<p>I recently picked up a <ahref="http://www.korg.com/gear/info.asp?a_prod_no=microkontrol&category_id=8">KORG MicroKontrol</a> from that local techno-crack peddler, Guitar Center. Short specs: 37-key keyboard (velocity sensitive), 16 pads (velocity sensitive), 8 sliders, 8 knobs, and a tempo knob that generates MIDI clock.</p>
<p>I had expected to plug this into my MIDI interface via the MIDI outputs on the back. However, as I left my MIDI cables at the theatre, I gave the USB interface a try. Much to my amazement, ALSA detected it as a USB MIDI device. It’s a bit complicated; it acts a MIDI interface as well when plugged in via USB, so it has sub-interfaces. For example:</p>
<pre><code>amidi –dump –port hw:1,0,0
</code></pre>
<p>(it’s device 1, starting from 0, on my system)</p>
<p>This dumps input from the MIDI-IN port on the back of the device, but not generated by the device itself. To do that:</p>
<pre><code>amidi –dump –port hw:1,0,1
</code></pre>
<p>Then you spend 5 minutes or so hitting the keys really hard and watching the velocity numbers. It’s fun.</p>
<p>It also has a 3rd channel for an unmapped “native mode”. I expected this to be a proprietary interface that they sold to application developers who wanted to better interface with the device. Apparently, however, it’s fully documented.</p>
<p>Why can’t all hardware vendors be like this?</p>
