I apologize in advance for what seems like a trivial and often asked question. But I can't seem to figure out even the tools to diagnose my problem. I've been reading web pages and alsa and jackd documentation for two weeks, with no luck.

I'm trying to configure my ubuntu 14.04 system to use my Akai EWI USB midi controller. I am trying to use Ted's Linux MIDI Guide to configure things. But before I get midi working I need to test that jackd can route audio to alsa, and I can't get audio ouput from jackd.

I have verified that alsa works with pulseaudio, when pa is running. I disabled pa and then made sure that pa did not autospawn (autospawn = no in /etc/pulseaudio/client.conf.)

I also verified that my hardware device is hw:0. It's the only HW device in my machine. The EWI is not currently plugged in, and it's a MIDI device anyway.

When I run qjackctl and start the server I get this:

19:04:28.770 D-BUS: JACK server was started (org.jackaudio.service aka jackdbus).

Sat Mar 7 19:04:28 2015: Starting jack server...

Sat Mar 7 19:04:28 2015: JACK server starting in realtime mode with priority 10

Sat Mar 7 19:04:28 2015: Acquired audio card Audio0

Sat Mar 7 19:04:28 2015: creating alsa driver ... hw:0|hw:0|128|2|44100|0|0|nomon|swmeter|-|32bit

Sat Mar 7 19:04:28 2015: configuring for 44100Hz, period = 128 frames (2.9 ms), buffer = 2 periods

Sat Mar 7 19:04:28 2015: ALSA: final selected sample format for capture: 32bit integer little-endian

Sat Mar 7 19:04:28 2015: ALSA: use 2 periods for capture

Sat Mar 7 19:04:28 2015: ALSA: final selected sample format for playback: 32bit integer little-endian

Sat Mar 7 19:04:28 2015: ALSA: use 2 periods for playback

Sat Mar 7 19:04:28 2015: graph reorder: new port 'system:capture_1'

Sat Mar 7 19:04:28 2015: New client 'system' with PID 0

Sat Mar 7 19:04:28 2015: graph reorder: new port 'system:capture_2'

Sat Mar 7 19:04:28 2015: graph reorder: new port 'system:playback_1'

Sat Mar 7 19:04:28 2015: graph reorder: new port 'system:playback_2'

Sat Mar 7 19:04:28 2015: graph reorder: new port 'system:playback_3'

Sat Mar 7 19:04:28 2015: graph reorder: new port 'system:playback_4'

Sat Mar 7 19:04:28 2015: graph reorder: new port 'system:playback_5'

Sat Mar 7 19:04:28 2015: graph reorder: new port 'system:playback_6'

Sat Mar 7 19:04:28 2015: graph reorder: new port 'system:playback_7'

Sat Mar 7 19:04:28 2015: graph reorder: new port 'system:playback_8'

Sat Mar 7 19:04:30 2015: Saving settings to "/home/poppa/.config/jack/conf.xml" ...

19:04:31.000 JACK connection change.

19:04:31.031 Server configuration saved to "/home/poppa/.jackdrc".

19:04:31.032 Statistics reset.

19:04:31.038 Client activated.

19:04:31.043 JACK connection graph change.

Sat Mar 7 19:04:30 2015: New client 'qjackctl' with PID 27579

(It complained initially that the server was not running, but that's because it wasn't.)

export JACK_PLAY_CONNECT_TO=system:playback_%d
jack.play test.wav

I have played this .wav file before with aplay, so I know it plays, but no sound comes out of my speakers. I think jack thinks it's playing, since qjackctl tells me this when I run jack.play:

19:04:31.043 JACK connection graph change.

Sat Mar 7 19:04:30 2015: New client 'qjackctl' with PID 27579

19:07:09.840 JACK connection graph change.

19:07:09.955 JACK connection change.

Sat Mar 7 19:07:09 2015: New client 'jack.play-27607' with PID 27607

Sat Mar 7 19:07:09 2015: Connecting 'jack.play-27607:out_1' to 'system:playback_1'

Sat Mar 7 19:07:09 2015: Connecting 'jack.play-27607:out_2' to 'system:playback_2'

19:07:10.772 JACK connection graph change.

19:07:10.959 JACK connection change.

Sat Mar 7 19:07:10 2015: Disconnecting 'jack.play-27607:out_1' from 'system:playback_1'

Sat Mar 7 19:07:10 2015: Disconnecting 'jack.play-27607:out_2' from 'system:playback_2'

Sat Mar 7 19:07:10 2015: Client 'jack.play-27607' with PID 27607 is out

I know it's some simple configuration error I have made. I have no .asoundrc nor an

/etc/asound.conf file, so I have the default configuration. I also have the most common

kind of sound card in the world, so it can't be that hard to configure it.

Can anybody give me a clue? Thanks.

P.S.
FWIW, alsa is working fine, so I don't think that's the problem. But catting /proc/asound/cards gives me:

Code:

poppa@ossian:~/.config$ cat /proc/asound/cards
 0 [SB             ]: HDA-Intel - HDA ATI SB
                      HDA ATI SB at 0xfdff4000 irq 16

Also, alsamixer tells me the levels are fine and not muted.

P.P.S. The EWI works with alsa and fluidsynth alone, but there seems to be a noticable latency between fingering notes and hearing the notes. I'm hoping jack will fix some or all of that.