tkmidi1

Usage

Overview

tkmidi is an external interface program for AWE32 MIDI player, drvmidi(1). This works just as Tcl/Tk interface of drvmidi except tkmidi uses the general pipe interface to communicate with drvmidi. All the long command line options starting double minus (--) are passed to drvmidi, but short options are regarded as Tcl/Tk options.

Tkmidi accepts the directory as command line arguments. It search the files with .mid extension under the directory, and add them to the file list. For example, to play all midi files under the current directory, you can start tkmidi as follows: % tkmidi .

File menu

Open File

Open a MIDI file from the file selection window. Not available during play midi files.

Clear List

Clear all MIDI songs selected in the list. Not available during play midi files.

Save Config

Save the current configuration in user config file ~/.tkawe. The play style, display style, volume parameters, chorus/reverb modes are saved. This file is read when starting tkmidi.

Edit Options

Edit option files in the selection list, or the system default options. A file selection dialog appear when this menu is selected, then choose a midi file from the file list. Most of playing options can be set via option editor window. If the corresponding midi option file doesn't exist, a new option file is created, which name starts from period and has ".id" extension. For example, when "foo.mid" is edited, an option file ".foo.id" will be created on the current directory. The system default option can be editted by selecting "Edit Default" in file selection dialog. The options are saved on the system resource file, ~/.drvmidirc. Note that the changed default options are activated when tkmidi is inovked at next time.

Mode menu

Repeat

Play the first file again repeatedly after all files are played.

Shuffle

Shuffle play mode. The order of the playing files is shuffled and selected randomly.

Auto Start

Start playing midi files automatically when the program runs.

Auto Exit

Exit the program automatically when finishing all the files.

Confirm Quit

Pop up a dialog to confirm when the program is going to quit.

Display menu

This menu contains six toggle button items, File List, Time, Messages, Volume, Buttons, and Trace. Each item selects to display or remove the corresponding window. The current display style can be saved by "Save Config".

File List

File list window displays all the MIDI files. You can start or change the file currently playing by clicking the file name in it.

Time

Time window displays the current time and total time, and a scale bar. You can control the current time directly by dragging the thumb in the scale bar.

Messages

Message window displays messages in the MIDI file. To clear the window, push "clear" button under the message window.

Volume

Volume window controls total and equalizer volumes. The total volume can be changed by dragging the upper scale bar. It varies from 0 to 200%. Other two lower scale bars control bass and treble volumes. The volume status will be saved by "Save Config" in File menu.

Buttons

Button window displays operational buttons to play, stop, previous, backward, pause, forward, next, and quit. Each button will be activated or disabled according the playing status.

Trace

Trace window display volume bars of each MIDI channel. The red bar means the drum channel, and green bar means the normal one. The yellow arrows under volume bars indicate the panning positions, and the lower numbers indicate the preset number in hex.

Chorus and reverb menues

Change the current chorus and reverb modes immediately. These modes may be changed according to MIDI sysex messages.

Key bindings

Options

All the long type options starting double minus '--' are passed to drvmidi program. The other short type options are parsed as Tcl/Tk options. The following two short options are newly added as Tcl/Tk options.

-effect config-file

Specify the path of configuration file for user defined chorus/reverb modes. Note that the file is NOT searched along the soundfont path unlike setfx(1) program.

-mode style

Set playing mode. shuffle, normal, autostart, autoexit and repeat can be specified as the playing mode style.