KMid2 prototype

[Pedro Lopez-Cabanillas]

Hi!

I've added a new application to playground/multimedia. KMid2 is a prototype of 
a new architecture for KMid. The main change is that KMid2 MIDI output is 
implemented on pluggable backends. Only the ALSA sequencer backend (for 
Linux) is included here, but it should be possible to write native backends
for Windows and Mac OSX in the future. Also, a multiplatform backend based on
FluidSynth would be interesting for casual users, needing only to configure a
SoundFont file and the audio output.

Here are some major features from KMid that have been implemented in KMid2:
* Playback to external hardware MIDI devices.
* Allow to use software synths as well, like Timidity++ and QSynth/FluidSynth.
* Tempo and volume controls.
* Added a pitch (transpose) control.
* Configurable character encodings for lyrics.

Some other features, like the channel view and channel mute controls will be
added later. Some changes in this prototype regarding the former KMid are:
* Removed the deprecated OSS /dev/sequencer interface support. It has been 
dropped from OSSv4, anyway.
* Avoid using fork/kill for play/pause/stop actions.
* The new ALSA sequencer implementation doesn't create/destroy the client and
port instances on each play/pause/stop action. This enables the usage of MIDI
patch bay applications like aconnect, kaconnect and qjackctl.

Please test and report comments, complains and suggestions. I'm specially 
interested in problems related to special MIDI/karaoke files.

Regards,
Pedro
 
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