NOTE: This is still in early development. Some features aren't complete yet, and some things may be broken or subject to change.
mnpiano is a simple way to output MIDI notes to any ALSA sequencer-compatible client. By itself, it will not make any sound. I recommend using a software synth such as TiMidity++ or FluidSynth if you want to make sound on your computer.
mnpiano will work with hardware MIDI devices over USB as well, so long as they're compatible with ALSA.
You need the curses, asound, and rt libraries to build. If you don't have them, the install process will depend on your distro. After that, it should build simply with make. I haven't made a make install yet, maybe once this project matures a little bit I will. If you really want to install it, copy the binary to somewhere in your PATH.
First, you need to know which client/port you want to connect to. Use aconnect -o to show all open ports on the system. If you're planning on using TiMidity++ as a software synth, you need to start it first: timidity -iA (or timidity -iAD to daemonize it). aconnect will show something like:
$ aconnect -o
client 14: 'Midi Through' [type=kernel]
0 'Midi Through Port-0'
client 128: 'TiMidity' [type=user,pid=15249]
0 'TiMidity port 0 '
1 'TiMidity port 1 '
2 'TiMidity port 2 '
3 'TiMidity port 3 '
Then run mnpiano:
$ ./mnpiano 128:0
Use backspace or CTRL-C to exit.
This is more of a TiMidity tip than anything, but in general you'll want to lower the latency to make the keyboard more responsive. You can do this by starting TiMidity with the -B2,8 option. This will cause TiMidity to use smaller output buffers.