[linux-audio-user] Now trying to configure

[Alejandro Lopez]

Guys,

Alter installing Demudi, I’m now trying to configure it. First thing I need 
is to be able to play a Standard Midi File (conformant to GM) through the 
crappy synth in my soundcard or, failing that, through any soft synth 
available.

I’d prefer the first option for simplicity since I use synth sounds to 
compose music only (music to be played live by a real band eventually), so I 
don’t care at all for quality for now. But in case I fail to use the first 
method, it would be good to hear of any GM soundfont set you may know which 
is readily available (may have it already as part of Agnula?) and reasonable 
trouble free (not too noisy or out of tune or some instruments too loud 
while others are too quiet, that sort of thing). Also, what is the simplest 
soft synth that could do the job and is included in Agnula? I see Timidity 
is under "synths" in the launch menu but the docs seem to suggest it's more 
like a kind of file converter type of synth rather than a real time 
software.

I’ve opened a MIDI file under MusE as well as under Rosegarden. Both seem to 
think they are playing it (no error will show up and the screen gets 
updated) but no sound comes out. Being a moron as for Linux, I need to learn 
some things from you guys in order to start troubleshooting.

1. When I run an application from the command line (rather than from the 
desktop menu), I get lots of potentially useful messages. I’d love to have a 
look at the ones from rosegarden4 but only part seem to be printed to 
stdout, so if I redirect to a file using “rosegarden4 > file.text” I’m still 
missing the majority of messages. I’ve been looking for any text file where 
these messages could be written but I can’t find it (I’ve pushed my “find” 
and “grep” knowledge beyond limits now). Any advice? I’d like to check for 
silly things like the sequencer not getting the permission needed to open 
the soundcard and stuff like that.

2. How do I test if ALSA has successfully detected the synth and is ready to 
use it? I seem to remember that it should create something like 
/dev/sequencer but I don’t know how to test it. Should I get a description 
of the device if I do “cat /dev/sequencer”? Could I play a file by doing 
“cat file.midi > /dev/sequencer”? Also I suspect that maybe the default MIDI 
out connection is not going to the synth but to a port in the soundcard 
which is actually a MIDI out connector (although there aren’t any physical 
MIDI connectors, there may be a physical port). The thing is: both 
sequencers list my soundcard as the MIDI out where the music is being routed 
to, but they don’t specify wether that is actually a synth or an external 
connection. Any tips?

3. Last thing I suspect is maybe the synth is getting the messages and 
generating the sounds and it’s just me failing to turn it up? I’ve tried a 
couple of “soundcard mixers” including the ALSA mixer, another (similar) one 
(can’t remember name), plus the built-in “MIDI mixer” each sequencer has; no 
joy. The thing I find a bit suspicious is that the soundcard mixers don’t 
have a synth slide. They have slides for mic in, aux, wave and several 
others (all of them are now selected just in case) but not for the internal 
synth. I should mention that I actually have a synth there, since it’s 
producing sound under Windows :-)

Many thanks in advance. I’ve spent some unsuccessful hours and can’t measure 
how useful this kind of forum is, it gets so frustrating sometimes!

Cheers,

Alex

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