LinuxMusicians

Hi,
I am trying to learn how to best use software midi synths in this linux bassed DAW (xubuntu with KXStudio added). I have been unable to find any suitable instructions that I am able to understand in regards to the use of synths in any DAW OS, where as a Linux setup requires more attention by the user than would say a proprietary type of DAW. My question is this, I have downloaded some of the files located http://www.bandshed.net/sounds/sfz/contents.txt (thanks j_e_f_f_g) but I don't know where or how to best place them in my own file directory so that they are easily found by the actual synths for use. I guess I am referring to what might be considered configuration of the synth's data in my computer's file system. When selecting sound fonts for synths, these files need to be available in the "list" of sound fonts, that the synth has access to. I realize that a knowing person could have the files near anywhere and access them, but I do not possess the knowledge that can make this happen.

I am not sure that I know how to pose this question adequately to someone who understands the inner workings of a computer as well as most of you here seem. I am a musician rather than a computer whiz. I somewhat understand how to turn on a computer and that files, drivers and other stuff allow it to work as I wish. I don't know much about the drivers (other than that they are required), the file content (other than that they contain information which causes events to occur), or much more.

At least on paper it seems that these sound fonts would be better suited to what I desire for sound. I want what would be considered as close to the actual sound that real instruments would make. Thus far all I have found sounds like poor imitations of the sounds that real instruments would make. I realize that synths are only mimics of real stuff at best. I imagine there are some that sound very close to real. Where Are They?

The Linux DAW is still a very tough row to hoe for me.
Thanks for any available help,

In linux there is no standard place to put soundfonts/sfz/gig files, you can put them anywhere you find convenient. If you have an SSD disk put them there because they'll load faster. All that matters is that you know where they are because to load them you'll open a file browser and need to navigate to the folder containing the soundfont. Personally, I group my sound files by instrument type, rather than format, but you can do whatever organization works for you. If you use Carla to load soundfonts you can set the directory where Carla will search for soundfonts, after which Carla will detect your sound files and you won't need to use a file browser to find them in Carla. Here are some other useful references:
Youtube video on using linuxsampler as a lv2 plugin in Ardour: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5C65LvZ7ws
Using linuxsampler with Musescore: http://musescore.org/en/node/21159
Nice web page documenting linux synths: http://amsynth.com/

As to where to find good soundfonts/sfz/gig files there is no easy answer. Unfortunately, there are not many good samples available in linux, compared to what is available on Win/Mac. You know about the files kept here: http://www.bandshed.net/sounds/, and there is a forum thread about samples here: http://www.remastersys.com/forums/index ... pic=1740.0. A good general overview is here: http://wiki.linuxaudio.org/wiki/start.

Varpa,
Thanks so much for the assist here on this topic. It shall take me a while to gain the fundamentals of this build your self style of a DAW. The language with all its acronyms (which are meaningless ie, your use of SSD which to me means Social Security Disability) is very hard to deal with. Yet I will overcome unless I die before I make it.

I guess I don't run Carla on this system as it is nowhere to be found in menus or by using it as a command.
A special thanks for the tutorial.

cheers

I noticed in your profile signature:

KXStudio added

,,, and you can't find Carla???

That's irony.

Did you run Synaptic (it's under the "System -> Synaptic Package Manager" menu), type "Carla" (without quotes) into Synaptic's search box, check the box next to carla, and finally click the "Apply" button?

Carla didn't load when I installed KXStudio, ??? I don't know why, nor does it matter. I have it now. I wonder why the package manager installed wine along with Carla, that doesn't really matter either. It may invite my trying out reaper sometime! For now I am having enough of a time learning to use Ardour. I find it kind of quirky, doing unexpected and unwanted things. The learning curve.

I don't have the time now to fool with this stuff, so it will be a couple of days before I can hear those sounds j_e_f_f_g.

Thanks for the assist

So I am back to this today. I can't seem to get the soundfonts downloaded from http://www.bandshed.net/sounds/ to work with ZynAddSubFX. I guess that synth doesn't use the file type I downloaded (type .sfz). It is either that or I totally don't understand a thing about what I am attempting to do.
I am wanting to use a different sound than what is the default in ZynAddSubFX, so I attempted to load the soundfont file 'Ibanez_finger_bass.sfz' but that is seemingly not an acceptable type (assumed by the popup that stated something (??) upon trying to use the file 'Ibanez_finger_bass.sfz' with ZynAddSubFX. Should I use a different synth to experiment with or am I trying incorrect methodology. I simply don't understand how to use these various soundfonts with differing synths, if they are interchangeable or if I need to try a different synth. The instructions I have found seem to assume that the user knows how to alter these things. I don't know the if, how, where, and/or what, of using synths.

There are 2 general ways to create sounds on a computer are which are mostly mutually exclusive: synthesizers which generate sound by some form of mathematical operations (i.e. synthesis), ZynAddSubFX is one of these, it generates sounds all by itself; and samplers which play pre-recorded samples of instruments, linuxsampler and fluidsynth are examples of these. There are a variety of sample formats: Linuxsampler can play sfz, soundfont, and gigasampler formats, whereas fluidsynth (qsynth) only plays soundfonts. (IHO fluidsynth is mis-named - its really soundfont player, not a synth). There are many (software) synths available for linux see http://www.amsynth.com/ for a (partial) list of these. For a (non-linux) overview what samplers and synths are see for example http://tweakheadz.com/software-samplers/ and http://tweakheadz.com/software-synths/. Of course google will find many more references for you.

Getting back to your question ZynAddSubFX is a synth, it does not use sfz files. To play sfz files use linuxsampler.

linuxsampler itself is not user-friendly enough, try qsampler or jsampler instead

Linuxsampler is the engine. Qsampler and Jsampler Fantasia are front end programs for configuring Linuxsampler, e.g. loading soundfonts.

Thanks for the clarification about this stuff. I am sorry I've been slow at getting back. This road of linux DAW is difficult due to mostly to the use of language (spoken and written) or so I think. I only understand about a quarter of what is said here. Being dyslexic has many drawbacks, it is a fight on nearly every endeavor I seek in computing. Thus I have stepped away from fooling around with the music stuff, which is troublesome because music is the only thing I do worthy of doing. I am now in the midst of a home improvement project that is taking up a majority of my time. I still force myself to practice my music daily but the documentation process for copyright projects are sort of on hold for the moment due to this language to function wall.

Thanks for the attempts. I'll continue and find the success I need or die trying. I won't go back to windoze or mac due to the financial price. I am a poor musician.

Cheers,

First of all, thanks for taking the time to look at these issues for me. I find it all difficult but...

I have spent many hours today attempting to get the soundfont files to interact with the midi piano roll function in Ardour. I have had minimal luck thus far.

I went through the tutorial suggested by
varpa above:

Youtube video on using linuxsampler as a lv2 plugin in Ardour: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5C65LvZ7ws

again with limited success. I think the content may now be archaic, although I am unsure. What I do know is that I am unable to duplicate the procedure entirely on my machine. To start with, I was unaware that qsampler has to be opened through a terminal but I got that figured finally. I got the qsampler program open but, I don't know how to open the so-called front-end of "qsampler" in order to set it up. For that matter I don't know what the term "front end" actually means when it comes to computer programs. That may or may not be problematic. It could be that what I see here as the gui titled Qsampler is the front end?

Still I opened this thing called Qsampler through a terminal and receive the following message in its GUI:
*********************************************
13:19:07.416 Client connecting...
13:19:07.421 Server is starting...
13:19:07.426 linuxsampler
13:19:07.445 Server was started with PID=2657.
lscp_client_create: cmd: connect: Connection refused
LinuxSampler 1.0.0.svn24
Copyright (C) 2003,2004 by Benno Senoner and Christian Schoenebeck
Copyright (C) 2005-2013 Christian Schoenebeck
Detected features: MMX SSE SSE2
Automatic Stacktrace: Off
Creating Sampler...OK
Registered sampler engines: 'GIG','SF2','SFZ'
Registered MIDI input drivers: ALSA,JACK
Registered audio output drivers: ALSA,JACK
Loading instrument editor plugins...OK
Registered instrument editors: 'gigedit'
Registered internal effect systems: LADSPA
Could not scan LADSPA effects: library path '/home/ad/.ladspa' doesn't exist
Registered internal effects: 0
Starting LSCP network server (0.0.0.0:8888)...OK
13:19:10.652 Client connecting...
13:19:10.665 Client receive timeout is set to 1000 msec.
13:19:20.685 Client connected.
13:19:20.709 Sent fine tuning settings.
13:19:20.727 New session: "Untitled1".
LinuxSampler initialization completed.

LSCPServer: Client connection established on socket:4.
LSCPServer: Client connection established on socket:5.
********************************************
I notice the line
"Could not scan LADSPA effects: library path '/home/ad/.ladspa' doesn't exist"
and I assume that this is a required program or something??? I looked in synaptic and found too many programs with the name/acronym "LADSPA" in it. I have no idea which if any to load to the system? EEK
Could someone give me a pointer on this, please! I could load them all but that kind of blanket could just as well produce problems in itself. Then still, for all I know it may not be necessary at all? Ignorance is problematic.

Moving on, I have gotten to the point of attempting to get sound to come out of the speakers using the piano roll portion of the ardour GUI. I have sound! The thing I don't know is what am I hearing. I have tried changing the SFZ file in Qsampler although, I can not discern a change in the sound. I think that changing these SFZ files is in actuality not doing a thing? I really don't have a clue. I am trying to use the various "Bass" files provided by j_e_f_f_g. I know that I am getting a bass sound although changing between the various files seems to make no difference.

Well that is all I am going to write for now. There is a lot more to know, still one step at a time might be best. Nightmare!!

Hi!

To start with, I was unaware that qsampler has to be opened through a terminal but I got that figured finally.

You normally wouldn't need to open qsampler via terminal, but certainly you can do it. This is unimportant so moving on...

I got the qsampler program open but, I don't know how to open the so-called front-end of "qsampler" in order to set it up. For that matter I don't know what the term "front end" actually means when it comes to computer programs. That may or may not be problematic. It could be that what I see here as the gui titled Qsampler is the front end?

In this context, front-end means graphical interface. Yes, qsampler is the graphical front-end for linuxsampler, which is the engine running on the background. For your point of view, just start qsampler. You should have a graphical launcher but it is also OK if you invoke it via terminal.

/home/ad/.ladspa not found

It is just a warning, don't worry about that. qsampler searchs for ladspa plugins in some places. ladspa is a family of plugins of audio effects. ladspa plugins are often located in that directory which doesn't seem to exist in your system. ladspa plugins are usually in either /home/YOU/.ladspa or in other typical directories. For example, if you go to synaptic and install a package that contains a collection of ladspa plugins they will be installed into /usr/lib/ladspa. But you can learn about plugins later.

qsampler starts without errors. Now it is a matter of learning how to load and manage the sound libraries. You are on the right track.

Cheers! Pablo

Thanks Pablo,
I am now one step farther along. I think Ardour is vary unstable as it crashes a lot while trying to write midi from the piano roll input. It seems to sort of work other than the crashing though. I have gotten the soundfonts working now at least.

Again, thanks to all who help with my issues in learning this stuff.

cheers