[OT] emulating a hardware synth

[Gregory Nowak]

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On Fri, Jan 30, 2009 at 01:50:53PM +0100, Robert Epprecht wrote:
> Something i am thinking about is the possibility to emulate a hardware
> synth with a second computer running a software synth. The software part
> of it seams easy, but how would the two machines be connected? Please
> tell me, how are existing hw synths connected?  Do they use proprietary
> pci cards or do they use existing plugs, like parallel or serial port,
> usb, ethernet?  *Can* speakup use any of the mentioned ports?  Ethernet
> would be my favorite.

The hardware synths on the market currently are in the form of a
proprietary pci card, via usb, and via RS232 serial. Older synths on
the market, which one can get second-hand these days are in the form
of isa cards, and can also be connected via RS232 serial ports.

Unfortunately, speakup doesn't support the pci card synth, or synths
connected via usb at this time; it only supports a few of the old isa
card-type synths, and the rest connect via an RS232 port. Another
unfortunate drawback is that the serial ports have to be ttyS0-ttyS3,
and they have to appear at i/o addresses, and IRQ's that are standard
for that specific serial port. As has been demonstrated on this list
by those who have attempted it, adding a pci card to the system that
has serial ports on it, doesn't work if those ports can't be
configured as ttyS0-ttyS3 showing up with standard i/o addresses, and
IRQ's.

I suppose that ethernet would work, though it would involve heavily
patching speakup I imagine, which is already itself a patch against
the constantly changing kernel source. Granted, it is possible to
build speakup as out-of-tree modules nowadays, so it doesn't
necessarily mean patching the kernel anymore, but the fact remains that
the speakup source has to be updated as the kernel source changes, in
order to be able to build speakup as out-of-tree modules.

What you're suggesting doing would certainly be welcomed by many,
myself included, as it would allow for the installation of any
speakup-enabled distribution on a computer without serial ports,
regardless of if a distribution install media is setup to use software
speech, or not. I seem to recall someone attempting something similar
a while back, but I haven't heard anything about it for a while now,
but maybe my memory is wrong here. I also stand to be corrected, as
always, on what I've said here. If that's the case, then I'm sure
someone will jump in hear, and do that.

Greg


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