[iiwusynth-devel] iiwusynth bugs?

[pu31tt001]

Hi,

I just found out about iiwusynth in looking for a software wavetable that 
behaves like a MIDI device.  My sound card doesn't have a MIDI synthesizer and 
I'd like to use MIDI software under Linux, so iiwusynth looks to be just what I 
need.  I'm generally very happy with how well it works.

One problem I'm having is that whenever I begin playing a .mid file through 
iiwusynth using playmidi, the drum channel (#9 since they start at 0) always 
gets reset to bank 0, program 0, regardless of the soundfont and .mid file I 
choose. So I always end up with piano for the drum line.  The only way I can 
fix it is by first starting the song using playmidi, then quickly going to 
iiwusynth and entering the command "select 9 128 0" so that I hear drums 
instead of piano.  When I play the same midi files through timidity, there's no 
problem with the drum channel.

Another problem is that if I don't pass the right '-t' argument to playmidi, 
then the song is played at about 10 times faster than it should be.  I have to 
pass '-t 10' to playmidi to slow playback down to the normal speed.  This 
behaviour is independent of the midi file I choose, and again, timidity has no 
problem with the tempo.  I've never had this problem with playmidi using a 
hardware midi device, it only happens with iiwusynth.

Finally, I'd like to use iiwusynth with a MIDI sequencer like Jazz or Brahms.  
However, Jazz apparently uses /dev/sequencer* and it never seems to recognize 
the iiwusynth MIDI device at /dev/midi, so after many attempts, I gave up with 
that.  (Sorry, I'm too ignorant to know what the difference between 
/dev/sequencer and /dev/midi is.)

So I tried registering iiwusynth with the aRts MIDI Manager (since Brahms uses 
only aRts-registered MIDI devices).  I try, but aRts doesn't seem to want to 
use it (though it doesn't explain why).  However, when I shut down iiwusynth 
and tried to connect aRts to /dev/midi again, aRts does register it 
successfully.  But then there's no sound (since iiwusynth isn't running).  When 
I try to relaunch iiwusynth to use /dev/midi, iiwusynth complains that the 
device is already in use.  So I gave up with that, too.  Any idea what I have 
to do to get aRts to use the iiwusynth MIDI device?

Besides these things, you've done a great job! 

Thanks, 
Paul