-=> CHARLES ANGELICH wrote to WAYNE CHIRNSIDE <=-

 CA> Being the Christmas season, and one of the few holidays with a
 CA> focus on music, I've been listening to a great deal of music
 CA> lately. Much of it in the MIDI format. I've even 'improved' a
 CA> few that I had worked on last year and doubled the number of
 CA> titles on my Christmas MIDI music page.

Not exactly Chrismas music but I downloaded the HorseRace.mp3
file you compressed down to just over 1/4 meg, thanks.

 CA> I've done some reading about Linux apps and MIDI music files
 CA> and what I've read so far is a bit of a disappointment. :-\

 CA> As I suspected the 'playmidi' included with KNOPPIX is intended
 CA> to only use the FM synthesizer (sounds like a child's toy on
 CA> batteries) and not the soundfonts I am using when in Windows.

Likely there are additional packages out there.

 CA> I even downloaded and installed an older Adobe v4 Acrobat
 CA> Reader to read the Sound Blaster AWE64 user documentation only
 CA> available in PDF format. Argh! I hate PDF files.

You are not alone.

 CA> I'm finding more references to WinGroove, a W31 MIDI player,
 CA> than references to TIMIDITY a native Linux MIDI player that
 CA> _does_ use GUS patch soundfont files. I have WinGroove here
 CA> installed on my DOS/W31 machine and it is surprisingly good for
 CA> such a small program and small soundfont file. I use the newer
 CA> soundfonts intended for the W9x verison of WinGroove. :-)

 CA> I have the Windows verion of TIMIDITY and the DOS version that
 CA> uses 'cspline' (whatever that is) with the EAW GUS patch files
 CA> set of 30 meg of soundfonts and used them to produce 80% of my
 CA> christmas recorded music WAV files prior to conversion to MP3,
 CA> WMA, and RA streaming audio. The EAW GUS patch files are
 CA> comparable to a full set of ROLAND soundfonts (not freeware).
 CA> There _are_ smaller 'sets' for TIMIDITY of 5, 8, and 12 megs. I
 CA> consider TIMIDITY to be at the _top_ of the list of all of the
 CA> MIDI players I have used to date. Disappointing that Linux
 CA> users aren't being made aware of it's existence more often than
 CA> what I'm seeing now.

 Well you're way ahead of me in sound apps but it's encouraging to hear
 you say that about a native Linux app.

 CA> From what I'm reading at this point, I can see why few Linux
 CA> users get involved in MIDI music files. The 'setup' seems to be
 CA> primarilly manual configuration for most Linux apps and there
 CA> are 'dependencies' that require other drivers with no links
 CA> where to find these drivers. When reading about these Linux
 CA> apps they make it seem that you must have a midi-card to use
 CA> them. Few make it clear that a normal sound card is sufficient.

 CA> TIMIDITY has been written and maintained by Japanese
 CA> programmers (primarily) and many, if not most, webpages for
 CA> TIMIDITY are in Japanese. Not an easy thing to deal with (for
 CA> me). Fortunately for me I have had earlier contacts with Eric
 CA> Walsh who put together the largest collection of GUS patch
 CA> files for TIMIDITY and can probably get some assistance from
 CA> him to get TIMIDITY working under Linux here on one of my
 CA> machines. :-)

 I believe I've seen a GUI interface to it in Knoppix
 and if it follows form it should be dead easy to use from there.

 CA> For those who care, there are links to WinGroove, TIMIDITY (for
 CA> DOS, Windows, and Linux), and other MIDI software at:

 CA> http://www.undercoverdesign.com/dosghost/dos/w31_midi.htm

But of course ;-)
 
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