The Linux MIDI-HOWTO

9. MIDI Development.

For those looking to develop MIDI applications, good examples are often needed to get you started.

The following examples were posted to the LAD mailing list in a thread about examples and documentation/tutorials.

9.1 Example 1

Below is a little sequencer routine from Dr. Matthias Nagorni. More examples can be obtained from Matthias's site which is listed in the Links section.

You compile it like so:

[phil at beatbox] $ gcc seqdemo.c -o seqdemo -lasound


#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <alsa/asoundlib.h>

snd_seq_t *open_seq();
void midi_action(snd_seq_t *seq_handle);

snd_seq_t *open_seq() {

  snd_seq_t *seq_handle;
  int portid;

  if (snd_seq_open(&seq_handle, "hw", SND_SEQ_OPEN_DUPLEX, 0) < 0) {
    fprintf(stderr, "Error opening ALSA sequencer.\n");
    exit(1);
  }
  snd_seq_set_client_name(seq_handle, "ALSA Sequencer Demo");
  if ((portid = snd_seq_create_simple_port(seq_handle, "ALSA Sequencer Demo",
            SND_SEQ_PORT_CAP_WRITE|SND_SEQ_PORT_CAP_SUBS_WRITE,
            SND_SEQ_PORT_TYPE_APPLICATION)) < 0) {
    fprintf(stderr, "Error creating sequencer port.\n");
    exit(1);
  }
  return(seq_handle);
}

void midi_action(snd_seq_t *seq_handle) {

  snd_seq_event_t *ev;

  do {
    snd_seq_event_input(seq_handle, &ev);
    switch (ev->type) {
      case SND_SEQ_EVENT_CONTROLLER: 
        fprintf(stderr, "Control event on Channel %2d: %5d       \r",
                ev->data.control.channel, ev->data.control.value);
        break;
      case SND_SEQ_EVENT_PITCHBEND:
        fprintf(stderr, "Pitchbender event on Channel %2d: %5d   \r", 
                ev->data.control.channel, ev->data.control.value);
        break;
      case SND_SEQ_EVENT_NOTEON:
        fprintf(stderr, "Note On event on Channel %2d: %5d       \r",
                ev->data.control.channel, ev->data.note.note);
        break;        
      case SND_SEQ_EVENT_NOTEOFF: 
        fprintf(stderr, "Note Off event on Channel %2d: %5d      \r",         
                ev->data.control.channel, ev->data.note.note);           
        break;        
    }
    snd_seq_free_event(ev);
  } while (snd_seq_event_input_pending(seq_handle, 0) > 0);
}

int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {

  snd_seq_t *seq_handle;
  int npfd;
  struct pollfd *pfd;
    
  seq_handle = open_seq();
  npfd = snd_seq_poll_descriptors_count(seq_handle, POLLIN);
  pfd = (struct pollfd *)alloca(npfd * sizeof(struct pollfd));
  snd_seq_poll_descriptors(seq_handle, pfd, npfd, POLLIN);
  while (1) {
    if (poll(pfd, npfd, 100000) > 0) {
      midi_action(seq_handle);
    }  
  }
}

9.2 Example 2

Below is a ALSA 0.9 MIDI redirector by Nick Dowell.

/* ALSA Sequencer MIDI redirector.
   Redirects the input to outputs determined by the MIDI channel
   (as requested by Nathaniel Virgo on Linux-Audio-Dev ;-)
   based on Dr. Matthias Nagorni's ALSA seq example
   
   Nick Dowell <nixx at nixx.org.uk>
   */

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <alsa/asoundlib.h>

int
main()
{
  snd_seq_t *seq_handle;
  snd_seq_event_t *ev;
  int i;
  int portid;              /* input port */
  int oportid[16];         /* output ports */
  int npfd;
  struct pollfd *pfd;
  char txt[20];

  if (snd_seq_open(&seq_handle, "hw", SND_SEQ_OPEN_DUPLEX, 0) < 0) {
    fprintf(stderr, "Error opening ALSA sequencer.\n");
    exit(1);
  }

  snd_seq_set_client_name(seq_handle, "MIDI Redirect");
  
  /* open one input port */
  if ((portid = snd_seq_create_simple_port
       (seq_handle, "Input",
        SND_SEQ_PORT_CAP_WRITE | SND_SEQ_PORT_CAP_SUBS_WRITE,
        SND_SEQ_PORT_TYPE_APPLICATION)) < 0) {
    fprintf(stderr, "fatal error: could not open input port.\n");
    exit(1);
  }
  /* open 16 output ports for the MIDI channels */
  for (i=0; i<16; i++){
    sprintf( txt, "MIDI Channel %d", i );
    if ((oportid[i] = snd_seq_create_simple_port
         (seq_handle, txt,
          SND_SEQ_PORT_CAP_READ | SND_SEQ_PORT_CAP_SUBS_READ,
          SND_SEQ_PORT_TYPE_APPLICATION)) < 0) {
      fprintf(stderr, "fatal error: could not open output port.\n");
      exit(1);
    }
  }

  npfd = snd_seq_poll_descriptors_count(seq_handle, POLLIN);
  pfd = (struct pollfd *)alloca(npfd * sizeof(struct pollfd));
  snd_seq_poll_descriptors(seq_handle, pfd, npfd, POLLIN);

  while (1)  /* main loop */
    if (poll(pfd, npfd, 1000000) > 0){
      do {
        snd_seq_event_input(seq_handle, &ev);
        snd_seq_ev_set_source( ev, oportid[ev->data.control.channel] );
        snd_seq_ev_set_subs( ev );
        snd_seq_ev_set_direct( ev );
        snd_seq_event_output_direct( seq_handle, ev );
        snd_seq_free_event(ev);
      } while (snd_seq_event_input_pending(seq_handle, 0) > 0);
    }
  return 0;
}

9.3 Example 3

Below is an example of writing data to the OSS /dev/midi interface by Craig Stuart Sapp.

More examples can be found at Craig's site listed in the Links section.

//
// Programmer:    Craig Stuart Sapp [craig at ccrma.stanford.edu]
// Creation Date: Mon Dec 21 18:00:42 PST 1998
// Last Modified: Mon Dec 21 18:00:42 PST 1998
// Filename:      ...linuxmidi/output/method1.c
// Syntax:        C 
// $Smake:        gcc -O -o devmidiout devmidiout.c && strip devmidiout
//

#include <linux/soundcard.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
#include <stdio.h>

int main(void) {
   char* device =  "/dev/midi" ;
   unsigned char data[3] = {0x90, 60, 127};

   // step 1: open the OSS device for writing
   int fd = open(device, O_WRONLY, 0);
   if (fd < 0) {
      printf("Error: cannot open %s\n", device);
      exit(1);
   }

   // step 2: write the MIDI information to the OSS device
   write(fd, data, sizeof(data));

   // step 3: (optional) close the OSS device
   close(fd);

   return 0;
}