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<!DOCTYPE book PUBLIC "-//KDE//DTD DocBook XML V4.1-Based Variant V1.0//EN" "dtd/kdex.dtd" [
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<!ENTITY % English "INCLUDE" > <!-- change language only here -->
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<!ENTITY % addindex "IGNORE">
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<book lang="&language;">
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<title>The &kmid; Handbook</title>
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<firstname>Antonio</firstname>
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<surname>Larrosa Jiménez</surname>
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<address><email>larrosa@kde.org</email></address>
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<!-- TRANS:ROLES_OF_TRANSLATORS -->
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<year>1999</year><year>2001</year>
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<holder>Antonio Larrosa Jiménez</holder>
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<date>2001-03-21</date>
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<releaseinfo>2.00.00</releaseinfo>
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&kmid; is a midi/karaoke multimedia player
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<keyword>KMid</keyword>
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<keyword>midi</keyword>
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<keyword>karaoke</keyword>
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<keyword>multimedia</keyword>
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<keyword>mid</keyword>
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<keyword>kar</keyword>
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<keyword>player</keyword>
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<keyword>music</keyword>
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<keyword>sound</keyword>
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<keyword>awe</keyword>
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<keyword>gus</keyword>
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<chapter id="introduction">
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<title>Introduction</title>
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&kmid; is &kde;'s midi and karaoke multimedia player. It features some
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features not found in any other &UNIX; midi player, such as realtime
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graphics and karaoke text highlighting among others.
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&kmid; has been reported to run on &Linux; and FreeBSD operating
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systems. It uses the <acronym>OSS</acronym> sound driver, so it should
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run on every system where &kde; and <acronym>OSS</acronym>
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compile. &kmid; also supports the &Linux; Ultrasound Project Driver ,
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which is required to get sound in <acronym>GUS</acronym> cards. I plan
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to support the <acronym>ALSA</acronym> driver as soon as it supports a
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&kmid; shows the lyrics in the screen changing its color at the same
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time the music is playing, so it is very easy to follow the tune of the
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Hope you find &kmid; as fun to use as I found developing it.
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Antonio Larrosa Jiménez <email>larrosa@kde.org</email>
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<sect1 id="kmids-features">
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<title>&kmid;'s features</title>
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These are some of &kmid;'s main features:
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It has a very <emphasis>friendly user interface</emphasis> to display karaoke
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text with <emphasis>realtime highlighting</emphasis> of lyrics.
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It features a graphical view of what is being played on each midi channel, by
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highlighting the keys pressed in (virtual) keyboards.
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The most powerful <emphasis>Midi Mapper</emphasis> that you will ever find in
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any operating system.
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<emphasis>Drag & drop</emphasis> so you can drop in &kde; any midi file from a
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You can <emphasis>change the tempo</emphasis> of songs to play them slower or
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It shows lights to follow the rhythm of the song.
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<emphasis>Customizable fonts</emphasis> for karaoke text to be displayed.
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Supports the two standards to introduce lyrics in midi files, that is, lyrics or
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text events (and guess which one a song uses automatically).
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Session Management. If a song is playing while you logout from &kde;, the next
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time you login, the same song will start playing.
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<emphasis>Adjustable volume</emphasis> in realtime.
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It can play broken midi files which make other players core dump!
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It can open <emphasis>gzipped midi/karaoke files</emphasis> just as any other
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Consumes approximately <emphasis>0.1%</emphasis> of my
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<acronym>CPU</acronym> (depends on the complexity of the song).
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Supports external midi synths, <acronym>AWE</acronym>, <acronym>FM</acronym> and
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<acronym>GUS</acronym> cards (for the latter you need the <acronym>LUP</acronym>
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driver and gusd installed).
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Runs on &Linux; and FreeBSD (maybe also other unices ...).
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<chapter id="general-usage">
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<title>General usage</title>
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<sect1 id="opening-songs">
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<title>Opening songs</title>
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You can open a song several different ways.
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First, you can select <guimenuitem>Open...</guimenuitem> from the
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<guimenu>File</guimenu> menu, then you are presented with a standard
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open dialog, with which you can select the song you wish to open.
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You can drag a file from a &konqueror; window and drop it in the &kmid; window.
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You can also Drag & Drop multiple songs at the same time.
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If you specify a song in the command line when running &kmid;, it will also be
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And the final way is by selecting the song from the list of songs of the active
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<sect1 id="playing-songs">
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<title>Playing songs</title>
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To play a song, first open it, and then press on the
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<guiicon>Play</guiicon> button of the toolbar, choose the
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<guimenuitem>Play</guimenuitem> entry of the <guimenu>Song</guimenu>
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menu, or just press the <keycap>Space</keycap> key.
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Note that when you open a file using Drag & Drop, &kmid; will start
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playing it automatically (if you drop more than one file, they will be
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added to a collection and they will be played sequencially).
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Once &kmid; is playing a song, you can move the time slider, by pressing
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with the &MMB; mouse button, to go to a specified position.
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If a song is playing too fast or too slow for you, you can press on the
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arrows at both sides of the tempo <acronym>LCD</acronym> and make it
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play faster or slower. To get back to the default tempo, just do a
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double click on the tempo <acronym>LCD</acronym>.
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The <keycap>Space</keycap> key is used for two things, when music is
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playing, and you press the <keycap>Space</keycap> key, it will act as
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when you press on the <guiicon>pause</guiicon> button or the
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<guimenuitem>Pause</guimenuitem> entry of the <guimenu>Song</guimenu>
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menu, that is, it will pause music. If you press the
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<keycap>Space</keycap> key when no music is being played, &kmid; will
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<sect1 id="displaying-lyrics">
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<title>Displaying lyrics</title>
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There are two methods to store lyrics in a song, by using
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<guimenuitem>Text events</guimenuitem> or <guimenuitem>Lyrics
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events</guimenuitem>, some songs use the first, some the second, some
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use both of them, and some don't include lyrics :-)
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&kmid; lets you choose which events to display, and even better, it has
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an option to automatically select the type of events that a song uses,
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so that you don't have to change the type manually . That way, if you
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activate the <guimenuitem>Automatic Text chooser</guimenuitem> entry of
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the <guimenu>Settings</guimenu> menu, the karaoke text will be
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automatically selected, but you can still change them if you prefer to
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To select which type to see, you can use the appropiate entries in the
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<guimenu>Settings</guimenu> menu, or just press the <keycap>1</keycap>
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and <keycap>2</keycap> keys of your keyboard to see the
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<guimenuitem>Text events</guimenuitem> or <guimenuitem>Lyrics
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events</guimenuitem> respectively.
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<chapter id="collections">
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<title>Collections</title>
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A collection is a list of midi files that you put in a set, and which
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are played one after another. This section will help you to use them,
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and will give you some useful tips to make a good use of them.
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<sect1 id="creating-a-collection">
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<title>Creating a collection</title>
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To create a collection, first open the <guilabel>Collections
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Manager</guilabel> dialog, by selecting the <guimenuitem>Organize
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...</guimenuitem> entry of the <guimenu>Collections</guimenu> menu .
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Then click on the <guibutton>New</guibutton> button, and enter the name
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you want the collection to have.
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You can also copy a complete collection by selecting it and then
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pressing the <guibutton>Copy</guibutton> button, which will ask you for
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the name of the new collection that will have initially the same songs
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as the selected collection.
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Once you have more than one collection, you can change the active
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collection from the <guilabel>Collections Manager</guilabel>, by
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<sect1 id="the-temporary-collection">
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<title>The Temporary Collection</title>
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The Temporary Collection is a collection that is used to hold songs you
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want to play but that you don't want to add to any collection.
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This collection is <emphasis>not saved</emphasis> on exit of the
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application, so keep it in mind when you add lots of songs to it.
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Keep on reading this section for a better understanding of the Temporary
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<sect1 id="adding-songs-to-a-collection">
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<title>Adding songs to a collection</title>
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<subtitle>How to use <guimenuitem>AutoAdd to a
346
collection</guimenuitem></subtitle>
349
There are some different ways to add a song to a collection.
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First of all in each method, you must have selected the collection you
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want to add songs to in the <guilabel>Collections Manager</guilabel>.
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Then you can press on the <guibutton>Add</guibutton> button to add a
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song, there will appear an open file dialog so that you can choose which
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The other methods to add a song depend on the state of the
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<guimenuitem>AutoAdd to a collection</guimenuitem> option.
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If <guimenuitem>AutoAdd to a collection</guimenuitem> is enabled, when
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you open a song (using <menuchoice><guimenu>File</guimenu>
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<guimenuitem>Open...</guimenuitem></menuchoice> or Drag & Drop) it
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(they) will be added to the active collection without user intervention.
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If <guimenuitem>AutoAdd to a collection</guimenuitem> is not enabled,
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when you open a song the Temporary Collection will be activated and
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cleared, and the opened songs will be added to it.
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<sect1 id="removing-songs-from-collections">
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<title>Removing songs from collections</title>
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To delete a song from a collection, just open the <guilabel>Collection
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Manager</guilabel>, select the appropiate collection, and the song you
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wish to delete, and then click on the <guibutton>Remove</guibutton>
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<sect1 id="playing-order">
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<title>Playing in order or at random</title>
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You can select the order in which songs will be played . When you select
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<guimenuitem>In order</guimenuitem> mode from the <guisubmenu>Play
398
Order</guisubmenu> submenu of the <guimenu>Collections</guimenu> menu,
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songs will be played in the same order in which they were added to the
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When you select <guimenuitem>Shuffle</guimenuitem> mode, &kmid; will
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generate a random variable with a discrete uniform distribution to
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really play randomly the songs in the collection . It will give values
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to that random variable while generating the list in which order the
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songs will be played (you surely want to play random songs, but don't
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want to play twice the same song, and you want to play the last played
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song when you press on the <guibutton>Previous Song</guibutton> button,
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The random list in which the collection will be played will be
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regenerated each time you add or remove a file in the active collection,
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and when you press on the <guimenuitem>Shuffle mode</guimenuitem> entry
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<sect1 id="selecting-from-a-collection">
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<title>Selecting a song from a collection</title>
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You can select a song to play in the <literal>Collection
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Manager</literal>, or by using the combo box over the karaoke text.
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You can also change to the next song by using the <literal>Next
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Song</literal> entry of the <literal>Song</literal> menu, the
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<literal>Next Song</literal> button of the toolbar, or pressing the
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<literal>right arrow</literal> key.
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To change to the previous song, use the <guimenuitem>Previous
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Song</guimenuitem> entry of the <guimenu>Song</guimenu> menu, the
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<guimenuitem>Previous Song</guimenuitem> button of the toolbar, or press
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the <keycap>left arrow</keycap> key of your keyboard.
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<sect1 id="deleting-a-collection">
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<title>Deleting a collection</title>
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To delete a collection, simply open the <guilabel>Collection
452
Manager</guilabel>, select the collection you want to delete, and click
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on <guibutton>Delete</guibutton>. Easy, it isn't? </para>
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Please keep in mind that you cannot delete the Temporary Collection, but
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it doesn't matter as it is not saved when you quit &kmid;.
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<chapter id="midi-maps">
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<title>Midi Maps</title>
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<sect1 id="what-is-a-midimap">
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<title>What is a midi map ?</title>
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A Midi Map is something that maps midi events in other midi events.
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This is totally needed if a synthesizer doesn't understand the standard
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events (that is, if a synthesizer is not General Midi compliant), in
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this case, a midi map will translate General Midi events in the events
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that that synthesizer understands.
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For example you can make a midi map that converts all the
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<literal>Change patch to Bright Piano</literal> events, to
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<literal>Change patch to Trumpet</literal> events, and so when a song
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tries to play a piano, it will play a trumpet instead.
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This may sound odd, (why playing a trumpet when the song is made to play
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a piano?), but it is very useful. The <acronym>GM</acronym> standard
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specifies that when a midi keyboard receives an event to change patch to
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<literal>0</literal>, it will change the current patch to <literal>Grand
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Piano</literal>, but older synthesizer will change for example to a
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<literal>Electric Guitar</literal> when it receives a
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<literal>0</literal>. This old keyboard, needed to receive a
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<literal>3</literal> (for example) to change to a
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<literal>Piano</literal>. And here comes the midi map in action,
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changing all <literal>change patch to 0</literal> to <literal>change
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patch to 3</literal> and thus really playing the correct instrument when
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<sect1 id="do-i-need-a-midi-map">
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<title>Do I need a midi map ?</title>
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In short, if you don't have an external synth, <emphasis>no</emphasis>!
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If you only have a sound card, midi maps are not needed because all the
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sound cards are <acronym>GM</acronym> compliant (this include AWE cards,
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<acronym>GUS</acronym> cards, <acronym>FM</acronym> devices and so on).
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If you are playing music through an external synthesizer, and it is not
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GM compliant, you will need to make a midi map for your midi keyboard .
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Although you will perhaps be a whole afternoon doing your map file and
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trying different values for all the options, you will be fully rewarded
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when you finish it, because then you will find all the hidden
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possibilities of your keyboard. For example, I have a low-cost Yamaha
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PSS-790, which is not <acronym>GM</acronym> compatible, and doesn't has
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as many instruments as a <acronym>GM</acronym> synthesizer, but with
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&kmid;'s midi mapper, it sounds even better than many soundcards
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(including AWE :-)), due to the sound quality found in external synths
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(even on non <acronym>GM</acronym> compliant ones).
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<sect1 id="creating-a-midi-map">
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<title>Creating a midi map</title>
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There isn't any program to generate midi maps, so you will have to edit a file
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by hand (using your favourite text editor).
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A Midi map is a text file that keeps all the needed translations there will be
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made when playing music.
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It consist of four sections: <literal>PATCHMAP</literal>,
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<literal>KEYMAP</literal>, <literal>CHANNELMAP</literal> and
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<literal>OPTIONS</literal>.
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Each section must appear only once, except the <literal>KEYMAP</literal> section
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that can appear as many times as needed, provided that each appearance use a
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different TextID (continue reading for details).
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The general structure of a map file is:
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<screen>DEFINE PATCHMAP
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DEFINE KEYMAP "Name of Keymap"
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DEFINE KEYMAP "Another Keymap"
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You can see that the <literal>DEFINE</literal> word is used to specify
586
which section is going to be started (except for
587
<literal>OPTIONS</literal>), and <literal>END</literal> is put at the
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end of each section. </para>
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You can put comments by starting the line with a
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<literal>#</literal> character.
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Please, don't forget to send me your map file by email, so that future
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releases of &kmid; will include support for more non General Midi
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<sect2 id="the-patchmap-section">
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<title>The <literal>PATCHMAP</literal> section</title>
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This section is used to specify how patches are going to be mapped, from
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GM to your keyboard specs . The general usage is:
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<screen>(Name of GM Patch name)=(<replaceable>N</replaceable>) [AllKeysTo M]
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Where <replaceable>N</replaceable> is the number that you keyboard needs to
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receive to change the patch to the same that the GM standard does .
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Please note that the left side of the equal sign is ignored, so
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<acronym>GM</acronym> patches are supossed to be in order (from 0 to 127) , and
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so you are not allowed to change the order of the lines nor to omit any of the
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The optional <literal>AllKeysTo M</literal> is used to map all notes
626
that use that instrument to the <literal>M</literal> key . For example,
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suppose that your midi keyboard doesn't have a Gun Shot sound (GM patch
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127) so you want to map it to a percussion drum (i.e. key 60), which
629
sounds similar to a gun shot, then you can put in the 127th line of the
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<literal>PATCHMAP</literal> section:
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<screen>Gunshot =100 AllKeysTo 60</screen>
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So when a midi file tries to play a note with the patch 127 (gun shot), it will
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be mapped to the patch 100 (your keyboard's percussion patch) and play the note
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60 (independently of the key that was goind to be played).
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Please note that when I use the expression <quote>Percussion patch</quote>, I
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mean the patch in which each key plays a different drum, cymbal, tom, maracas
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and so on, and not to a possible sound which some keyboards have and which plays
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a different tone of the same drum with each key.
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<sect2 id="The-keymap-section">
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<title>The <literal>KEYMAP</literal> section</title>
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The <literal>KEYMAP</literal> section is used to specify how keys are
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going to be mapped, within a given channel or instrument . The usage is:
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<screen>DEFINE KEYMAP "Name of Keymap"
668
As with the <literal>PATCHMAP</literal> section, it is very important
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the order of the lines, and that they are all there (the 128 keys).
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As you can define multiple keymaps for different channels and instruments,
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you must give a different name to each one in the first line.
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Keymaps are mainly used to map keys in the percussion channel . Have a
679
look at the distributed maps to see some examples.
684
<sect2 id="the-channelmap-section">
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<title>The <literal>CHANNELMAP</literal> section</title>
688
This section can be used to map some channels to different ones . For
689
example, if you want to swap the first and second channels, you can
690
easily do it within the <literal>CHANNELMAP</literal> section.
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However it is more usefull for keyboards that need the percussion
695
channel to be in a given channel (the GM standard use the channel 10,
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others use the channel 16 and others use channel 9).
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Note that midi devices use 16 channels, so the <literal>CHANNELMAP</literal>
701
section, has 16 lines, from 0 to 15 , as this one:
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<screen>(N) = (M) [Keymap "Name"] [ForcePatch x]
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Where <literal>N</literal> is the channel which is mapped to the
709
<literal>M</literal> channel . If the <literal>Keymap</literal> option
710
is used, the Keymap with name <literal>Name</literal> will be used in
711
this channel (this Keymap should be defined earlier in the map file !) .
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If the <literal>ForcePatch</literal> option is used, all events that try
713
to change the patch which is used in this channel will be ignored, and
714
patch <literal>x</literal> will be used instead.
718
The <literal>ForcePatch</literal> option may be useful for example to
719
always use the percussion patch on the percussion channel.
724
<sect2 id="the-options-section">
725
<title>The <literal>OPTIONS</literal> section</title>
728
The <literal>OPTIONS</literal> section has some general options that can
734
MapExpressionToVolumeEvents
739
You can specify both options, only one, or none of them.
743
The <literal>PitchBenderRatio r</literal> value, has the ratio by which
744
pitch bender events will be multiplied . That is, when a midi file tries
745
to send a pitch bender event with a <literal>n</literal> value, the real
746
value that will be sent is <literal>n*(r/4096)</literal> (the
747
<literal>4096</literal> value is for not having to put decimal points in
752
This is used because the <acronym>GM</acronym> standard says that when a
753
midi keyboard receives a Pitch Bender event with a 4096 data value, it
754
should bend the note to a higher one , but some midi keyboards try to
755
bend the initial note by two or more higher notes (even an octave
756
higher!) when they receive a 4096 . This can be easily fixed by trying
757
different values so that instead of sending a 4096, KMid sends the
762
When the <literal>MapExpressionToVolumeEvents</literal> option is set in
763
the map file, and a midi file try to send an expression event, KMid will
764
send a volume event which is understood by more non-GM keyboards, and
765
which has a similar effect . There are many midi files which use
766
expression events to fade out at the end of a song, so if you feel that
767
music should be heard softer and softer, you can turn on this option and
768
see if this is what you need, because your midi synthesizer could be
769
ignoring the expression events because it doesn't understand them.
776
<sect1 id="using-midimaps">
777
<title>Using midi maps</title>
780
To use a midi map, simply open the <guilabel>Midi Setup</guilabel>
781
dialog by selecting the <guimenuitem>Midi Setup ...</guimenuitem> entry
782
of the <guimenu>Settings</guimenu> menu.
786
Then click on <guilabel>Browse ...</guilabel>, select the map file within the open
787
file dialog and enjoy the music ! :-)
792
<chapter id="advanced-features">
793
<title>Advanced features</title>
795
<sect1 id="the-channel-view">
796
<title>The Channel View</title>
799
The Channel view is a window where you are shown a heap of keyboards (one for
800
each midi channel). In these keyboards, the notes that are being played with
801
each instrument are highlighted so that you can see what is each instrument
805
<sect2 id="changing-instruments">
806
<title>Changing instruments</title>
809
You can use the Channel View to change the instrument that each channel is
810
playing. In each channel there is a combo box where you can select it. Once you
811
change it, the green button next to it will change to red to indicate that this
812
is not the default instrument.
816
If you want to set again the default instrument, click on the red button, and it
817
will be automatically set.
822
<sect2 id="changing-the-look">
823
<title>Changing the look mode</title>
826
The Channel View has two different ways (for now) to display the played notes,
827
you can select them from the <guimenuitem>Channel View Options...</guimenuitem>
828
item in the <guimenu>Settings</guimenu> menu.
832
You can choose between a mode in which played keys are pressed, as if it were a
833
normal piano (<guilabel>3D look</guilabel>), or a mode in which keys are also
834
filled with red color, so that pressed keys are easily recognized (<guilabel>3D
835
- filled</guilabel>). If you play the piano, or any other music instrument, you
836
can use this view to learn to play a song by yourself. I've used this technique
837
and it (along with a tempo reduction) is great to
838
learn new compositions.
845
<sect1 id="the-tempo-lcd">
846
<title>The Tempo <acronym>LCD</acronym></title>
849
This shows the tempo in which a song is played, that is, the velocity of the
850
song. The higher this number is, the faster the song will play.
854
You can also change the tempo of the song, so if a song plays too fast for you
855
to follow the lyrics, you can make it play slower. To change the tempo, you can
856
use the arrows that appear at each sides of the <acronym>LCD</acronym>.
860
Once you have changed the tempo, you can get back the default one by doing a
861
double click on the <acronym>LCD</acronym>.
868
<chapter id="key-bindings">
869
<title>Key bindings</title>
876
<entry>Action</entry>
881
<entry><keycap>Space</keycap></entry>
882
<entry>Play the loaded song, if it isn't playing, or pause it, if it's already
886
<entry><keycap>Backspace</keycap></entry>
887
<entry>Stop playing</entry>
890
<entry><keycap>Right Arrow</keycap></entry>
891
<entry>Next song in current collection</entry>
894
<entry><keycap>Left Arrow</keycap></entry>
895
<entry>Previous song in current collection</entry>
898
<entry><keycap>Up Arrow</keycap></entry>
899
<entry>Scroll lyrics one line up</entry>
902
<entry><keycap>Down Arrow</keycap></entry>
903
<entry>Scroll lyrics one line down</entry>
906
<entry><keycap>Page Up</keycap></entry>
907
<entry>Scroll lyrics one page up</entry>
910
<entry><keycap>Page Down</keycap></entry>
911
<entry>Scroll lyrics one page down</entry>
914
<entry><keycap>1</keycap></entry>
915
<entry>Display text events</entry>
918
<entry><keycap>2</keycap></entry>
919
<entry>Display lyric events</entry>
922
<entry><keycombo action="simul">&Ctrl;<keycap>O</keycap></keycombo></entry>
923
<entry>Open a song</entry>
926
<entry><keycombo action="simul">&Ctrl;<keycap>Q</keycap></keycombo></entry>
927
<entry>Quit &kmid;</entry>
930
<entry><keycap>F1</keycap></entry>
931
<entry>Open this document</entry>
939
<chapter id="frequently-asked-questions">
940
<title>Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)</title>
946
What is exactly a midi file?
951
<para>A Midi file is a file that contains the information on how to play
952
a song, that is, it contains simply the notes, the rhythm,
953
velocity,&etc; This implies that the same midi file, when played in two
954
different devices, can produce very different results, as well as a
955
given staff can be played very differenly by two different musicians.
963
I can get better sound with a mp3/wav player, why should I use &kmid;?
968
Well, I cannot force anyone to use &kmid;, but a typical midi file
969
occupies 50 Kb. while a typical mp3 file occupies 4 Mb. (and that is a
970
1:80 compression ratio :-) . And with a good synthesizer device, you can
971
get a comparable sound quality. Even more, with a midi file, you can
972
change individual instruments, change the velocity of a song, &etc; so
973
you have more overall control.
981
I can't get my AWE card to work with KMid, what can I do?
986
This can happen when you get a binary distribution (rpm, deb) of &kmid;. It
987
happens because &kmid; was compiled without awe support. If it doesn't
988
work, then you must download a source code distribution (for example, from
989
<ulink url="http://www.arrakis.es/~rlarrosa/kmid.html">&kmid;'s homepage</ulink>)
997
I want to add a whole directory to a collection, but having to add the midi
998
files one by one is not funny.
1004
I agree, that's why &kmid; supports Drag & Drop. Just open, in &konqueror;,
1005
the directory you want to add, select all the files, drag them and drop them in
1009
Be sure to set the <guimenuitem>AutoAdd</guimenuitem> option before, so that the
1010
files will be added to the current collection. If you don't do this, files will
1011
be added to the Temporary Collection.
1019
I can't follow the lyrics, it's playing too fast!
1024
You can press the left arrow of the tempo <acronym>LCD</acronym> to make it play
1025
slower. Remember that you can do a double click on the <acronym>LCD</acronym> to
1026
get the default tempo.
1034
<chapter id="final-notes">
1035
<title>Final notes</title>
1037
<sect1 id="some-tips-and-tricks">
1038
<title>Some tips and tricks</title>
1041
I will include some tips so that you can take fully advantage from all
1042
the features of &kmid;:
1047
<term>Opening files</term>
1049
<para>I always keep a &kde; desktop with a &konqueror; window in my root
1050
midi directory, and &kmid; in this desktop (if playing a midi file) or
1051
sticky (if playing a karaoke file :-)). This way, when the active
1052
collection finishes, or I want to play some file, I just go to the
1053
konqueror; window, select the desired files and Drag & Drop to the
1058
Suppose that you want to play some midi files, but don't want to add
1059
them to any collection, well, just turn off the <guimenuitem>AutoAdd to
1060
Collection</guimenuitem> option in the <guimenu>Collections</guimenu>
1061
menu, and open the files, they will be added to the Temporary
1068
<term>Another method to create a new Collection</term>
1071
Suppose that you have midi files <filename>A.mid</filename>,
1072
<filename>B.mid</filename> and <filename>C.mid</filename>. At first you
1073
only want to play the first midi file, so you unselect
1074
<guimenuitem>AutoAdd</guimenuitem> and open
1075
<filename>A.mid</filename>. You get then a Temporary Collection with
1079
Then you decide to play also B and C, and make a collection with all them, what
1083
Easy, select <guimenuitem>AutoAdd</guimenuitem> and open
1084
<filename>B.mid</filename> and <filename>C.mid</filename> (by any of the
1085
multiple methods), they will be automatically added to the Temporary
1086
Collection, that will then have <filename>A.mid</filename>,
1087
<filename>B.mid</filename> and <filename>C.mid</filename>. At this
1088
point, you can open the <guilabel>Organize Collections</guilabel>
1089
dialog, select the Temporary Collection, and click on the
1090
<literal>Copy</literal> button, enter the name of the new collection,
1091
and you are done . You already have a new collection, which holds the
1092
A,B and C midi files, and that is not deleted when you close &kmid;.
1100
<sect1 id="hall-of-kmids-friends">
1101
<title>Hall of &kmid;'s friends</title>
1104
These are some folks who have sent me midi files or a postcard, thanks
1105
to everyone! Hearing those songs and watching those postcards will keep
1106
me programming more and more on &kmid;.
1111
<para>Ola Sigurdson - <literal>Taking Care of Business</literal> (Bachman
1112
Turner Overdrive)</para>
1115
<para>EG Lim - A really very nice postcard from Penang.</para>
1118
<para>Guenther Starnberger - <literal>Amadeus</literal> (Falco) and
1119
<literal>Schrei Nach Liebe</literal> (Die Aerzte)</para>
1122
<para>Leandro Terrés - <literal>All That She Wants</literal> and
1123
<literal>The Sign</literal> (Ace of Base)</para>
1126
<para>Nick Stoic - Two midi files</para>
1132
<sect1 id="about-the-author">
1133
<title>About the author</title>
1136
&kmid; has been made by Antonio Larrosa Jiménez, in Málaga
1137
(Spain). I am a student of Mathematics at the University of
1138
Málaga, currently I'm doing the third course, so I don't have
1139
much free time for my hobbies, but I always try to get some :-) . My
1140
hobbies include : Programming, collecting midi files, playing music and
1141
proving theorems ;-).
1145
If you want to know where to download midi/karaoke files, you have any
1146
question, a bug to report, an idea or a feature you'd like to see in
1147
&kmid; or just want to make me happy, feel free to send me an email to:
1148
<email>larrosa@kde.org</email> or <email>antlarr@arrakis.es</email>
1151
<para>or write to me by snail-mail at:
1154
<literallayout> Antonio Larrosa Jimenez
1160
You will really make me happy if you send me a postcard from where you
1161
live, or a midi/karaoke file from a local music group of your country
1162
. Everyone who sends me a postcard or a midi file will have his/her name
1163
in the Hall of &kmid;'s friends of this file (provided they don't oppose
1164
to this). Please contact me before sending me any midi files because I
1165
may have it already.
1169
I'd like stress that &kmid; has been done completely on free time,
1170
without any monetary support from any company nor particular. So plese
1171
keep in mind when you use it, that the only think that keep me working
1172
on this is getting some feedback from its users (a postcard, or just an
1177
I would like to thanks the following persons their help in developing &kmid;:
1183
Paul J. Leonard <email>P.J.Leonard@bath.ac.uk</email> - Support for AWE
1189
Sebestyen Zoltan <email>szoli@digo.inf.elte.hu</email>- FreeBSD port and
1195
Christian Esken <email>esken@kde.org</email> - For organizing the KDE
1201
Stephan Kulow <email>coolo@kde.org</email>- Configure scripts and help
1202
with <command>automake</command> and <command>CVS</command>
1207
Jaroslav Kysela - Help in doing the &Linux; Ultrasound Project driver
1213
Takashi Iwai and Joseph H. Buehler - Fix for AWE cards pitch being
1219
Adrian Knoth - For giving me good news and many suggestions
1224
Kevin Street - Patch to support FreeBSD 3.0
1229
Thanks go also to Jose Luis Sanchez for his testing of GUS support,
1230
Ignacio Garcia for testing the AWE support, Hans Petter Bieker, Ola
1231
Sigurdson, Marc Diefenbruch, Peter Gritsch, Magnus Pfeffer, Urko Lusa,
1232
Peter-Paul Witta, Thorsten Westheider, Ulrich Cordes and everyone that
1233
sent me a patch, bug report or just an email to give me encouragement.
1238
And of course to all the fabulous musicians over the net that keep giving
1239
us those wonderful midi and karaoke files.
1244
<!-- TRANS:CREDIT_FOR_TRANSLATORS -->
1248
<sect1 id="copyright-and-license">
1249
<title>Copyrights and License</title>
1251
<para>&kmid; is copyright Antonio Larrosa Jiménez, 1999-2001</para>
1253
<para>Documentation is copyright Antonio Larrosa Jiménez 1999,
1263
<appendix id="installation">
1264
<title>Installation</title>
1266
<sect1 id="how-to-obtain-kmid">
1267
<title>How to obtain &kmid;</title>
1270
&kmid; is a core application of the &kde; project <ulink
1271
url="http://www.kde.org">http://www.kde.org</ulink>.
1275
&kmid; can be found on the KDEmultimedia package, which is at <ulink
1276
url="ftp://ftp.kde.org/pub/kde/">ftp://ftp.kde.org/pub/kde/</ulink>, the main
1277
&FTP; site of the &kde; project. You can also download it from any of the many
1278
&FTP; mirrors whose list is at <ulink
1279
url="http://www.kde.org/mirrors.html">http://www.kde.org/mirrors.html</ulink>.
1283
Additionally, &kmid; can be found on its homepage, which is at <ulink
1284
url="http://www.arrakis.es/~rlarrosa/kmid.html">
1285
http://www.arrakis.es/~rlarrosa/kmid.html</ulink>. In the homepage, you can
1286
follow its development, see some information about it, some screenshots, a list
1287
of sites from where you can download more karaoke songs, &etc;
1292
<sect1 id="requirements">
1293
<title>Requirements</title>
1295
<para>&kmid; requires to work:</para>
1300
&kde;. Well, you probably already have this :-)
1305
A sound card. A good soundcard and/or external synthesizer are
1306
recommended, as the sound quality depends greatly in your soundcard,
1307
it's not the same to play the music using an FM device, than using an
1312
If you don't have a soundcard, you can still compile &kmid; with
1313
<literal>MODE_DEMO_ONLYVISUAL</literal> defined and it will run as if
1314
you had one (but you'll get no music, of course :-( ).
1321
<sect1 id="compilation-and-installation">
1322
<title>Compilation and Installation</title>
1324
<para>If you downloaded the KDEmultimedia package, or just the &kmid;
1325
package, to compile &kmid; you must run
1326
<userinput><command>configure</command></userinput>, then
1327
<userinput><command>make</command></userinput> and then, to install it,
1328
<userinput><command>make</command> <option>install</option></userinput>
1329
(most probably, as <systemitem class="username">root</systemitem>).
1333
I've included some examples that are installed in <filename
1334
class="directory">$dollar;<envar>KDEDIR</envar>/share/apps/kmid</filename>
1338
If you run into any problem, don't hesitate to contact any of the &kde; mailing
1339
list, or send a report directly to me.
added
removed
doc/kmid/index.docbook
