<!DOCTYPE book PUBLIC "-//KDE//DTD DocBook V3.1-Based Variant V1.0//EN" [
 <!ENTITY kmid "<application>Kmid</application>">
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<book lang="en">
<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>
</authorgroup>
<date>08/04/1999</date>
<releaseinfo>1.07.00</releaseinfo>
<abstract>
<para>This Handbook describes KMid Version 1.7</para>
<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. KMid has been reported to run on Linux and FreeBSD operating systems. It uses the OSS sound driver, so it should run on every system where KDE and OSS compile. KMid also supports the Linux Ultrasound Project Driver , which is required to get sound in GUS cards. I plan to support the ALSA
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><literal remap="tt">Antonio Larrosa Jim&eacute;nez</literal>
<ulink url="mailto:larrosa@kde.org">larrosa@kde.org</ulink></para>
<sect1 id="KMidsfeatures">
<title>KMid's features</title>

<para>These are some of KMid's main features :</para>

<para><itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>It has a very <emphasis remap="bf">friendly user interface</emphasis> to display karaoke text with <emphasis remap="bf">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 remap="bf">Midi Mapper</emphasis> that you will ever find in any operating system.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><emphasis remap="bf">Drag&amp;drop</emphasis> so you can drop in KMid any midi file from a KFM window.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>You can <emphasis remap="bf">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 remap="bf">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 remap="bf">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 remap="bf">gzipped midi/karaoke files</emphasis> just as any other file.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Consumes approximately <emphasis remap="bf">0.1&percnt;</emphasis> of my <emphasis remap="bf">CPU</emphasis> (depends on the complexity of the song).</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Supports external midi synths, AWE, FM and GUS cards (for the latter you need the LUP driver and gusd installed).</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Runs on Linux and FreeBSD (maybe also other unices ...).</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</para>
</sect1>
</chapter>

<chapter id="Generalusage">
<title>General usage</title>
<sect1 id="Openingsongs">
<title>Opening songs</title>

<para>You can open a song by some different ways. First, you can select <literal remap="tt">Open...</literal> from the <literal remap="tt">File</literal> 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 KFM 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 last way is by selecting the song from the list of songs
of the active collecion.</para>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="Playingsongs">
<title>Playing songs</title>

<para>To play a song, first open it, and then press on the Play button of the toolbar
, or the <literal remap="tt">Play</literal> entry of the <literal remap="tt">Song</literal> menu, or just press the <literal remap="tt">Space</literal> key.
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 sequencially).</para>

<para>Once KMid is playing a song, you can move the time slider, by pressing
with the middle 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 LCD and make it play faster or slower. To get back to the default tempo, just do a double click on the tempo LCD.</para>

<para>The <literal remap="tt">Space</literal> key is used for two things, when music is playing, and you
press the Space key, it will act as when you press on the pause button or
the <literal remap="tt">Pause</literal> entry of the <literal remap="tt">Song</literal> menu, that is, it will pause music .
If you press the <literal remap="tt">Space</literal> key when no music is being played, kmid will play it.</para>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="Displayinglyrics">
<title>Displaying lyrics</title>

<para>There are two methods to store lyrics in a song, by using <literal remap="tt">Text events</literal>
or <literal remap="tt">Lyrics events</literal>, some songs use the first, some the second, some use both
of them, and some  don't include lyrics :-) . KMid lets you choose which events
to display, and even better, it has an option to automagically 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 <literal remap="tt">Automatic Text chooser</literal> entry of the <literal remap="tt">Options</literal> 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 appropiate entries in the
<literal remap="tt">Options</literal> menu, or just press the <literal remap="tt">1</literal> and <literal remap="tt">2</literal> keys of your keyboard to
see the <literal remap="tt">Text events</literal> or <literal remap="tt">Lyrics events</literal> 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="Creatingacollection">
<title>Creating a collection</title>

<para>To create a collection, first open the <literal remap="tt">Collection Manager</literal> dialog, by
selecting the <literal remap="tt">Organize ...</literal> entry of the <literal remap="tt">Collections</literal> menu .
Then click on the <literal remap="tt">New</literal> button, and write the name you want the collection
to have.</para>

<para>You can also copy a complete collection by selecting it and then pressing
the <literal remap="tt">Copy</literal> 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 <literal remap="tt">Collection Manager</literal>, by selecting it.</para>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="TheTemporaryCollection">
<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 remap="bf">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="AddingsongstoacollectionhowtouseAutoAdd">
<title>Adding songs to a collection (how to use <literal remap="tt">AutoAdd</literal>)</title>

<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 <literal remap="tt">Collection Manager</literal>.
Then you can press on the 'Add' 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 AutoAdd option.</para>

<para>If <literal remap="tt">AutoAdd</literal> is active, when you open a song (using <literal remap="tt">File &verbar; Open ...</literal> or
Drag&amp;:Drop) it (they) will be added to the active collection without
user intervention . If <literal remap="tt">AutoAdd</literal> is not active, 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="Removingsongsfromcollections">
<title>Removing songs from collections</title>

<para>To delete a song from a collection, just open the <literal remap="tt">Collection Manager</literal>,
select the appropiate collection, and the song you wish to delete, and then
click on the <literal remap="tt">Remove</literal> button.</para>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="Playinginorderoratrandom">
<title>Playing in order or at random</title>

<para>You can select the order in which songs will be played . When you select
<literal remap="tt">In order mode</literal> from the <literal remap="tt">Collections</literal> menu, songs will be played in the
same order in which they were added to the collection . When you select
<literal remap="tt">Shuffle mode</literal>, 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 wwant to play twice the same song, and you want to play the
last played song when you press on the 'Previous Song' 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 <literal remap="tt">Shuffle mode</literal> entry of the menu.</para>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="Selectingasongfromacollection">
<title>Selecting a song from a collection</title>

<para>You can select a song to play in the <literal remap="tt">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 remap="tt">Next Song</literal> entry of
the <literal remap="tt">Song</literal> menu, the <literal remap="tt">Next Song</literal> button of the toolbar, or pressing
the <literal remap="tt">right arrow</literal> key.</para>

<para>To change to the previous song, use the <literal remap="tt">Previous Song</literal> entry of
the <literal remap="tt">Song</literal> menu, the <literal remap="tt">Previous Song</literal> button of the toolbar, or press
the <literal remap="tt">left arrow</literal> key of your keyboard.</para>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="Deletingacollection">
<title>Deleting a collection</title>

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

<para>Please keep in mind that you cannot delete the <literal remap="tt">Temporary Collection</literal>,
as anyway, it is not saved when you quit KMid .</para>
</sect1>
</chapter>

<chapter id="MidiMaps">
<title>Midi Maps</title>
<sect1 id="Whatisamidimap">
<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 remap="tt">Change patch to
Bright Piano</literal> events, to <literal remap="tt">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 GM standard specifies that when a
midi keyboard receives an event to change patch to <literal remap="tt">0</literal>, it will change the
current patch to <literal remap="tt">Grand Piano</literal>, but older synthesizer will change for example to a <literal remap="tt">Electric Guitar</literal> when it receives a <literal remap="tt">0</literal>. This old keyboard,
needed to receive a <literal remap="tt">3</literal> (for example) to change to a <literal remap="tt">Piano</literal>. And here comes
the midi map in action, changing all <literal remap="tt">change patch to 0</literal> to <literal remap="tt">change patch to 3</literal> and thus really playing the correct instrument when it has to.</para>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="DoIneedamidimap">
<title>Do I need a midi map ?</title>

<para>Quickly, if you don't have an external synth, NO.</para>

<para>If you only have a sound card, midi maps are not needed because all the sound
cards are GM compliant (this include AWE cards, GUS cards, FM 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
GM compatible, and doesn't has as many instruments as a GM 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 GM compliant ones).</para>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="Creatingamidimap">
<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 favourite 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 remap="tt">PATCHMAP</literal>, <literal remap="tt">KEYMAP</literal>, <literal remap="tt">CHANNELMAP</literal> and <literal remap="tt">OPTIONS</literal>.</para>

<para>Each section must appear only once, except the <literal remap="tt">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>

<para><screen>DEFINE PATCHMAP
...
END

DEFINE KEYMAP "Name of Keymap"
...
END

DEFINE KEYMAP "Another Keymap"
...
END

DEFINE CHANNELMAP
...
END

OPTIONS
...
END
</screen>
</para>

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

<para>You can put comments by starting the line with a <literal remap="tt">&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="ThePATCHMAPsection">
<title>The <literal remap="tt">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>

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

<para>Where <literal remap="tt">N</literal> 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 GM patches are supossed 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 remap="tt">AllKeysTo M</literal> is used to map all notes that use that instrument to the <literal remap="tt">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 remap="tt">PATCHMAP</literal> section:</para>

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

<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 goind to be played) .</para>

<para>Please note that when I use the expression 'Percussion patch', 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="TheKEYMAPsection">
<title>The <literal remap="tt">KEYMAP</literal> section</title>

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

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

<para>As with the <literal remap="tt">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="TheCHANNELMAPsection">
<title>The <literal remap="tt">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 remap="tt">CHANNELMAP</literal> section .</para>

<para>However it is more usefull 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 remap="tt">CHANNELMAP</literal> section, has
16 lines, from 0 to 15 , as this one :</para>

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

<para>Where <literal remap="tt">N</literal> is the channel which is mapped to the <literal remap="tt">M</literal> channel .
If the <literal remap="tt">Keymap</literal> option is used, the Keymap with name <literal remap="tt">Name</literal> will be used in this channel (this Keymap should be defined earlier in the map file !) .
If the <literal remap="tt">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 remap="tt">x</literal> will be used instead .</para>

<para>The <literal remap="tt">ForcePatch</literal> option may be useful for example to always use the
percussion patch on the percussion channel .</para>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="TheOPTIONSsection">
<title>The <literal remap="tt">OPTIONS</literal> section</title>

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

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

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

<para>The <literal remap="tt">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 remap="tt">n</literal> value, the real value that will be sent is <literal remap="tt">n*(r/4096)</literal> (the <literal remap="tt">4096</literal> value is for not having to put decimal points in the map file).</para>

<para>This is used because the GM 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 appropiate value .</para>

<para>When the <literal remap="tt">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="Usingmidimaps">
<title>Using midi maps</title>

<para>To use a midi map, simply open the <literal remap="tt">Midi Setup</literal> dialog by selecting the
<literal remap="tt">Midi Setup ...</literal> entry of the <literal remap="tt">Options</literal> menu.</para>

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

<chapter id="Advancedfeatures">
<title>Advanced features</title>
<sect1 id="TheChannelView">
<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="Changinginstruments">
<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="Changingthelookmode">
<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 <literal remap="tt">Channel View Options...</literal> item in the <literal remap="tt">Options</literal> menu.</para>

<para>You can choose between a mode in which played keys are pressed, as if it were a normal piano (<literal remap="tt">3D look</literal>), or a mode in which keys are also filled with red colour, so that pressed keys are easily recognized (<literal remap="tt">3D - filled</literal>). 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="TheTempoLCD">
<title>The Tempo LCD</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 LCD.</para>

<para>Once you have changed the tempo, you can get back the default one by doing a double click on the LCD.</para>
</sect1>
</chapter>

<chapter id="Keybindings">
<title>Key bindings</title>

<para><itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para><literal remap="tt">Space</literal> - Play the loaded song if it isn't playing, or pause it while it's playing</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><literal remap="tt">Backspace</literal> - Stop playing</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><literal remap="tt">Right Arrow</literal> - Next song in current collection</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><literal remap="tt">Left Arrow</literal> - Previous song in current collection
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><literal remap="tt">Up Arrow</literal> - Scroll lyrics one line up</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><literal remap="tt">Down Arrow</literal> - Scroll lyrics one line down</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><literal remap="tt">Page Up</literal> - Scroll lyrics one page up</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><literal remap="tt">Page Down</literal> - Scroll lyrics one page down</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><literal remap="tt">1</literal> - Display text events</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><literal remap="tt">2</literal> - Display lyrics events
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><literal remap="tt">Ctrl-O</literal> - Open a song</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><literal remap="tt">Ctrl-Q</literal> - Quit KMid</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><literal remap="tt">F1</literal> - Open this help</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</para>
</chapter>

<chapter id="Installation">
<title>Installation</title>
<sect1 id="HowtoobtainKMid">
<title>How to obtain KMid</title>

<para>KMid is a core application of the KDE project <ulink url="http://www.kde.org">http://www.kde.org</ulink>.
KMid can be found on the KDEmultimedia package, which is at <ulink url="ftp://ftp.kde.org/pub/kde/">ftp://ftp.kde.org/pub/kde/</ulink>, the main ftp site of the KDE project. You can also download it from any of the many ftp mirrors whose list is at <ulink url="http://www.kde.org/mirrors.html">http://www.kde.org/mirrors.html</ulink>.</para>

<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>

<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 remap="tt">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>
</para>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="Compilationandinstallation">
<title>Compilation and installation</title>

<para>If you downloaded the KDEmultimedia package, or just the KMid package, to compile KMid you must run <literal remap="tt">configure</literal>, then <literal remap="tt">make</literal> and then, to install it, <literal remap="tt">make install</literal> (most probably, as root).</para>

<para>I've included some examples that are installed in <literal remap="tt">$dollar;KDEDIR/share/apps/kmid</literal></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>
</chapter>

<chapter id="FrequentlyAskedQuestionsFAQ">
<title>Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)</title>

<para><itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para><literal remap="tt">Q:</literal> What is exactly a midi file ?
<literal remap="tt">A:</literal>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 differenly by two different musicians.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><literal remap="tt">Q:</literal>I can get better sound with a mp3/wav player, why should I use KMid?
<literal remap="tt">A:</literal>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. Evenmore, with a midi file, you can change individual instruments, change the velocity of a song, etc. so you have more overall control. 
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><literal remap="tt">Q:</literal>I can't get my AWE card to work with KMid, what can I do ?
<literal remap="tt">A:</literal>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>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><literal remap="tt">Q:</literal>I want to add a whole directory to a collection, but having to add the midi files one by one is not funny.
<literal remap="tt">A:</literal>I agree, that's why KMid supports Drag&amp;Drop. Just open, in KFM, the directory you want to add, select all the files, drag them and drop them in KMid.
Be sure to set the <literal remap="tt">AutoAdd</literal> 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>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><literal remap="tt">Q:</literal>I can't follow the lyrics, it's playing too fast !
<literal remap="tt">A:</literal>You can press the left arrow of the tempo LCD to make it play slower. Remember that you can do a double click on the LCD to get the default tempo.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</para>
</chapter>

<chapter id="Finalnotes">
<title>Final notes</title>
<sect1 id="Sometipsandtricks">
<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>

<para><itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para><literal remap="tt">Opening files</literal>
I always keep a KDE desktop with a KFM window in my root midi directory, 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 KFM window, select the desired files and make 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 <literal remap="tt">AutoAdd to Collection</literal> option in the <literal remap="tt">Collections</literal> menu, and open the files, they will be added to the
Temporary Collection .</para>

</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><literal remap="tt">Another method to create a new Collection</literal>
Suppose that you have midi files A.mid , B.mid and C.mid . At first you
only want to play the first midi file, so you unselect <literal remap="tt">AutoAdd</literal> and open
A.mid . 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 <literal remap="tt">AutoAdd</literal> and open B.mid and C.mid (by any of the multiple
methods), they will be automatically added to the Temporary Collection, that
will then have A.mid, B.mid and C.mid . At this point, you can open the
<literal remap="tt">Organize Collections</literal> dialog, select the Temporary Collection, and click on the <literal remap="tt">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>
</itemizedlist>
</para>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="HallofKMidsfriends">
<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>

<para><itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>Ola Sigurdson  - <literal remap="tt">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 remap="tt">Amadeus</literal> (Falco) and <literal remap="tt">Schrei Nach Liebe</literal> (Die Aerzte)</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Leandro Terr&eacute;s - <literal remap="tt">All That She Wants</literal> and <literal remap="tt">The Sign</literal> (Ace of Base)</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Nick Stoic - Two midi files</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</para>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="Abouttheauthor">
<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 : <ulink url="mailto:larrosa@kde.org">larrosa@kde.org</ulink> or <ulink url="mailto:antlarr@arrakis.es">antlarr@arrakis.es</ulink></para>

<para>or write to me by snail-mail at :
<screen> Antonio Larrosa Jimenez
 Rio Arnoya 10 5B
 Malaga (Spain)
</screen>
</para>

<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 plese 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:
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para><ulink url="mailto:P.J.Leonard@bath.ac.uk">Paul J. Leonard</ulink> - Support for AWE cards</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><ulink url="mailto:szoli@digo.inf.elte.hu">Sebestyen Zoltan</ulink> - FreeBSD port and AWE testing</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><ulink url="mailto:esken@kde.org">Christian Esken</ulink> - For organizing the KDE multimedia efforts</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><ulink url="mailto:coolo@kde.org">Stephan Kulow</ulink> - Configure scripts and help with automake and CVS</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>
</para>
</sect1>
</chapter>
</book>
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