From: dohm@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Peter J Dohm)
Subject: "playmidi -udebug" -> *contradiction* ??
Summary: Playmidi -udebug shows nice info, but also some potentially bad news
Organization: The Ohio State University
Distribution: comp
Date: Sun, 13 Dec 1992 09:05:41 GMT

Hi all...
I've noticed a few other people found that playing with:

 playmidi -udebug file.mid

shows 20 numbers across the top of the screen.  I hate to be the bringer
of potentially bad tidings, but I noticed this earlier today without
reading about it, and experimented a little bit.  Well, here's what I
came up with (supported by proof afterwards):

The letters c1 - c16 are "bar graphs" that show the approximate sound
intensity of the channels (from as best as I can figure... sometimes with
only one track, *nothing* is displayed which kinda makes me wonder)

The Numbers 1 - 20 on the top portion are the status indicators for the
voices that the card has at it's disposal.  The midi player seems to start
at an initial voice, then sort of cascade through the voices.. kinda hard
to explain what happens when a more complex midi file is played.  just look
at it yourself...

(NOTE: this may be a limitation of either the midi interface to the card, or
the playmidi program itself.  I'm not sure which, but it would be nice to
hear what gravis has to say)

To prove that this is indeed what's happening, I tried the following:

I created a quick little midi file that plays a *very* audible first tone,
then fills up the number 2-20 spots with quieter, less audible tones.  Then,
the 21'st is selected to be obviously very different from #1, and Lo and
behold... number one cuts out.  We, therefore, have only 20 note polyphonic.

Graphically:

sustain a note, you get an x like such:

1  2  3  4  5  . . . 19  20
X

Then, the next note that is played goes into the 2nd, and so on (if they're
sustained) until we get to 20.  Now, if you play one more after the 20'th,
the first sound will cease, and will be replaced by the new pitch/sound...

I have not tried this under windows yet, (i will later on and if i find that
the same happens, i will NOT post any follow-up.  If this problem is not
reproduced using windows, I WILL follow-up my article with that news...)

Finally, I am including this little midi so that you call can see this for
yer'selves.

begin 644 test.mid
M351H9`````8````"``%-5')K````&0#_6`0$`@((`/]9`@```/]1`PMQL`#_
M+P!-5')K````?`#_`Q!2:6=H="!(86YD(%!I86YO`,`1`)!49`&0)C(!D"@R
M`9`I,@&0*S(!D"TR`9`O,@&0,#(!D#(R`9`U,@&0-S(!D#DR`9`[,@&0/#(!
LD#XR`9!`,@&003(!D$,R`9!%,@&01SP!D$@\`9!*/`&03#P!D$T\@3'_+P#_
`
end
sum -r/size 26292/273 section (from "begin" to "end")

I truly hope that I am either completely too tired to be thinking
logically about this, or that playmidi is screwing up.. It would be
a serious problem for me if gravis were making grossly false claims...


Pete
---
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|  Peter J. Dohm - Comp. Science Major    |    The Ohio State University    |
| ** dohm@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu **    |   ak541@cleveland.freenet.edu   |
| dohm.1@osu.edu, dohm@cis.ohio-state.edu |     dohm@cis.ohio-state.edu     |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard