MIDI events not captured consistently
Posted: Wed Mar 04, 2020 6:01 pm
Hi, this is my first forum post here 
.
So I recently bought a MIDI keyboard, M-Audio Axiom Air Mini 32 to be exact. I've been using Linux for music production in the past few months, and so far everything has been working great. The DAW I am using is Ardour 5.12, the OS is Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, and of course I'm using the JACK Audio Connection Kit, configured with QjackCtl.
There were no issues detecting my MIDI keyboard (via a2jmidid -e) when plugged in to my PC, and could easily route its MIDI outputs to a track in Ardour. It is able to play some notes and produce sounds, but it is terribly inconsistent. To elaborate, sometimes the notes I pressed remained sustained even though I had let go of it, and sometimes no sound is produced by pressing the keys. I tried to debug it using the MIDI Tracer window in Ardour.
Here is a simple example of the problem where the notes are unable to produce any sound, but only the NoteOff MIDI event was captured, as shown by the MIDI Tracer:
Starting from the left is the timestamp of the event, the event name itself, the MIDI channel, which note that emitted it and finally the velocity. In this case, I am pressing the same note. Another similar occurence would be only the NoteOn events were captured and the sounds would just cascade!!
I thought it was just an Ardour issue, but the problem also persists when I tried it on LMMS, as well as standalone softsynths like Zynfusion. Then, my next thought was the keyboard itself was the issue. But to make sure of that, I tested it on my Windows partition, and much to my disappointment, it worked perfectly fine in it!!
If it worked fine on Windows but not on Linux, then I guess the problem lies on my Linux configuration. Another thing I tried was changing the Frames/Period and the Periods/Buffer setting in JACK, as well as the MIDI Driver (none, raw, seq), via Qjackctl, but doesn't solve the issue. I've googled and surf the net, hoping to find anyone that had a similar issue as mine, but it was to no avail.
I really hope somebody in this forum had faced this issue before, and could help me solve it. Here is a summary of my system, and other info that maybe of help:
I've had a good time so far making use of free, open-sourced tools to produce music. But this MIDI issue is baffling 
. I know MIDI works just fine in Linux, but something is wrong and I don't know what it is...
.So I recently bought a MIDI keyboard, M-Audio Axiom Air Mini 32 to be exact. I've been using Linux for music production in the past few months, and so far everything has been working great. The DAW I am using is Ardour 5.12, the OS is Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, and of course I'm using the JACK Audio Connection Kit, configured with QjackCtl.
There were no issues detecting my MIDI keyboard (via a2jmidid -e) when plugged in to my PC, and could easily route its MIDI outputs to a track in Ardour. It is able to play some notes and produce sounds, but it is terribly inconsistent. To elaborate, sometimes the notes I pressed remained sustained even though I had let go of it, and sometimes no sound is produced by pressing the keys. I tried to debug it using the MIDI Tracer window in Ardour.
Here is a simple example of the problem where the notes are unable to produce any sound, but only the NoteOff MIDI event was captured, as shown by the MIDI Tracer:
Code: Select all
01:19:57.626674 NoteOff chn 1 3c 40
01:19:58.573086 NoteOff chn 1 3c 40
01:19:59.200016 NoteOff chn 1 3c 40
01:19:59.769077 NoteOff chn 1 3c 40
01:20:00.477378 NoteOff chn 1 3c 40
01:20:02.637171 NoteOff chn 1 3c 40
01:20:03.217745 NoteOff chn 1 3c 40
01:20:03.862186 NoteOff chn 1 3c 40
01:20:04.384747 NoteOff chn 1 3c 40
I thought it was just an Ardour issue, but the problem also persists when I tried it on LMMS, as well as standalone softsynths like Zynfusion. Then, my next thought was the keyboard itself was the issue. But to make sure of that, I tested it on my Windows partition, and much to my disappointment, it worked perfectly fine in it!!
If it worked fine on Windows but not on Linux, then I guess the problem lies on my Linux configuration. Another thing I tried was changing the Frames/Period and the Periods/Buffer setting in JACK, as well as the MIDI Driver (none, raw, seq), via Qjackctl, but doesn't solve the issue. I've googled and surf the net, hoping to find anyone that had a similar issue as mine, but it was to no avail.
I really hope somebody in this forum had faced this issue before, and could help me solve it. Here is a summary of my system, and other info that maybe of help:
Code: Select all
Linux OS: Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
DAW: Ardour 5.12
Jack Settings
----------------
Driver: alsa
Realtime?: yes
Sample Rate: 44100Hz
Frames/Period: 256
Periods/Buffer: 2
MIDI Driver: None
. Anyway, if that was the issue, then I think it wouldn't had worked well on my Windows too right? But on the contrary, it did (with the right driver installed for it, of course).