[Coco] more MIDI stuff

[Aaron Wolfe]

It seems like CoCo and MIDI is a hot topic lately. I've been talking
with several folks about various MIDI stuff so thought I'd share a new
trick I found today.

There is a free virtual midi redirector for windows called LoopBe1
that lets you route midi between programs running on the same
computer, even if that computer has no actual midi hardware.  Link is
http://nerds.de/en/loopbe1.html

We can use loopbe1 to route the MIDI output from the CoCo via DW4 into
any application running on the host computer.. and that means you can
do some really neat stuff, all without any dedicated MIDI hardware.
Of course if you do have MIDI hardware, DW4 will use that too, but
DW+LoopBe1 lets you send MIDI from CoCo to a local software synth or
sequencer without it.

Here is a new video showing this in action and answering some of the
questions ppl have asked about previous vids.  It even has music
"moused" by Bob Devries (but why does Ebony and Ivory just end in the
middle..  a corrupt file or just got bored with the mousing?):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5BNxCUwGNE

BTW - This video might contain the most ridiculous amount of virtual
stuff I've ever assembled..  a virtual PC running linux running a
virtual CoCo in MESS using John's patch to make it's virtual bitbanger
send bytes over TCP/IP using a virtual network interface in the linux
VM which talks to DriveWire 4 (which does actually run on a real
computer, but in a java virtual machine), which then routes the MIDI
data to a virtual MIDI port that is connected to a virtual FM
synthesizer.  The only thing that's real is probably the music itself,
which is actually very good despite the insane amount of tomfoolery
that produces it.

-Aaron