Re: [Rosegarden-devel] Controlling external synths

[psykx.out <psy...@go...>]

Martin Shepherd wrote:
>
>
> On Sun, 18 Jun 2006, psykx.out wrote:
>> The way I see this is a two or three stage programming operation.
>>
>> 1. All midi data that is sent out the midi out on a hardware synth
>> should be recorded in variable set out in the same way as a
>> sequencer track already is.
>
> This might be feasible from a keyboard-synth, with a good front-panel
> interface. However my external synth is a rack-mount box, with very
> limited front-panel controls for configuration. As such, it is very
> tedious and difficult to do configuration from the front-panel. So the
> idea of having to set up the synth from its front panel, so that I
> could then export those settings to Rosegarden, isn't very appealing
> to me. Roland expects people to use an external computer to control
> this synth, and they provide software for this. However that software
> doesn't run under Linux.
>
surely the whole point of midi is that it doesn't need software to run 
it. Unless your external synth doesn't have midi in and midi ports 
because almost all midi keyboards have both midi in and out if not thru 
ports.
> Even if this were convenient, the parameters that one can set on this
> synth, run to 16 pages of tables in small-print in the manual, and I
> imagine that having Rosegarden send the whole state at the start of
> each playback would be prohibitively slow.
>
If my synth sent the entire banks worth of data before each 
"performance" then the device would run incredibly slow anyway and what 
would be the point of  the bulk dump feature on my synth which allows 
you to choose what data to send to the sequencer. Only the sound you are 
using is transmitted
> I would thus prefer to have a GUI on the computer, that would allow me
> both to interactively configure the synthesizer, and to specify which
> of the configured parameters should be sent to Rosegarden for
> subsequent playbacks.
>
> Martin
That is a lot more work and hence is in "operation" (I'll find a better 
word) 3.
Also even though you sent this to me I'm sending this to the list.

Max