Midi Player

[Chronon]

jbulllfrog, could you post a sample MIDI file somewhere that doesn't work properly for you?  This will allow us to test for whether or not they are supported by the current MIDI player plugin. 

kfb, I have my doubts that a new patchset will help for your problem since your test file on the other topic seemed to play okay for others. 

[jbullfrog]

Here is a file from Phoenix Wright the nintendo ds video game

http://www.sendspace.com/file/v0vmra

[Chronon]

It plays for me, though with a few glitches.  I'm not sure what it should sound like but the plugin definitely produces recognizable sound.  This is with a Sansa e280 (r17232) and using the patchset from the wiki.

[karashata]

It plays for me, though with a few glitches.  I'm not sure what it should sound like but the plugin definitely produces recognizable sound.  This is with a Sansa e280 (r17232) and using the patchset from the wiki.

The file is probably stuttering.  The PortalPlayer targets currently can't process the midi information fast enough to keep up with playback, so playback tends to stutter a lot, unless the midi uses only a few instruments and plays at a slow tempo.  (This deduced from personal experience.)

[Chronon]

Yeah, I do have other .mid's that play fine that have a greater apparent complexity.  But I can't say much more than that at the moment.

[karashata]

Until someone manages to better optimize (if even possible) the MidiPlayPlugin (or whatever it's really called...) for the PP targets, I think playing midis will be trial-and-error to find which play fine and which stutter.

I wish I could, but I wouldn't know what files to poke around in, and my programming experience is only high-school level, though I do credit myself to being a fast learner and there are many websites that could help...

[Chronon]

It would be nice to get some more input on this from other users.  So far we have two individual players not behaving like the rest.

[karashata]

How many people actually use midi files seriously and consistently on their DAP's anyway..?  Currently the plugin only plays one at a time, then stops and you have to select the next midi to continue listening...  It's not yet something I would expect most people to use regularly...  I myself only used it to test it to see how well it was(n't) working.  Perhaps once it's fully optimised and made into a codec rather than a separate plugin, I'll find more practical use for it...

[MarcGuay]

It plays for me, though with a few glitches.  I'm not sure what it should sound like but the plugin definitely produces recognizable sound.  This is with a Sansa e280 (r17232) and using the patchset from the wiki.

Same for me.  I get a "Buffer miss!" error in the plugin screen when it glitches.

[Chronon]

Okay, so that means that the plugin works for us, but is not quite fast enough.  (I verified that I get the same message.)

[saanaito]

I recall finding a patchset somewhere that was identical to the one provided by Rockbox, and one that was similar with extra instruments and a slightly different configuration file.  The identical one worked, the other one didn't (the plugin returned an error saying no patchset found or whatever it is exactly that it says when there isn't a patchset).

Perhaps Timidity is what you're thinking of....? Here's a nice patchset; I'm pretty sure the format is compatable. Here's a smaller patchset.

The file is probably stuttering.  The PortalPlayer targets currently can't process the midi information fast enough to keep up with playback, so playback tends to stutter a lot, unless the midi uses only a few instruments and plays at a slow tempo.  (This deduced from personal experience.)

Same here. I use a Sansa c250.

It would be nice to get some more input on this from other users.  So far we have two individual players not behaving like the rest.

And so I'm posting now.

How many people actually use midi files seriously and consistently on their DAP's anyway..?  Currently the plugin only plays one at a time, then stops and you have to select the next midi to continue listening...  It's not yet something I would expect most people to use regularly...  I myself only used it to test it to see how well it was(n't) working.  Perhaps once it's fully optimised and made into a codec rather than a separate plugin, I'll find more practical use for it...

I use it quite a bit.

I [also] get a "Buffer miss!" error in the plugin screen when it glitches.

Argh. Same here. I just do trial and error and delete whatever does it chronically.


Someone wondered about converting MIDIs. The free converter on http://www.hamienet.com/ is pretty decent.

[Chronon]

Thanks for posting, Strife89.

For the present I am considering all "Buffer Miss!" errors to be standard operation for the PP targets.  I am interested to see if other players are exhibiting either the problem reported in this topic by jbullfrog (no sound output at all) or the problem reported by kfb in the other topic (a null waveform error).

jbullfrog: have you tried resetting your settings?  Does this help?

[karashata]

For the present I am considering all "Buffer Miss!" errors to be standard operation for the PP targets.

That's standard for any buffer misses.  The PP targets are just more prone to them since they can't keep up with the midi instructions during playback.

[Chronon]

My point was to try to clarify that I am interested in seeing if anyone else sees the same behavior that jbullfrog or kfb have seen.  I am much less interested in whether or not anyone sees "Buffer Miss!".

[bascule]

I tried playing a MIDI file and no sound comes out, just the message "crap...null waveform..." printed out on the display repeatedly.  I followed the instructions at http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/PluginMidiPlay to download and copy over the patchset to .rockbox/patchset and verified that the patch files were in the right location.  I did this twice to make sure.  I also tried several different MIDI files.  However, I still get the same error message each time.  Any ideas?

I'm running r17068-080410.  I've attached an example midi file to this post.

It seems your file structure is correct, you should have folder:
/.rockbox/patchset

containing files:
*.pat (lots of)
*.cfg (two of)

Yup, I have those files and folders in the location described.
Argh is there any way to get in touch with the author of the midi plugin and find out more about what the error message "null waveform" is supposed to mean?

Well, I've found the error message in the code (http://svn.rockbox.org/viewvc.cgi/trunk/apps/plugins/midi/synth.c?view=markup), but there's no comments that help me understand what's going on here (seeing as I know nothing about MIDI and very, very little about C).

It would seem that you may just be out of luck, as the error only seems to exhibit itself on your device. You may want to hop onto IRC (linked from sidebar) and ask about it there, as that's where most of the actual coders hang out...