#8 Feature request Virtual Midi Ports

[Gerhard Zintel]

Hi Antonio Jose,

I stumbled about MidiLayer shortly and it was just what I was looking for to create a Live setup for gigs. Thanks a lot for the jewel. To give you a bit motivation for further development I've done a moderate donation via Paypal.

It comes with a feature request though ;-) I'm running Linux Mint using Jack for realtime playing and knitting together the different parts in qjackctl. In the Midi Setup of MidiLayer I can see the keyboard attached to the laptop but not the virtual instruments (Pianoteq and setBfree in my case). Obviously MidiLayer is not able to see the "jackified" applications for it seems to use alsa Midi solely.

I was able to solve the problem by creating virtual midi devices using the snd_virmidi kernel module. It bridges jack and alsa midi devices. Those devices open up fine in ML's slots and I can connect this way to the jackaware apps. Nonetheless its a bit clumsy.

I see two possibilities for improvements.

1. I've looked into RtMidi that is used by ML and it can make use of the Jack libraries by compiling with flag -D__UNIX_JACK__. I assume that ML would be able to see the Jack Midi ports after this modification.

2. I'd prefere another fix that would go deeper into the code. IMHO it would be nice if ML not only connects to existing alsa midi devices but could create virtual Midi ports by itself (here jack or alsa doesn't matter for Jack applications can connect to each alsa port using a2j). My idea is that in ML's slot mechanism I can define an arbitrary name that is created as an virtual in- or output port like described here:
   https://www.music.mcgill.ca/~gary/rtmidi/index.html#virtual

In that way I could make the connections to the other Midi apps by using Jack's or qjackctl's connect mechanism. That would be much more convenient for I have to connect a lot of stuff by this method anyway.

In ticket #7 you mentioned "There has been no help from other programmers". I'd like to go into the subject by myself but unfortunately your code does not give a hand in compiling the sorces (by intention?). I'm moderately skilled in C but unfortunately not in C++, nonetheless i would try if you would help me getting started in compiling ML. I expected a ./configure or a make mechanism or the use of Qt Designer but nothing obvious here.

Thank you for reading this, I hope you are intereted.
Gerhard

[Gerhard Zintel]

One step forward: I was able to compile the program using qtcreator. You have to open the midiLayer.pro file. The compilation went smooth (Linux Mint Mate 20.1 here) . For the time being the code is way beyond my expertise. First step could be to update to latest RtMidi version to get Jack compatibility.

[Antonio Jose Maia]

Sorry for the late reply. I've read it and I agree with the proposals.
Tomorrow or Tuesday I will respond in detail

Regards
António Maia

On Sun, 20 Jun 2021, 21:35 Gerhard Zintel, gerb1857@users.sourceforge.net
wrote:

One step forward: I was able to compile the program using qtcreator. You
have to open the midiLayer.pro file. The compilation went smooth (Linux
Mint Mate 20.1 here) . For the time being the code is way beyond my
expertise. First step could be to update to latest RtMidi version to get
Jack compatibility.

---

• [tickets:#8] https://sourceforge.net/p/midi-layer/tickets/8/ Feature
  request Virtual Midi Ports*

Status: open
Milestone: 0.4.0
Created: Mon Jun 14, 2021 07:34 PM UTC by Gerhard Zintel
Last Updated: Mon Jun 14, 2021 07:34 PM UTC
Owner: Antonio Jose Maia

Hi Antonio Jose,

I stumbled about MidiLayer shortly and it was just what I was looking for
to create a Live setup for gigs. Thanks a lot for the jewel. To give you a
bit motivation for further development I've done a moderate donation via
Paypal.

It comes with a feature request though ;-) I'm running Linux Mint using
Jack for realtime playing and knitting together the different parts in
qjackctl. In the Midi Setup of MidiLayer I can see the keyboard attached to
the laptop but not the virtual instruments (Pianoteq and setBfree in my
case). Obviously MidiLayer is not able to see the "jackified" applications
for it seems to use alsa Midi solely.

I was able to solve the problem by creating virtual midi devices using the
snd_virmidi kernel module. It bridges jack and alsa midi devices. Those
devices open up fine in ML's slots and I can connect this way to the
jackaware apps. Nonetheless its a bit clumsy.

I see two possibilities for improvements.

1.

I've looked into RtMidi that is used by ML and it can make use of the
Jack libraries by compiling with flag -D__UNIX_JACK__. I assume that ML
would be able to see the Jack Midi ports after this modification.
2.

I'd prefere another fix that would go deeper into the code. IMHO it
would be nice if ML not only connects to existing alsa midi devices but
could create virtual Midi ports by itself (here jack or alsa doesn't matter
for Jack applications can connect to each alsa port using a2j). My idea is
that in ML's slot mechanism I can define an arbitrary name that is created
as an virtual in- or output port like described here:
https://www.music.mcgill.ca/~gary/rtmidi/index.html#virtual

In that way I could make the connections to the other Midi apps by using
Jack's or qjackctl's connect mechanism. That would be much more convenient
for I have to connect a lot of stuff by this method anyway.

In ticket #7 you mentioned "There has been no help from other
programmers". I'd like to go into the subject by myself but unfortunately
your code does not give a hand in compiling the sorces (by intention?). I'm
moderately skilled in C but unfortunately not in C++, nonetheless i would
try if you would help me getting started in compiling ML. I expected a
./configure or a make mechanism or the use of Qt Designer but
nothing obvious here.

Thank you for reading this, I hope you are intereted.
Gerhard

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[Gerhard Zintel]

Hi António,
thanks for your answer; please take your time, there is no hurry. I'm glad you are still interested in improving ML. I'm not sure if I can help you in any way. Don't feel yourself urged, I'm very happy with ML as it is.
Gerhard

[Antonio Jose Maia]

I'm taking advantage of the Christmas break to make the necessary changes.

[Gerhard Zintel]

Whow, that's absolute fantastic! It might encourage you to know that I still use ML on a daily basis and the more I work with it the more it suits me well.
I tried to change the sources by myself as well but nothing worked so far. Obviously I'm not skilled enough using my limited C knoledge.
If I can help you in any way please let me know. I will test your changes in each case and give you feedback.
Good luck
Gerhard

[Antonio Jose Maia]

If you want to try (and test) the version. You can send me an email to
midilayer@gmail.com refering your Operative Systemand I can send you only
the 1.0.0 Alfa version.

Thanks for feedback

Regards
António Maia

On Sat, 25 Dec 2021, 14:11 Gerhard Zintel, gerb1857@users.sourceforge.net
wrote:

Whow, that's absolute fantastic! It might encourage you to know that I
still use ML on a daily basis and the more I work with it the more it suits
me well.
I tried to change the sources by myself as well but nothing worked so far.
Obviously I'm not skilled enough using my limited C knoledge.
If I can help you in any way please let me know. I will test your changes
in each case and give you feedback.
Good luck
Gerhard

---

• [tickets:#8] https://sourceforge.net/p/midi-layer/tickets/8/ Feature
  request Virtual Midi Ports*

Status: accepted
Milestone: 1.0.0
Created: Mon Jun 14, 2021 07:34 PM UTC by Gerhard Zintel
Last Updated: Thu Dec 23, 2021 03:20 AM UTC
Owner: Antonio Jose Maia

Hi Antonio Jose,

I stumbled about MidiLayer shortly and it was just what I was looking for
to create a Live setup for gigs. Thanks a lot for the jewel. To give you a
bit motivation for further development I've done a moderate donation via
Paypal.

It comes with a feature request though ;-) I'm running Linux Mint using
Jack for realtime playing and knitting together the different parts in
qjackctl. In the Midi Setup of MidiLayer I can see the keyboard attached to
the laptop but not the virtual instruments (Pianoteq and setBfree in my
case). Obviously MidiLayer is not able to see the "jackified" applications
for it seems to use alsa Midi solely.

I was able to solve the problem by creating virtual midi devices using the
snd_virmidi kernel module. It bridges jack and alsa midi devices. Those
devices open up fine in ML's slots and I can connect this way to the
jackaware apps. Nonetheless its a bit clumsy.

I see two possibilities for improvements.

1.

I've looked into RtMidi that is used by ML and it can make use of the
Jack libraries by compiling with flag -D__UNIX_JACK__. I assume that ML
would be able to see the Jack Midi ports after this modification.
2.

I'd prefere another fix that would go deeper into the code. IMHO it
would be nice if ML not only connects to existing alsa midi devices but
could create virtual Midi ports by itself (here jack or alsa doesn't matter
for Jack applications can connect to each alsa port using a2j). My idea is
that in ML's slot mechanism I can define an arbitrary name that is created
as an virtual in- or output port like described here:
https://www.music.mcgill.ca/~gary/rtmidi/index.html#virtual

In that way I could make the connections to the other Midi apps by using
Jack's or qjackctl's connect mechanism. That would be much more convenient
for I have to connect a lot of stuff by this method anyway.

In ticket #7 you mentioned "There has been no help from other
programmers". I'd like to go into the subject by myself but unfortunately
your code does not give a hand in compiling the sorces (by intention?). I'm
moderately skilled in C but unfortunately not in C++, nonetheless i would
try if you would help me getting started in compiling ML. I expected a
./configure or a make mechanism or the use of Qt Designer but
nothing obvious here.

Thank you for reading this, I hope you are intereted.
Gerhard

---

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https://sourceforge.net/p/midi-layer/tickets/8/

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