, but I see it on my machine.

Just some ideas for you to consider.

--
Sincerely,
Aere