Sending arbitrary midi from keystrokes

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moonskin
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Posts: 35
Joined: Tue Apr 01, 2008 9:33 am

Sending arbitrary midi from keystrokes

Post by moonskin » Tue Jan 27, 2009 11:57 am

Hi all

Does anybody know of an application (linux) that uses the computer's keyboard to send predefined sets of midi codes. I want to be able to change presents on the fly for azr3-jack (a hammond emulator) and it's controls are all based on CCs. To change 8 drawbars I would have to send 8 CC's - so the idea is to have a key (say "G") that would send a set of CCs to azr3 when I hit that key and "H" to send a different set. (Hope that all makes sense)

The reason behind it is that I'm going back to live performance with a band and they SOMETIMES need a hammond sound. It's not often enough for me to spend big money on a hardware instrument and I have some older PC's that will do the job well. I just won't be able to use a monitor and mouse when live but can have the PC and keyboard. I want to be able to set it up at the start, take away the monitor and just hit keys to get the few preset sounds that are needed.

Cheers
Graham

ggoodesa
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Posts: 116
Joined: Thu Aug 14, 2008 6:48 pm

Re: Sending arbitrary midi from keystrokes

Post by ggoodesa » Wed Jan 28, 2009 9:11 pm

Hi Graham,

I'd use jOrgan for something like this... jOrgan 3.5.1 is almost ready for release by Sven and has more support for hammond type dispositions too.

Otherwise try qmidiroute to map the various CC messages to the notes, or run MIDI-OX in WINE.

GrahamG

moonskin
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Posts: 35
Joined: Tue Apr 01, 2008 9:33 am

Re: Sending arbitrary midi from keystrokes

Post by moonskin » Tue Feb 03, 2009 2:08 pm

Thanks for that Graham. qmidiroute is a nice tool but won't quite do. What I have come up with is a bit odd but works well.

I create a series of midi files with the CCs I need using midicomp to convert a text file to midi. I'll make nine of them.

I then have a script running in a terminal that gives me a menu from 1 to 9 with 0 to exit. Each choice runs the command similar to "aplaymidi -p 14:0 preset1.mid" which plays the midi file containing the required CCs to the Midi Through port which is connected to azr3. Only downside is the need to hit enter after a number but I don't intend to change sound quickly while playing so it shouldn't be a problem.

I'll use this until another method becomes available.

Cheers
Graham

EDIT: Found out that I can use "read -n 1" to read a single character so I don't need to hit enter after a number anymore.

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