tdemultimedia/doc/kmid/index.docbook

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 <!ENTITY kappname "&kmid;">
 <!ENTITY package "tdemultimedia">
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<book lang="&language;">

<bookinfo>
<title>The &kmid; Handbook</title>
<authorgroup>
<author>
<firstname>Antonio</firstname>
<surname>Larrosa Jim&eacute;nez</surname>
<affiliation>
<address><email>larrosa@kde.org</email></address>
</affiliation>
</author>
<!-- TRANS:ROLES_OF_TRANSLATORS -->
</authorgroup>

<copyright>
<year>1999</year><year>2001</year>
<holder>Antonio Larrosa Jim&eacute;nez</holder>
</copyright>

<date>2002-02-05</date>
<releaseinfo>2.00.00</releaseinfo>

<abstract>
<para>
&kmid; is a midi/karaoke multimedia player
</para>
</abstract>

<keywordset>
<keyword>KMid</keyword>
<keyword>midi</keyword>
<keyword>karaoke</keyword>
<keyword>multimedia</keyword>
<keyword>mid</keyword>
<keyword>kar</keyword>
<keyword>player</keyword>
<keyword>music</keyword>
<keyword>sound</keyword>
<keyword>fm</keyword>
<keyword>awe</keyword>
<keyword>gus</keyword>
</keywordset>
</bookinfo>

<chapter id="introduction">
<title>Introduction</title>

<para>
&kmid; is &kde;'s midi and karaoke multimedia player. It features some
features not found in any other &UNIX; midi player, such as realtime
graphics and karaoke text highlighting among others.
</para>

<para>
&kmid; has been reported to run on &Linux; and FreeBSD operating
systems. It uses the <acronym>OSS</acronym> sound driver, so it should
run on every system where &kde; and <acronym>OSS</acronym>
compile. &kmid; also supports the &Linux; Ultrasound Project Driver ,
which is required to get sound in <acronym>GUS</acronym> cards. I plan
to support the <acronym>ALSA</acronym> driver as soon as it supports a
sequencer device.
</para>

<para>
&kmid; shows the lyrics in the screen changing its color at the same
time the music is playing, so it is very easy to follow the tune of the
songs.
</para>

<para>
Hope you find &kmid; as fun to use as I found developing it.
</para>

<para>
Antonio Larrosa Jim&eacute;nez <email>larrosa@kde.org</email>
</para>

<sect1 id="kmids-features">
<title>&kmid;'s features</title>

<para>
These are some of &kmid;'s main features:
</para>
      
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
It has a very <emphasis>friendly user interface</emphasis> to display karaoke
text with <emphasis>realtime highlighting</emphasis> of lyrics.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
It features a graphical view of what is being played on each midi channel, by
highlighting the keys pressed in (virtual) keyboards.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
The most powerful <emphasis>Midi Mapper</emphasis> that you will ever find in
any operating system.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Drag &amp; drop</emphasis> so you can drop in &kde; any midi file from a
&konqueror; window.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
You can <emphasis>change the tempo</emphasis> of songs to play them slower or
faster at your wish.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
It shows lights to follow the rhythm of the song.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Customizable fonts</emphasis> for karaoke text to be displayed.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Supports the two standards to introduce lyrics in midi files, that is, lyrics or
text events (and guess which one a song uses automatically).
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Session Management. If a song is playing while you logout from &kde;, the next
time you login, the same song will start playing.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>Adjustable volume</emphasis> in realtime.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
It can play broken midi files which make other players core dump!
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
It can open <emphasis>gzipped midi/karaoke files</emphasis> just as any other
file.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Consumes approximately <emphasis>0.1&percnt;</emphasis> of my
<acronym>CPU</acronym> (depends on the complexity of the song).
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Supports external midi synths, <acronym>AWE</acronym>, <acronym>FM</acronym> and
<acronym>GUS</acronym> cards (for the latter you need the <acronym>LUP</acronym>
driver and gusd installed).
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Runs on &Linux; and FreeBSD (maybe also other unices ...).
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>

</sect1>
</chapter>

<chapter id="general-usage">
<title>General usage</title>

<sect1 id="opening-songs">
<title>Opening songs</title>

<para>
You can open a song several different ways.
</para>

<para>
First, you can select <guimenuitem>Open...</guimenuitem> from the
<guimenu>File</guimenu> menu, then you are presented with a standard
open dialog, with which you can select the song you wish to open.
</para>

<para>
You can drag a file from a &konqueror; window and drop it in the &kmid; window.
You can also Drag &amp; Drop multiple songs at the same time.
</para>

<para>
If you specify a song in the command line when running &kmid;, it will also be
opened.
</para>

<para>
And the final way is by selecting the song from the list of songs of the active
collection.
</para>

</sect1>

<sect1 id="playing-songs">
<title>Playing songs</title>

<para>
To play a song, first open it, and then press on the
<guiicon>Play</guiicon> button of the toolbar, choose the
<guimenuitem>Play</guimenuitem> entry of the <guimenu>Song</guimenu>
menu, or just press the <keycap>Space</keycap> key.
</para>

<para>
Note that when you open a file using Drag &amp; Drop, &kmid; will start
playing it automatically (if you drop more than one file, they will be
added to a collection and they will be played sequentially).
</para>

<para>
Once &kmid; is playing a song, you can move the time slider, by pressing
with the &MMB; mouse button, to go to a specified position.
</para>

<para>
If a song is playing too fast or too slow for you, you can press on the
arrows at both sides of the tempo <acronym>LCD</acronym> and make it
play faster or slower. To get back to the default tempo, just do a
double click on the tempo <acronym>LCD</acronym>.
</para>

<para>
The <keycap>Space</keycap> key is used for two things, when music is
playing, and you press the <keycap>Space</keycap> key, it will act as
when you press on the <guiicon>pause</guiicon> button or the
<guimenuitem>Pause</guimenuitem> entry of the <guimenu>Song</guimenu>
menu, that is, it will pause music.  If you press the
<keycap>Space</keycap> key when no music is being played, &kmid; will
play it.
</para>

</sect1>

<sect1 id="displaying-lyrics">
<title>Displaying lyrics</title>

<para>
There are two methods to store lyrics in a song, by using
<guimenuitem>Text events</guimenuitem> or <guimenuitem>Lyrics
events</guimenuitem>, some songs use the first, some the second, some
use both of them, and some don't include lyrics :-)
</para>

<para>
&kmid; lets you choose which events to display, and even better, it has
an option to automatically select the type of events that a song uses,
so that you don't have to change the type manually . That way, if you
activate the <guimenuitem>Automatic Text Chooser</guimenuitem> entry of
the <guimenu>Settings</guimenu> menu, the karaoke text will be
automatically selected, but you can still change them if you prefer to
see the other type.
</para>

<para>
To select which type to see, you can use the appropriate entries in the
<guimenu>Settings</guimenu> menu, or just press the <keycap>1</keycap>
and <keycap>2</keycap> keys of your keyboard to see the
<guimenuitem>Text events</guimenuitem> or <guimenuitem>Lyrics
events</guimenuitem> respectively.
</para>

</sect1>

</chapter>

<chapter id="collections">
<title>Collections</title>

<para>
A collection is a list of midi files that you put in a set, and which
are played one after another. This section will help you to use them,
and will give you some useful tips to make a good use of them.
</para>

<sect1 id="creating-a-collection">
<title>Creating a collection</title>

<para>
To create a collection, first open the <guilabel>Collections
Manager</guilabel> dialog, by selecting the <guimenuitem>Organize
...</guimenuitem> entry of the <guimenu>Collections</guimenu> menu .
Then click on the <guibutton>New</guibutton> button, and enter the name
you want the collection to have.
</para>

<para>
You can also copy a complete collection by selecting it and then
pressing the <guibutton>Copy</guibutton> button, which will ask you for
the name of the new collection that will have initially the same songs
as the selected collection.
</para>

<para>
Once you have more than one collection, you can change the active
collection from the <guilabel>Collections Manager</guilabel>, by
selecting it.
</para>

</sect1>
<sect1 id="the-temporary-collection">
<title>The Temporary Collection</title>

<para>
The Temporary Collection is a collection that is used to hold songs you
want to play but that you don't want to add to any collection.
</para>

<para>
This collection is <emphasis>not saved</emphasis> on exit of the
application, so keep it in mind when you add lots of songs to it.
</para>

<para>
Keep on reading this section for a better understanding of the Temporary
Collection.
</para>

</sect1>

<sect1 id="adding-songs-to-a-collection">
<title>Adding songs to a collection</title>
<subtitle>How to use <guimenuitem>AutoAdd to a
collection</guimenuitem></subtitle>

<para>
There are some different ways to add a song to a collection.
</para>

<para>
First of all in each method, you must have selected the collection you
want to add songs to in the <guilabel>Collections Manager</guilabel>.
Then you can press on the <guibutton>Add</guibutton> button to add a
song, there will appear an open file dialog so that you can choose which
song to add.
</para>

<para>
The other methods to add a song depend on the state of the
<guimenuitem>AutoAdd to Collection</guimenuitem> option.
</para>

<para>
If <guimenuitem>AutoAdd to Collection</guimenuitem> is enabled, when
you open a song (using <menuchoice><guimenu>File</guimenu>
<guimenuitem>Open...</guimenuitem></menuchoice> or Drag &amp; Drop) it
(they) will be added to the active collection without user intervention.
</para>

<para>
If <guimenuitem>AutoAdd to Collection</guimenuitem> is not enabled,
when you open a song the Temporary Collection will be activated and
cleared, and the opened songs will be added to it.
</para>

</sect1>

<sect1 id="removing-songs-from-collections">
<title>Removing songs from collections</title>

<para>
To delete a song from a collection, just open the <guilabel>Collection
Manager</guilabel>, select the appropriate collection, and the song you
wish to delete, and then click on the <guibutton>Remove</guibutton>
button.
</para>

</sect1>

<sect1 id="playing-order">
<title>Playing in order or at random</title>

<para>
You can select the order in which songs will be played . When you select
<guimenuitem>In order</guimenuitem> mode from the <guisubmenu>Play
Order</guisubmenu> submenu of the <guimenu>Collections</guimenu> menu,
songs will be played in the same order in which they were added to the
collection.
</para>

<para>
When you select <guimenuitem>Shuffle</guimenuitem> mode, &kmid; will
generate a random variable with a discrete uniform distribution to
really play randomly the songs in the collection .  It will give values
to that random variable while generating the list in which order the
songs will be played (you surely want to play random songs, but don't
want to play twice the same song, and you want to play the last played
song when you press on the <guibutton>Previous Song</guibutton> button,
don't you ? :-) ).
</para>

<para>
The random list in which the collection will be played will be
regenerated each time you add or remove a file in the active collection,
and when you press on the <guimenuitem>Shuffle mode</guimenuitem> entry
of the menu.
</para>

</sect1>

<sect1 id="selecting-from-a-collection">
<title>Selecting a song from a collection</title>

<para>
You can select a song to play in the <literal>Collection
Manager</literal>, or by using the combo box over the karaoke text.
</para>

<para>
You can also change to the next song by using the <literal>Next
Song</literal> entry of the <literal>Song</literal> menu, the
<literal>Next Song</literal> button of the toolbar, or pressing the
<literal>right arrow</literal> key.
</para>

<para>
To change to the previous song, use the <guimenuitem>Previous
Song</guimenuitem> entry of the <guimenu>Song</guimenu> menu, the
<guimenuitem>Previous Song</guimenuitem> button of the toolbar, or press
the <keycap>left arrow</keycap> key of your keyboard.
</para>

</sect1>

<sect1 id="deleting-a-collection">
<title>Deleting a collection</title>

<para>
To delete a collection, simply open the <guilabel>Collection
Manager</guilabel>, select the collection you want to delete, and click
on <guibutton>Delete</guibutton>. Easy, it isn't?  </para>

<para>
Please keep in mind that you cannot delete the Temporary Collection, but
it doesn't matter as it is not saved when you quit &kmid;.
</para>

</sect1>

</chapter>

<chapter id="midi-maps">
<title>Midi Maps</title>

<sect1 id="what-is-a-midimap">
<title>What is a midi map ?</title>

<para>
A Midi Map is something that maps midi events in other midi events.
</para>

<para>
This is totally needed if a synthesizer doesn't understand the standard
events (that is, if a synthesizer is not General Midi compliant), in
this case, a midi map will translate General Midi events in the events
that that synthesizer understands.
</para>

<para>
For example you can make a midi map that converts all the
<literal>Change patch to Bright Piano</literal> events, to
<literal>Change patch to Trumpet</literal> events, and so when a song
tries to play a piano, it will play a trumpet instead.
</para>

<para>
This may sound odd, (why playing a trumpet when the song is made to play
a piano?), but it is very useful. The <acronym>GM</acronym> standard
specifies that when a midi keyboard receives an event to change patch to
<literal>0</literal>, it will change the current patch to <literal>Grand
Piano</literal>, but older synthesizer will change for example to a
<literal>Electric Guitar</literal> when it receives a
<literal>0</literal>. This old keyboard, needed to receive a
<literal>3</literal> (for example) to change to a
<literal>Piano</literal>. And here comes the midi map in action,
changing all <literal>change patch to 0</literal> to <literal>change
patch to 3</literal> and thus really playing the correct instrument when
it has to.
</para>

</sect1>

<sect1 id="do-i-need-a-midi-map">
<title>Do I need a midi map ?</title>

<para>
In short, if you don't have an external synth, <emphasis>no</emphasis>!
</para>

<para>
If you only have a sound card, midi maps are not needed because all the
sound cards are <acronym>GM</acronym> compliant (this include AWE cards,
<acronym>GUS</acronym> cards, <acronym>FM</acronym> devices and so on).
</para>

<para>
If you are playing music through an external synthesizer, and it is not
GM compliant, you will need to make a midi map for your midi keyboard .
Although you will perhaps be a whole afternoon doing your map file and
trying different values for all the options, you will be fully rewarded
when you finish it, because then you will find all the hidden
possibilities of your keyboard. For example, I have a low-cost Yamaha
PSS-790, which is not <acronym>GM</acronym> compatible, and doesn't has
as many instruments as a <acronym>GM</acronym> synthesizer, but with
&kmid;'s midi mapper, it sounds even better than many soundcards
(including AWE :-)), due to the sound quality found in external synths
(even on non <acronym>GM</acronym> compliant ones).
</para>

</sect1>

<sect1 id="creating-a-midi-map">
<title>Creating a midi map</title>

<para>
There isn't any program to generate midi maps, so you will have to edit a file
by hand (using your favorite text editor).
</para>

<para>
A Midi map is a text file that keeps all the needed translations there will be
made when playing music.
</para>

<para>
It consist of four sections: <literal>PATCHMAP</literal>,
<literal>KEYMAP</literal>, <literal>CHANNELMAP</literal> and
<literal>OPTIONS</literal>.
</para>

<para>
Each section must appear only once, except the <literal>KEYMAP</literal> section
that can appear as many times as needed, provided that each appearance use a
different TextID (continue reading for details).
</para>

<para>
The general structure of a map file is:
</para>

<screen>DEFINE PATCHMAP
...
END

DEFINE KEYMAP "Name of Keymap"
...
END

DEFINE KEYMAP "Another Keymap"
...
END

DEFINE CHANNELMAP
...
END

OPTIONS
...
END
</screen>

<para>
You can see that the <literal>DEFINE</literal> word is used to specify
which section is going to be started (except for
<literal>OPTIONS</literal>), and <literal>END</literal> is put at the
end of each section.  </para>

<para>
You can put comments by starting the line with a
<literal>&num;</literal> character.
</para>

<para>
Please, don't forget to send me your map file by email, so that future
releases of &kmid; will include support for more non General Midi
compliant keyboards.
</para>

<sect2 id="the-patchmap-section">
<title>The <literal>PATCHMAP</literal> section</title>

<para>
This section is used to specify how patches are going to be mapped, from
GM to your keyboard specs . The general usage is:
</para>

<screen>(Name of GM Patch name)=(<replaceable>N</replaceable>) [AllKeysTo M]
</screen>

<para>
Where <replaceable>N</replaceable> is the number that you keyboard needs to
receive to change the patch to the same that the GM standard does .
</para>

<para>
Please note that the left side of the equal sign is ignored, so
<acronym>GM</acronym> patches are supposed to be in order (from 0 to 127) , and
so you are not allowed to change the order of the lines nor to omit any of the
128 instruments.
</para>

<para>
The optional <literal>AllKeysTo M</literal> is used to map all notes
that use that instrument to the <literal>M</literal> key . For example,
suppose that your midi keyboard doesn't have a Gun Shot sound (GM patch
127) so you want to map it to a percussion drum (i.e. key 60), which
sounds similar to a gun shot, then you can put in the 127th line of the
<literal>PATCHMAP</literal> section:
</para>

<screen>Gunshot       =100 AllKeysTo 60</screen>


<para>
So when a midi file tries to play a note with the patch 127 (gun shot), it will
be mapped to the patch 100 (your keyboard's percussion patch) and play the note
60 (independently of the key that was going to be played).
</para>

<para>
Please note that when I use the expression <quote>Percussion patch</quote>, I
mean the patch in which each key plays a different drum, cymbal, tom, maracas
and so on, and not to a possible sound which some keyboards have and which plays
a different tone of the same drum with each key.
</para>

</sect2>

<sect2 id="The-keymap-section">
<title>The <literal>KEYMAP</literal> section</title>

<para>
The <literal>KEYMAP</literal> section is used to specify how keys are
going to be mapped, within a given channel or instrument . The usage is:
</para>

<screen>DEFINE KEYMAP "Name of Keymap"
C 0 =0
C#0 =1
D 0 =2
...
END
</screen>

<para>
As with the <literal>PATCHMAP</literal> section, it is very important
the order of the lines, and that they are all there (the 128 keys).
</para>

<para>
As you can define multiple keymaps for different channels and instruments,
you must give a different name to each one in the first line.
</para>

<para>
Keymaps are mainly used to map keys in the percussion channel . Have a
look at the distributed maps to see some examples.
</para>

</sect2>

<sect2 id="the-channelmap-section">
<title>The <literal>CHANNELMAP</literal> section</title>

<para>
This section can be used to map some channels to different ones . For
example, if you want to swap the first and second channels, you can
easily do it within the <literal>CHANNELMAP</literal> section.
</para>

<para>
However it is more useful for keyboards that need the percussion
channel to be in a given channel (the GM standard use the channel 10,
others use the channel 16 and others use channel 9).
</para>

<para>
Note that midi devices use 16 channels, so the <literal>CHANNELMAP</literal>
section, has 16 lines, from 0 to 15 , as this one:
</para>

<screen>(N) = (M) [Keymap "Name"] [ForcePatch x]
</screen>

<para>
Where <literal>N</literal> is the channel which is mapped to the
<literal>M</literal> channel .  If the <literal>Keymap</literal> option
is used, the Keymap with name <literal>Name</literal> will be used in
this channel (this Keymap should be defined earlier in the map file !) .
If the <literal>ForcePatch</literal> option is used, all events that try
to change the patch which is used in this channel will be ignored, and
patch <literal>x</literal> will be used instead.
</para>

<para>
The <literal>ForcePatch</literal> option may be useful for example to
always use the percussion patch on the percussion channel.
</para>

</sect2>

<sect2 id="the-options-section">
<title>The <literal>OPTIONS</literal> section</title>

<para>
The <literal>OPTIONS</literal> section has some general options that can
be very useful:
</para>

<screen>OPTIONS
PitchBenderRatio = r
MapExpressionToVolumeEvents
END
</screen>

<para>
You can specify both options, only one, or none of them.
</para>

<para>
The <literal>PitchBenderRatio r</literal> value, has the ratio by which
pitch bender events will be multiplied . That is, when a midi file tries
to send a pitch bender event with a <literal>n</literal> value, the real
value that will be sent is <literal>n*(r/4096)</literal> (the
<literal>4096</literal> value is for not having to put decimal points in
the map file).
</para>

<para>
This is used because the <acronym>GM</acronym> standard says that when a
midi keyboard receives a Pitch Bender event with a 4096 data value, it
should bend the note to a higher one , but some midi keyboards try to
bend the initial note by two or more higher notes (even an octave
higher!) when they receive a 4096 .  This can be easily fixed by trying
different values so that instead of sending a 4096, KMid sends the
appropriate value.
</para>

<para>
When the <literal>MapExpressionToVolumeEvents</literal> option is set in
the map file, and a midi file try to send an expression event, KMid will
send a volume event which is understood by more non-GM keyboards, and
which has a similar effect .  There are many midi files which use
expression events to fade out at the end of a song, so if you feel that
music should be heard softer and softer, you can turn on this option and
see if this is what you need, because your midi synthesizer could be
ignoring the expression events because it doesn't understand them.
</para>

</sect2>

</sect1>

<sect1 id="using-midimaps">
<title>Using midi maps</title>

<para>
To use a midi map, simply open the <guilabel>Midi Setup</guilabel>
dialog by selecting the <guimenuitem>Midi Setup ...</guimenuitem> entry
of the <guimenu>Settings</guimenu> menu.
</para>

<para>
Then click on <guilabel>Browse ...</guilabel>, select the map file within the open
file dialog and enjoy the music ! :-)
</para>
</sect1>
</chapter>

<chapter id="advanced-features">
<title>Advanced features</title>

<sect1 id="the-channel-view">
<title>The Channel View</title>

<para>
The Channel view is a window where you are shown a heap of keyboards (one for
each midi channel). In these keyboards, the notes that are being played with
each instrument are highlighted so that you can see what is each instrument
playing.
</para>

<sect2 id="changing-instruments">
<title>Changing instruments</title>

<para>
You can use the Channel View to change the instrument that each channel is
playing. In each channel there is a combo box where you can select it. Once you
change it, the green button next to it will change to red to indicate that this
is not the default instrument.
</para>

<para>
If you want to set again the default instrument, click on the red button, and it
will be automatically set.
</para>

</sect2>

<sect2 id="changing-the-look">
<title>Changing the look mode</title>

<para>
The Channel View has two different ways (for now) to display the played notes,
you can select them from the <guimenuitem>Channel View Options...</guimenuitem>
item in the <guimenu>Settings</guimenu> menu.
</para>

<para>
You can choose between a mode in which played keys are pressed, as if it were a
normal piano (<guilabel>3D look</guilabel>), or a mode in which keys are also
filled with red color, so that pressed keys are easily recognized (<guilabel>3D
- filled</guilabel>). If you play the piano, or any other music instrument, you
can use this view to learn to play a song by yourself. I've used this technique
and it (along with a tempo reduction) is great to 
learn new compositions.
</para>

</sect2>

</sect1>

<sect1 id="the-tempo-lcd">
<title>The Tempo <acronym>LCD</acronym></title>

<para>
This shows the tempo in which a song is played, that is, the velocity of the
song. The higher this number is, the faster the song will play.
</para>

<para>
You can also change the tempo of the song, so if a song plays too fast for you
to follow the lyrics, you can make it play slower. To change the tempo, you can
use the arrows that appear at each sides of the <acronym>LCD</acronym>.
</para>

<para>
Once you have changed the tempo, you can get back the default one by doing a
double click on the <acronym>LCD</acronym>.
</para>

</sect1>

</chapter>

<chapter id="key-bindings">
<title>Key bindings</title>

<informaltable>
<tgroup cols="2">
<thead>
<row>
<entry>Key</entry>
<entry>Action</entry>
</row>
</thead>
<tbody>
<row>
<entry><keycap>Space</keycap></entry>
<entry>Play the loaded song, if it isn't playing, or pause it, if it's already
playing.</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><keycap>Backspace</keycap></entry>
<entry>Stop playing</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><keycap>Right Arrow</keycap></entry>
<entry>Next song in current collection</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><keycap>Left Arrow</keycap></entry>
<entry>Previous song in current collection</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><keycap>Up Arrow</keycap></entry>
<entry>Scroll lyrics one line up</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><keycap>Down Arrow</keycap></entry>
<entry>Scroll lyrics one line down</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><keycap>Page Up</keycap></entry>
<entry>Scroll lyrics one page up</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><keycap>Page Down</keycap></entry>
<entry>Scroll lyrics one page down</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><keycap>1</keycap></entry>
<entry>Display text events</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><keycap>2</keycap></entry>
<entry>Display lyric events</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><keycombo action="simul">&Ctrl;<keycap>O</keycap></keycombo></entry>
<entry>Open a song</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><keycombo action="simul">&Ctrl;<keycap>Q</keycap></keycombo></entry>
<entry>Quit &kmid;</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><keycap>F1</keycap></entry>
<entry>Open this document</entry>
</row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</informaltable>

</chapter>

<chapter id="frequently-asked-questions">
<title>Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)</title>

<qandaset>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
What is exactly a midi file?
</para>
</question>

<answer>
<para>A Midi file is a file that contains the information on how to play
a song, that is, it contains simply the notes, the rhythm,
velocity,&etc; This implies that the same midi file, when played in two
different devices, can produce very different results, as well as a
given staff can be played very differently by two different musicians.
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>

<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
I can get better sound with a mp3/wav player, why should I use &kmid;?
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
Well, I cannot force anyone to use &kmid;, but a typical midi file
occupies 50 Kb. while a typical mp3 file occupies 4 Mb. (and that is a
1:80 compression ratio :-) . And with a good synthesizer device, you can
get a comparable sound quality. Even more, with a midi file, you can
change individual instruments, change the velocity of a song, &etc; so
you have more overall control.
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>

<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
I can't get my AWE card to work with KMid, what can I do?
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
This can happen when you get a binary distribution (rpm, deb) of &kmid;. It
happens because &kmid; was compiled without awe support. If it doesn't 
work, then you must download a source code distribution (for example, from
<ulink url="http://www.arrakis.es/~rlarrosa/kmid.html">&kmid;'s homepage</ulink>)
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>

<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
I want to add a whole folder to a collection, but having to add the midi
files one by one is not funny.
</para>
</question>

<answer>
<para>
I agree, that's why &kmid; supports Drag &amp; Drop. Just open, in &konqueror;,
the folder you want to add, select all the files, drag them and drop them in
&kmid;.
</para>
<para>
Be sure to set the <guimenuitem>AutoAdd to Collection</guimenuitem> option before, so that the
files will be added to the current collection. If you don't do this, files will
be added to the Temporary Collection.
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>

<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>
I can't follow the lyrics, it's playing too fast!
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
You can press the left arrow of the tempo <acronym>LCD</acronym> to make it play
slower. Remember that you can do a double click on the <acronym>LCD</acronym> to
get the default tempo.
</para> 
</answer>
</qandaentry>
</qandaset>

</chapter>

<chapter id="final-notes">
<title>Final notes</title>

<sect1 id="some-tips-and-tricks">
<title>Some tips and tricks</title>

<para>
I will include some tips so that you can take fully advantage from all
the features of &kmid;:
</para>

<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term>Opening files</term>
<listitem>
<para>I always keep a &kde; desktop with a &konqueror; window in my root
midi folder, and &kmid; in this desktop (if playing a midi file) or
sticky (if playing a karaoke file :-)). This way, when the active
collection finishes, or I want to play some file, I just go to the
konqueror; window, select the desired files and Drag &amp; Drop to the
&kmid;'s window.
</para>

<para>
Suppose that you want to play some midi files, but don't want to add
them to any collection, well, just turn off the <guimenuitem>AutoAdd to
Collection</guimenuitem> option in the <guimenu>Collections</guimenu>
menu, and open the files, they will be added to the Temporary
Collection.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term>Another method to create a new Collection</term>
<listitem>
<para>
Suppose that you have midi files <filename>A.mid</filename>,
<filename>B.mid</filename> and <filename>C.mid</filename>. At first you
only want to play the first midi file, so you unselect
<guimenuitem>AutoAdd</guimenuitem> and open
<filename>A.mid</filename>. You get then a Temporary Collection with
only one midi file.
</para>
<para>
Then you decide to play also B and C, and make a collection with all them, what
do you do?
</para>
<para>
Easy, select <guimenuitem>AutoAdd</guimenuitem> and open
<filename>B.mid</filename> and <filename>C.mid</filename> (by any of the
multiple methods), they will be automatically added to the Temporary
Collection, that will then have <filename>A.mid</filename>,
<filename>B.mid</filename> and <filename>C.mid</filename>. At this
point, you can open the <guilabel>Organize Collections</guilabel>
dialog, select the Temporary Collection, and click on the
<literal>Copy</literal> button, enter the name of the new collection,
and you are done .  You already have a new collection, which holds the
A,B and C midi files, and that is not deleted when you close &kmid;.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>

</sect1>

<sect1 id="hall-of-kmids-friends">
<title>Hall of &kmid;'s friends</title>

<para>
These are some folks who have sent me midi files or a postcard, thanks
to everyone!  Hearing those songs and watching those postcards will keep
me programming more and more on &kmid;.
</para>

<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>Ola Sigurdson  - <literal>Taking Care of Business</literal> (Bachman
Turner Overdrive)</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>EG Lim - A really very nice postcard from Penang.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Guenther Starnberger - <literal>Amadeus</literal> (Falco) and
<literal>Schrei Nach Liebe</literal> (Die Aerzte)</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Leandro Terr&eacute;s - <literal>All That She Wants</literal> and
<literal>The Sign</literal> (Ace of Base)</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Nick Stoic - Two midi files</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>

</sect1>

<sect1 id="about-the-author">
<title>About the author</title>

<para>
&kmid; has been made by Antonio Larrosa Jim&eacute;nez, in M&aacute;laga
(Spain).  I am a student of Mathematics at the University of
M&aacute;laga, currently I'm doing the third course, so I don't have
much free time for my hobbies, but I always try to get some :-) . My
hobbies include : Programming, collecting midi files, playing music and
proving theorems ;-).
</para>

<para>
If you  want to know where to  download midi/karaoke files, you have any
question,  a bug to report, an  idea or a feature  you'd  like to see in
&kmid; or just want to make me happy, feel free  to send me an email to:
<email>larrosa@kde.org</email> or <email>antlarr@arrakis.es</email>
</para>

<para>or write to me by snail-mail at:
</para>

<literallayout> Antonio Larrosa Jimenez
Rio Arnoya 10 5B
Malaga (Spain)
</literallayout>

<para>
You will really make me happy if you send me a postcard from where you
live, or a midi/karaoke file from a local music group of your country
. Everyone who sends me a postcard or a midi file will have his/her name
in the Hall of &kmid;'s friends of this file (provided they don't oppose
to this). Please contact me before sending me any midi files because I
may have it already.
</para>

<para>
I'd like stress that &kmid; has been done completely on free time,
without any monetary support from any company nor particular. So please
keep in mind when you use it, that the only think that keep me working
on this is getting some feedback from its users (a postcard, or just an
email).
</para>

<para>
I would like to thanks the following persons their help in developing &kmid;:
</para>

<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
Paul J. Leonard <email>P.J.Leonard@bath.ac.uk</email> - Support for AWE
cards
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Sebestyen Zoltan <email>szoli@digo.inf.elte.hu</email>- FreeBSD port and
AWE testing
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Christian Esken <email>esken@kde.org</email> - For organizing the KDE
multimedia efforts
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Stephan Kulow <email>coolo@kde.org</email>- Configure scripts and help
with <command>automake</command> and <command>CVS</command>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Jaroslav Kysela - Help in doing the &Linux; Ultrasound Project driver
support
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Takashi Iwai and Joseph H. Buehler    - Fix for AWE cards pitch being
too high 
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Adrian Knoth     - For giving me good news and many suggestions
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Kevin Street     - Patch to support FreeBSD 3.0
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Thanks go also to Jose Luis Sanchez for his testing of GUS support,
Ignacio Garcia for testing the AWE support, Hans Petter Bieker, Ola
Sigurdson, Marc Diefenbruch, Peter Gritsch, Magnus Pfeffer, Urko Lusa,
Peter-Paul Witta, Thorsten Westheider, Ulrich Cordes and everyone that
sent me a patch, bug report or just an email to give me encouragement.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
And of course to all the fabulous musicians over the net that keep giving
us those wonderful midi and karaoke files.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>

<!-- TRANS:CREDIT_FOR_TRANSLATORS -->

</sect1>

<sect1 id="copyright-and-license">
<title>Copyrights and License</title>

<para>&kmid; is copyright Antonio Larrosa Jim&eacute;nez, 1999-2001</para>

<para>Documentation is copyright Antonio Larrosa Jim&eacute;nez 1999,
2001</para>

&underFDL;
&underGPL;

</sect1>

</chapter>

<appendix id="installation">
<title>Installation</title>

<sect1 id="how-to-obtain-kmid">
<title>How to obtain &kmid;</title>

&install.intro.documentation;

<para>
Additionally, &kmid; can be found on its homepage, which is at <ulink
url="http://www.arrakis.es/~rlarrosa/kmid.html">
http://www.arrakis.es/~rlarrosa/kmid.html</ulink>.  In the homepage, you can
follow its development, see some information about it, some screenshots, a list
of sites from where you can download more karaoke songs, &etc;
</para>

</sect1>

<sect1 id="requirements">
<title>Requirements</title>

<para>&kmid; requires to work:</para>

<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
&kde;.  Well, you probably already have this :-)
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
A sound card.  A good soundcard and/or external synthesizer are
recommended, as the sound quality depends greatly in your soundcard,
it's not the same to play the music using an FM device, than using an
AWE card.
</para>

<para>
If you don't have a soundcard, you can still compile &kmid; with
<literal>MODE_DEMO_ONLYVISUAL</literal> defined and it will run as if
you had one (but you'll get no music, of course :-( ).
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>

</sect1>

<sect1 id="compilation-and-installation">
<title>Compilation and Installation</title>

&install.compile.documentation;

<para>
I've included some examples that are installed in <filename
class="directory">$dollar;<envar>TDEDIR</envar>/share/apps/kmid</filename>
</para>

<para>
If you run into any problem, don't hesitate to contact any of the &kde; mailing
list, or send a report directly to me.
</para>

</sect1>

</appendix>

</book>
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