KMidi 0.3
=========

New: Support for the following platforms:

     o Linux
     o FreeBSD
     o DEC OSF/1
     o HP_UX
     o SUN 
     o SUN SOLARIS

and of course bug fixes ;-)

Bernd
wuebben@kde.org

     
KMidi 0.2

This is the first public release of KMidi a midi to
wav player/converter. 

If you have  already given up on midi on Linux/Unix try this! Without
expensive hard-ware such as a Gravis-Ultra sound or Sound-Blaster AWE 64
you will get fantastic sound comparable to what you get with the above
mentioned hard-ware. FOR FREE!

The catch:

a) KMidi will use your CPU time: anywhere from 10 to 90% on my Pentium 120
   at 32000 Hz. Typically about 30%, but it depends on the particular midi 
   played. If you have a weaker machine, simply use the commandline options to
   reduce the sample frequency. You should be able to get very decent
   sound even on a 486 without straining your CPU.

b) You need the sound patches. You can get a full set of general midi
   sound patches  at any  ultra sound archive. Typical storage requirements
   around 10 megs. 

Belive me for the sound you are going to get this is a small price to pay!

KMidi uses Tuukka Toivonen's  timidity 0.2i engine 
Copyright (C) 1995 Tuukka Toivonen <toivonen@clinet.fi>  
together with Takashi Iwai latest  sound font patches 
( This means you can also use sound fonts with KMidi)

Where to get patches:
(see also the html documentation)

Check out the timidiy home-page (see below) which has a number of links and 
recommendations. Patches can also be found packaged as deb or rpm modules in 
the Redhat and Debian  contribution directories. 

TimidityPage:
http://www.clinet.fi/~toivonen/timidity/

Takahis's Page:
http://bahamut.mm.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~iwai/midi.html#TiMidity

I realize this is a rough release, and I am sure that if you try
hard enough you will be able to get KMidi to crash, but I think
KMidi is already more than usable and will hopefull give you hours
of fun. Rememeber Midi files are typically around 50k or leas and
are therefore so easily downloaded that you will never run out of great midi's
to play.

TODO:

o Make the myriad of command line options available through a configuration
  dialog.
o Elaborate visual display of notes played ( This one is going to be FUN!!!)


Best Regard,
Bernd
wuebben@kde.org
wuebben@math.cornell.edu

