[LAU] Record / playback MIDI through MIDI <--> USB cable?

[David W. Jones]

On August 22, 2019 8:49:04 AM HST, Bob van der Poel <bob at mellowood.ca> wrote:
>On Thu, Aug 22, 2019 at 3:25 AM Lorenzo Sutton
><lorenzofsutton at gmail.com>
>wrote:
>
>> On 21/08/19 03:07, Kevin Cole wrote:
>> > Hi,
>> >
>> > I'm on an Arch Linux system, and now have an old Yamaha PSR-220
>(TM)
>> > "portable keyboard" and an iConnectivity Mio (TM) MIDI to USB
>cable.
>> > My MIDI-fu is extremely limited.
>> >
>> > When I plug in the cable, it shows up (sans name) in lsusb as "Bus
>001
>> > Device 005: ID 2321:000a"
>> >
>> > What is a good way to save keyboard stuff as .mid files and
>vice-versa
>> > (play MIDI files out to the keyboard)?
>>
>> The most common way is to use a midi sequencer. There are many and of
>> many flavours on Linux. See here for a list:
>> https://wiki.linuxaudio.org/apps/categories/sequencers
>>
>> Then, to 'play' with the midi keyboard (i.e. you play notes on the
>> keyboard and the computer generates sound), you need to use some sort
>of
>> software synthesizer. These also come in many, many flavours on
>Linux.
>> See these links for a good start:
>>
>> https://wiki.linuxaudio.org/apps/categories/softsynths_and_samplers
>> http://linuxsynths.com/
>>
>> Fluidsynth (and Qsynth as its GUI frontend) ar a good start for
>'general
>> midi' style - using an appropriate General Midi SoundFont (many free
>> ones available).
>>
>> Of course, the above assume your midi to usb device (and therefore
>> keyboard) is correctly working and 'communicating' with the software.
>> The two main ways are either Alsa midi or Jack midi.
>> Software accepting midi in and/or midi out will have to be connected
>> to/from the device. QjackCtl is a nice tool for managing both Jack
>Audio
>> and MIDI (both jack and alsa) connections. Opening QjackCtl's
>> 'Connction' window or its 'Graph' window should be quite intuitive
>about
>> how this is done.
>>
>> This is a short tutorial as a good starting point:
>> http://www.tgbates.com/linux/2016/01/11/midi-keyboard.html
>>
>> And this is a much more detailed article by Ted Felix with lots of
>> useful information: http://tedfelix.com/linux/linux-midi.html
>>
>> Hope this helps.
>> Lorenzo.
>
>I feel the OPs pain. I'm on Ubuntu 19.04. And, in the last few years
>have
>never gotten Jack to work. Period. I think that I did it once my doing
>something convoluted ... but I guess I'm just too damned stupid for all
>this. I think the biggest problem is that Ubuntu runs Plus Audio and
>...
>well, you know.
>
>BTW, just making sure that jack is on the computer and then running
>qjackctl doesn't work.

I've never been able to get things pro audio working when Pulsa Audio is present except using Cadence. It made sorting out the relations between JACK and Pulse a lot easier.


---
David W. Jones
gnome at hawaii.rr.com
authenticity, honesty, community
http://dancingtreefrog.com

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