MusE on Acid!

MusE is a DAW for Linux with both MIDI and Audio editing. https://muse-sequencer.github.io

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Impostor
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MusE on Acid!

Post by Impostor »

I never liked arranging patterns in Rebirth itself, since I need some visual guidance as to the song structure I'm working on. Also, recording automation in Rebirth is a bit of a pain, with just two hands available. So, here follows a short guide on how to use MusE for arranging and automating Rebirth RB338, for whoever thinks that sounds like a great idea!

0a. Correctly install Rebirth RB338 with Wine (which is a little involved).
0b. Install relevant libs to get midi working in Rebirth (I needed at least libasound2:i386).

  1. In Rebirth>Options: Select Sync to Midi Clock, and Select Patterns From Keyboard.

  2. In Rebirth>Edit>Preferences: Select Audio Driver (Pulse Audio for me), a Midi input Port (Midi Through Port 1 for me), select "sync to midi clock" (again) and "remote midi control" and select a midi channel (1 for me). Also select "use Rebirth standard mapping".
    Later on, you'll probably need to adjust the response time and the midi clock adjustment in this same window to improve the beat sync.

  3. Copy the file Rebirth-RB338.idf to .../MusE/instruments/, wherever that folder resides in your home dir. (file is in next post)

  4. In MusE>Settings>Midi Ports..: activate the relevant Midi out port (for me that's Midi Through Port 1), and select Rebirth RB338 as associated instrument.

  5. In MusE>Settings>Midi Sync..: Select clock out and rt out for the above midi port (that's Midi Through Port 1 for me).

  6. If you now open a drum track for the above midi port (be sure to send midi over the channel which you've selected in Rebirth's Preferences (for me that's channel 1) and open a part, you'll be able to program Rebirth's bank and pattern changes in this drum track (see screenshot below).

I simply make a drum track for each one of the 303's, 808, and 909, and on each track I make a part for each bank/pattern which I need. In the screenshot below I've made parts for patterns A-1 to A-4 for all of Rebirth's synths (considering Rebirth's response time, the program changes are set before the start of each bar. Rebirth always changes patterns at the end of the current one, so the exact timing of these pattern changes aren't relevant). Of course, programming the patterns themselves still needs to be done in Rebirth itself!

Arranging a song can in this way be done by simply copy/pasting the pre-made pattern parts. (Best to leave Rebirth in pattern mode for this to work.)

Of course, the best part is yet to come: Synth control automation!

  1. Add another 4 midi tracks connecting to the same midi port/channel as the drum tracks (Midi Through Port 1, Channel 1 for me), where you can automate the various synth controls. I've not added all possibilities to the instrument definition file, but if you need more you can add more. Refer to the Rebirth 2.0.1 Manual Appendix for the relevant midi cc's, and the Rebirth-RB338.idf file for how to integrate them into the instrument definition.

  2. If you now open a part on any of those midi tracks, you can select any desired control to automate. See screenshot.

If you now play MusE, Rebirth will start playing too at the same rate, playing the patterns as you've arranged them in MusE, with automation as you've drawn it (or recorded them) in MusE. You should now adjust Rebirth's response time and midi clock adjustment to get the beats perfectly in sync.
Still, everything's not really perfect, since at the start of the song, Rebirth simply plays whatever it defaults to, before it processes the first pattern change commands as you've arranged them.

Attachments
1. Pattern_changes_in_drum_part.png
1. Pattern_changes_in_drum_part.png (57.91 KiB) Viewed 806 times
2. Patterns.png
2. Patterns.png (51.6 KiB) Viewed 806 times
3. automation.png
3. automation.png (92.52 KiB) Viewed 806 times
Last edited by Impostor on Mon Mar 27, 2023 4:26 pm, edited 7 times in total.
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Re: MusE on Acid!

Post by Impostor »

And here is the instrument definition file. Remove .txt from the name (I couldn't add an .idf file here).
And remove the 4. as you please.

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Re: MusE on Acid!

Post by Impostor »

I found some notes I made (good habit!):

Necessary libs: libasound2:i386 and libasound2-plugins:i386.

Installing Rebirth is less involved than I thought (you will need the ISO, which was freely available on the web some time ago):

Mount the ISO and simply install with Wine. For running Rebirth, you need a mounted ISO every time, so what I did is:

Code: Select all

sudo mkdir /mnt/rebirth
cd ~/.wine/dosdevices
ln -s /mnt/rebirth i:
ln -s /path/to/rebirth.iso i::

To automount Rebirth at every boot, add this entry to /etc/fstab:

Code: Select all

/path/to/rebirth.iso /mnt/rebirth     iso9660  loop           0       0

And to one-click-start Rebirth, find a nice icon to pin to your panel :)

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Re: MusE on Acid!

Post by Linuxmusician01 »

Impostor wrote: Sun Mar 26, 2023 3:28 pm

[...]
Installing Rebirth is less involved than I thought (you will need the ISO, which was freely available on the web some time ago):

Mount the ISO and simply install with Wine. For running Rebirth, you need a mounted ISO every time, so what I did is:
[...]

A note about installing Rebirth (indeed: it needs the CD for copy protection). On first run the app requires a Help file to be read (only once!). However, this Help file can only be read with the antique WinHelp32 app. I copied the old WinXP winhelp32.exe into C:\Windows\. Beware: re-copy after Windows update or Windows re-install.

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Re: MusE on Acid!

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Linuxmusician01 wrote: Mon Mar 27, 2023 11:03 am

A note about installing Rebirth (indeed: it needs the CD for copy protection). On first run the app requires a Help file to be read (only once!). However, this Help file can only be read with the antique WinHelp32 app. I copied the old WinXP winhelp32.exe into C:\Windows\. Beware: re-copy after Windows update or Windows re-install.

Ah! That was why I couldn't install Rebirth on Windows 8! I was very happy when I switched to Linux and discovered Rebirth installed and ran with Wine just fine, after 6 long Rebirth-less years on Windows 8!

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