[linux-audio-user] Connecting a MIDI keyboard

lanas lanas at securenet.net
Mon Sep 4 21:39:11 EDT 2006


Folks,

  What looked simple is not.  I have this Yamaha Psr-260 keyboard.  I
want to use it to play the ZynAddSubFX synth (one of these days I'll
know how to write that name I guess, if only by multiple repeated
tries).  

  So I start a MIDI cable from the OUT of the keyboard and connect it
to the IN MIDI jack of the M-Audio 1010LT card.  So far so good I guess.

  Then I start jack using Qjackctl, and press the green button.  I also
start the ZynSubAddFX synth (looks like a Polish name, guess that was
the spiritual connection) and it shows up in the jack connect dialog
box, which looks like this:

  Readable Clients / Output Ports

  + 14LMidi Through
  - 16:M Audio Delta 1010LT MIDI
    0:M Audio Delta 1010LT MIDI

  Writable Clients / Input Ports

  - 129:ZynSubAddFX
    0: ZynAddSubFX

  So I connect the last two entries together.  The Zyn synth panel
shows MIDI channel 1 selected.  Jack uses the ALSA driver.

  I play a few notes on the keyboard and only the built-in Yamaha
sounds are resounding, no Zyn.  If I use the Zyn virtual keyboard, I
can hear the software synth all right.

  The mic input of the 1010LT works fine, as well as the rendering
of sounds made by Zyn and Hydrogen.  So I presume the card is OK.  Maybe
the MIDI cable is not, so I changed it.  To no avail.

  Systems are Fedora 5 CCRMA and Studio64.

  Is there something else to be done in order to use a MIDI keyboard to
trigger sounds created by the Linux box ?  Or should I start to think
that the keyboard itself is somehow damaged ?

Al



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