Found another minimalist MIDI sequencer: Epichord

[GraysonPeddie]

I found another minimalist MIDI sequencer that seems to be all I need: Epichord. It required FLTK2, which unfortunately, is abandoned by FLTK dev... And since I'm using Arch Linux, I tried one of the sanko builds of FLTK2, but it can't be built out of the box. I had to modify fl_png.cxx for "if (setjmp(png_jmpbuf(png_ptr)))" in line 115 and add "#include <cstring>" in order for memcpy() function to work. So I got that far, but had a problem with this:

Code: Select all

Linking fluid2...
/usr/bin/ld: ../lib/libfltk2.a(Image.o): undefined reference to symbol 'XRenderCreatePicture'
/usr/lib/libXrender.so.1: error adding symbols: DSO missing from command line
collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status
Makefile:112: recipe for target 'fluid2' failed
make[1]: *** [fluid2] Error 1
Makefile:31: recipe for target 'all' failed
make: *** [all] Error 2

So there's no way I can compile FLTK2.

However, being that it's only a MIDI sequencer, it's nice that it supports JACK-MIDI and not ALSA-MIDI. The downside is it does not do JACK transport. It is planned, but it looks to be abandoned.

Argh! I wish there are lots of choices of MIDI sequencers out there in Linux! Non-sequencer is okay, but it's not like what I saw in the screenshots for Epichord.

Abandoned projects...

And yeah, I found Epichord when I was looking for GTK-based MIDI sequencers (Google Search: gtk "midi sequencer"; Ardour might be a great one if it can do piano roll in an external window, but then it does have support for audio tracks which I don't need for pure-MIDI music making). This website caught my attention. And why are all the popular MIDI sequencers QT-only?

[DepreTux]

a little bit offtopic:

a very good and often overlooked program is rosegarden. Out of all other midi sequencers (except perhaps qtractor) rosegarden is the only one I've found that runs reliably and is not limited to basic functionality.
Of course, it is not loop based, though it can manage to do loops too.
Once I got used to the workflow, I could start concentrating only on the music, without worrying about random crashes or limitations.
If you haven't already, consider it. If I had gone straight this way when I did my midi sequencer research I would have saved lots of time.

Good luck!

[GraysonPeddie]

Rosegarden only supports ALSA MIDI and requires a2jmidid. Can't connect Rosegarden to ZynAddSubFX (Carla) without the ALSA-MIDI bridge.

Plus, Rosegarden is heavily bloated with notation editing and instrument selection that I don't need. Not even needing audio tracks anyway. MusE may be light weight, but I really, really want a DAW to do only one thing, and one thing well: MIDI. Anything audio can be handed off to Ardour. Anything to do with notation can be handed off to Musescore and be exported to a MIDI sequencer for piano-roll editing, especially when it comes to creating imperfections in MIDI notes. Built-in synthesizer formats regardless of whether a MIDI sequencer supports LV2, DSSI, or VST can be handled off to Carla.

[DepreTux]

Rosegarden only supports ALSA MIDI and requires a2jmidid. Can't connect Rosegarden to ZynAddSubFX (Carla) without the ALSA-MIDI bridge.

you can use the snd_seq_dummy module included by default in many distros (will show in qjackctl as "midi through").

Plus, Rosegarden is heavily bloated with notation editing and instrument selection that I don't need. Not even needing audio tracks anyway.

While it's true that rosegarden ships with audio, notation, and midi bank/program/channel handling, I wouldn't consider it bloated given how it's worked on my celeron and core2duo computers.
Also, you don't need to use the audio tracks if you don't want to.

MusE may be light weight,

Isn't it about the same as rosegarden? At least it's in feature parity, more or less.

but I really, really want a DAW to do only one thing, and one thing well: MIDI.

That's why I was recommending rosegarden. It does midi well.

Anything audio can be handed off to Ardour.

But then you avoid a sequencer because it's bloated, just to run another heavier DAW.

Anything to do with notation can be handed off to Musescore and be exported to a MIDI sequencer for piano-roll editing

which midi sequencer?

Built-in synthesizer formats regardless of whether a MIDI sequencer supports LV2, DSSI, or VST can be handled off to Carla.

I agree, the importance of plugin formats support is secondary. You have many options these days.

[GraysonPeddie]

Rosegarden only supports ALSA MIDI and requires a2jmidid. Can't connect Rosegarden to ZynAddSubFX (Carla) without the ALSA-MIDI bridge.

you can use the snd_seq_dummy module included by default in many distros (will show in qjackctl as "midi through").

...

but I really, really want a DAW to do only one thing, and one thing well: MIDI.

That's why I was recommending rosegarden. It does midi well.

It does MIDI well if it does JACK-MIDI, so with ALSA Sequencer as a MIDI driver in Cadence, all I get is this in Carla:

Carla_Rosegarden.jpg (122.11 KiB) Viewed 1001 times

[DepreTux]

It does MIDI well if it does JACK-MIDI, so with ALSA Sequencer as a MIDI driver in Cadence, all I get is this in Carla: ...

load the snd_seq_dummy driver and use qjackctl and voilá, you can link any alsa and jack midi app, without running any extra daemon.

But alright, I see you want a jack-midi sequencer. I only answered you to save the uninformed reader a few hours of research.

Have a good one

[GraysonPeddie]

Well, then I would appreciate if my thread does not get sidetracked/hijacked again. I know about Rosegarden before my research into other MIDI sequencers that are out there in the unknown. And so I did, only to find out it won't work in the updated version of Arch Linux.

It turns out FLTK 2 was depricated in favor of 1.3. Or should I call FLTK 2 as FLTK 1.2? Because I found it confusing that FLTK 1.3 is the newer version of FLTK 2.0. Weird.

[GraysonPeddie]

Hah, how sad with no promise at all...

There are far too many abandoned open source projects that are just waiting to be discovered only to find out that it won't work in modern Linux distributions. First, I found a minimalist MIDI sequencer and now this. Not a lot of choices of MIDI sequencers these days. Lots of broken promises.

Thanks, falkTX.