![eMDee eMDee logo](https://github.com/SMerrony/emdee/raw/main/doc/emdee_icon.png)
eMDee
is a live performance and rehearsal assistant for musical directors which removes
the need to have folders of tracks and command-line windows open in order to play backing tracks for performance groups such as singers, choirs, and theatre-groups.
The MD can plan in advance the order of performance; later, eMDee
will facilitate the playing of each track in the specfied order during the performance.
eMDee
was originally designed for GNU Linux systems such as Mint, Debian, Ubuntu, etc.,
it now also runs under Windows.
- Create 'session' of 'tracks'
- Tracks may be audio (FLAC, MP3, OGG, WAV) or MIDI files (played externally)
- Tracks may be re-ordered
- Tracks may be marked for skipping in performance
- Controls are provided to Play, Stop
- Audio tracks may have a volume modified
- Dummy or 'placeholder' tracks may be inserted to remind MD of a cappella pieces etc.
- Independently scalable interface, so you can have a nice big font for live use without reconfiguring your desktop
Third-party 'helper' applications are used to actually play the tracks, currently...
ffplay
for FLAC, MP3, OGG and WAVaplaymidi
(Linux) orplaysmf
(Windows) for MIDI files on an external device such as a synthesizer, keyboard, organ, or digital piano
You must ensure those applications are installed on your system for eMDee
to work, see below.
When a MIDI file is manually stopped from playing, an all-notes-off MIDI file is sent to the player to prevent stuck notes.
eMDee
relies on well-known third-party applications to play audio and MIDI files, these must be installed
for eMDee
to function.
ffplay
is part of theffmpeg
package on most systems derived from Debian (eg. Mint, Ubuntu). It should be installed via your usual package manager.aplaymidi
is part of thealsa-utils
package on most systems derived from Debian (eg. Mint, Ubuntu). It should be installed via your usual package manager.
ffplay
is a part of theffmpeg
package. A Windows binary is available at https://www.gyan.dev/ffmpeg/builds/#release-builds, you only need theessentials
build foreMDee
. If you are unsure how to install, see https://www.wikihow.com/Install-FFmpeg-on-Windows.playsmf
is part of "Div's MIDI Utilities" available here: https://public.sreal.com/~div/midi-utilities/.
You will neeed to ensure that both of these players are on your PATH so that eMDee
can find them. There are clear instructions in the above FFmpeg installation guide on how to do this, follow the same steps for playsmf
.
An AppImage file will normally be provided with each release. Install it in the usual manner.
TODO
eMDee
is written in Ada and built using the modern Alire
source-based package manager.
This is easy to install under Linux or Windows and handles the entire build-chain for you.
See https://alire.ada.dev/docs/ for how to install Alire
on your system.
[Not yet published]
Once Alire
is installed, the following command will download and build eMDee
and its internal dependencies in one step...
alr get --build emdee
Download and extract the latest release source code bundle from https://github.com/SMerrony/emdee/releases
In the newly-created directory run alr build
. The first time you do this it may take some minutes whilst all
the required libraries are downloaded and built, subsequent builds will be very fast.
The executable will be found in the bin
subdirectory.
- 0.2.1 Fix case where last text field edited might not be saved
- 0.2.0 Add button to delete sound file from a track - Issue #2
- 0.1.1 Fix adding new tracks with no associated sound file - Issue #1
- 0.1.0 Initial release - runs OK on GNU/Linux and Windows