barrett@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU (Dan Barrett) (03/16/91)
My program "MIDI Playground" (MP) has just been posted in the
newsgroup comp.sources.amiga. It is a small utility that lets your Amiga
talk to a MIDI instrument.
MP is a program I had been meaning to write for years, but just
never got around to it before. Essentially, MP translates between 3
different languages: readable text, binary file data, and MIDI. It
is good for many different tasks:
o Learning about MIDI. Just type the command:
1> mp -it -om
and MP will send text (input, -i) to MIDI (output, -o).
Thus, anything you type will be converted to MIDI bytes and
sent immediately to your MIDI instrument. You can type
values in binary, octal, decimal, hexadecimal, characters,
or strings, all mixed together.
You can also see what MIDI code your instrument transmits.
Type:
1> mp -im -ot
and bang on the keyboard, for example.
o Discovering your instrument's system exclusive
implementation. Just convert incoming MIDI into outgoing
text:
1> mp -im -ot
Now press buttons, etc., on your instrument and watch them
get translated on the Amiga screen.
o Translating any binary file to text. Sort of like
"Type OPT H" but fancier.
1> mp -ib -ot -g binary.file.name
o A primitive patch librarian. To receive data:
1> mp -im -ob -p patch.file.name
To send data:
1> mp -ib -om -g patch.file.name
Note: MP is not designed to handle large amounts of
data efficiently. (It WILL handle it, but not very fast.)
o A self-tutor. You can learn how to use the program by
bypassing MIDI entirely, and converting text input to text
output:
1> mp -it -ot
o A MIDI "compiler". Take a text description of MIDI data,
like this:
; Play MIDI note 64 on channel 0, velocity 127
0x90 64 127
and convert it into binary data suitable for sending to
a synthesizer:
1> mp -it -ob -g input.file -p output.file
Although MP runs from the CLI, you can use the IconX program
(supplied with WB 1.3) to attach an icon to a script file. Then fill the
script file with MP commands. MP can be made to open its own input/output
windows if you give input (-g, "get") or output (-p, "put") file names that
are windows, like this:
1> mp -it -ot -g "CON:0/0/640/100/in" -p "CON:200/0/640/100/out"
This was a really fun program to write. Initially, I just wanted a
program that would let the user type base-10 integers that would be sent as
bytes to a MIDI instrument. But I extended the program to be a 3-way
translator as I described above. Most of the uses (above) I did not think of
until the program was done! It has proved VERY useful to me, despite its
simplicity, and I hope it will be very useful to you!
The program is COMPLETELY in the Public Domain. You may use it for
any purpose you like, use the source code, etc. If you take any of the
source code, you don't even have to credit me as author (but it would be
nice if you did).
If any of you decide to use MP, please send me mail and tell me
how you like it (or don't like it).
Dan
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| Dan Barrett, Department of Computer Science Johns Hopkins University |
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