LinuxMusicians

Hi again, just some questions this time (not a bug ):

1) What is the menu entry "MIDI / Local off" good for? It does not show any effect.

2) Is there a feature like "MIDI monitor follows selected track"? This is what Cubase 2.x did in 1990 and I'm really missing this convenient feature. Disable here, enable there and back again, click click click click .... This is a minor-minor issue related to usability.

3) Is the initialization of an instrument limited to sysex? For example I want to send "local off" to my Korg stage piano and this is not sysex (b0 7a 00).
Alternate solution:
> sudo modprobe snd-virmidi midi_devs=1 index=10
> aconnect 'Virtual Raw MIDI 10-0' 'USB Midi Cable'
> amidi -p hw:10,0 -S b0 7a 00"
The virtual device is necessary because Jack/MusE blockes device 'USB Midi Cable'. Took me just one hour to figure this out. Sometimes being a Linux enthusiast is a bit difficult...

1) The local off sends the midi controller 'local off' mode command (controller 0x7a)
to all channels on all MusE midi ports.
Meanwhile the 'panic' button sends the midi controller 'all sounds off' and 'reset all controls' mode commands
(controllers 0x78 and 0x79) to all channels on all MusE midi ports.
The 'panic' button is usually the first thing to reach for in rare cases of stuck notes (like most sequencers).
The 'reset instrument' button sends note-offs to all channels on all MusE midi ports.
The 'init instrument' button re-sends initialization sysex messages as defined by the instrument.
This is usually done automatically but can be turned off in Settings, hence the manual button here.

I have now added these explanations to the Wiki page

2) So you have several tracks in which the green monitor button is on but really you just want only the
currently selected track monitored? Interesting. We do something similar with the record arm, automatically arming
a single selected track when Rec is pressed. We might be able to shoe-horn some code in there which does the same thing
for the monitor feature. Consider filing a feature request issue on the issue page. Can't promise when it would be addressed.

3) True. Only sysex messages are supported in the Instrument Initialization Sequences as defined in the Instrument (see Edit Instrument dialog).
However, I recently visited this problem when I added MidiName (midnam) support.
I learned that midnam supports sequences with any message type, including controllers, not just sysex messages.
This led me to consider how I am going to add this extra support to MusE's initialization sequences and make it visible to users.
Some solid ideas to move forward are on the back-burner, but as usual there is so much to do elsewhere...

[ Edit ] Can you explain the trouble with the midi cable a bit more? I can't see why MusE/Jack would 'block' anything,
it should simply present what is available.

Tim.

Hi and thanx for the explanations.

1) Menu entry "Local off": I will have to test this some more. I guess this is what I should use to silence my HW-synths.

2) Auto-monitor MIDI track: There are other important things to do and this feature is not that important. Not creating a feature request.

Can you explain the trouble with the midi cable a bit more? I can't see why MusE/Jack would 'block' anything,
it should simply present what is available.

Just bad wording; amidi complains that the ALSA MIDI device "USB Midi Cable" (my beloved 6 EUR USB interface) is open already. If i kill JACK, the interface becomes available again. The trick with the virtual raw ALSA MIDI device just allows to use amidi to send MIDI bytes while MusE/JACK are up and running. I'm aware that there may be interference, but concurrent usage is not the use-case. I usually forget to send the setup stuff before starting MusE

Perhaps I'm on the wrong track and there is a simple solution for that without the virtual ALSA device. ALSA is nearly undocumented, except for a cloud of questionable tips and tricks in the web. My current solution is OK for me; I can setup anything I want, scripted.

Ah, gotcha yes I believe Jack opens ALSA in exclusive mode to gain access to the good stuff. No other devices can open it during that time.