_____________________________
______ __ _ _
-+--- Description - - -
These simple user-space drivers support using certain homemade, repurposed,
or commercial devices as MIDI controllers on Linux, even though the devices
themselves are not capable of generating MIDI messages; this does not include
things like MIDI-over-serial or PIC based projects, which are true MIDI
devices.
Reasons for using this software include: achieving MIDI entry on machines
without MIDI ports, reusing old hardware, pure frugality, and fun.
The high retail price of even the simplest MIDI keyboards is totally
incongruent with the level of technology involved, or the quality of the
construction. The average TV remote control or toy transistor radio
represents orders of magnitude more sophistication at a tiny fraction of the
price. Musical keyboards that don't speak MIDI (toys or antiques) can be
found at little or no cost and adapted for use with Linux. Mice can be used
as foot controllers/pedal boards, old analog joysticks as pitch/mod wheels.
Clunky, clicky QWERTY keyboards as musical keyboards and so on. Once
connected to this software these devices will be indistinguishable from real
MIDI hardware. If your computer has a MIDI port, you can even route the
messages out to control real synth modules or be recorded in your favorite
sequencer on your Atari ST.
I wrote this software for myself. That is to say, I own and use all the
devices it supports. Your needs may differ substantially. Feel free to adapt
the code as necessary. It is assumed that users have a working knowledge of
MIDI/audio under Linux and can setup and route through the ALSA Sequencer
interface.
Each of the drivers utilizes the Linux input event interface and monopolizes
its attached device, except for lsmi-monterey, which filters out musical
events and passes textual key-presses on to applications. There is no
dependence on X, necessity for window focus, etc.
For specific information, see the comments at the heads of the respective
source files.
______ __ _ _
-+--- Available Drivers - - -
keyhack
Hacked AT / PS/2 keyboard controller as MIDI keyboard.
joystick
Unmodified two-button joystick as MIDI pitchbend and modulation wheel.
mouse
Hacked mouse as MIDI footswitch / pedal controller.
monterey
Driver for Monterey International MK-9500 / K617W reversible keyboard (QWERTY on top, 37 piano keys on reverse.)
______ __ _ _
-+--- Prerequisites - - -
Projects shouldn't be dwarfed by the autoconf scripts required to build them.
Therefore, LSMI is distributed with a very simple makefile; you'll have to
ensure that you have the appropriate kernel and alsa-lib headers installed
before building.
______ __ _ _
-+--- Usage - - -
Distribution specific init scripts are not included. The drivers may be
started from init, your #(c,.bashrc), by #(i,QJackCtl), etc. In order to be
run by a non-root user the drivers must have access to the device files in
#(c,/dev/input.) This may be accomplished by adding a group 'input', adding
desired users to this group, and configuring #(i,udev) to assign the
appropriate ownership to files in #(c,/dev/input.) It should be resonably
safe to run the drivers as root, however.
Likewise, for realtime scheduling you must add lines to
#(c,/etc/security/limits.conf) to allow a certain user or group to change rt
priorities (this is probably already the case on a machine set up for Jack.)