i'm terribly sorry for the re-post, but i just realized i subscribe from LAU with different email-address, and thus this email didn't get through.. (and i even cross-post... argh)
------ hello Linux audio users and fellow debianists about a month ago i upgraded my system from Debian Potato to Woody, looking forward to see all the interesting sound applications people have been writing, and which ones of those have been packaged for Debian. overall, i've been fairly happy with them, with the exception of all the four sequencers in Woody: Sted2, Rosegarden, Brahms and Muse i hope i'm not expecting too much from any of these: all i want to do is to record my playing from the midi-keyboard while using Timidity as a soft synth, and then being able to save my playing as a midi-file. my Ensoniq ES1371 [AudioPCI-97] sound card doesn't have a built-in synth, so i have to use Timidity (or something similar). my midi-keyboard is known as "MK-61 midi keyboard controller", with 15-pin "midi port", connected to the soundcard that also feeds power to the keyboard there doesn't appear to be any hardware problem, as i can do 'cat /dev/sequencer' and i get some output, "test audio and midi" in PD assures me that at least PD can read my midi-keyboard correctly, and (more convincingly) 'timidity -iA -B 2,8 -Os && aconnect 64:0 128:0' enables me to drive Timidity with the keyboard. yet despite these i'm still unable to do any midi-recording with any of these sequencers while rendering my playing with Timidity some info on my configurations: i'm using 2.4.18 kernel and i've tried using both ALSA 0.5.12a-2 and 0.9+0beta10-6. my /etc/alsa/modutils/0.5 and /etc/alsa/modutils/0.9 are identical: --cut-- # --- BEGIN: Generated by ALSACONF, do not edit. --- # --- ALSACONF verion 0.4.3b --- alias char-major-116 snd alias snd-card-0 snd-card-ens1371 alias char-major-14 soundcore alias sound-slot-0 snd-card-0 alias sound-service-0-0 snd-mixer-oss alias sound-service-0-1 snd-seq-oss alias sound-service-0-3 snd-pcm-oss alias sound-service-0-8 snd-seq-oss alias sound-service-0-12 snd-pcm-oss options snd snd_major=116 snd_cards_limit=2 snd_device_mode=0660 snd_device_gid=29 snd_device_uid=0 options snd-card-ens1371 snd_index=0 snd_id=ENSONIQ # --- END: Generated by ALSACONF, do not edit. --- # virtual midi: alias snd-card-1 snd-card-virmidi alias sound-slot-1 snd-card-1 options snd-card-virmidi snd_index=1 snd_id=VIRTUAL_MIDI --cut-- okay, here's my experiences with all these four sequencers: Sted2 (2.07m+20010303-3) [ALSA 0.5 and 0.9]: (note: Sted2 has to be patched or run as 'LC_CTYPE=C sted2' or something similar in a scandanavian environment when using X.) i have configured it with a line 'player=1,timidity -id -f -EFchorus=0 -EFreverb=0 -s44.1 -Os' in /etc/sted2/sted2.cnf, and it can load and play midi-files without a problem. while using either the default setting or 'midi_port=/dev/sequencer', it informs me with 'MIDI IN : midi' in the main screen. after choosing a track and while trying to record into it, it responds to my first keyboard press with a ticking metronome. i hit my keyboard but no sound comes out nor actual recording happens. i can stop this by pressing reset. during this so-called recording sted2 consumes all the CPU power available. the track remains empty, even though i tried switching recording channels, output mode (thru/off) and sync (int/ext). with 'midi_port=/dev/midi' it tells me 'MIDI IN : NoConnect' and doesn't react at all Rosegarden (2.1pl3-1) [both 0.5 and 0.9]: quite like Sted2. in 'MIDI Setup' it prefers /dev/sequencer. i can start Timidity in the background as ALSA sequencer interface mode, and direct the playing into Timidity port 0. the playing works without much problems (there may be some caused by bad latencies). when trying to record from "MIDI 0-0", it just hangs and i have to kill the sequencer process. switching MIDI 0-0 to "Timidity port 0" doesn't help either Brahms (1.02-3) [ALSA 0.5]: documentation says that only version of ALSA it can be run with is 0.5.x. when run with 'brahms -o alsa', i cannot choose any options for the output of the tracks, and when trying to play an imported midi-file brahms doesn't indicate it's going forward. when trying to record nothing moves forward Brahms [ALSA 0.9]: the binary uses the libasound.so.2 -shared library, suggesting it needs something from ALSA 0.9 (?), so i gave it a try. it does run, but behaves just like with ALSA 0.5 Brahms [libarts-alsa & ALSA 0.9]: i can record and play with this, using arts instruments as synths. nice, promising, but ready-made arts instruments sound horrible, and i haven't yet bothered to look artsbuilder. is there a way to connect this to Timidity? (Timidity is of version 2.10.4-2.2, and it doesn't have arts-plugin) Muse (0.5.2-1) [ALSA 0.5]: the binaries in Debian won't work with ALSA 0.5, and there doesn't appear to be a command line option to switch to use OSS-emulation Muse [ALSA 0.9]: i can create a track, add iiwu-1 instance to soft synths -list, add it to a midi-port table and then i have to switch device name to MIDI 0-0 so that i can mark it as a recording source. i mark the new track as a recording track. while trying to record i have no luck, recording appears to go forward but nothing gets into the track. and i have no idea how i could set up timidity with this (maybe soft synths in muse are okay, i cannot say) i admit i could look a little deeper into muse, but so far i've preferred ALSA 0.5, because Soundtracker, Ecasound and Timidity in Woody are compiled for 0.5, and i'm quite probably going to use these apps a lot (i know that at least Ecasound can be compiled for ALSA 0.9, i'm not sure about the other two) so, does any of you have any suggestions what i should try to do with these sequencers? are there any other apps out there that i should try out? (jazz?) is there any simple app that records what i play into a midi-file and lets me direct it into timidity at the same time? sorry for a rather lengthy post, clogging all your mailboxes. i'm thankful for all your suggestions -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
