[SOLVED] Ion Redline DrumKit: No MIDI?

[Jimi-James]

Running x64 Arch Linux. I bought an electric drum kit called the Ion Redline (not the Saturn car). Here's how it shows up in lsusb:

Code: Select all

Bus 008 Device 023: ID 15e4:017a Numark

I have an Akai LDP8 MIDI controller and a CASIO CTK3200 MIDI keyboard and they both work just fine, but this drum kit can't seem to get any further than lsusb. It isn't showing up in JACK's connections, and it isn't showing up when I aconnect -i. Google can't even find me a single page where this drum kit and Linux are both mentioned.

SOLVED EDIT: Basically, this kit does work fine in Linux and Windows and etc. etc. It's class-compliant. Mine was defective.

[ssj71]

Is it supposed to be class compliant? It appears not since alsa doesn't see it.

How are you at using git? No guarantees, but you can try using the rbdrum2midi converter. It will need some minimal tweaking but we could maybe add support for your kit. Its a userland driver but it works with low enough latency for my fooling around. I can make a branch for you to pull and we can work on it together.
find said program at:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/rbdrum2midi/
clone the dev branch and run using -dbg. We'll need to add your device to the capture method. I can do that pretty quickly if you want to go this route. Let me know.

[Jimi-James]

Class-compliant? Is there more than one way that a device can be MIDI-recognized? It's advertised as definitely compatible with computers as a MIDI device and has a guide to set that up in the manual, and all I know is that it doesn't work on my Linux computer. Do Rock Band drums work out of the box as MIDI devices without any extra drivers when you plug them into Windows and Mac? Because if they don't, I think these drums don't work for some other reason that maybe a driver designed for Rock Band drums can't fix. Unless that driver is meant for all devices that don't "just work" in Linux?

I'm very experienced with git and C, and I'm past halfway through an intro to OSes class at a university, so I could probably help a bit with this if I need to, but I won't have time to do much anytime soon.

[ssj71]

Class-compliant? Is there more than one way that a device can be MIDI-recognized? It's advertised as definitely compatible with computers as a MIDI device and has a guide to set that up in the manual, and all I know is that it doesn't work on my Linux computer. Do Rock Band drums work out of the box as MIDI devices without any extra drivers when you plug them into Windows and Mac? Because if they don't, I think these drums don't work for some other reason that maybe a driver designed for Rock Band drums can't fix. Unless that driver is meant for all devices that don't "just work" in Linux?

Rock band kits do not "just work" in any platform. They enumerate basically as joysticks. I help maintain a "driver" that takes the "joystick" data and converts it to midi data. Sounds like a similar thing. Did the ion come with software of some kind or a driver? The documentation isn't very clear on it (I looked up the manual). The instructions just say to plug into a computer, but then if it were class compliant it would work with the midi->rockband converter.

I'm very experienced with git and C, and I'm past halfway through an intro to OSes class at a university, so I could probably help a bit with this if I need to, but I won't have time to do much anytime soon.

Sounds like you're perfectly qualified to make the necessary changes yourself. (Your results will be faster, than waiting for back and forth from me). I went ahead and added your kit to the dev branch so if you build and run using the -dbg flag it should capture your usb drumkit and dump out anything it sends you. Try hitting the drums and see what it says. Make note of each hit. Feel free to fork and do a merge request if you just want to go ahead and figure it all out, but I'm happy to help and answer questions. Or I'll help you implement it.

[Jimi-James]

I don't think it came with any software or driver. I think it's intended to, at least in Mac and Windows, just work. I should try booting into my barely-used Windows partition and test it there, and it if still doesn't work, I'll probably have to get into your project and try stuff.

[eric71]

I'm not sure if it will be any help, but in looking at this page to see what Ion Redline drums were like http://www.ionaudio.com/products/details/redline-drums
I notice they are nearly identical to the Alesis DM Lite kit (minus one cymbal) http://www.alesis.com/dmlitekit

I have the Alesis DM Lite, and it is seen as a midi device with no problems by Alsa and Jack midi. Because the sound module looks identical to the Alesis one, I'd think it should work.

[ssj71]

I mean, you're right, but for some reason its not showing up. I think testing it in another platform is a good idea. I can't find anyone talking about actually using it with a computer, just people saying that you can.

[Jimi-James]

I just tested it in Windows 7, and no dice. VMPK couldn't see it as a device. In fact, when I plugged it in, Windows said it couldn't find a driver for "Unknown device." So it seems to not work anywhere. Their manual advertises that it works, and they provide absolutely no drivers, so I'm going to yell at their support for false advertising and maybe they have some sort of driver. It looks like I'll probably have to *make* this thing work in Linux, though.

[logicgate]

Do you have any other MIDI devices that work? If so, ignore the rest of this message.

It appears that Linux kernels from 3.19 on no longer automatically load the snd_seq_midi module. You can load it manually:

sudo modprobe snd_seq_midi

[Jimi-James]

No, that's all old news. I have 2 other devices that work fine (after loading that module).

[ssj71]

I just tested it in Windows 7, and no dice. VMPK couldn't see it as a device. In fact, when I plugged it in, Windows said it couldn't find a driver for "Unknown device." So it seems to not work anywhere. Their manual advertises that it works, and they provide absolutely no drivers, so I'm going to yell at their support for false advertising and maybe they have some sort of driver. It looks like I'll probably have to *make* this thing work in Linux, though.

yep. Sorry. It does seem they were very deceiving with their claims to USB functionality. I'm curious what they'll say to you. I'm happy to help you with my project too.

[Jimi-James]

The plot thickens! It turns out this thing IS class-compliant, because the apparently friendly, if very very late-to-respond, tech support linked me to this page to troubleshoot it: http://www.noterepeat.com/articles/pc-t ... eripherals

I'm going to follow up and see how far this tech support rabbit hole goes. Maybe this machine is supposed to work in Windows AND Linux and I just have a defective one. I *did* get it from eBay...

EDIT: Yeah, it turns out this thing works (in Linux) very intermittently. Each time I plug it in, it might work, it might show up as a MIDI device but still not work, or it might not show up at all outside of lsusb as a Numark device. It's probably defective. So, that's this thread solved. From here, all I can do is deal with its randomness until I can get it returned.

[noedig]

Maybe the problem lies with your USB cable or the connection on the kit?

[Jimi-James]

It's definitely the kit's connection. I've tested it with 2 different USB cables and 2 different USB ports, all of which work just fine with the keyboard.

[Jimi-James]

Oh, man, that moment when you realize you paid slightly extra for a 3-year warranty that you forgot about. I'm all set. 5-months-back me was a lot smarter than me now.