Connect MIDI keyboard to Kontakt piano

[amc252]

Hello everybody,

I was able to install kontakt with wine and upload a piano plugin from pianobook.
Then I ran into a problem since I can't figure out how to connect miy MIDI keyboard to the piano plugin.
I tried using wine driver both with qjackctl and aconnect, trying both the plugin 'omni' and 'MIDI through' settings, without success.

Here are some screenshots:
qjackctl graph: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OWSeRT ... sp=sharing
aconnect -l output: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eR3kVt ... sp=sharing
kontakt plugin GUI: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WTAS5B ... sp=sharing

Any suggestion as to trobleshoot this problem?

[Impostor]

Hello everybody,

I was able to install kontakt with wine and upload a piano plugin from pianobook.
Then I ran into a problem since I can't figure out how to connect miy MIDI keyboard to the piano plugin.
I tried using wine driver both with qjackctl and aconnect, trying both the plugin 'omni' and 'MIDI through' settings, without success.

Make sure you have libasound2 and libasound2:i386, and maybe also libasound2-plugins and libasound2-plugins:i386

I needed them for the midi through ports being available in Rebirth at least, which I'm running with Wine.

I hope you get a decent enough latency for live playing. You should maybe also install wineasio for better latency.

[Linuxmusician01]

Hello everybody,

I was able to install kontakt with wine and upload a piano plugin from pianobook.
Then I ran into a problem since I can't figure out how to connect miy MIDI keyboard to the piano plugin.
I tried using wine driver both with qjackctl and aconnect, trying both the plugin 'omni' and 'MIDI through' settings, without success.

Here are some screenshots:
qjackctl graph: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OWSeRT ... sp=sharing
aconnect -l output: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eR3kVt ... sp=sharing
kontakt plugin GUI: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WTAS5B ... sp=sharing

Any suggestion as to trobleshoot this problem?

Let me guess: you connected your Midi keyboard via a 5-pin DIN to USB connector to your computer didn't you? I recognize the name "CH345" in the picture below that you posted a link to:

I have the same DIN-to-USB converter cable and it calls itself CH345 in Linux.

In the picture above I can also see that Alsa Midi (Alsa Midi = purple) is connected to its out port. I see that there's nothing connected to the Playback audio (Audio = green) input. Usually there's a green audio in and/or out for your DAW or other audio application. I miss that in your screenie. That might explain why you hear nothing when you press a note on the keyboard. On the other hand: a Windows to Linux driver might also be the problem. See for instance the screenie below for my system when I start the DAW Qtractor and the virtual synthesizer Fluidsynth:

However, I see that you're also using Jack Midi (Jack Midi = red). You can try to kill Jack so the setup is more simple. Might work. However, if another piece of software than Wine is trying to use Alsa you might not hear anything.

BTW. I always use Qjackctl with the classic "Connections" window, not with the modern "Graph" window. I do that like so in Qjackctl:

Setup --> Misc --> de-select "Replace connections with graph button" in the lower left-hand corner

See screenshot:

Then I click on the "Connect" button in Qjackctl, see screenie below:

Good luck solving the problem. Let us hear how you solved it: I'd like to know too how one can use Windows Audio software via a Widows Midi driver.

Some tips for the future:

1. Use Postimage to post your image to the internet. Then you can include them here in a forum post with those IMG tags (between ] and [ brackets).

2. Not everybody might know what Kontakt is. For one it's Windows software and this is a Linux forum. Secondly, not everybody uses the same software. Kontakt appears to be paid Windows/Apple software by the company Native Instruments. I cannot help you with it: I haven't paid for it and there's no Linux version.

[edit] in the first instance I missed that ALSA is connected to the keyboard, I thought that nothing was conected. Oops.

[Impostor]

In Linuxmusician's repost of your qjackctl graph, I see a "Wine Midi Driver"?

How did you get that? And, maybe it isn't even necessary, since I don't have it, and can still send midi via midi through to my wine application Rebirth. Don't expect to make that connection via aconnect or qjackctl though. Just connect your midi keyboard to a midi through port, and within Kontakt (if possible) select that midi through port as input.

EDIT It turns out I do have a "wine midi driver", but it's invisible here.

[Linuxmusician01]

In Linuxmusician's repost of your qjackctl graph, I see a "Wine Midi Driver"?

How did you get that? And, maybe it isn't even necessary, since I don't have it, and can still send midi via midi through to my wine application Rebirth. Don't expect to make that connection via aconnect or qjackctl though. Just connect your midi keyboard to a midi through port, and within Kontakt (if possible) select that midi through port as input.

Did you notice that in said screenie there ain't no Kontact software to be seen either? Did you click on the links he posted to his screenies?

Gonna be hard to connect a keyboard to Kontakt if it ain't nowhere to be found in a connection window. I assumed that the Wine (= Windows) Midi Driver took care of the connection to the actual Kontakt software. And I see the word "mac" pop up everywhere in the other screenies. If he's using an Apple computer with wine trying to install a Windows driver to Linux Qjackctl it's gonna be even harder if not impossible, ha ha.

[Impostor]

Did you notice that in said screenie there ain't no Kontact software to be seen either? Did you click on the links he posted to his screenies? :wink:

If I run Rebirth in Wine I don't get to see anything in Qjackctl either. Not even a "wine midi driver". But I can still send midi to Rebirth because within Rebirth, my midi through ports are available as input ports.

In fact, I now have an active connection (MusE -->Midi Thru-->Rebirth), and it doesn't even show* with aconnect -iol
(See below: Midi Thru Out Port 2 is connected to Rebirth)

Edit: I see it's 133:1 in aconnect! Funny: port 133 shows up with aconnect -l, but not with aconnect -i, or aconnect -o. So it's only visible when an actual connection has been made. That's probably why this "wine midi driver" is invisible to me in qjackctl.

[tavasti]

When using them as plugins,

Code: Select all

carla-single win64 vst3 path/to/plugin

will start them as proper jack-programs, and then you just connect midi and audio like any linux program.

[amc252]

Thanks everybody for the feedback, great community as usual.

Just some extra information first.

I don't dig windows apps or wine+windows apps on linux at all. I'm just a curious cat and wanted to see how some pianobook libraries I play as SFZ would sound on kontakt. I have no expectations whatsoever as to their performance.
So I installed wine and native instruments and kontakt (as detailed in another post) on my spare test partition (debian testing) to give it a try.

As suggested by Impostor, I installed libasound2, libasound2:i386, libasound2-plugins, and libasound2-plugins:i386
I also tried to connect without using qjackctl or aconnect and just stuck to kontakt.

I opened the 'Manage Libraries' menu and now found my MIDI keyboard listed (yes, it's the 5-pin DIN to USB connector Linuxmusician01 referred to, also thanks for the postimage tip).

I activated both the input and output for my MIDI

Then I found and selected my MIDI keyboard in the instrument GUI

However, still no dice. I can't see any input in the piano GUI.

[Linuxmusician01]

[...]
If I run Rebirth in Wine I don't get to see anything in Qjackctl either. Not even a "wine midi driver". But I can still send midi to Rebirth because within Rebirth, my midi through ports are available as input ports.

Thanks for that info! Every now and then I try to run good ol' Rebirth too. Bet myself a million dollars that I'll forget it won't show up in Qjackctl but that I have to use Midi Through.

[Linuxmusician01]

[...]
I opened the 'Manage Libraries' menu [in Kontakt, MeneerJansen] and now found my MIDI keyboard listed

That a hardware Midi connection is called a "library" surprises me. Maybe that's how Kontakt calls thing, maybe there's something I don't realize.

[...]
However, still no dice. I can't see any input in the piano GUI.

That's a bummer. But don't give up!

[Impostor]

[...]
If I run Rebirth in Wine I don't get to see anything in Qjackctl either. Not even a "wine midi driver". But I can still send midi to Rebirth because within Rebirth, my midi through ports are available as input ports.

Thanks for that info! :) Every now and then I try to run good ol' Rebirth too. Bet myself a million dollars that I'll forget it won't show up in Qjackctl but that I have to use Midi Through. :wink:

Other active ports also show up in the Rebirth Preferences Menu (eg. a MusE port if MusE is running), but for syncing Rebirth's clock to MusE I must use midi through. And, given that the midi through ports are always present, it's just more foolproof to use them as connective.