MIDI, Music, Audio

Have just started experimenting with running RISC OS on a Raspberry PI. As one of the many that grew up marvelling at my school’s Archimides computers, the combination of hardware and OS is appealing – I always hoped that the future would be RISC / ARM based…

One of the main things I use other computers for these days is messing about with synthesisers, recording audio and controlling stuff via MIDI.

Somewhere on here there’s a post asking whether anyone’s interested in MIDI stuff in RISCOS (I seem to have lost the post) and also requests to support USB midi. I wondered whether the board below would make more sense?

https://www.osaelectronics.com/product/midi-board-for-raspberry-pi/

Just wondered whether anyone had managed anything to do anything useful musically with a modern RISCOS setup, and whether there is anything out there for me to experiment with. Apologies in advance for being a noob.

Hey Tom,
welcome to the forum! :)

Indeed there are a few here interested in MIDI music production on RISC OS. I own a recording studio and still use the old Archies and RiscPCs to create MIDI music.

RISC OS 5 has finally a proper USBMIDI Driver, thanks to Rick Murray and Dave Hinton and the even better news is they made the sources available.

The bad news is there isn’t any MIDI tracker yet available for RISC OS 5 and the Pi. I started to plan some coding on the matter, but got stuck with other things I am already developing for RO 5.

If you want a music composition software on RO 5 you can use PMS, which is available for free and should also be available on !Store (IIRC). PMS is 32bit and runs on the Pi.

You can also play with the retro MIDI Stuff using an emulator called ArchiEmu which support Rick and Dave’s USBMIDI and (given it supports ADFS too) can run the uber famous Sibellius and can also run all the other software like Rhapsody, MIDIWorks, MelMIDI, Serenade etc.

MIDIBoard for the Pi, needs a MIDI driver like SerialMIDI IIRC for which I do not have the sources to 32bit them.

While with USBMIDI you can use any modern USB based MIDI device, I use the Roland UM-ONE which work really well. Other cheaper USB MIDI interface have been seen having issues, so be warned.

MIDIBoard for the Pi, needs a MIDI driver like SerialMIDI

Are you talking about serial port Midi? I have a python program that could send midi to a sound module over serial protocol 38400. (unlike using the i/o to replicate proper midi)

Hey,
I’m also interested in music on RISC OS.
I use an ARMX6 and the very nice Rick / Dave module.
I opted for a USB MIDI box ( Steinberg UR22MKII )which allows me to have a MIDI interface with DIN sockets because I have old expanders.
You can use a USB MIDI interface at the same time, the module can manage 4 MIDI ports.
The UR22MKII also allows me to record wav audio that I can edit with ProSound or StudioSnd (Henrik B Pedersen).
!Player is good to listen MIDI Files and is ok with USBMIDI module

Music composition
I play the violin and I need to edit scores, I use Rhapsody4 (32-bit version therefore without emulator). This allows me also to grab MIDI files and edit them. And important !Sharpeye (Music recognition) works very well with Rhapsody4.
!PMS is good but not interactive.

With Aemulator I use !MelIDI which works correctly with the USBMIDI module, unfortunately I only have the demo…

Thanks Paolo for reporting Roland UM-ONE interface, it is not more expensive than the MIDI kit for RPi and it can be used with any computer.

What we lack is a MIDI synthesizer for people who don’t have an expander, there is a 26-bit version! MidiSynth, but I can’t get it to work with Aemulator.

The sequencers are only 26 bits …

@ Ronald

Are you talking about serial port Midi?

Yes. The reason I mention the original TheSerial Port SerialMIDI driver is because it could be used with ArchiEmu and Aemulor with the legacy software. Of course with the serial port one could do something also in BBC BASIC, but why add more complexity to a user-space application that should, instead, dealing with graphic elements like a music score or the tracker outputs?

Anyway, for MIDI over serial usign the GPIO more details here: https://www.riscosopen.org/forum/forums/5/topics/1444

@ Jean-Michel

I play the violin and I need to edit scores, I use Rhapsody4 (32-bit version therefore without emulator).

Did you test Rhapsody 4 32bit on a Pi4? AFAIR it works only on the Pi1 when the Pi1 is used in a more compatible mode (basically when it act like an Iyonix for which R4 32bit was made).

Thanks Paolo for reporting Roland UM-ONE interface, it is not more expensive than the MIDI kit for RPi and it can be used with any computer.

No problem, I am also testing it with an AxiomPro 61 (which has both traditional MIDI Din and USB MIDI), but that is probably beyond scope of many here.

With Aemulator I use !MelIDI which works correctly with the USBMIDI module, unfortunately I only have the demo…

Great catch! I totally forgot about Aemulor in combination with Rick’s and Dave’s USBMIDI driver which is also good for some of the old stuff.

Did you test Rhapsody 4 32bit on a Pi4?

Can’t speak for a Pi 4, but it does work on an ARMv7 Pi2. I know, it’s what I’m using.

I did fix a few quirks in the playback library, used by the standalone MIDI player (and fed that back to JM).

Isn’t it all written in BASIC anyway?

the MIDI kit for RPi

What I didn’t like about the OSA device is that there was no (that I could see) mention of what chip actually does the MIDI. The two visible on the top of the board are an opto isolator, and a quad line driver (if I recall correctly). But the MIDI, USB widget? SPI? Bit bashing the Pi serial port? How does it work?

The USBMIDI driver has some degree of support also for 3C ¹ interfaces, in that it’ll stall output so the output buffer doesn’t get swamped, but note that these tend to saturate with more than five or six concurrent notes and will simply die if handed SysEx packets.
But, if it’s all you have, you’ll get something out of it…

¹ Cheap Chinese Crap

Paolo

Did you test Rhapsody 4 32bit on a Pi4? AFAIR it works only on the Pi1 when the Pi1 is used in a more compatible mode (basically when it act like an Iyonix for which R4 32bit was made).

Thanks for this feedback,
As Rick says the program is 99.99% written in Basic so it should work on other platforms. I know it even works on a Mac with emulator (Richard Hallas).

You must have error messages?
At startup / score display / control panel, etc?
I know three people who use it regularly, known ARMX6 I think .. I may have a Pi3 (to check)
I keep improving the program and use it often.

Thanks Rick for testing and support.
I agree with your for CCC
A full 32 bit version of MelIdi would be welcome (even a 24 bit) the program is stable with Aemulator.
In principle MelIDI should be free?

Where can I find the SerialMIDI module (24 bit)?

@ Rick

Isn’t it all written in BASIC anyway?

My copy is an Absolute executable…

P.S. did a quick check with ExtractBas, but it seems to be a proper executable, need to check if it has been compiled with !ABC or something, no idea yet.

[edit]
The Absolute file runs on my Raspberry Pi 3B+ (tomorrow I’ll test it on the Pi 4 :))))))
[/edit]

@ Jean-Michel

You must have error messages?
At startup / score display / control panel, etc?

For some reasons I remember it crashing, but when run tests WITHOUT using MIDISupp it worked fine on my Pi 3B+, tomorrow I’ll give it a test on the Pi 4

The one crashing was MIDISupp, which obviously is not 32bit (it’s 32bit Iyonix and with drivers that do not seems to be 32bit Iyonix, messy).

@ Jean-Michel

Where can I find the SerialMIDI module (24 bit)?

I have both ParallelMIDI and SerialMIDI, if you have ChatCube or Discord I can give you my copy, ESP is no more and I don’t think these two drivers are of “commercial” interest anymore, plus I think ROOL should have the sources for both (although if they may be in some sort of BBC BASIC ASM form as sources)

BTW did you mean 26 bit?

Can i get a copy of these modules to please see you on chatcube i have been trying to get a 32bit Synthplus for years i contacted Alan Gibson about it and he said that he would send me a copy but it never came.

@ Rob

sent :)

@ Paolo
I think you don’t have the right version of Rhapsody4. In fact I converted it and corrected it in 32 bits version and it is available “here”: https://jeanmichelb.riscos.fr/Rhapsody4.html
Hope Rhapsody will work on your RPi4, thanks for the feed back

I have never tested ChatCube, this will be a good opportunity.
But I am interested in these 2 modules.
ESP Midi Support is 32bit and seems very interesting to me, it would allow the use of an internal syntheMidi and a USB expander + monitoring.

@ Jean-Michel

I think you don’t have the right version of Rhapsody4.

Haaa thanks! I have the last official release commercialised by Dave Holden.

I have never tested ChatCube, this will be a good opportunity.

I am thinking it may be worth to create a MIDI Music room on ChatCube, looks like we are more than just you and me here :D
How’s that sound everyone?

Okay, I don’t have my fixes (they’re on the other machine and it isn’t hooked up because advent calendars) so it’s a vanilla install of JM’s version of Rhapsody.

“Worked” on my Pi 3B+. I say that in quotes as there was no sound nor keyboard connected. However it started up, loaded the “Wind of Change” (Scorpions) MIDI file, translating it to Rhapsody form, and the notation moved at the correct speed when asked to play it.

So, that’s ARMv6 (Pi 1), ARMv7 (Pi 2.0), ARMv8 (Pi 3B+). I don’t imagine there will be any particular issue with a Pi 4/400/etc. It’s BASIC, after all.

@ Rick

Thanks for the info, I would like to have your fixes (also to avoid having to re-do anything that has already been done!). I can wait, as mentioned many times, the equipment I use for music production still runs on the old systems.

@Paolo

Haaa thanks! I have the last official release commercialised by Dave Holden.

I bought this version almost 4 years ago and I was very disappointed because it didn’t work, I was looking to replace Sibelius and I already had SharpEye, my RiscPc still works…
Note: The software belongs to J.O.Linton, not to APDL and I have his permission to distribute it. It would have been a real shame to give it up.

Rhapsody4 installation is very easy to update, there are files that evolve like the fixes that Rick offers.
Rhapsody4 is well built, fortunately, the player communicates by message with Rhapsody4 and it can be improved separately.

This morning I made changes in Rhapsody4, the main program, there was a source of bugs when editing the hairpins, no easy to find in a crunched basic program.
Feed back is welcome for Rhapsody to improve it, it already has a lot of possibilities…
Rhapsody4 is really interesting with MIDI equipment, while waiting for an internal MIDI synthesizer…

I’m not a Chat specialist….I logged in and tried to send a message, Ok for a Music Room

@ Jean-Michel

Note: The software belongs to J.O.Linton, not to APDL and I have his permission to distribute it. It would have been a real shame to give it up.

Of course, I just mentioned where Ibought my copy from.

I’m not a Chat specialist….I logged in and tried to send a message, Ok for a Music Room

I’ll check in a bit and send you the zip on the chat you’ve opened to send me a message.
Thx

Rhapsody 4 works very well here (Raspberrypi 4, XM3 from Serdaco in Belgium; X3m module directly connects to an USB port and converts MIDI to sound; USBMidi required)
@ Jean-Michel, since you are interested in feedback, can this help? They do not appear to influence correct working but my editor (reggraph) complains (www.tellima.nl/riscos).
Linenumbers updated/corrected for the current Rhap4_220906 distribution.
In Rhapsody4 !Runimage:
Swap lines 2229 and 2230 to make them read – 2229 ENDCASE 2230 ENDIF. Otherwise too many warnings (non-balanced ENDIFs and CASE/ENDCASE’s) (at the end of PROCck)
line 00644 : Warning: FNUe ends with ‘ENDPROC’ maybe this is intentional?? after an ‘On Error’
line 04476 : Warning: FNnr ends with ‘ENDPROC’
line 06553 : Warning: FNzr ends with ‘ENDPROC’
line 07655 : Warning: FNRw ends with ‘ENDPROC’
line 01237 : FNHi more than once DEFined (not an error because the first copy is used, but confusing)
line 02874 : FNMn more than once DEFined
line 01285 : Number of parameters not the same for every PROCn_ (if you delete this copy of the procedure, the error disappears of course)
line 01258 : PROCn_ more than once DEFined.
There are some more as apparently the cruncher had forgotten to insert a space between a subroutinename or a real variable and a following (untokenised) keyword (lines 8927, 3653, 7625, 6083, 6656, 3545, 8393) or between a hexadecimal and ‘ELSE’ (line 8477).

Rhapsody4.Resources.R4player32: line 1999 at the end of the line,..CASE TRUE OF instead of CASEb5 ???

Rhapsody4.Resources.R4player3200: line 1902, at the end of the line, CASE TRUE OF instead of CASEV5 ???

Again, thanks for this superb program!

I wonder if Rhapsody4 RunImage has been ‘unsqueezed’ and still works?

Are there a list of Midi / Sound modules that still need 32 bitting?

@Jan
Thanks for feed back, I don’t know how you got this information but it is welcome. I will use them.
Thank you also for the test on RPi4, it is good to specify the hardware used, the connectivity and the compatibility.
At the moment there is no working MIDI Synth in RISC OS and those who want to use Rhapsody4 will be limited, so an external MIDI solution is interesting.

@Colin
Following on from the previous sentence, there are conversions to be made for MIDISynth from ESP which works very well on my Risc PC.
I started a conversion in contact with the ROOL Team which holds the ESP documents, but unfortunately there is not all the source code…

@Jean-Michel: I have downloaded the Rhapsody zip from your website for trial with Rick’s MIDI on both ARMX6 and Pi 400.

With Aemulor, Rhapsody2 loads and appears to work on the ARMX6 but errors with ADT in WindowManager on the Pi.

But Rhapsody4 gives either an ADT in BASIC or reports an incorrect path (contains #s) to the Tones subdirectory.

Recent OS 5.29 on both machines.

Any suggestions?

With respect to Rhapsody 4, could you please be more specific about the exact error messages received? (What Tones directory?!? Do you mean Voices?)

For reference, I do my stuff on a Pi 2 or 3B+ using a version of RISC OS that’s about a year old. The program is BASIC, so I wonder what might be causing the abort.

Hi Bernard and Rick
Rhapsody2 works without emulator and Rhapsody4 too.
As Rick says: “The program is BASIC, so I wonder what might be causing the abort.”

With the installation There is a program !Voices which contains additional voices, it must be installed in Boot.Resources to be seen at startup.
Rhapsody4 will use these internal sounds if you ask it.
Recently Pete Averret created a module that allows you to have MIDI osns without using an external expander.

Rick’s module and Pete’s module are exclusive (they have the same name). I have the chance to have a MIDI interface and a Roland expander and with Rick’s module it works very well, nice.

I don’t know what the ADT error means, sorry.
I use Rhapsody4 almost every day without problems (almost) and I keep improving it. There are also other users
Rhapsody2 can import Maestro files and with the distribution there is a utility to transcribe Rhapsody2 files into Rhapsody4.

If you need help don’t hesitate, glad to have !Rhapsody users.