DSL Ideas and Suggestions :: Muso's Edition

Just started toying with DSL and absolutely love it! Props to all involved!

I'd really like to see a couple of specifics added - which I will work on as time permits. This could be a great solution for Live Musicians who use MIDI. To be such it needs a midi serial device driver and playback software (preferably karaoke midi capable to display lyrics etc).

I've been looking for something that will act as a backup tool. You've no doubt seen solo muso's around the bars and clubs with crappy old laptops running some form of windows to play back midi files. The worst thing that could happen in the middle of a show is the computer dies! With DSL and their files set up on CD, the muso could effectively grab any computer and get back up and running quickly.

Most of them have soundcards or equipment that can be driven by serial. There are a few serial device midi drivers out there for Linux - that I am aware of:

http://michaelminn.com/linux/notemidi/README.html and
http://crystal.apana.org.au/ghansper/MidiAxis.html

I will hopefully get a 'roll your own' version happening soon, but, with limited Linux knowledge, any help from a guru interested in music will be very welcome.

Klaus

original here.