No MIDI sound with Rosegarden

[Mister Mint]

Ok, I wrote sudoedit /etc/security/limits.config and got a terminal with this:


GNU nano 2.2.6 Fil: /var/tmp/limitsXXxCtksm.config Ændret


[empty black space here]



[ Læste 0 linjer ]
^G Få hjælp ^O Gem ^R Læs fil ^Y ForrigSide^K Klip ud ^C Akt. pos
^X Afslut ^J Ombryd ^W Hvor er ^V NæsteSide ^U Indsæt ^T Stavetjek

I've tried typing in the ^ sign with a letter, but nothing happens. I can't figure out how this terminal editor works

Then I wrote gksudo libreoffice writer /etc/security/limits.config and got it opened with LibreOffice Writer, which is the only other text editor I have. But can I save the changes in the original format (.txt?) and simply replace it?

[glowrak guy]

Install the leafpad text editor, then view the file. My Mint 17 limits.conf is below.
(It's good policy to always rename system files before replacing them, like limitsOLD.conf
so you can access them from a live cd/dvd later, if things go wrong)
Your limits.conf file should be nearly identical to mine, normal system use would not effect it,
only the last few lines are often configured to allow the audio user
the highest priority, and unlimited access to system memory.
( I would also install gedit text editor, and fileroller and nautilus, to bolster
your archive and file management capabilities. These are 'gnome' based,
and may bring in a few depencies, but are worth a little disk space.)

the # makes each line become a dormant comment, in the eyesof the system.

# /etc/security/limits.conf
#
#Each line describes a limit for a user in the form:
#
#<domain> <type> <item> <value>
#
#Where:
#<domain> can be:
# - a user name
# - a group name, with @group syntax
# - the wildcard *, for default entry
# - the wildcard %, can be also used with %group syntax,
# for maxlogin limit
# - NOTE: group and wildcard limits are not applied to root.
# To apply a limit to the root user, <domain> must be
# the literal username root.
#
#<type> can have the two values:
# - "soft" for enforcing the soft limits
# - "hard" for enforcing hard limits
#
#<item> can be one of the following:
# - core - limits the core file size (KB)
# - data - max data size (KB)
# - fsize - maximum filesize (KB)
# - memlock - max locked-in-memory address space (KB)
# - nofile - max number of open files
# - rss - max resident set size (KB)
# - stack - max stack size (KB)
# - cpu - max CPU time (MIN)
# - nproc - max number of processes
# - as - address space limit (KB)
# - maxlogins - max number of logins for this user
# - maxsyslogins - max number of logins on the system
# - priority - the priority to run user process with
# - locks - max number of file locks the user can hold
# - sigpending - max number of pending signals
# - msgqueue - max memory used by POSIX message queues (bytes)
# - nice - max nice priority allowed to raise to values: [-20, 19]
# - rtprio - max realtime priority
# - chroot - change root to directory (Debian-specific)
#
#<domain> <type> <item> <value>
#

#* soft core 0
#root hard core 100000
#* hard rss 10000
#@student hard nproc 20
#@faculty soft nproc 20
#@faculty hard nproc 50
#ftp hard nproc 0
#ftp - chroot /ftp
#@student - maxlogins 4
@audio hard rtprio 99
@audio hard memlock unlimited
@audio hard nice -19


# End of file

[Mister Mint]

Thanks, I've edited and saved the files with leafpad now. And in Qjackctl 'Realtime' is ticked, and I've set priority to 89.

Then I ran the command groups:

tl adm cdrom sudo dip plugdev lpadmin sambashare nopasswdlogin

Since 'audio' was not there, I followed the steps in your link http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/howto-linu ... -to-group/ as well as I could.

To create the group 'audio' I wrote this:

tl@tl-P5Q-SE ~ $ grep audio /etc/group

and got:

audio29:pulse


Then (since I'm an existing user) I wrote:

tl@tl-P5Q-SE ~ $ useradd -G audio tl

but just got:

"useradd: the user "tl" already exists"

I must have misunderstood something..

The command id says:

uid=1000(tl) gid=1000(tl) grupper=1000(tl),4(adm),24(cdrom),27(sudo),30(dip),46(plugdev),108(lpadmin),110(sambashare),124(nopasswdlogin)

So no 'audio' yet, but at least I exist

[glowrak guy]

Try this:

First create the audio group:

sudo groupadd audio

then add yourself to the new audio group:

sudo adduser your-user-name audio


Then reboot etc
Cheers

[Mister Mint]

OK, I created the audio group and added myself to it.

Rebooted, started Qjackctl, amsynth, and RG (in that order), checked the connections in Qjackctl, but nothing has changed. I still have to do all the corrections in 'Manage MIDI devices' and 'Instrument Parametrers' after opening a MIDI file, and still there's only sound at the moment I press play.

More precisely: if I play from the very beginning of the file, there's no sound at all. When I place the cursor at a given time, there's sound from all the instruments at that specific time. Whether I use Qsynth, amsynth, or Yoshimi only changes the kind of sound.

BTW, right under 'Instrument Parameters' it always says: "General MIDI Device #1 [No connection]", regardless that a device is chosen in 'Manage MIDI devices'.

[folderol]

The thing is you've already proved the audio side is working. You said earlier you could get sound when using Yoshimi's own virtual keyboard. Therefore the problem is only a MIDI one, and as it is failing to work with programs that are entirely within the machine it can't be any kind of soundcard issue, as in this situation it could only be an external MIDI source. It seems something is blocking the messages as soon as a few have been sent, rather suggesting a buffer isn't being cleared somewhere.

I'm afraid that's the limit of my knowledge reached now, and (with great reluctance) I can only suggest a complete restart

[rghvdberg]

Ok, I'm on Mint MATE Rebecca 17.1, so probably better stick to V13

I'm running Mint too.

• Just a heads up, that Mint doesn't install 'recommended' packages by default.
  For example, I installed cadence (it's in the kxstudio repos) to manage jack but I couldn't start pulseaudio. Turned out that a pulse-jack bridge wasn't installed. The pulse-jack bridge was a 'recommend' package of cadence.
• Do you have the kxstudio repositories enabled ? If not I highly recommend that.
• I suggest loading the midi file in another sequencer (qtractor is a nice one).
• Also check if the midi file isn't sending Volume (cc#7) or Expression (cc#11) value 0 ..
• [EDIT] I like bullet lists

[glowrak guy]

BTW, right under 'Instrument Parameters' it always says: "General MIDI Device #1 [No connection]", regardless that a device is chosen in 'Manage MIDI devices'.

I installed rosegarden, and made some steps to follow, using fluidsynth-dssi, and fluidR3_GM sondfont.
I changed a few items from defaults, and list steps taken to play a midi file,
with FluidR3_GM.sf2

General preferences: tick Use Jack Transport box

MIDI Preferences tick the 'Load Soundfont to Soundblaster card at startup'
MIDI preferences: SoundFont /home/your-user/FluidR#_GM.sf2
Midi Sync tab: everything is disabled (temporarily)

Audio Preferences: tick each of the four vertical boxes

Studio menu: tick the 'MIDI Thru routing'

Check jackd connections

Import a midi file

In Track Parameters choose 'Synth Plugin'
In Instrument Parameters choose plugin FluidSynth DSSI

Click the editor at the bottom of Plugin selector,
In the editor panel, click the 'Load Soundfont' button
Choose FluidR3_GM.sf2, and 'Send Test Note'.
You should hear a piano tone. I renamed the soundfont to 1-FluidR3_GM.sf2,
in my /home/me folder, to avoid tedious scrolling)

Use menu Studio--> Manage Synth Plugins,
and click the v widget to the far right of 'none',
and select FluidSynth DSSI plugin for each track.
and also click the editor>> button for each track
and select the 1-FluidR3_GM.sf2 for each track

Now a midi file has sounds available on each track.

I tried saving as a template, and an rg file, without a midi file,
with the soundfont on each of 16 tracks, but the
settings didn't appear to stick. And loading a new midi file appears
to reset the whole works, forcing a repeat of the above steps.

Saving an rg file with a midi file seemed to work, and reload everything.

Hope this helps.

[glowrak guy]

I made another session with the steps above, except I used
instances of amsynth, whysynth, zynaddsubfx, and fluidsynth.
I used a different midi file, but midi files across the net
are not all in the same format, so try to find some from a high quality source if possible.
Cheers

[Mister Mint]

MIDI Preferences tick the 'Load Soundfont to Soundblaster card at startup'
MIDI preferences: SoundFont /home/your-user/FluidR#_GM.sf2
Midi Sync tab: everything is disabled (temporarily)

Audio Preferences: tick each of the four vertical boxes

Studio menu: tick the 'MIDI Thru routing'

Check jackd connections

Import a midi file

In Track Parameters choose 'Synth Plugin'
In Instrument Parameters choose plugin FluidSynth DSSI

Click the editor at the bottom of Plugin selector,
In the editor panel, click the 'Load Soundfont' button
Choose FluidR3_GM.sf2, and 'Send Test Note'.
You should hear a piano tone. I renamed the soundfont to 1-FluidR3_GM.sf2,
in my /home/me folder, to avoid tedious scrolling)

Use menu Studio--> Manage Synth Plugins,
and click the v widget to the far right of 'none',
and select FluidSynth DSSI plugin for each track.
and also click the editor>> button for each track
and select the 1-FluidR3_GM.sf2 for each track

That did it!!!

I tried saving as a template, and an rg file, without a midi file,
with the soundfont on each of 16 tracks, but the
settings didn't appear to stick. And loading a new midi file appears
to reset the whole works, forcing a repeat of the above steps.

Same here. And unfortunately, saving an rg file with a midi file, and then reload everything, makes no difference to me. I have to set the plugin and SF for every track, so unless there's a way to get it done automatically I'll have to find another sequenser. A shame because RG has some features I really like, and now it finally showed it DOES have MIDI sound

Hi rghvdberg, yes perhaps there are recommended packages I need, then. Also, my system is only 32-bit, maybe that's a limiting factor too.
* I'm not sure what it means to "have the kxstudio repositories enabled", I just googled "kxstudio" now and see that it's "a collection of applications and plugins". It seems to be very good, so that's definitely something I consider now. Whether the best solution for me is avlinux or some distro with kxstudio I 'll have to found out.
* I've just tried qtractor now, and unlike RG it plays MIDI files right away. Nice sequencer indeed, maybe I'll stick to that one, but I'll check out a few others too to see which one(s) suits me best.
* Cool bullet list

It seems something is blocking the messages as soon as a few have been sent, rather suggesting a buffer isn't being cleared somewhere.

Yes, and it's still funny that with no synth plugin I get this single one note/chord. In Qjackctl > Settings it says "Frames/Periods: 1024", "Periods/Buffer: 2", and "Latency: 46.4 msec", which I guess is ok.

One little problem still persists. As with RG, so with qtractor, after having started (and closed) it, there's absolutely no sound from any other programs, such as media players, Youtube, etc. Not before I restart the computer. But I guess that belongs in a new thread, unless one of you happens to know why?

[glowrak guy]

Glad things are moving forward! There are some 'low latency' kernels in kx repository,
I installed low latency kernel 4.2 last week, and everything is still working.
With kx repo enabled, (reload in synaptic after repo is installed),
check for available 32 bit low latency kernels, in general, choose the highest number available.
You should be able to have Frames/period of 256 and quite a bit lower, and have
immediate sounding response from your midi gear. Lower latency is better, you'll
get pops and clicks or dropouts when set too low for your cpu, so bump it up a notch
or two til audio is glitchfree.

In producing audio, it's often the case where you'll learn and keep certain apps
for just a single, or a few desired features, make use of them, and shift the rendered/recorded results
to other tools for further processing. The toolbox has no lid
Cheers

[Mister Mint]

Hi again, sorry for my late reply, and thanks very much.

Rosegarden is playing MIDI fine now, and I don't have to reset things anymore. So that problem is solved

About KX, I followed the steps here http://kxstudio.linuxaudio.org/Repositories, that is these:

# Install required dependencies if needed
sudo apt-get install apt-transport-https software-properties-common wget

# Download package file
wget https://launchpad.net/~kxstudio-debian/ ... o1_all.deb

# Install it
sudo dpkg -i kxstudio-repos_9.2.2~kxstudio1_all.deb

If you're using a system newer or equal to Debian Testing or Ubuntu 15.10 you'll also need to enable GCC5 packages.
You can do so by installing this deb file - kxstudio-repos-gcc5.deb, or manually by running this:

# Download package file
wget https://launchpad.net/~kxstudio-debian/ ... o1_all.deb

# Install it
sudo dpkg -i kxstudio-repos-gcc5_9.2.2~kxstudio1_all.deb


(Afair, Mint is based on Ubuntu 15.10, so I tried to enable the GCC5 packages also, but got an error message in the output, so maybe it's actually not based on Ubuntu 15.10. I've tried to check it on the net, but simply can't find the answer)

Afterwards I reloaded kx repo in synaptic and ran "sudo update" and "sudo update-grub" and rebooted. Now in case I've enabled the KX repo right, where do I actually find it? I've looked in the software manager, but the number of applications there is the same as before.

Btw, can I install the low latency kernel from the repo?

[Mister Mint]

Mister Mint wrote:
About KX, I followed the steps here http://kxstudio.linuxaudio.org/Repositories, that is these:


ahem, perhaps I should make the note on that page a bit larger...?

Please do not copy these instructions to your own website, wiki, etc.
The packages file link might change at anytime, and so the instructions themselves.
Always refer to this exact page for how-to enable the KXStudio repositories please.

Oops! Perhaps indeed

Also I think Mint gave up on doing new versions based on non-LTS Ubuntu.
So I believe the latest Mint should be based of 14.04.

Yes, that would probably explain the error message as well.

The full KXStudio repos consist of several small ones, so it's not straight forward to see the new packages.
But in Synaptic you can press the bottom-left button called 'Source' which should help a little.

You're right, I see them all now. Great!

Yes, but that comes from Ubuntu itself. The package name is linux-lowlatency.
The KX repos do not contain any kernels.

OK. I didn't know the command sudo apt-get install linux-lowlatency before, but now I've just run it.

Thanks a lot, falkTX!

[Mister Mint]

Sigh........ Now Rosegarden behaves the old way again, and nothing helps. I give up!

[Mister Mint]

Hi again... latest development in this everlasting horror/comedy series:

I updated to the full KX Studio (kxstudio-desktop and kxstudio-meta-all) in hope that that would change something, and it did, because now there's no sound AT ALL from the sequencers, MIDI nor audio The connections in Qjackctl are right, and I get normal sound from music players, streaming, Youtube, etc. My sequencers are Rosegarden, Qtractor, and Ardour, and I've re-installed them, but that makes no difference.

EDIT: Now streaming from the Internet gives no sound neither.. That is, the music /videos are played, there's just no sound. Pulseaudio is running, and Flash player is activated, don't know what else should be done..