Installing the command-line executable

Assuming you have Rust/Cargo installed, run this command in a terminal:

cargo install moont-live

It will make the moont-live command available in your PATH if you've allowed the PATH to be modified when installing Rust. cargo uninstall moont-live uninstalls.

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Readme

moont-live

Real-time CM-32L MIDI sink using ALSA, powered by the moont synthesizer. Appears as an ALSA sequencer port that accepts MIDI input and renders audio to the system output.

Build Requirements

alsa-lib-devel (Fedora) or libasound2-dev (Debian/Ubuntu)

Usage

moont-live [OPTIONS] --control <ROM> --pcm <ROM>

With the bundle-rom feature, ROM arguments are optional:

cargo install moont-live --features bundle-rom
moont-live [OPTIONS]

Options

Flag	Description
`-c`, `--control ROM`	CM-32L control ROM path
`-p`, `--pcm ROM`	CM-32L PCM ROM path
`-g`, `--gm`	Enable General MIDI translation
`-d`, `--device DEV`	ALSA PCM device (default: `default`)
`-b`, `--buffer N`	Period size in frames (default: 512)
`-v`, `--verbose`	Log MIDI events to stderr
`-l`, `--list`	List MIDI ports and exit

Connecting MIDI Sources

After starting moont-live, connect a MIDI source with aconnect:

# List available ports
aconnect -l

# Connect a source to moont
aconnect <source_client>:<source_port> <moont_client>:<moont_port>

PipeWire and JACK users can also route MIDI using their respective tools (e.g. pw-link, qjackctl).

General MIDI Mode

The CM-32L uses a completely different instrument map from General MIDI. The --gm flag enables a best-effort translation layer:

Remaps GM program numbers to the closest CM-32L equivalents
Remaps GM drum notes to CM-32L rhythm notes
Reassigns Part 1 to MIDI channel 1 (CM-32L default is channel 2)
Sets pitch bend range to +/-2 semitones (GM default, vs CM-32L's +/-12)

Without --gm, MIDI passes through unmodified, which is correct for CM-32L-native sources (DOS games via DOSBox, ScummVM, etc).

REPL Commands

The interactive prompt is available only with the repl feature:

cargo install moont-live --features repl

This adds a prompt with runtime controls:

set part <1-9> [program <0-127>] [volume <0-100>]
set master volume <0-100>
set reverb [mode <0-3>] [time <0-7>] [level <0-7>]
reset
help
quit

Prompt command history is stored in .moont-history.

Crate	Description
moont	Core CM-32L synthesizer library
moont-render	Render .mid files to .wav
moont-web	WebAssembly wrapper with Web Audio API

License

moont-live is distributed under LGPL 2.1+.

Copyright (C) 2021-2026 Geoff Hill geoff@geoffhill.org

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2.1 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.