How to add a sequencer midi effect plugin to an instrument ?

[Kover]

Greetings MuSers, Wondering how to add a sequencer midi plugin (ex: bsequencer, non seq, patroneo) or any midi effect plugin in general before an instrument (ex: Surge XT synth) ?

[Impostor]

1. <shift>+<s> to open the "synth" dialog, find your sequencer plugin (may need to search all categories), click "select".
2. Do the same for your synthesizer.
3. Add a midi track; in its mixer strip select for input your sequencer plugin, and for output your synthesizer plugin. And enable the "pass-input-through-to-output" button.

That should do the trick.

[Tim E. Real]

I was unable to test with BSequencer because MusE is having mouse troubles
with some LV2 plugins, including Surge and BSequencer.

So I tested with another sequencer "Hypercyclic".

As @Impostor said, open the synth selection/creation dialog.
Be sure to select 'All' or 'Effects' in the Category box, since BSequencer is classified as an effect.
BSequencer should then be shown in the list of synths.
Highlight it and double click, or click 'Select', to create a new BSequencer synth track.

Next, in the same way, create another synth track for Surge XT.

Next, create a Midi Track, and be sure that the 'Port' column in the Track List shows that it is connected to the Surge synth track,
as shown in the following picture (Hypercyclic was used here instead of BSequencer.)

Screenshot_20230822_113126.png (35.66 KiB) Viewed 2025 times

Next, click on the Midi Track's mixer strip green-coloured 'Input Routes' arrow and be sure that the Midi Track is
connected from the BSequencer midi output as shown in the following picture.
Here I have connected Hypercyclic's (in your case it will be BSequencer) channel '1' to the Midi Track's input routes.

Screenshot_20230822_113209.png (43.7 KiB) Viewed 2025 times

Next, be sure that the Midi Track's round green-coloured 'Input Monitor' button is on, as shown in the first picture.
This allows the BSequencer midi output to be monitored (passed through) to the Midi Track and then on its way to Surge XT.

At this point you should be able to play BSequencer and see activity on the Midi Track's meter, as well as hear
some sounds out of Surge XT.

[Impostor]

I was unable to test with BSequencer because MusE is having mouse troubles
with some LV2 plugins, including Surge and BSequencer.

BSEQuencer seems to work here. So mouse interaction with a plugin GUI depends on MusE code?

[Tim E. Real]

In BSeq with MusE I cannot seem to add any notes at all no matter what I do.
Meanwhile in QTractor it immediately works fine adding notes just by clicking in the canvas.

In Surge, the popup menus are giving me trouble. They refuse to acknowledge any clicks
and refuse to close again. With QTractor it was fine if I recall.

If it's OK for you, maybe it's my system? But how, I wonder...

[Impostor]

In BSeq with MusE I cannot seem to add any notes at all no matter what I do.
Meanwhile in QTractor it immediately works fine adding notes just by clicking in the canvas.

In Surge, the popup menus are giving me trouble. They refuse to acknowledge any clicks
and refuse to close again. With QTractor it was fine if I recall.

If it's OK for you, maybe it's my system? But how, I wonder...

Tried a variety of Bseq versions: the .deb from kx, the downloadable from github, and one built from git. I don't have any issues with the mouse. Except that in the git versions, after having clicked in the toolbox on an edit button, and then select a channel again to add more notes to it, their duration and velocity is set to zero default and notes won't show because of it.

[Tim E. Real]

Thanks. Yeah, weird, not sure what's going on here.

[Tim E. Real]

Hey thanks @Impostor
That was it! Those controls were at zero.

And the results...
Tested OK with BSeq and the instructions I gave.

[ Edit: ] The version I used was the official latest release.
I saw no trouble with the instructions you gave.
Editing and selecting channels, whether in auto-play or host modes. Saving, reloading.
Which is strange because isn't the latest release the same three-year-old code as the repo?
And... Why controls at zero only the first time and OK after adjustment.
Oh well. At least it works now.

[Kover]

1. <shift>+<s> to open the "synth" dialog, find your sequencer plugin (may need to search all categories), click "select".
2. Do the same for your synthesizer.
3. Add a midi track; in its mixer strip select for input your sequencer plugin, and for output your synthesizer plugin. And enable the "pass-input-through-to-output" button.

That should do the trick.

Thank you for your answer, but still no signal is received from bseq to anywhere. maybe a misconfiguration somewhere ? BSeq is fixed on channel 0, and midi track is on channel 1, Surge XT is on channel 2, Out1 on channel 0 .. (BTW i do have sound, plugins, midi keyboard working well using jack, monitor & arm are enabled on midi track, playback is switched on & seq is populated & bseq is in (Host & MIDI controlled) mode)

[Impostor]

Thank you for your answer, but still no signal is received from bseq to anywhere.

I think you're using an "old" version of MusE. In the "official" MusE 4.1 version midi output from lv2 plugins wasn't implemented. That has only been fixed some months ago. If you download the latest appimage from github, or build MusE yourself, then it should work fine.

[Kover]

Thank you for your answer, but still no signal is received from bseq to anywhere.

I think you're using an "old" version of MusE. In the "official" MusE 4.1 version midi output from lv2 plugins wasn't implemented. That has only been fixed some months ago. If you download the latest appimage from github, or build MusE yourself, then it should work fine.

Thanks.. It is working with other sequencer plugins, after some tinkering i found that my issue is with bseq as it doesn't generate notes when i hit play in DAW although it is in Host & midi controlled mode.

[Impostor]

Thank you for your answer, but still no signal is received from bseq to anywhere.

I think you're using an "old" version of MusE. In the "official" MusE 4.1 version midi output from lv2 plugins wasn't implemented. That has only been fixed some months ago. If you download the latest appimage from github, or build MusE yourself, then it should work fine.

Thanks.. It is working with other sequencer plugins, after some tinkering i found that my issue is with bseq as it doesn't generate notes when i hit play in DAW although it is in Host & midi controlled mode.

Host Controlled playback mode means play when host plays. Host+midi control starts playing on receiving a note-on message, and stops with note-off, whether or not the host is playing. So for that, you'd have to create another midi track feeding into Bseq to activate it.