21 Aug
2019
21 Aug
'19
3:08 a.m.
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)?
Last week I fooled around with cat'ing to and from /dev/snd/midiC1D0
as mentioned in
[https://askubuntu.com/questions/633185/how-to-send-midi-raw-data-to-a-midi-…]
and was able to get "noise" sending a MIDI file out, and get
"garbage"
from the keyboard. I just don't know the RIGHT way to do stuff. (My
web searches weren't turning up obvious leads, which is how I ended up
at the above. It sounded like the closest to what I was trying to
ask.)
Thanks.
21 Aug
21 Aug
7:39 a.m.
Aug 21 2019, Kevin Cole has written:
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.
...
Hi Kevin,
your MIDI cable will also show up with:
aconnect -li
and
aconnect -lo
respectively. There are graphical tools to list and connect MIDI ports
as well. No idea what the current favourites are. qjackctl might work,
patchage, but I'm almost sure there are smaller/even simpler programs,
if you want them.
The aconnect tool (and others) shows the ALSA sequencer ports. This is a system/API to
connect MIDI ports,
both hardware, as your mio cable, and software.
Arch linux offers many MIDI sequencers. ALSA coimes with the very simple
arecordmidi and aplaymidi. A nicer commandline alternative is midish,
which I use. There is more here.
On the graphical side of things there are many. Rosegarden sounds
powerful, as does qtractor. But I don't know much about the graphics.
To get a general idea of MIDI tools on Arch you can try:
pacman -Ss midi
And the same with your favourite AUR manager/installer. e.g.:
trizen -Ss midi
I hope this gives you a good starting point.
Best wishes,
Jeanette
--
* Website: http://juliencoder.de - for summer is a state of sound
* Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMS4rfGrTwz8W7jhC1Jnv7g
* SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/jeanette_c
* Twitter: https://twitter.com/jeanette_c_s
* Audiobombs: https://www.audiobombs.com/users/jeanette_c
* GitHub: https://github.com/jeanette-c
... About some useless information,
Supposed to fire my imagination <3
(Britney Spears)
1:25 p.m.
On Wed, Aug 21, 2019 at 1:39 AM Jeanette C. <julien(a)mail.upb.de> wrote:
Aug 21 2019, Kevin Cole has written:
Thanks. This info looks quite helpful.
Unfortunately, I don't have the space at the moment to keep the Yamaha
plugged in all the time. So, I'll need to carve out some time to set
it up in the way of everything again before I follow-up on your
advice.
I'm reasonably comfy with Bash and Python (among other things), and,
at some point I think I installed everything in the ArchLinux ProAudio
group (https://www.archlinux.org/groups/x86_64/pro-audio/) even though
I don't know what to do with most of it.
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.
...
Hi Kevin,
your MIDI cable will also show up with:
aconnect -li
and
aconnect -lo
respectively. There are graphical tools to list and connect MIDI ports
as well. No idea what the current favourites are. qjackctl might work,
patchage, but I'm almost sure there are smaller/even simpler programs,
if you want them.
The aconnect tool (and others) shows the ALSA sequencer ports. This is a system/API to
connect MIDI ports,
both hardware, as your mio cable, and software.
Arch linux offers many MIDI sequencers. ALSA coimes with the very simple
arecordmidi and aplaymidi. A nicer commandline alternative is midish,
which I use. There is more here.
On the graphical side of things there are many. Rosegarden sounds
powerful, as does qtractor. But I don't know much about the graphics.
To get a general idea of MIDI tools on Arch you can try:
pacman -Ss midi
And the same with your favourite AUR manager/installer. e.g.:
trizen -Ss midi
I hope this gives you a good starting point.
Best wishes,
Jeanette
1:38 p.m.
Hi Kevin,
you can familiarise yourself with quite a few of the utilities without your
keyboard. There are virtual keyboards, usiing either mouse or the computer
keyboard, IIRC. With aconnect you can list ports and connect them or you use a
graphical patchbay or MIDI router. You can play MIDI files to a software
synthesizer like fluidsynth or qsynth (fluid with graphics). I think there's a
general MIDI soundfont to load so you can mostly get the sound arrangement
from your home keyboard.
From what I've heard, I gather that Rosegarden or
qtractor are good for all
kinds of MIDI arranging. sequencer64 from the AUR or
non-sequencer or others
might be better suited to pattern based ideas. Not totally sure.
Midish is good on the commandline. It has a shell-like interface.
Oh: your mio usb-MIDI cable should be automatically detected when plugged in,
so no need to load anything special or reboot. If it behaves as all the other
USB -> MIDI adaptors that I've seen, it will be listed with or without an
attached keyboard or synthesizer.
Best wishes,
Jeanette
--
* Website: http://juliencoder.de - for summer is a state of sound
* Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMS4rfGrTwz8W7jhC1Jnv7g
* SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/jeanette_c
* Twitter: https://twitter.com/jeanette_c_s
* Audiobombs: https://www.audiobombs.com/users/jeanette_c
* GitHub: https://github.com/jeanette-c
Don't, don't let me be the last to know
Don't hold back, just let it go <3
(Britney Spears)
2 p.m.
On Wed, Aug 21, 2019 at 7:38 AM Jeanette C. <julien(a)mail.upb.de> wrote:
you can familiarise yourself with quite a few of the
utilities without your
keyboard. There are virtual keyboards, usiing either mouse or the computer
keyboard, IIRC. With aconnect you can list ports and connect them or you use a
graphical patchbay or MIDI router.
I think I have better luck / skill with an actual keyboard. Trying to
bang chords out in anything approximating real-time using a mouse or
virtual keyboard seems awkward.
You can play MIDI files to a software
synthesizer like fluidsynth or qsynth (fluid with graphics). I think there's a
general MIDI soundfont to load so you can mostly get the sound arrangement
from your home keyboard.
I've used timidity for playing MIDI files I've downloaded from
elsewhere. So that part's okay.
Oh: your mio usb-MIDI cable should be automatically
detected when plugged in,
so no need to load anything special or reboot. If it behaves as all the other
USB -> MIDI adaptors that I've seen, it will be listed with or without an
attached keyboard or synthesizer.
Well, as I mentioned in the first message, that's "working" -- sort
of: I've already established that it sees the keyboard, and that I can
send and receive. It's just that I was trying to do it with the raw
/dev/ and assuming that the format of .mid files that I've downloaded
and played on the computer was a pure MIDI stream, and that just using
"cat" would send it to the synthesizer and play it back. Instead, it
played a lot of random noise on the synthesizer, rather than the
actual tunes I would hear with timidity. So, that means either (a) the
.mid files aren't raw MIDI, or (b) there's some other magic in the
communication protocol, e.g. baud, parity, headers, etc. Or that was
my thinking. And, when I tried the reverse, using "cat" to redirect
the output of the raw /dev/ to a file named play-me.mid, timidity
didn't play back what I did on the Yamaha.
2:17 p.m.
On 21/08/2019 13:00, Kevin Cole wrote:
....
Well, as I mentioned in the first message, that's "working" -- sort
of: I've already established that it sees the keyboard, and that I can
send and receive. It's just that I was trying to do it with the raw
/dev/ and assuming that the format of .mid files that I've downloaded
and played on the computer was a pure MIDI stream, and that just using
"cat" would send it to the synthesizer and play it back. Instead, it
played a lot of random noise on the synthesizer, rather than the
actual tunes I would hear with timidity. So, that means either (a) the
.mid files aren't raw MIDI, or (b) there's some other magic in the
communication protocol, e.g. baud, parity, headers, etc. Or that was
my thinking. And, when I tried the reverse, using "cat" to redirect
the output of the raw /dev/ to a file named play-me.mid, timidity
didn't play back what I did on the Yamaha.
_______________________________________________
Linux-audio-user mailing list
Linux-audio-user(a)lists.linuxaudio.org
https://lists.linuxaudio.org/listinfo/linux-audio-user
Hi Kevin,
MIDI events just state the type,pitch,velocity(volume). The timing of events
has to be figured out by whatever is recording it. Just copying the
events into
a file, then feeding that back means the timing is compressed into a
very short
time, probably a small fraction of a second, hence the noise.
What is needed is a program that will record the events taking note of the
time between each one, then to play them back with pauses to replicate the
timing.
A .mid file contains both the events and the timing information, hence
it can
play the events at the desired times.
Bill
--
+----------------------------------------+
| Bill Purvis |
| email: bill(a)billp.org |
+----------------------------------------+
9:38 a.m.
Hi Kevin,
Am 21.08.19 um 03:07 schrieb Kevin Cole:
What is a good way to save keyboard stuff as .mid
files and vice-versa
(play MIDI files out to the keyboard)?
Can you explain in a bit more detail what you are trying to achieve?
What do you mean by "keyboard stuff"?
Do you want to:
a) Do you want to save MIDI performance data (i.e. notes, controllers
etc.) you are playing on your keyboard as a standard MIDI file (.mid) file?
b) Playback standard MIDI files on your computer by sending them to your
keyboard?
c) Create MIDI sequences / songs on your computer and play them back on
your keyboard?
d) Save keyboard programs (patches) to your computer via MIDI and
restore them?
e) Save / restore accompaniment styles and or songs from / to your
keyboard? (I'm not sure the PSR-220 lets you do that at all.)
Chris
1:17 p.m.
On Wed, Aug 21, 2019 at 3:39 AM Christopher Arndt <chris(a)chrisarndt.de> wrote:
Hi Kevin,
Am 21.08.19 um 03:07 schrieb Kevin Cole:
Is "{f) all of the above" an option? ;-)
Seriously, though, I'm figuring on starting with (a). When I get some
sort of tune, which I fantasize is original and not just something I
heard and forgot, I want to try to bang it out on a keyboard -- though
I cannot play -- save it to a computer, and, potentially, massage it
until I get it to sound the way it does in my head. So, (a) would
rather quickly include (b). (I don't read music either, but I've been
fooling around with laboriously transcribing scores into MuseScore 3,
-- and more recently, Frescobaldi / Lilypond -- and listening to the
MIDI they generate. So, maybe, working that backwards and trying to
generate scores from the MIDI may be in the cards.)
What is a good way to save keyboard stuff as .mid
files and vice-versa
(play MIDI files out to the keyboard)?
Can you explain in a bit more detail what you are trying to achieve?
What do you mean by "keyboard stuff"?
Do you want to:
a) Do you want to save MIDI performance data (i.e. notes, controllers
etc.) you are playing on your keyboard as a standard MIDI file (.mid) file?
b) Playback standard MIDI files on your computer by sending them to your
keyboard?
c) Create MIDI sequences / songs on your computer and play them back on
your keyboard?
d) Save keyboard programs (patches) to your computer via MIDI and
restore them?
e) Save / restore accompaniment styles and or songs from / to your
keyboard? (I'm not sure the PSR-220 lets you do that at all.) 
22 Aug
22 Aug
12:25 p.m.
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.
8:49 p.m.
On Thu, Aug 22, 2019 at 3:25 AM Lorenzo Sutton <lorenzofsutton(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
On 21/08/19 03:07, Kevin Cole wrote:
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.
--
**** Listen to my FREE CD at http://www.mellowood.ca/music/cedars ****
Bob van der Poel ** Wynndel, British Columbia, CANADA **
EMAIL: bob(a)mellowood.ca
WWW: http://www.mellowood.ca
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.
_______________________________________________
Linux-audio-user mailing list
Linux-audio-user(a)lists.linuxaudio.org
https://lists.linuxaudio.org/listinfo/linux-audio-user
23 Aug
23 Aug
12:51 a.m.
On August 22, 2019 8:49:04 AM HST, Bob van der Poel <bob(a)mellowood.ca> wrote:
On Thu, Aug 22, 2019 at 3:25 AM Lorenzo Sutton
<lorenzofsutton(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
of
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(a)hawaii.rr.com
authenticity, honesty, community
http://dancingtreefrog.com
Sent from my Android device with F/LOSS K-9 Mail.
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 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. 
25 Aug
25 Aug
8:37 p.m.
New subject: setBfree, using Midi controler 7 to adjust volume - is this possible?
Hi List,
I'm trying to adjust the overall volume of setBfreeUI sending Midi Control
Change Message #7 with different values. Unfortunately setBfree does not react
to any of those commands. I have not found any clue inside the config files how
to accomplish it or tune setBfree to accepting Midi control messages.
Have you got any idea how to adjust its overall volume by using any Midi
commands?
BTW: I assumed by clicking Ctrl and middle mouse button on the Volume pot I
could send a midi message to tune the slider to the sent messages but obviously
I misunderstood something there. Does it only react to OSC messages?
Any help is highly appreciated.
Gerhard
8:59 p.m.
New subject: setBfree, using Midi controler 7 to adjust volume - is this possible?
Aug 25 2019, Gerhard Zintel has written:
Hi List,
I'm trying to adjust the overall volume of setBfreeUI sending Midi Control
Change Message #7 with different values.
...
I THINK(!) what you are looking for are these configuration options:
midi.controller.upper.7=swellpedal2
the same for lower and pedals.
At least this is set to 11 (expression pedal I thik) by default and
changes the volume on my setBfree using set MIDI CC.
You can add these lines to your default.cfg. It should work.
Best wishes and good luck,
Jeanette
--
* Website: http://juliencoder.de - for summer is a state of sound
* Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMS4rfGrTwz8W7jhC1Jnv7g
* SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/jeanette_c
* Twitter: https://twitter.com/jeanette_c_s
* Audiobombs: https://www.audiobombs.com/users/jeanette_c
* GitHub: https://github.com/jeanette-c
And when you say those words
It's the sweetest thing I've ever heard <3
(Britney Spears)
9:37 p.m.
New subject: setBfree, using Midi controler 7 to adjust volume - is this possible?
On 8/25/19 8:37 PM, Gerhard Zintel wrote:
Hi List,
Hello Gerhard,
I'm trying to adjust the overall volume of
setBfreeUI sending Midi Control
Change Message #7 with different values. Unfortunately setBfree does not react
to any of those commands.
That is odd. CC7 is the default mapping for volume control. (MIDI
channel 1-3).
press 'm" to show bindings in the GUI. you can also ctrl+middle-click on
the knob to learn a new message.
BTW: I assumed by clicking Ctrl and middle mouse
button on the Volume pot I
could send a midi message to tune the slider
yes, that is correct. It should show "move slider" and wait for input.
Can you play it? Does the UI highlight keys as you play notes?
ciao,
robin
10:27 p.m.
New subject: setBfree, using Midi controler 7 to adjust volume - is this possible?
Thanks Janette and Robin,
I'm a step further! In qjackctl in the ALSA tab I have to connect my Trinket
Midi device with Midi Through and in the MIDI tab I have to connect system with
setBfree. Afterwards I have to press Ctrl Middle mouse button on the volume
knob and the slider on my Trinket Midi device. Now I can tune the volume with
my external foot pedal.
After exporting the config.cfg I see the two lines
# modificaions on top of default config
midi.controller.upper.7=swellpedal1
Janette is obviously right that this is not the default behaviour.
Thanks again
Gerhard
On Sunday 25 August 2019, Robin Gareus wrote:
On 8/25/19 8:37 PM, Gerhard Zintel wrote:
I'm trying to adjust the overall volume of
setBfreeUI sending Midi
Control Change Message #7 with different values. Unfortunately setBfree
does not react to any of those commands.
That is odd. CC7 is the default mapping for volume control. (MIDI
channel 1-3).
press 'm" to show bindings in the GUI. you can also ctrl+middle-click on
the knob to learn a new message.
BTW: I assumed by clicking Ctrl and middle mouse
button on the Volume
pot I could send a midi message to tune the slider
yes, that is correct. It should show "move slider" and wait for input.
Can you play it? Does the UI highlight keys as you play notes?
ciao,
robin
_______________________________________________
Linux-audio-user mailing list
Linux-audio-user(a)lists.linuxaudio.org
https://lists.linuxaudio.org/listinfo/linux-audio-user
11:34 p.m.
New subject: setBfree, using Midi controler 7 to adjust volume - is this possible?
On 8/25/19 10:22 PM, Gerhard Zintel wrote:
Thanks Janette and Robin,
I'm a step further! In qjackctl in the ALSA tab I have to connect my Trinket
Midi device with Midi Through and in the MIDI tab I have to connect system with
setBfree.
I highly recommend to use `ajmidid -e` with jack2 to directly expose the
hardware device via jack-midi.
see also:
http://manual.ardour.org/setting-up-your-system/setting-up-midi/midi-on-lin…
Afterwards I have to press Ctrl Middle mouse button on
the volume
knob and the slider on my Trinket Midi device. Now I can tune the volume with
my external foot pedal.
Odd. there should be no need for that. CC7 is by default assigned to the
volume control knob. This default is hardcoded in the source [1].
Maybe you have a custom config that overrides this?
~/.config/setBfree/default.cfg or a file in /usr/share/setBfree/ ?
you could run the headless version and ask it to print CC bindings:
setBfree --dumpcc
That would also show "loading cfg: ..." in case a custom file is read.
Anyway, I'm glad you got it to work. Have fun with the Hammond.
Cheers!
robin
[1] https://github.com/pantherb/setBfree/blob/master/src/midi.c#L925
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days inactive
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days old
linux-audio-user@lists.linuxaudio.org
15 comments
9 participants
participants (9)
-
Bill Purvis -
Bob van der Poel -
Christopher Arndt -
David W. Jones -
Gerhard Zintel -
Jeanette C. -
Kevin Cole -
Lorenzo Sutton -
Robin Gareus