This cannot be done without some programming.
First, test how to detect MIDI events. Go to a terminal, and run aseqdump -l
to list the MIDI ports; this outputs something like this:
$ aseqdump -l
Port Client name Port name
0:0 System Timer
0:1 System Announce
14:0 Midi Through Midi Through Port-0
24:0 Xonar D2 Xonar D2 MIDI
32:0 Yamaha DS-1E (YMF754) Yamaha DS-1E (YMF754) MIDI
Then run it with the client name to check whether events arrive:
$ aseqdump -p "Xonar D2"
Waiting for data. Press Ctrl+C to end.
Source Event Ch Data
24:0 Note on 0, note 64, velocity 86
24:0 Note on 0, note 48, velocity 80
24:0 Note off 0, note 48
24:0 Note on 0, note 68, velocity 84
24:0 Note on 0, note 52, velocity 88
24:0 Note off 0, note 64
24:0 Note off 0, note 52
24:0 Note off 0, note 68
...
Second, to simulate key strokes, you need xdotool
. If you do not yet have it installed, run sudo apt-get install xdotool
.
You can use type
to type text, or key
to simulate special keys:
xdotool type Hello, World!
xdotool key ctrl+p
Please note that not all special keys are handled correctly by xdotool
.
And Ctrl+Alt+Del is handled very specially by the kernel and probably does not work when simulated; try running sudo reset
instead of xdotool
.
Finally, tie everything together with a script. Put this into a text file, for example, ~/bin/midi-to-keys
:
#!/bin/bash
aseqdump -p "Xonar D2" | \
while IFS=" ," read src ev1 ev2 ch label1 data1 label2 data2 rest; do
case "$ev1 $ev2 $data1" in
"Note on 64" ) xdotool type hello ;;
"Note on 48" ) xdotool key ctrl+j ;;
esac
done
Make it executable (chmod +x ~/bin/midi-to-keys
), and run it (~/bin/midi-to-keys
).
Now, pressing E-5 or C-4 should have some effect.
Change or add lines of the form "Note on x" ) command ;;
to do whatever you want.
I wonder whether this might be a step in the right direction. I've only ever used it to actually drive MIDI devices from e.g. my iPhone via a regular sequencer, but maybe it's extensible to your needs - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Sound_Control
– Tetsujin – 2017-01-22T06:54:08.317I don't know about any ready-made software, but it sounds like a fun project. With example programs how to get MIDI events and how to synthesize input keystroke events, would your programming skills be enough to make it yourself? And are you using Alsa or Jack for your MIDI controller? – dirkt – 2017-01-22T07:14:33.600