Re: Is sound in dosemu a myth?

[Dave Phillips <dlphilp@bright.net>]

Justin Zygmont wrote:

>On Sat, 27 Dec 2003, Eemeli Kantola wrote:
>
>  
>
>>The biggest problem I am yet to overcome is the MIDI stuff. This is 
>>actually not a dosemu problem, but how do you people get TiMidity synth 
>>working WITH SoundBlaster sound effects at the same time? This needs 
>>some mixing, of course, but I haven't studied ALSA enough yet to do 
>>that. Can this be somehow done with ALSA's dmix plugin, or do I need a 
>>separate sound server of some kind?
>>    
>>
I use DOSemu with TiMidity on an almost daily basis to run Voyetra's 
Sequencder Plus MIDI sequencer. I link ~/.dosemu/run/dosemu-midi to 
/dev/snd/midiC1D0, which is the ALSA virtual MIDI module (virmidi). I'm 
then able to route the MIDI output to any hardware or software 
synthesizer available via the ALSA MIDI patch bay. Most often I utilize 
TiMidity loaded with the Fluid soundfont (I like its piano) and simply 
attach the first virtual MIDI Out port (there are four by default) to 
TiMidity's first MIDI In port (it has two).

I run a small script called tim-synth to invoke TiMidity, it consists of 
only these lines :

        #!/bin/sh
        timidity -iA -B2,8 -c /home/dlphilp/timidity.cfg -Os -EFreverb=0 
-EFchorus=0

Of course I chmod'd the script to executable status so I can run it from 
my home directory with './tim-synth'. Notice that the reverb and chorus 
have been turned off. Btw, my ~/timidity.cfg file consists of only this 
line :

        soundfont /mnt/dosc/soundfiles/sfonts/FluidR3_20GM.sf2

For those of you who try this, be aware that you *must* make a 
connection between the ALSA driver and TiMidity, i.e., it won't happen 
by default. If you don't have a graphic patch bay handy (such as the 
ALSA MIDI Patch Bay or qjackctl) you can always use ALSA's aconnect 
utility. It's easy, just see 'man aconnect' for the details.

Unfortunately I'm not aware of the correct procedure to get emulated 
sound fx from DOSemu, but I'm willing to give it a shot. If someone can 
point me to a typical game or other appropriate application I'll be glad 
to run some tests here. Actually, I've never used DOSemu for any audio 
and I'm quite willing to make the attempt.

Might it be possible to route a game's fx to TiMidity's effects instead 
of performing them in emulation ? TiMidity's effects aren't all that 
great, and they chew up CPU cycles (which is why I normally turn them 
off), but maybe that's a shorter route to the goal ? I don't know, I'm 
just musing aloud, perhaps Stas can give us more insight.

Btw, using dmix might work if the problem is indeed one of mixing. If 
your soundcard doesn't support hardware mixing you'll probably end up 
using dmix (if it's the right solution).

Anyway, this is an interesting topic, and I'll try to devote some time 
to it over the next week. Also, many thanks again to the DOSemu 
developers, it's truly among my favorite Linux software.

Best regards,

Dave Phillips