Re: [Rosegarden-devel] First-time experience with MIDI playback

[Julie S <msj...@ya...>]

Second send attempt.

Hello all,

My two cents. 

Just let auto connect die.

As a new user, when I first did MIDI in windows, I had to point the programs to a sound source.  Yes, windows now comes with a soft synth, but the last time I fired up a fresh system in windows and installed "Power Tracks Pro" I still had to point it to the MIDI device before I got sound out of it.

Sound, out of the box is great.  But if you are going to commit to sound out of the box, you should commit to a soft synth bundled with Rosegarden.  Linux distro's are not committed to MIDI sound out of the box, unless they have changed their tune recently.

So, if we want RG sound to work without effort, it is best to bundle it with a synth.  People who don't like it can uninstall it.

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Auto connect has never worked for me, and has created quite a mess of my simple set up.  Yes it works all the time, but I is sickening to look at the MIDI manager.  It is never correct and full of stuff, that is never
helpful.  I'll rename a device just to find the old device name reappear also connected to the device.---Yuck.

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Maybe the first thing RG should do is open the MIDI manager the first time after install with  a message explaining that it needs to know where to output sound.  That is my half baked idea.

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For non midi audio we expect the user to install codexes and players.  If a user wants an mp3, the user needs to install the codex, if a user wants a flacc file, same deal.  MIDI is different.  MIDI files are not tied to one output codex to which it is identified.  I can run a MIDI file through different devices and get different outputs all from the same file.  That is just the nature of a MIDI file.

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Yes, there is just a learning curve involved.  That is just all part of MIDI.

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Auto connect doesn't help new users, and Chris showed it doesn't help power users.

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Meaningful names would help, as Chris mentioned, but let the user make the connection.

Sincerely,
Julie S.