Music Keyboard for TamTam?

[Gary C Martin]

Hi Caryl,

On 4 Dec 2008, at 07:55, Caryl Bigenho wrote:

> Thanks for all your efforts!
>
> The last time I used a midi keyboard with a Mac (it was a G3) it had  
> to have a special "midi interface" and then was just "plug and play"  
> from there using Finale as a program. In looking over your  
> discussion below, it looks like you did manage to get a midi  
> keyboard to work with the XO, but with great difficulty. Some  
> questions...
>
> Will it work with all of the TamTam Activities?

It does not work with any of the TamTam activities yet, but I am  
digging through TamTamMini to see what's the best way to add this  
functionality. The Python code is fairly obtuse, likely due to all the  
copy/paste hacking that it's been through (all 4 activities used to be  
one big single activity).

Right now I've just tested that the standard 8.2-767 release does  
respond correctly to a USB MIDI keyboard by writing some simple/small  
CSound code. No special kernel modules, drivers, updates are needed –  
so it works 'out the box' but we have no current activities that  
listen for MIDI events just now.

> Is it likely that all midi keyboards would work?

Yes I think so, USB MIDI keyboards being the easiest to use. I also  
have a MIDI to USB converter kicking around (some other folks sent you  
links to these), and a bunch of old school MIDI synths and devices  
that I plan to test function correctly.

> Would it be possible to put the instructions into language that the  
> less technically inclined could easily follow to get started on this?

If I can update TamTamMini the way I intend, you'd just need to plug  
in a MIDI keyboard and start hitting keys in a tuneful way :-)

> Does anything have to be changed in the software/hardware to make  
> this easily used by teachers everywhere?

New releases of the TamTam Activities (if I manage to get this  
working). Should just be a software update away for those already  
running Sugar.

> Do you know of any source of very simple, inexpensive midi  
> keyboards? No bells and whistles needed, they are already in the XO  
> in the TamTam Activities.

M-Audio is what I've used. Doing a quick google, my curiosity was  
piqued by a "roll-up USB piano" (49key, velocity sensitive) - it's  
about £20 here in the UK, ~$40 in the US, any one got one of these? I  
only ask as it seems both cheap, potentially durable, easy to store,  
and easy to ship... Pity it doesn't come in green ;-)

> Could easier use of a midi keyboard be incorporated into a change in  
> the Sugar OS (like 9.1.0)?

8.2 seems to have all the required components.

A new control panel module for advance MIDI device configuration could  
be something for the future, but to be honest that seem like massive  
over kill, and a potential source of confusion. I've hacked about with  
keyboards for plenty of years now, and it is almost always the  
individual client software that deals with fancy MIDI configurations,  
if needed, and not the OS.

Regards,
--Gary

> Or is there an easy way to make the current set-up easier?
>
> Thanks again for your interest and efforts!
>
> Caryl
>
>
>
> > Date: Mon, 1 Dec 2008 20:37:59 -0800
> > From: echerlin at gmail.com
> > To: gary at garycmartin.com
> > Subject: Re: Music Keyboard for TamTam?
> > CC: cbigenho at hotmail.com; devel at lists.laptop.org
> >
> > See also
> >
> > http://www.flickr.com/photos/curiouslee/189728345/
> >
> > Walter and Simon demonstrate MIDI keyboard input into the A-TEST  
> board
> > Taken on July 14, 2006, uploaded July 14, 2006
> >
> > On Sun, Nov 30, 2008 at 9:16 PM, Gary C Martin  
> <gary at garycmartin.com> wrote:
> > > On 1 Dec 2008, at 04:01, Gary C Martin wrote:
> > >
> > >> On 30 Nov 2008, at 22:16, Erik Garrison wrote:
> > >>
> > >>> On Sun, Nov 30, 2008 at 12:20 AM, Gary C Martin
> > >>> <gary at garycmartin.com> wrote:
> > >>>> On 30 Nov 2008, at 01:29, Erik Garrison wrote:
> > >>>>
> > >>>>> On Mon, Nov 17, 2008 at 8:23 AM, <pgf at laptop.org> wrote:
> > >>>>>>
> > >>>>>> ignacio wrote:
> > >>>>>>>
> > >>>>>>> On Mon, 2008-11-17 at 04:24 +0000, Gary C Martin wrote:
> > >>>>>>>>
> > >>>>>>>> On a more disappointing note I found this ticket "G1G1  
> tamtam
> > >>>>>>>> suite
> > >>>>>>>> should respond to MIDI keyboard input" from 10 months ago.
> > >>>>>>>> Closed.
> > >>>>>>>> Wont fix :-(
> > >>>>>>>>
> > >>>>>>>> https://dev.laptop.org/ticket/6031
> > >>>>>>>
> > >>>>>>> All "wontfix" means is that they're waiting for someone  
> with a
> > >>>>>>> stronger
> > >>>>>>> itch to scratch it ;)
> > >>>>>>
> > >>>>>> i really have no idea how such devices are normally  
> presented to
> > >>>>>> the systems, but is it possible that the keyboard is  
> consists of
> > >>>>>> more than one USB device (i.e., via a built-in hub) and  
> that not
> > >>>>>> all the drivers are present on the XO?
> > >>>>>>
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> FWIW, The M-audio systems abide by open midi specifications  
> and are
> > >>>>> platform-independent. I don't know about the driver situation.
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> There is a program which can be used to dump midi signals to
> > >>>>> stdout.
> > >>>>> It might be a good test as it's very simple to configure and  
> its
> > >>>>> results are very clear, unlike the audio programs you'll  
> want to
> > >>>>> use.
> > >>>>
> > >>>> ... and it's called??? Gah! ;-)
> > >>
> > >> Just for reference, after connecting the USB Midi keyboard  
> amidi -l
> > >> gives me:
> > >>
> > >> [olpc at xo-0C-E6-BB ~]$ amidi -l
> > >> Dir Device Name
> > >> IO hw:1,0,0 Keystation 49e MIDI 1
> > >>
> > >>> I'm not at an XO or my development machine now, but looked  
> around the
> > >>> web to try to find some information to help.
> > >>>
> > >>> See: http://www.4front-tech.com/pguide/midi.html
> > >>
> > >> Will go read.
> > >>
> > >>> Does the system have a /dev/midi* when you plug the device in?
> > >>
> > >> Yep, I get a /dev/midi1
> > >>
> > >>> Do you see anything interesting in the kernel logs returned with
> > >>> dmesg?
> > >>>
> > >>> Unfortunately our kernel configs aren't online anywhere i can  
> find...
> > >>> but I'll check to see if it's enabled. My guess would be not,  
> but
> > >>> perhaps I'm mistaken.
> > >>>
> > >>>> I'm trying to hack my way through coding csound, but I've not  
> had
> > >>>> much time
> > >>>> to play so far. A magic midi data dumping tool would be a nice
> > >>>> shortcut to
> > >>>> test – FWIW, I can see my M-audio correctly listed on the  
> USB as an
> > >>>> available MIDI input device, but not got any further yet.
> > >>>
> > >>> Perhaps cat /dev/midi* if the file(s) exist.
> > >>
> > >> Fab, yes, cat/dev/midi1 gives me wild ascii characters each  
> time I
> > >> press a key, looks like both note and velocity (this particular
> > >> keyboard doesn't emit pressure but I have another one somewhere  
> that
> > >> does), also other controls (volume, pitch blend & modulation)  
> trigger
> > >> comms.
> > >>
> > >> I'd say the drivers are good to go, and I need to get back to  
> reading
> > >> csound documentation and try a demo to pickup the incoming midi  
> feed.
> > >
> > > OK, really boring but working example (XO 8.2-767):
> > >
> > > 1) Plug in your USB MIDI input device
> > >
> > > 2) In terminal run "amidi -l" it should list something like:
> > >
> > > Dir Device Name
> > > IO hw:1,0,0 Keystation 49e MIDI 1
> > >
> > > 3) Make a file bells.csd, it MUST be called  
> <some_such_or_other>.csd,
> > > that alone wasted hours of my life :-( here's a what should go  
> in it,
> > > the one thing to watch is the -M hw:1,0,0 as this is the option  
> that
> > > tells csound which midi device to listen to, if "amidi -l" shows  
> your
> > > MIDI device with a different reference, use that instead:
> > >
> > > <CsoundSynthesizer>
> > > <CsOptions>
> > > -odac -M hw:1,0,0
> > > </CsOptions>
> > > <CsInstruments>
> > > instr 1
> > > idec = 1
> > > iamp ampmidi 32767
> > > kfrq cpsmidib 2
> > > kenv expsegr 1, idec, 0.1, 0.1, 0.01
> > > asig oscili kenv*iamp, kfrq, 1
> > > out asig
> > > endin
> > > </CsInstruments>
> > > <CsScore>
> > > f0 36000
> > > f1 0 16384 10 1
> > > </CsScore>
> > > </CsoundSynthesizer>
> > >
> > > 4) Then again in console run:
> > >
> > > csound bells.csd
> > >
> > > 5) Start pressing keys and make beautiful music, see I said it  
> wasn't
> > > too exciting, but nice to get this far :-) The XO speakers don't  
> do
> > > very well below middle C (with this instrument), but it's a start.
> > >
> > > So... hardware/kernel/driver all working in 8.2-767. MIDI input  
> is now
> > > demoted to just ;-) a client software side feature for the TamTam
> > > activities. I'll do a little more csound reading on the python  
> side
> > > and try to hack on TamTamMini, will ping the list if I make useful
> > > progress.
> > >
> > > Regards,
> > > --Gary
> > >
> > >>> Erik
> > >>
> > >> Many thanks,
> > >> --Gary
> > >> _______________________________________________
> > >> Devel mailing list
> > >> Devel at lists.laptop.org
> > >> http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Devel mailing list
> > > Devel at lists.laptop.org
> > > http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Silent Thunder (默雷/ 
> धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/ 
> دھرممیگھشبدگر ج) is my name
> > And Children are my nation.
> > The Cosmos is my dwelling place, The Truth my destination.
> > http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/User:Mokurai