LinuxMusicians

WE WILL FIX YOUR PC !!!
NEVER SURRENDER

Yeah

btw I doubt you need any commands

Sorry for the confusion, I was not aware of how things have changed since I thought I know something about Linux Audio.
Most of the linux commands I have suggested are purely informative and I think it's a good idea to just copy/paste rather
than taking screenshots. Unfortunately, I suggested some commands that change things, for example, I regret having
said to the OP to tell pulseaudio not to autospawn (whatever that means) just because that trick was needed in the past.
But I see now it is weird and even incorrect also here in my ubuntu 14.04 driven laptop
(it's amended)

However, I still think speaker-test is a good idea, because if speaker-test doesn't produce sound, then the OP probably has
hardware problems. Otherwise, they can be discarded.

Happy new year

rghvdberg wrote:FYI: you can attach screenshots to your forum post

A bit puzzled.
you can drag around the elements in catia to make the routing a bit easier to visualize
you can zoom in and out (I believe with the scroll wheel) to get a better overview
That would help me a lot

Okay Hope this is better:
Btw, when Ardour starts I get this message:

Ardour - Log

[WARNING]: no outputs available for auditioner - manual connection required
[INFO]: Loading session /home/tl/hgfhgf using snapshot hgfhgf (2)
Loading history from '/home/tl/hgfhgf/hgfhgf.history'.

rghvdberg wrote: As far as I can figure out the Maudio card is a 4 channel audio, 2 x midi card.

That's right. I don't know where this surround setup comes from

rghvdberg wrote: WE WILL FIX YOUR PC !!!
NEVER SURRENDER

I WILL DIE WITH MY BOOTS ON!

Pablo wrote:However, I still think speaker-test is a good idea, because if speaker-test doesn't produce sound, then the OP probably has
hardware problems. Otherwise, they can be discarded.

About the speaker-test; it's not available from the system sound preferences anymore (under 'Hardware' there's nothing). Well maybe that's normal, I just tell so you know.

Indeed, happy new year

I don't get why the M Audio card shows up as surround ..
However a similar setup is shown at http://alsa.opensrc.org/DigitalOut

I'm not familiar with the M Audio card.
How do you monitor? Do you have speakers or a hardware mixer attached to the M Audio card ?
It might be possible to use the M Audio card for recording and the on-board sound card (with speakers) for monitoring/playback. Personally I wouldn't do that because doubtless this would induce latency and perhaps loss in sound quality.

rghvdberg wrote: How do you monitor? Do you have speakers or a hardware mixer attached to the M Audio card ?

I have a stereo set (with two speakers) attached to the card.

BTW, for the time being, it's only the tag editor Kid3 that can produce any sound (it has an inbuilt player), but unlike earlier it now plays very slowly, and also the pitch is low! When all the other players and sequencers are silent, it's often only Kid3 that can play sound, but as said, now only with these "effects"

About your Envy24 or Mudita24 mixer settings, turn down all
the Monitor Inputs, and all the Monitor PCMs. All you need is
the Analog Volume raised.

In the Patchbay Router, only the 4 top row items
should be ticked.

In the Hardware Settings, make sure your Master Clock
setting agrees with all other audio settings throughout the system,
everything should be at either 44100, 48000, etc, you don't want
conversions or mismatches stealing cpu cycles, and wreaking havoc.

You don't need the digital section at all, unless you're recording
to or from a digital instrument or recorder.

The Audiophile's breakout cable has the 2 midi connectors,
and a pair of digital connectors. The 2 stereo pairs
for analog audio i/o, are on the card backplane.
Cheers

The Monitor Inputs were already down, but the Monitor PCMs were up, so I've turned them down now. In the Patchbay Router, only the 4 top row items is ticked, and in Hardware Settings it's 44100 Hz, and so it is in Cadence and Ardour.

But there must be a ghost in my machine, cause things change all the time. I just checked the sound preferences, and now under Input there's nothing, and under Output only a unit called 'Kunstig uddata' (which means something like 'Artificial out data')
And in Cadence' Jack settings > Output Device, the field had become empty again. Now I've picked my soundcard again:

My soundcard is like this:
Except that I currently don't have the break-out cable attached.

This is frustrating.
Maybe check in at irc on #kxstudio or #lad. Get some live help?
I'm pretty sure it's just a matter of ticking the right box.

I would go further, and do a fresh install of avlinux. Backup data etc first, or install on an external
usb drive (used and cheap case if you prefer). Plug in the breakout cable, and get a generic midi keyboard,
with 5pin midi out port. Keybord midi-out to soundcard midi-in. 'Vintage' synths are good for that,
and provide the bonus of an effectable array of sounds, at the audio level.
Alesis, Korg, E-mu, Kawai, Roland, Kurzweil, Yamaha etc.

In a thread about your future use of midi, a midi keyboard is important.
You can use vkeybd, or vkmd in the interim. Also, yoshimi and zynaddsubfx have virtual keyboards,
with a VK or similar labeled button on the main gui.
Cheers

One more thing, is your computer fairly new, with an emulated pci slot?
If so, look up that pci chipset, google it's name with maudio, and with terms like problems, fails, incompatible etc

An older genuine pci slot can be a real bonus.
Cheers

rghvdberg wrote:Maybe check in at irc on #kxstudio or #lad. Get some live help?
I'm pretty sure it's just a matter of ticking the right box.

Live help might do it, but with all the strange things happening (especially the slow play speed and low pitch!) I'm afraid it must be something more fundamental. Maybe MATE doesn't work with a low-latency kernel, or something like that. Also, the cooling fan has been changing speed constantly up and down for a few days now, regardless whether the machine is active or not. (This doesn't necessarily have anything to do with audio, of course)

glowrak guy wrote:I would go further, and do a fresh install of avlinux.

Yes, this has also been my "Plan B" since the start of the problems, - and looking back it should of course have been "Plan A"! But least I have learned a lesson or two from all this, thanks to you all.

I have both a MIDI drum set and keyboard, ...and looking forward to use it one day! And with all these great synths etc, it will be a real wonderland to me (if I can get it to work! hmm)

My computer is composed but most of is probably 5 years old or something. I don't know what it means for a PCI slot to be "emulated"? I googled it but couldn't find out. Can I check it somewhere if it's emulated, or with a command?

Try the avlinux as a bootable live dvd, with your midi keyboard connected.
It's a remastered working configured sysytem, so probably all you'll need is the basic
soundcard setup in qjackctl, and check the mixer volume. And then start trying the instruments.
What midi keyboard do you have? Most will just work. A very very few need a usb to 5-pin convertor cable.
Install when ready.

Your pci should be old enough, it's mainly adaptors converting new PCIe connections
to old pci, that can be tricky.
Cheers

Mr Mint, I think your problem is that you're trying to run before you can crawl. You need to approach Linux audio systematically and understand the basics about it first before attempting more complicated configurations.

My 2c

Forget about jack and the M-Audio card for now, first become familiar and comfortable with the on-board audio chip (assuming you have on-board audio?) .

• Configure it to work in pulseaudio (it should already work, if not, read up on pulseaudio and understand how to turn it on and off).
  Familiarise yourself with pulseaudio soundcard settings for the on-board audio chip.
  
  Then move on to disabling pulseaudio, and using jack with the on-board audio card instead. Become familiar with this and how to activate / de-activate it.
  
  Once you're more familiar with both pulseaudio & jack, then move on to the M-Audio card and using it instead of the on-board audio with either pulseaudio or jack.
  
  Once you're familiar with that, you can move on to combining pulse + jack on the same card, or on different cards. Or, you could choose to not use pulse at all etc.

The key here is working systematically, until you understand each subcomponent. Make detailed notes, either on your computer or write them down which explains how you set things up and configure them so you can refer back to this when needed.
Don't move on from each task until you have mastered it first.

First of all, good news: IT WORKS NOW Since I started the computer today, both players and sequencer work, and with normal tempo and pitch! And even the cooling fan rotates steadily again. Also, the sound preferences look right again, with Jack Sink and Source as in- and output. Funny, cause I made NO changes while the computer was turned on last time. That could of course mean that things will change any moment again, so I won't enjoy the victory too early, but this is the first time both players and sequencer work at the same time, which is a promising sign, at least

glowrak guy, it's an old Korg X5, it use to work okay with midi, so hopefully also on a Linux system. Anyway, even if my current MATE and KX Studio setup continues to work, at some time I will try AVLInux and probably use that instead, because even without all this trouble I've been through, it's still my impression that AVLinux is a better solution.

asbak, you're absolutely right. That's good advices I'll remember. Linux is still relatively new to me, and I have a tendency to the good old 'trial and error' method instead of thinking systematically. My patience is also too little, I hate spending time trying to fix a problem I can't, but looking at it more logically would probably be a good first step Still, sometimes it's almost impossible to find out what causes a problem, even when keeping a cool head, like in this case, but starting with the basics is always a good idea Thanks.

No go and make some beautiful music with the tools you've been given