[linux-audio-user] I'm tired of being a moron

[John Check]

On Wednesday 11 August 2004 09:51 am, Mark Wilson wrote:
> > Date: Wed, 11 Aug 2004 01:50:15 -0400
> > From: John Check <j4strngs at bitless.net>
> > Subject: Re: [linux-audio-user] I'm tired of being a
> > moron
> > To: A list for linux audio users
> > <linux-audio-user at music.columbia.edu>
> > Message-ID:
> > <200408110150.15952.j4strngs at bitless.net>
> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
> >
> >
> >
> > You are correct, Sir. Your best option with that
> > card and MusE are the
> > softsynths.
> > Unfortunately, that chipset is really not good for
> > duplex operation, or even
> > overdubbing.
> > The problem is (at least on any one I've had any
> > truck with) the sample rate
> > is off by 1 on the capture side. Playback is
> > 44.1kHz. The net effect is your
> > program length will be off by about 2 seconds for
> > every hour.
>
> OK, sorry to be doling out info pieces at a time.
> This morning I tried starting muse from a term window
> after starting timidity -iA

You don't say if you're using a sound daemon like arts or esd
(KDE and GNOME, respectively) but I'm pretty sure that card
can only handle two input streams. By that, I mean timidity will block 
any other programs trying to use /dev/dsp 
(arts & esd are ways around this, but they kill latency)... err...

>
> As soon as I try to import a midi file, the muse
> display starts to lose all its buttons and the menus
> don't respond and all the  areas of the window turn
> into useless blocks of nonresponsive vague colored
> areas-- you know the look.

Forgive me if I'm hazy on the details, but is your problem with importing or
getting sounds to play? My suggestions:
Forget about timidity and use MusE internal sofsynths
Do a few bars of step recording
Play it back.
IOW get playback first because whats happening when you import MIDI may
be a different issue entirely.

> I checked the term window for messages and saw only:
>
> open projectfile: No such file or directory
> no JACK audio server found

Um.. I forgot what version you're using but 0.7 needs jack. The 0.6's don't
but I really have to recommend against those.

> NO Config File </root/.MusE>
Not an error, just a warning

> ALSA: samplerate 44100 not available, using 44099

See? ^ Thats what I was talking about with the sample rate.
It's got nothing to do with you current problem.

> cca_open_socket: could not connect to host
> 'localhost', service '14541'
> cca_init: could not connect to server 'localhost' -
> disabling ladcca

Another warning that's not apropos to the problem

>
> After killing it, I decided to try at least
> 'touch /root/.MusE'
> knowing that an empty config file really wasn't going
> to do the trick, but I thought maybe if there was
> somewhere for Muse to starting recording settings,
> that seemed as good as anything.
>
> At one point this morning I *did* succeed in getting
> muse to load the midi file without crashing, even
> though I still heard nothing.  (yes, I've checked my
> mixer settings--no channels muted, and everything at
> least at non-zero).

You _are_ loading patches into timidity, right?

> This "success" came after messing around with what I
> think is qjackctl, trying to hook up the ens1371 in
> the left column with one of the timidity ports in the
> right column.
>
MIDI ports or audio ports? MIDI doesn't make any noise,
so even if you've got the MIDI ports connected you won't hear anything until 
the audio ports are connected. You can do this in qjackctl's patchbay
 MusE output to alsa_playback

> When I pressed the play button in muse, I could see
> all these bars for each track moving around, but no
> sound.  Hey, it least it didn't crash utterly that
> time!  I feel like I'm getting warmer somehow...
> -Mark

Okay.. IIRC MusE doesn't patch itself to the alsa playback ports by default.
If you don't patch it elsewhere, you have to go to the mixer and click on the 
"output" button (or "out" or possibly right click, I don't have a running 
copy in front of me) and connect
>

Note, the order in which you fire things up is important if you're using jack.
This is probably better asked on the MusE list


> =====
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