MIOS Studio

MIOS Studio was started by Jason Williams in November 2003, and later taken over by Adam King. It is a Java-based, platform-independent MIDI processing environment which not only provides upload and debug functions for MIOS (MIdibox Operating System), but also general purpose MIDI features like MIDI port routing, monitoring, filtering and a virtual keyboard. It's written in a modular way and is published under the GPL so that other programmers can make their contributions.

The cross-platform nature of Java allows MIOS Studio to replace a number of tools accross different operating systems for working with MIOS and the MidiBox Hardware platform, eg: Perl scripts, batch files, MIDI-OX, SysEx librarian, etc. For example, previously hex files had to be converted to SysEx format first using a Perl script and then manually uploaded using a seperate MIDI program. Hex files can now be uploaded directly from MIOS Studio with full error checking and handling, without needing to convert to SysEx format first.

Debugging MIOS is now easier to do thanks to a graphical function builder. This allows programmers to have instant access to all of MIOS's internal debugging functions and custom command sequences can be built, all with 'drag n drop' ease of use.

Installing MIOS Studio

To run MIOS Studio you will need the Java Runtime, at least version 1.5 installed. If you do not have it, you will need to go to the Sun site http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/download.jsp first, download the JRE 5.0 setup file and install it according to your platform's instructions.

Once Java is installed, all you will need to do is download MIOS Studio and save it to your computer. In Windows, you should be able to just double click on the .jar file to open the program. To start from a command line (or setup a shortcut), you can use the command "java -jar path_and_name_of_jar_file" to open MIOS Studio.

As an added utility, a cutdown version with just a keyboard controller and MIDI routing/filtering is available. This can be started with the command "java -cp path_and_name_of_jar_file VirtualKeyboardDriver".

NOTE:

• path_and_name_of_jar_file is the name of the downloaded .jar file, and the loction it is saved in. eg: "C:\MIDI Stuff\MIOSStudio_beta7.jar".
• Windows users can use the javaw command instead of java to open MIOS Studio without a command prompt window in the background.

So far the program has been tested with Windows (98, 2000 and XP), Linux (Ubuntu and Fedora) and Mac OSX 10.4.7. Mac user may want to download PlumStone to ensure that Java can access the MIDI hardware on their system. Linux users will need to ensure they are using a fairly recent version of ALSA for Java to access their MIDI hardware.

Planned Features for MIOS Studio

• Add a memory read/write facility to the MIOS Debug Interface
• MIDI Translate/Mapping between device connections
• General SysEx upload/download facility
• Computer keyboard input for MIDI Keyboard Controller
• Variable number of octaves on MIDI Keyboard Controller
• Proper config/workspace file format for saving:
  • MIDI device routes
  • MIDI filter definitions
  • MIDI translate maps
  • MIOS debug function commands
  • Control Change message names
  • Instrument names
  • Chord definitions
• Lots of code cleanup, restructuring, refactoring, fixing ugly hacks, etc...

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Copyright © 2006, Adam King. All rights reserved.