32-bit MIDI drivers see light of day - RISC OS News, Software and Information

32-bit MIDI drivers see light of day

Published: 12th May 2006, 00:34:18GMT Source: drobe.co.uk
By Chris Williams

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Availability: Soon

Audio specialists Liquid Silicon have completed a set of 32 bit compatible MIDI drivers for A9home and Iyonix users. The software can be used to drive a suitable sound module, although according to LS, it is awaiting a rubber stamp from software developers ESP before it can be made available.

MIDI is an industry standard method of transferring the details of a musical performance between a computer and an electronic keyboard; just the information about the notes being played are sent over MIDI, rather than a stream of audio data.

Liquid Silicon's Alan Gibson's MIDI work will be demonstrated on A9homes at this weekend's Wakefield show, alongside his touch-screen drivers.

Alan said: "MelIDI, the powerful MIDI sequencer will be on show, connected via a serial MIDI connection to an external Yamaha sound module and keyboard. This obviously includes developments of 32-bit compatible MIDI modules and drivers.

"All my products are intended for all machines. The touch-screen driver is available, but at the moment the MIDI modules aren't until the licensing and distribution arrangements with ESP have been sorted out."

The touch-screen software is understood to work with Iyonix computers as well as A9home systems. Together with bar code scanning and printing software, the kit forms a kiosk set up marketed by Liquid Silicon. Alan first mentioned his 32bit MIDI driver project around this time last year.

Links
Liquid Silicon website

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ROHC (+1.0) 12/5/06 1:14AM	Hallelujah! Nice one Alan Been waiting for MIDI back again for ages
timephoenix (+1.0) 12/5/06 4:11AM	Congratulations Alan! Finally we can make use of music software on latest gen hardware. Great news.
liquid (+1.0) 12/5/06 9:28AM	Thanks guys, I'm getting there If you're along at Wakefield do come and say hello.
govind 12/5/06 9:45AM	Well done Alan - great news. Won't see you at Wakefield this year tho!
hEgelia (+1.6) 12/5/06 10:01AM	Excellent news. Indeed, what I've hoping to hear for a while now *In reply to timephoenix:* Remember that the MIDI music software itself (eg. a sequencer) also needs to be 32-bit ready MelIDI is, without question, the premier MIDI sequencer for RISC OS. I'm just in the process of getting new details on it, but AFAIK it's 32-bit ready now and will be demonstrated by Liquid Silicon tomorrow at the big event! *In reply to liquid:* Is MIDISupport and MIDIMan also ready? Do they work with Lenny's (MIDIWays) 32-bit ready utilities, such as SysExy?
timephoenix 14/5/06 7:58AM	*In reply to hEgelia:* I was of the understanding that if legacy software was run under Aemulor, with 32-bit MIDI drivers, then its MIDI capabilities would still work. Is this incorrect? I haven't ordered by Iyonix yet to try I agree with you on MelIDI, although it would be nice to see Anthem's hardware compatibility be improved now.
hEgelia 14/5/06 5:01PM	*In reply to timephoenix:* You could very well be right and I have no reason to think otherwise! To be sure, you'd probably need to check with Spellings / Adrian Lees. AFAIK MelIDI is the only MIDI Sequencer on RISC OS still actively developed and worth investing in. Anthem's hardware compatibility is adequate, provided you feed it with a Cakewalk .ins file or set-up an Instrument definition yourself. Alternatively, you can just assign each Song Track a MIDI channel and configure / program your synth to deal with it appropriately. Unfortunately there are some quite serious bugs and problems in the final version. Incidentally, there is also a Linux version of Anthem, at SourceForge if I remember correctly, though it's slightly different and IMO not as 'interface friendly' as the RISC OS version.
liquid 14/5/06 5:53PM	*In reply to hEgelia:* MIDISupport is done, it's what MelIDI talks to (it bypasses the old MID module) and all of Lenny's software is 32-bit now too, yes.
liquid 14/5/06 5:55PM	*In reply to timephoenix:* I haven't had time to try it yet, but Sibelius (for example) should run under Aemulor Pro with MIDI capability (when the new drivers are released).
blahsnr 14/5/06 7:49PM	Sib7 ran fine under Aemulor Pro on our Iyonix. Midi playback via Remidi seemed to work fine as well IIRC.
sborrill (+1.0) 17/5/06 11:39AM	Thanks for your kind comments about MelIDI! Yes, MelIDI is now 32-bit ready (thanks Alan @ Liquid Silicon for giving me a big enough kick!). There's a few bugs highlighted by the reworking that could do with fixing, but after a 3am stint prior to the show, I probvided Alan with a mostly-working version to show (the last showstopping bug has been fixed since then). It won't be released until all the supporting MIDISupport, etc. are available.