| ================= |
| MIDI 2.0 on Linux |
| ================= |
| |
| General |
| ======= |
| |
| MIDI 2.0 is an extended protocol for providing higher resolutions and |
| more fine controls over the legacy MIDI 1.0. The fundamental changes |
| introduced for supporting MIDI 2.0 are: |
| |
| - Support of Universal MIDI Packet (UMP) |
| - Support of MIDI 2.0 protocol messages |
| - Transparent conversions between UMP and legacy MIDI 1.0 byte stream |
| - MIDI-CI for property and profile configurations |
| |
| UMP is a new container format to hold all MIDI protocol 1.0 and MIDI |
| 2.0 protocol messages. Unlike the former byte stream, it's 32bit |
| aligned, and each message can be put in a single packet. UMP can send |
| the events up to 16 "UMP Groups", where each UMP Group contain up to |
| 16 MIDI channels. |
| |
| MIDI 2.0 protocol is an extended protocol to achieve the higher |
| resolution and more controls over the old MIDI 1.0 protocol. |
| |
| MIDI-CI is a high-level protocol that can talk with the MIDI device |
| for the flexible profiles and configurations. It's represented in the |
| form of special SysEx. |
| |
| For Linux implementations, the kernel supports the UMP transport and |
| the encoding/decoding of MIDI protocols on UMP, while MIDI-CI is |
| supported in user-space over the standard SysEx. |
| |
| As of this writing, only USB MIDI device supports the UMP and Linux |
| 2.0 natively. The UMP support itself is pretty generic, hence it |
| could be used by other transport layers, although it could be |
| implemented differently (e.g. as a ALSA sequencer client), too. |
| |
| The access to UMP devices are provided in two ways: the access via |
| rawmidi device and the access via ALSA sequencer API. |
| |
| ALSA sequencer API was extended to allow the payload of UMP packets. |
| It's allowed to connect freely between MIDI 1.0 and MIDI 2.0 sequencer |
| clients, and the events are converted transparently. |
| |
| |
| Kernel Configuration |
| ==================== |
| |
| The following new configs are added for supporting MIDI 2.0: |
| `CONFIG_SND_UMP`, `CONFIG_SND_UMP_LEGACY_RAWMIDI`, |
| `CONFIG_SND_SEQ_UMP`, `CONFIG_SND_SEQ_UMP_CLIENT`, and |
| `CONFIG_SND_USB_AUDIO_MIDI_V2`. The first visible one is |
| `CONFIG_SND_USB_AUDIO_MIDI_V2`, and when you choose it (to set `=y`), |
| the core support for UMP (`CONFIG_SND_UMP`) and the sequencer binding |
| (`CONFIG_SND_SEQ_UMP_CLIENT`) will be automatically selected. |
| |
| Additionally, `CONFIG_SND_UMP_LEGACY_RAWMIDI=y` will enable the |
| support for the legacy raw MIDI device for UMP Endpoints. |
| |
| |
| Rawmidi Device with USB MIDI 2.0 |
| ================================ |
| |
| When a device supports MIDI 2.0, the USB-audio driver probes and uses |
| the MIDI 2.0 interface (that is found always at the altset 1) as |
| default instead of the MIDI 1.0 interface (at altset 0). You can |
| switch back to the binding with the old MIDI 1.0 interface by passing |
| `midi2_enable=0` option to snd-usb-audio driver module, too. |
| |
| The USB audio driver tries to query the UMP Endpoint and UMP Function |
| Block information that are provided since UMP v1.1, and builds up the |
| topology based on those information. When the device is older and |
| doesn't respond to the new UMP inquiries, the driver falls back and |
| builds the topology based on Group Terminal Block (GTB) information |
| from the USB descriptor. Some device might be screwed up by the |
| unexpected UMP command; in such a case, pass `midi2_probe=0` option to |
| snd-usb-audio driver for skipping the UMP v1.1 inquiries. |
| |
| When the MIDI 2.0 device is probed, the kernel creates a rawmidi |
| device for each UMP Endpoint of the device. Its device name is |
| `/dev/snd/umpC*D*` and different from the standard rawmidi device name |
| `/dev/snd/midiC*D*` for MIDI 1.0, in order to avoid confusing the |
| legacy applications accessing mistakenly to UMP devices. |
| |
| You can read and write UMP packet data directly from/to this UMP |
| rawmidi device. For example, reading via `hexdump` like below will |
| show the incoming UMP packets of the card 0 device 0 in the hex |
| format:: |
| |
| % hexdump -C /dev/snd/umpC0D0 |
| 00000000 01 07 b0 20 00 07 b0 20 64 3c 90 20 64 3c 80 20 |... ... d<. d<. | |
| |
| Unlike the MIDI 1.0 byte stream, UMP is a 32bit packet, and the size |
| for reading or writing the device is also aligned to 32bit (which is 4 |
| bytes). |
| |
| The 32-bit words in the UMP packet payload are always in CPU native |
| endianness. Transport drivers are responsible to convert UMP words |
| from / to system endianness to required transport endianness / byte |
| order. |
| |
| When `CONFIG_SND_UMP_LEGACY_RAWMIDI` is set, the driver creates |
| another standard raw MIDI device additionally as `/dev/snd/midiC*D*`. |
| This contains 16 substreams, and each substream corresponds to a |
| (0-based) UMP Group. Legacy applications can access to the specified |
| group via each substream in MIDI 1.0 byte stream format. With the |
| ALSA rawmidi API, you can open the arbitrary substream, while just |
| opening `/dev/snd/midiC*D*` will end up with opening the first |
| substream. |
| |
| Each UMP Endpoint can provide the additional information, constructed |
| from the information inquired via UMP 1.1 Stream messages or USB MIDI |
| 2.0 descriptors. And a UMP Endpoint may contain one or more UMP |
| Blocks, where UMP Block is an abstraction introduced in the ALSA UMP |
| implementations to represent the associations among UMP Groups. UMP |
| Block corresponds to Function Block in UMP 1.1 specification. When |
| UMP 1.1 Function Block information isn't available, it's filled |
| partially from Group Terminal Block (GTB) as defined in USB MIDI 2.0 |
| specifications. |
| |
| The information of UMP Endpoints and UMP Blocks are found in the proc |
| file `/proc/asound/card*/midi*`. For example:: |
| |
| % cat /proc/asound/card1/midi0 |
| ProtoZOA MIDI |
| |
| Type: UMP |
| EP Name: ProtoZOA |
| EP Product ID: ABCD12345678 |
| UMP Version: 0x0000 |
| Protocol Caps: 0x00000100 |
| Protocol: 0x00000100 |
| Num Blocks: 3 |
| |
| Block 0 (ProtoZOA Main) |
| Direction: bidirection |
| Active: Yes |
| Groups: 1-1 |
| Is MIDI1: No |
| |
| Block 1 (ProtoZOA Ext IN) |
| Direction: output |
| Active: Yes |
| Groups: 2-2 |
| Is MIDI1: Yes (Low Speed) |
| .... |
| |
| Note that `Groups` field shown in the proc file above indicates the |
| 1-based UMP Group numbers (from-to). |
| |
| Those additional UMP Endpoint and UMP Block information can be |
| obtained via the new ioctls `SNDRV_UMP_IOCTL_ENDPOINT_INFO` and |
| `SNDRV_UMP_IOCTL_BLOCK_INFO`, respectively. |
| |
| The rawmidi name and the UMP Endpoint name are usually identical, and |
| in the case of USB MIDI, it's taken from `iInterface` of the |
| corresponding USB MIDI interface descriptor. If it's not provided, |
| it's copied from `iProduct` of the USB device descriptor as a |
| fallback. |
| |
| The Endpoint Product ID is a string field and supposed to be unique. |
| It's copied from `iSerialNumber` of the device for USB MIDI. |
| |
| The protocol capabilities and the actual protocol bits are defined in |
| `asound.h`. |
| |
| |
| ALSA Sequencer with USB MIDI 2.0 |
| ================================ |
| |
| In addition to the rawmidi interfaces, ALSA sequencer interface |
| supports the new UMP MIDI 2.0 device, too. Now, each ALSA sequencer |
| client may set its MIDI version (0, 1 or 2) to declare itself being |
| either the legacy, UMP MIDI 1.0 or UMP MIDI 2.0 device, respectively. |
| The first, legacy client is the one that sends/receives the old |
| sequencer event as was. Meanwhile, UMP MIDI 1.0 and 2.0 clients send |
| and receive in the extended event record for UMP. The MIDI version is |
| seen in the new `midi_version` field of `snd_seq_client_info`. |
| |
| A UMP packet can be sent/received in a sequencer event embedded by |
| specifying the new event flag bit `SNDRV_SEQ_EVENT_UMP`. When this |
| flag is set, the event has 16 byte (128 bit) data payload for holding |
| the UMP packet. Without the `SNDRV_SEQ_EVENT_UMP` bit flag, the event |
| is treated as a legacy event as it was (with max 12 byte data |
| payload). |
| |
| With `SNDRV_SEQ_EVENT_UMP` flag set, the type field of a UMP sequencer |
| event is ignored (but it should be set to 0 as default). |
| |
| The type of each client can be seen in `/proc/asound/seq/clients`. |
| For example:: |
| |
| % cat /proc/asound/seq/clients |
| Client info |
| cur clients : 3 |
| .... |
| Client 14 : "Midi Through" [Kernel Legacy] |
| Port 0 : "Midi Through Port-0" (RWe-) |
| Client 20 : "ProtoZOA" [Kernel UMP MIDI1] |
| UMP Endpoint: ProtoZOA |
| UMP Block 0: ProtoZOA Main [Active] |
| Groups: 1-1 |
| UMP Block 1: ProtoZOA Ext IN [Active] |
| Groups: 2-2 |
| UMP Block 2: ProtoZOA Ext OUT [Active] |
| Groups: 3-3 |
| Port 0 : "MIDI 2.0" (RWeX) [In/Out] |
| Port 1 : "ProtoZOA Main" (RWeX) [In/Out] |
| Port 2 : "ProtoZOA Ext IN" (-We-) [Out] |
| Port 3 : "ProtoZOA Ext OUT" (R-e-) [In] |
| |
| Here you can find two types of kernel clients, "Legacy" for client 14, |
| and "UMP MIDI1" for client 20, which is a USB MIDI 2.0 device. |
| A USB MIDI 2.0 client gives always the port 0 as "MIDI 2.0" and the |
| rest ports from 1 for each UMP Group (e.g. port 1 for Group 1). |
| In this example, the device has three active groups (Main, Ext IN and |
| Ext OUT), and those are exposed as sequencer ports from 1 to 3. |
| The "MIDI 2.0" port is for a UMP Endpoint, and its difference from |
| other UMP Group ports is that UMP Endpoint port sends the events from |
| the all ports on the device ("catch-all"), while each UMP Group port |
| sends only the events from the given UMP Group. |
| Also, UMP groupless messages (such as the UMP message type 0x0f) are |
| sent only to the UMP Endpoint port. |
| |
| Note that, although each UMP sequencer client usually creates 16 |
| ports, those ports that don't belong to any UMP Blocks (or belonging |
| to inactive UMP Blocks) are marked as inactive, and they don't appear |
| in the proc outputs. In the example above, the sequencer ports from 4 |
| to 16 are present but not shown there. |
| |
| The proc file above shows the UMP Block information, too. The same |
| entry (but with more detailed information) is found in the rawmidi |
| proc output. |
| |
| When clients are connected between different MIDI versions, the events |
| are translated automatically depending on the client's version, not |
| only between the legacy and the UMP MIDI 1.0/2.0 types, but also |
| between UMP MIDI 1.0 and 2.0 types, too. For example, running |
| `aseqdump` program on the ProtoZOA Main port in the legacy mode will |
| give you the output like:: |
| |
| % aseqdump -p 20:1 |
| Waiting for data. Press Ctrl+C to end. |
| Source Event Ch Data |
| 20:1 Note on 0, note 60, velocity 100 |
| 20:1 Note off 0, note 60, velocity 100 |
| 20:1 Control change 0, controller 11, value 4 |
| |
| When you run `aseqdump` in MIDI 2.0 mode, it'll receive the high |
| precision data like:: |
| |
| % aseqdump -u 2 -p 20:1 |
| Waiting for data. Press Ctrl+C to end. |
| Source Event Ch Data |
| 20:1 Note on 0, note 60, velocity 0xc924, attr type = 0, data = 0x0 |
| 20:1 Note off 0, note 60, velocity 0xc924, attr type = 0, data = 0x0 |
| 20:1 Control change 0, controller 11, value 0x2000000 |
| |
| while the data is automatically converted by ALSA sequencer core. |
| |
| |
| Rawmidi API Extensions |
| ====================== |
| |
| * The additional UMP Endpoint information can be obtained via the new |
| ioctl `SNDRV_UMP_IOCTL_ENDPOINT_INFO`. It contains the associated |
| card and device numbers, the bit flags, the protocols, the number of |
| UMP Blocks, the name string of the endpoint, etc. |
| |
| The protocols are specified in two field, the protocol capabilities |
| and the current protocol. Both contain the bit flags specifying the |
| MIDI protocol version (`SNDRV_UMP_EP_INFO_PROTO_MIDI1` or |
| `SNDRV_UMP_EP_INFO_PROTO_MIDI2`) in the upper byte and the jitter |
| reduction timestamp (`SNDRV_UMP_EP_INFO_PROTO_JRTS_TX` and |
| `SNDRV_UMP_EP_INFO_PROTO_JRTS_RX`) in the lower byte. |
| |
| A UMP Endpoint may contain up to 32 UMP Blocks, and the number of |
| the currently assigned blocks are shown in the Endpoint information. |
| |
| * Each UMP Block information can be obtained via another new ioctl |
| `SNDRV_UMP_IOCTL_BLOCK_INFO`. The block ID number (0-based) has to |
| be passed for the block to query. The received data contains the |
| associated the direction of the block, the first associated group ID |
| (0-based) and the number of groups, the name string of the block, |
| etc. |
| |
| The direction is either `SNDRV_UMP_DIR_INPUT`, |
| `SNDRV_UMP_DIR_OUTPUT` or `SNDRV_UMP_DIR_BIDIRECTION`. |
| |
| * For the device supports UMP v1.1, the UMP MIDI protocol can be |
| switched via "Stream Configuration Request" message (UMP type 0x0f, |
| status 0x05). When UMP core receives such a message, it updates the |
| UMP EP info and the corresponding sequencer clients as well. |
| |
| |
| Control API Extensions |
| ====================== |
| |
| * The new ioctl `SNDRV_CTL_IOCTL_UMP_NEXT_DEVICE` is introduced for |
| querying the next UMP rawmidi device, while the existing ioctl |
| `SNDRV_CTL_IOCTL_RAWMIDI_NEXT_DEVICE` queries only the legacy |
| rawmidi devices. |
| |
| For setting the subdevice (substream number) to be opened, use the |
| ioctl `SNDRV_CTL_IOCTL_RAWMIDI_PREFER_SUBDEVICE` like the normal |
| rawmidi. |
| |
| * Two new ioctls `SNDRV_CTL_IOCTL_UMP_ENDPOINT_INFO` and |
| `SNDRV_CTL_IOCTL_UMP_BLOCK_INFO` provide the UMP Endpoint and UMP |
| Block information of the specified UMP device via ALSA control API |
| without opening the actual (UMP) rawmidi device. |
| The `card` field is ignored upon inquiry, always tied with the card |
| of the control interface. |
| |
| |
| Sequencer API Extensions |
| ======================== |
| |
| * `midi_version` field is added to `snd_seq_client_info` to indicate |
| the current MIDI version (either 0, 1 or 2) of each client. |
| When `midi_version` is 1 or 2, the alignment of read from a UMP |
| sequencer client is also changed from the former 28 bytes to 32 |
| bytes for the extended payload. The alignment size for the write |
| isn't changed, but each event size may differ depending on the new |
| bit flag below. |
| |
| * `SNDRV_SEQ_EVENT_UMP` flag bit is added for each sequencer event |
| flags. When this bit flag is set, the sequencer event is extended |
| to have a larger payload of 16 bytes instead of the legacy 12 |
| bytes, and the event contains the UMP packet in the payload. |
| |
| * The new sequencer port type bit (`SNDRV_SEQ_PORT_TYPE_MIDI_UMP`) |
| indicates the port being UMP-capable. |
| |
| * The sequencer ports have new capability bits to indicate the |
| inactive ports (`SNDRV_SEQ_PORT_CAP_INACTIVE`) and the UMP Endpoint |
| port (`SNDRV_SEQ_PORT_CAP_UMP_ENDPOINT`). |
| |
| * The event conversion of ALSA sequencer clients can be suppressed the |
| new filter bit `SNDRV_SEQ_FILTER_NO_CONVERT` set to the client info. |
| For example, the kernel pass-through client (`snd-seq-dummy`) sets |
| this flag internally. |
| |
| * The port information gained the new field `direction` to indicate |
| the direction of the port (either `SNDRV_SEQ_PORT_DIR_INPUT`, |
| `SNDRV_SEQ_PORT_DIR_OUTPUT` or `SNDRV_SEQ_PORT_DIR_BIDIRECTION`). |
| |
| * Another additional field for the port information is `ump_group` |
| which specifies the associated UMP Group Number (1-based). |
| When it's non-zero, the UMP group field in the UMP packet updated |
| upon delivery to the specified group (corrected to be 0-based). |
| Each sequencer port is supposed to set this field if it's a port to |
| specific to a certain UMP group. |
| |
| * Each client may set the additional event filter for UMP Groups in |
| `group_filter` bitmap. The filter consists of bitmap from 1-based |
| Group numbers. For example, when the bit 1 is set, messages from |
| Group 1 (i.e. the very first group) are filtered and not delivered. |
| The bit 0 is used for filtering UMP groupless messages. |
| |
| * Two new ioctls are added for UMP-capable clients: |
| `SNDRV_SEQ_IOCTL_GET_CLIENT_UMP_INFO` and |
| `SNDRV_SEQ_IOCTL_SET_CLIENT_UMP_INFO`. They are used to get and set |
| either `snd_ump_endpoint_info` or `snd_ump_block_info` data |
| associated with the sequencer client. The USB MIDI driver provides |
| those information from the underlying UMP rawmidi, while a |
| user-space client may provide its own data via `*_SET` ioctl. |
| For an Endpoint data, pass 0 to the `type` field, while for a Block |
| data, pass the block number + 1 to the `type` field. |
| Setting the data for a kernel client shall result in an error. |
| |
| * With UMP 1.1, Function Block information may be changed |
| dynamically. When the update of Function Block is received from the |
| device, ALSA sequencer core changes the corresponding sequencer port |
| name and attributes accordingly, and notifies the changes via the |
| announcement to the ALSA sequencer system port, similarly like the |
| normal port change notification. |