MIDI controller

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spock
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MIDI controller

Post by spock »

Hi.
I would like to know if the "m-audio oxygen 49" is compatible with Linux Mint. That is, everything: keyboard, pads, buttons, potentiometers,...

I also value: alesis v49 and Arturia Keylab Essential 49
Or that another good keyboard could you advise me

What a good DAW I recommend using that goes well in linux?

Thank you
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Re: MIDI controller

Post by tavasti »

spock wrote:Hi.
I would like to know if the "m-audio oxygen 49" is compatible with Linux Mint. That is, everything: keyboard, pads, buttons, potentiometers,...

I also value: alesis v49 and Arturia Keylab Essential 49
I don't have any of them, but I bet they all work.
spock wrote: What a good DAW I recommend using that goes well in linux?
- If you are doing all electronic (not recording audio), LMMS is easy to start, because it contains also instruments by itself.
- Best thing in the market for elecronic music is Bitwig (costs $$$)
- If you are mostly working with recorded audio and don't want to spend money too much, Ardour. Works also for programmed, midi stuff, but that is bit weaker side
- Best thing in the market for recorded audio is Mixbus ($$) / Mixbus 32C ($$$). Based on Ardour, so everything about Ardour applies to Mixbus also. Mixbus has great mixer which makes faster and easier to mix

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Re: MIDI controller

Post by spock »

Thank you tavasti

Someone who can confirm that with m-audio Oxygen 49 (first generation) everything works in lmms/ardour?

Thanks to everyone
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Re: MIDI controller

Post by Linuxmusician01 »

spock wrote:Hi.
I would like to know if the "m-audio oxygen 49" is compatible with Linux Mint. That is, everything: keyboard, pads, buttons, potentiometers,...
The M-Audio website (link) says that it's class compliant and you cannot download drivers or configuration software for it. That's always a good sign! You also asked if it's "first generation" works in Linux. Probably, but if it is a revision that needed (Windows) software or drivers then you might run into trouble.
spock wrote: I also value: alesis v49 and Arturia Keylab Essential 49
Or that another good keyboard could you advise me
I have the Alesis' little brother (the Oxygen Q25) and it's class compliant (i.e. works in Linux). It does not have anything "fancy schmancy" like rotary knobs or pads. That's always a good sign. I wouldn't count on the Arturia (or anything Arturia for that matter) to work flawlessly in Linux though. It's too long a story, but I have a little Arturia Midi keyboard of which certain revisions don't work in Linux. And they need (Windows) software to configure them. That software works for me for my Arturia keyboard in Wine (do you know waht Wine is?), but I would most certainly NOT recommend it!

spock wrote: What a good DAW I recommend using that goes well in linux?

Thank you
A good DAW is Qtractor (it's developer calls it a sequencer, not so much a DAW). Install it via the KXStudio repositories (I hope you know what a repository is, else ask in separate topic). Another well known DAW is Reaper. Some say it's a very good one. All I know it that it has a Linux native version, it's a small download and it is relatively cheap.

I'd start w/ good 'ol Audacity (audio editor, not so much a DAW) though, to see if that fits your needs.

Good luck! :)
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Re: MIDI controller

Post by spock »

Thank you y Linuxmusician01

I am a computer from Spain. I know the S.O. Linux. In the year 95 I already started working with Red Hat v2 and slackware. Today I work with Centos 7 and Red Hat ES on servers, at home I have Linux Mint and for several years I no longer have any windows. But I am new to music composition through software ...

Thank you so much for everything
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Re: MIDI controller

Post by MoonDragon »

DID you buy a midicontroller? which one? I have and Alesis Vi49 which I really like. Which DAW are you using? I'm curious.. :)
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Re: MIDI controller

Post by RyanH »

I know this is an old thread, but thought I would leave this here in case anyone else comes looking for advice about M-Audio Oxygen with Linux. I have the Oxygen 49 Mk IV and it works great. I was recently looking into the Mk V and it looks... not so great.

With version IV, you can easily assign midi channels and controls to each of the knobs, buttons, and sliders from within the keyboard. It looks like, with version V, this is no longer the case. This one is mainly designed to be pre-set to work with specific (non-Linux) DAWs. In order to customize the midi channels and controls for each knob, etc., you have to do it within a piece of software that comes with the keyboard, and that software is only for Windows and Mac.

So unless I'm wrong, the M-Audio Oxygen series version V is not ideal for Linux. It can still be plugged in and used in Linux, but you're more limited in what you can do with it. It's too bad - I've really enjoyed the two M-Audio controllers I've owned.

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Re: MIDI controller

Post by Linuxmusician01 »

RyanH wrote: Sat Feb 25, 2023 2:02 am

I know this is an old thread, but thought I would leave this here in case anyone else comes looking for advice about M-Audio Oxygen with Linux. I have the Oxygen 49 Mk IV and it works great. I was recently looking into the Mk V and it looks... not so great.

With version IV, you can easily assign midi channels and controls to each of the knobs, buttons, and sliders from within the keyboard. It looks like, with version V, this is no longer the case. This one is mainly designed to be pre-set to work with specific (non-Linux) DAWs. In order to customize the midi channels and controls for each knob, etc., you have to do it within a piece of software that comes with the keyboard, and that software is only for Windows and Mac.

So unless I'm wrong, the M-Audio Oxygen series version V is not ideal for Linux. It can still be plugged in and used in Linux, but you're more limited in what you can do with it. It's too bad - I've really enjoyed the two M-Audio controllers I've owned.

Thanks for the warning!

Luckily, it looks to me that the software is only meant to encourage people to use Ableton Live. The Quick Start Guide calls it "Recommended installation", not necessary. And as far as I can judge by a quick scan of the manual the Preset Editor is not necessary to play the eayboard but it is to change its "presets" (don't know what exactly that is, I don't own an Oxygen 49...).

What worries me more is that there are (old) firmware updates for the M-Audio keyboards. That might indicate that M-Audio can alter the functionality (read: class compliancy) anytime they want. Chances of them doing that are nil in my opinion because that would require them to write a proprietary driver for the keyboards. That costs money whereas they gain noting by that... But tell that to Arturia.

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Re: MIDI controller

Post by RyanH »

Linuxmusician01 wrote: Sat Feb 25, 2023 12:50 pm

Thanks for the warning!

Luckily, it looks to me that the software is only meant to encourage people to use Ableton Live. The Quick Start Guide calls it "Recommended installation", not necessary. And as far as I can judge by a quick scan of the manual the Preset Editor is not necessary to play the eayboard but it is to change its "presets" (don't know what exactly that is, I don't own an Oxygen 49...).

What worries me more is that there are (old) firmware updates for the M-Audio keyboards. That might indicate that M-Audio can alter the functionality (read: class compliancy) anytime they want. Chances of them doing that are nil in my opinion because that would require them to write a proprietary driver for the keyboards. That costs money whereas they gain noting by that... But tell that to Arturia.

Yes, I think for most/a lot of use cases the Mk V would work perfectly fine. I was concerned because, for most of my current projects, I changed the presets from the default.

An example of a default preset might be that, for example, knob 1 would be assigned to whatever midi channel the overall keyboard is set to, and might be assigned to volume (control 7). For me, I have changed it to midi channel 2 (regardless of what the keyboard is set to) and control 63 (which is non-standard - I use it to increase/decrease reverb time). Using a different channel allows me to control the reverb on one synth with the knob on channel 2 while I play a melody on the keys on another synth on channel 1. So if I had bought the Mk V, I would have been sorely disappointed to learn that a big part of my workflow was crippled. I figured I should warn potential buyers of the difference.

Good news about the firmware updates, though! I hadn't thought of the potential for problems - hopefully that never becomes an issue (I guess the user can just refuse to update the firmware). The good news is that, for really old controllers which were not class compliant (and therefore don't work on Linux), there are firmware updates that make them usable with ALSA. I have an ancient M-Audio Ozone which didn't work on Linux until I updated the firmware.

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Re: MIDI controller

Post by Linuxmusician01 »

RyanH wrote: Tue Feb 28, 2023 7:02 am

Yes, I think for most/a lot of use cases the Mk V would work perfectly fine. I was concerned because, for most of my current projects, I changed the presets from the default.

An example of a default preset might be that, for example, knob 1 would be assigned to whatever midi channel the overall keyboard is set to, and might be assigned to volume (control 7). For me, I have changed it to midi channel 2 (regardless of what the keyboard is set to) and control 63 (which is non-standard - I use it to increase/decrease reverb time). Using a different channel allows me to control the reverb on one synth with the knob on channel 2 while I play a melody on the keys on another synth on channel 1. So if I had bought the Mk V, I would have been sorely disappointed to learn that a big part of my workflow was crippled. I figured I should warn potential buyers of the difference.

Good news about the firmware updates, though! I hadn't thought of the potential for problems - hopefully that never becomes an issue (I guess the user can just refuse to update the firmware). The good news is that, for really old controllers which were not class compliant (and therefore don't work on Linux), there are firmware updates that make them usable with ALSA. I have an ancient M-Audio Ozone which didn't work on Linux until I updated the firmware.

Thanks again for that info.

I've got an Arturia keyboard on which I can change some settings only with Windows software. Like the CC for the knobs etc.

So sometimes a firmware update can make things class compliant. Like I "feared". That means that the opposite can happen too. Microsoft changed the firmware of my Xbox controller (I don't even know how) and that broke some sort of bluetooth compatibility with my 8BitDO bluetooth to USB dongle. If a company like Arturia - that has Windows drivers for its products - puts out a firmware "update" we'd better be beware!

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Re: MIDI controller

Post by RyanH »

Linuxmusician01 wrote: Tue Feb 28, 2023 10:48 am

Thanks again for that info.

I've got an Arturia keyboard on which I can change some settings only with Windows software. Like the CC for the knobs etc.

So sometimes a firmware update can make things class compliant. Like I "feared". That means that the opposite can happen too. Microsoft changed the firmware of my Xbox controller (I don't even know how) and that broke some sort of bluetooth compatibility with my 8BitDO bluetooth to USB dongle. If a company like Arturia - that has Windows drivers for its products - puts out a firmware "update" we'd better be beware!

Oh, good to know about the Arturia. Same situation as the Oxygen Mk V, then. Thanks for the heads up - I'll keep that in mind next time I'm in the market for a new keyboard... which hopefully isn't for a long time.

That's lame about the Xbox controller. Seems par for the course for the company that makes it, unfortunately. Hopefully you can find a fix for the dongle, or get a new one cheap!

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Re: MIDI controller

Post by tavasti »

RyanH wrote: Tue Feb 28, 2023 7:02 am

An example of a default preset might be that, for example, knob 1 would be assigned to whatever midi channel the overall keyboard is set to, and might be assigned to volume (control 7). For me, I have changed it to midi channel 2 (regardless of what the keyboard is set to) and control 63 (which is non-standard - I use it to increase/decrease reverb time). Using a different channel allows me to control the reverb on one synth with the knob on channel 2 while I play a melody on the keys on another synth on channel 1. So if I had bought the Mk V, I would have been sorely disappointed to learn that a big part of my workflow was crippled. I figured I should warn potential buyers of the difference.

I have made similar things with qmidiroute. There you can change CC X to be mapped as some other CC and to any midi channel. Only problem is that with Bitwig you can't, at least that simple. Bitwig shows only hardware midi controllers, and it wants to open them exclusively. So with Bitwig, you need tricks like virtual midi devices.

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Re: MIDI controller

Post by Linuxmusician01 »

tavasti wrote: Wed Mar 01, 2023 11:19 am
RyanH wrote: Tue Feb 28, 2023 7:02 am

An example of a default preset might be that, for example, knob 1 would be assigned to whatever midi channel the overall keyboard is set to, and might be assigned to volume (control 7). For me, I have changed it to midi channel 2 (regardless of what the keyboard is set to) and control 63 (which is non-standard - I use it to increase/decrease reverb time). Using a different channel allows me to control the reverb on one synth with the knob on channel 2 while I play a melody on the keys on another synth on channel 1. So if I had bought the Mk V, I would have been sorely disappointed to learn that a big part of my workflow was crippled. I figured I should warn potential buyers of the difference.

I have made similar things with qmidiroute. There you can change CC X to be mapped as some other CC and to any midi channel. Only problem is that with Bitwig you can't, at least that simple. Bitwig shows only hardware midi controllers, and it wants to open them exclusively. So with Bitwig, you need tricks like virtual midi devices.

Thanks for the tip on QMidiRoute and the warning about Bitwig.

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Re: MIDI controller

Post by RyanH »

tavasti wrote: Wed Mar 01, 2023 11:19 am

I have made similar things with qmidiroute. There you can change CC X to be mapped as some other CC and to any midi channel. Only problem is that with Bitwig you can't, at least that simple. Bitwig shows only hardware midi controllers, and it wants to open them exclusively. So with Bitwig, you need tricks like virtual midi devices.

Qmidiroute sounds interesting. I like being able to make the changes in the keyboard because I can just press a couple of buttons, twirl some knobs and then save the preset, without opening another piece of software. Sometimes I get dizzy with all the with all the windows and connections on the laptop. :lol: Good to know that this exists, though. It will come in handy if I end up in a future where keyboard customizations can only be made in Windows software.

I assume that because it's "q"midiroute, it should work well with QTractor, Qmidiarp, QSynth, etc.?

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Re: MIDI controller

Post by miuzik »

I'm looking for a new midi controller and I have one recommendation: Novation Launchkey MKIII series. They are robust, modern and plug and play. They have all the options in the controller (no software).

I probed the Arturia minilab mkII but you need software for change parameters like velocity sensitive (that's suck). In any case avoid all controllers with software assistance.

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