KMidi is part of the KDE project http://www.kde.org. KMidi can be found on ftp://ftp.kde.org/pub/kde/, the main ftp site of the KDE project. It's home site is http://math.cornell.edu/~wuebben/kde.html
In order to successfully compile KMidi, you need the latest versions of libkdecore
and libkdeui
. All required libraries as well as KMidi itself can be found
on
ftp://ftp.kde.org/pub/kde/.
If you have Timidity already installed be sure to back up your configuration file since by default KMidi will overwrite them!
% ./configure
% make
% make install
% make install-patch ( if this is your first installation )
Should you run into problems please report them to me.
Dan Hollis has put together a patch set. Please visit his page at, http://www.anime.net/~goemon/timidity and help him make this the best set available.
Patches can also be found packaged as dep or rpm modules on the Sunsite archives:
I have not tried the above (yet), and personally use the Midia patch set together with a few additional patches and a couple of additional drum sets.
The Midia patch set can be found at: ftp://archive.cs.umbc.edu/pub/midia/
For additional patches and drum sets: (get the gsdrum and wow patches) ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/gus/sound/patches/files/
Vincent Pagel has put together a collection of patches. This link can only be reached during night hours (Paris). ftp://sig.enst.fr/pub/midi/instruments/
The config file that goes with his patch set can be found here: ftp://sig.enst.fr/pub/midi/timidity_pagel.cfg
Also check the TimidityPage: http://www.clinet.fi/~toivonen/timidity/
and Takahis's Page: http://bahamut.mm.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~iwai/midi.html#TiMidity
Each of the above patch sets ( you need only one) should come with a .cfg configuration file similar to the .cfg files which come with KMidi and reside in /usr/local/lib/timdity
KMidi has configurations files ready made for you for a number of common patch sets, such as the media patch set.
In order to complete the installation of a complete patch set edit timidity.cfg and source the appropriate config files for the patch set/sets you downloaded. ( If you have a look at timidity.cfg it will be totally obvious what I am talking about)
That's it. Now you can go head an play the other midis that are in the KMidi distribution ( and any others of course)
Ocassionally you will see that K Midi can't find a patch for a particular instrument. ( Open the Info Window in order to see this information ) In that case, all you have to do is go out and get yourself the missing patch and install it by moving the patch into the /patch directory and editing your patch set .cf file to tell KMidi that the new patch is available now.
Sometimes a particular instrument doesn't sound all that well. In that case, simply go out and get yourself a different patch from any of the Ultrasound archives and replace the not so optimal patch by a better one. As you can see, it is totally up to you how good every instrument will sound. You can even make your own patches with the pat2wav utility which is included in the KMidi distribution.