Alsa midi, timidity, fluidsynth and jack.
If you don't have a midi output on linux(cause your laptop has crappy audio hardware) you can use timidity or fluidsynth to emulate it.
Well, this piece of html has a bunch of incantations for using timidity on linux... and also gives insight into how to use alsa midi tools.
Like listing midi ports, and connection midi ports with these two commands:
To connect the midi input from my usb Axiom 25 keyboard to the timidity synth the aconnect is the command to use.
The AlsaMidiOverview has more information on things.
Another synth that can be driven by midi is fluidsynth. qsynth is the graphical interface for fluidsynth which makes it easier to tweak. You can use it in pretty much the same way as timidity. It opens up a port (which you can list with pmidi -l), and then connect it to your keyboard with aconnect. fluidsynth is probably a bit nicer than timidity... and you can use soundfonts with it. Heaps of free sound fonts are available from resonance.org and hammersound.net.
This plugin is *very* useful:
http://alsa.opensrc.org/index.php/Jack_(plugin)
It allows all your alsa using programs to be routed through your jack server. This means you can use all of your normal audio programs with low latency, good mixing and synchonised audio - even over the network (with netjack).
Ubuntu does not have the alsa jack plugin included for some brain dead reason... even though debian has had it packaged for a year or so. However building from source is simple. http://www.alsa-project.org/main/index.php/Download (./configure && make && make install). I've gone back to removing pulse audio, as this system works very nicely for me.
Here's my old jackd script, I put in a ~/bin/jack_mine and start with screen at boot.
I can now use various synths, samplers, and effects racks from my python scripts.
Jamin is a mastering program with a eq, compressors etc. I don't think I'll need it for live work. However it might be useful for lots of instruments. I don't see any reason why it couldn't be controlled by another person with a midi controller.
Next up I need to see if multiple sound cards can work... unfortunately that apparently doesn't work the best. You can create a virtual sound card from multiple sound cards, but they have trouble syncing. It's funny that it's currently easier to sync sound cards on multiple machines than on the same machine... from what I know so far.
For my use I don't think sync will matter too much... that is listening with headphones with one card, and outputting to sound system with another channel. My inbuilt sound card has two output lines already, and one line input(which can also be used for output).
Dell inspirion 1525... the channels are:
1(l) - 2(r) - first headphone plug, or speakers if headphone not in plug 0.
5(r) - 6(l) - second headphone plug.
3(l) - 4(r) - third headphone plug.
7(x) - 8(x) - unused... (not soldered on?)
So looks like 6 usable channels... nice for a crappy cheap latop :) This is much nicer than what windows vista allows me to do, and also way nicer than the pulseaudio/gnome combination. I've used this setup to output 6 channel audio with various different playback libraries including pygame.
timidity -iA -B2,8 -Os -EFreverb=0
Well, this piece of html has a bunch of incantations for using timidity on linux... and also gives insight into how to use alsa midi tools.
Like listing midi ports, and connection midi ports with these two commands:
$ pmidi -l
Port Client name Port name
14:0 Midi Through Midi Through Port-0
20:0 USB Axiom 25 USB Axiom 25 MIDI 1
128:0 TiMidity TiMidity port 0
128:1 TiMidity TiMidity port 1
128:2 TiMidity TiMidity port 2
128:3 TiMidity TiMidity port 3To connect the midi input from my usb Axiom 25 keyboard to the timidity synth the aconnect is the command to use.
aconnect 20:0 128:0The AlsaMidiOverview has more information on things.
#remove all connections...
$ aconnect -x
# list all the connections(without using pmidi)
$ aconnect -o
# a gui for connections
# aconnectgui
Another synth that can be driven by midi is fluidsynth. qsynth is the graphical interface for fluidsynth which makes it easier to tweak. You can use it in pretty much the same way as timidity. It opens up a port (which you can list with pmidi -l), and then connect it to your keyboard with aconnect. fluidsynth is probably a bit nicer than timidity... and you can use soundfonts with it. Heaps of free sound fonts are available from resonance.org and hammersound.net.
This plugin is *very* useful:
http://alsa.opensrc.org/index.php/Jack_(plugin)
It allows all your alsa using programs to be routed through your jack server. This means you can use all of your normal audio programs with low latency, good mixing and synchonised audio - even over the network (with netjack).
Ubuntu does not have the alsa jack plugin included for some brain dead reason... even though debian has had it packaged for a year or so. However building from source is simple. http://www.alsa-project.org/main/index.php/Download (./configure && make && make install). I've gone back to removing pulse audio, as this system works very nicely for me.
Here's my old jackd script, I put in a ~/bin/jack_mine and start with screen at boot.
jackd -R -P 70 -d alsa -p 256 -n 3 -r 44100I can now use various synths, samplers, and effects racks from my python scripts.
Jamin is a mastering program with a eq, compressors etc. I don't think I'll need it for live work. However it might be useful for lots of instruments. I don't see any reason why it couldn't be controlled by another person with a midi controller.
Next up I need to see if multiple sound cards can work... unfortunately that apparently doesn't work the best. You can create a virtual sound card from multiple sound cards, but they have trouble syncing. It's funny that it's currently easier to sync sound cards on multiple machines than on the same machine... from what I know so far.
For my use I don't think sync will matter too much... that is listening with headphones with one card, and outputting to sound system with another channel. My inbuilt sound card has two output lines already, and one line input(which can also be used for output).
Dell inspirion 1525... the channels are:
1(l) - 2(r) - first headphone plug, or speakers if headphone not in plug 0.
5(r) - 6(l) - second headphone plug.
3(l) - 4(r) - third headphone plug.
7(x) - 8(x) - unused... (not soldered on?)
So looks like 6 usable channels... nice for a crappy cheap latop :) This is much nicer than what windows vista allows me to do, and also way nicer than the pulseaudio/gnome combination. I've used this setup to output 6 channel audio with various different playback libraries including pygame.
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