LinuxMusicians

Hello,

I would like to set up a home organ training rig. The solution will include a keyboard with a USB-MIDI output and a pedalboard with a USB-MIDI output. (I can name where we plan to get it, but only if asked - I don't want to be plugging a company before ever trying their products).

What I want is to use the computer as the synthesizer. Ideally, not just a General MIDI organ, but a selection of sound fonts implementing different organs/stops. Such sound font sets are quite available (JEUX, for example).

So the software synthesizer should be playing sound controlled by two connected USB-MIDI instrument at once, synchronously, without audible delay. And some sort of UI (graphical or text) should allow switching "stops" of one sound font set, if nos several sound font sets.

To top it all the machine is quite limited (AMD A6, 4 GB RAM). But I can set up a command line only system or I can set up a minimal X system with IceWM. I can use CentOS, I can use OpenSUSE, I can use Fedora (though would prefer to avoid its update frequency). I can use a specialized distros if there is one. But I do need to know what software I need to set up and how I tell it to work with two USB instruments attached.

Advice would be very much appreciated.

I would suggest using AVlinux which is well optimized for audio and comes with lots of audio software. For organ sounds you check out setBfree organ plugin for B3 sounds and aoelus for pipe organ sounds.

ramendik wrote:without audible delay

Don't pipe organs have a fairly high natural latency?

ramendik wrote:What I want is to use the computer as the synthesizer. Ideally, not just a General MIDI organ, but a selection of sound fonts implementing different organs/stops. Such sound font sets are quite available (JEUX, for example)

Soundfonts? Ditch that, it's an inconvenient way to play. You can fire up an emulator instead, which will react much better to your dynamics. There are plenty of software organs, including Calf, Bristol, setBfree and Foo YC20. I of course could forget something, but those I listed are tested bu me, and they all have a decent sound with a character. Another option is the almighty ZynAddSubFX, which emulates electric organ pretty well, and is one of the most powerful software synths ever created.

What she needs is emulation of a pipe organ, not of an electric organ. And when I looked at Aeolus I found a number of small zipfiles...

I would try an emulator for pipe organ if it as a workable GUI. I can't expect her to deal in scripting.

ramendik wrote:What she needs is emulation of a pipe organ, not of an electric organ

Then it's probably better to go for SFZ and GIG sample libraries: they are usually bigger, and contain more velocity layers than most instruments available in SF2 format. However, a best solution would be buying Kontakt. Unfortunately, its format is still not reverse engineered, but it works well both as standalone app under Wine, and as a Wine wrapped VST plugin.

Well Windows is available on that machine too. So could you please give a link to Kontakt?

Also, what software plays SFZ and GIG sample libraries under Linux?

One problem is that the machine is a laptop with an AMD A6 CPU and 4 gigabytes of RAM. I don't expect enough performance from Windows, heavy as it is, for real-time playing;, and Wine would probably have the same problem. But under a minimalistic Fedora-IceWM Linux environment, a FluidSynth/QSynth+JACK setup was working with a fairly acceptable delay even without realtime scheduling (did not try with it yet).

Also keep an eye on OrganTeq, they state that a complete version will be released in 2019.
https://www.modartt.com/organteq

Why has no one mentioned this?

https://sourceforge.net/projects/ourorgan/

But what you really want is an upcoming project of mine which will be called "Pipes". Hopefully, it will materialize in a couple months.

Also Aeolus https://kokkinizita.linuxaudio.org/linuxaudio/aeolus/

Is there any clear document anywhere about how to deploy and control Aeolus?

I used the packaged version for Fedora in the ycollet repo in copr

https://copr.fedorainfracloud.org/coprs ... /linuxmao/

AlexTheBassist wrote:Soundfonts? Ditch that, it's an inconvenient way to play. You can fire up an emulator instead, which will react much better to your dynamics. There are plenty of software organs, including Calf,

If calf is in use already (calf organ, monosynth, wavetable) then why not use fluidsynth with nice soundfonts? I like it.

Keyboard connected with laptop connected with good amplifier with good speakers. Great result.

zoco wrote:why not use fluidsynth with nice soundfonts? I like it.

To be honest, I never saw a soundfont which can play well with wide dynamics. While this is not that important for emulating a pipe organ, it still is.

AlexTheBassist wrote:

zoco wrote:why not use fluidsynth with nice soundfonts? I like it.

To be honest, I never saw a soundfont which can play well with wide dynamics. While this is not that important for emulating a pipe organ, it still is.

Edit it. Can do a lot.
And for instance on my keyboard i can set some knobs in different choises to double or up to four times depending on the used soundfont for nice dynamics.
Also nice for using more instruments from within one soundfont file together. Orchestra soundfont for instance. Or to combine multiple versions from one instrument together like in the image below. Gives much more dynamics too.
I have no complaints. Works great for me.