Getting Midi to work

RodWC · 12-31-2005, 04:57 PM

Hi everyone, just wondering if someone could guide me through the process of getting a midi player working in Debian. kmid gives the error "Could not open /dev/sequencer.
Probably there is another program using it." unless I type # modprobe snd_seq, then it seems to work but there's no sound. I downloaded timidity and can't figure it out, so I decided I wasn't having fun anymore and I'm going to ask here.

In kinfocenter it tells me that my midi device is not enabled in the config.
Thanks!

duffmckagan · 01-02-2006, 08:13 AM

This problem has been asked hundreds of times before. And none of them had a solution.
Some suggested using other applications -- Timidity or Rosegarden.

Have a look at the following link:

http://lists.debian.org/debian-user/.../msg00855.html

vharishankar · 01-02-2006, 09:18 AM

Except in Gentoo Linux (where they have a very good MIDI guide in the gentoo handbook (www.gentoo.org) I have never got MIDI to work in any version of Linux. Timidity works in Gentoo. In Debian, I don't know why it doesn't work. I've tried to get it to work. No MIDI.

EDIT: here's the ALSA page in Gentoo which also has a section on MIDI (scroll down). I don't know whether it would work on other Linuxes but you'll just have to try.
http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/alsa-guide.xml

Dead Parrot · 01-02-2006, 10:30 AM

I can play MIDI music with timidity -- well, sort of. Timidity eats all the cpu resources and the auditory experience is far from smooth if I try to browse the web or do something else while the music is playing. But when my computer is idle I can play MIDI music.

After installing timidity and freepats, I edited /etc/default/timidity and modprobed snd-seq-device and snd-seq-midi (and also added them to /etc/modules). IIRC, that's all I needed to do.

RodWC · 01-02-2006, 01:57 PM

D.P., thanks! I'll try that. Is there a special method of installation for timidity and freepats? Also, is timidity GUI-based (or is there a GUI for it)?

Dead Parrot · 01-02-2006, 03:14 PM

Quote:

Is there a special method of installation for timidity and freepats?

I used "aptitude install timidity freepats". Synaptic should also work.

Quote:

Also, is timidity GUI-based (or is there a GUI for it)?

Some sort of GUI is installed with the main package and some extra interfaces can be made available by installing the "timidity-interfaces-extra" package. You can also use timidity from the command line by typing something like "timidity some_song.mid". Man page lists the options you can use with timidity.

vharishankar · 01-03-2006, 11:45 PM

Timidity is actually the software synthesizer as well as the player. I think if you set that as the MIDI device in the KDE sound control panel, you can also use the KDE MIDI player (KMid) to play MIDI files.

RodWC · 01-20-2006, 01:44 PM

Could you tell me how to do that (setup timidity as the sequencer)?

LeftyAce · 01-20-2006, 04:35 PM

I don't have timidity installed so I couldn't test it, but if you open KControl Center and select the "multimedia" tab, and then click the "hardware" tab you can select a MIDI device.

deepclutch · 01-21-2006, 09:06 PM

I did a 'modprobe virmidi' for my 915GAV and using modconf to set all necessary items.timidty can play .mid files..but...sound quality i got was not that gr8.but what about those 'sound fonts' etc..will we need to d/l and install them for better sound quality..Thank You All

vharishankar · 01-22-2006, 12:25 AM

Getting sound fonts that would work on your sound card in Linux might be tricky. The best place to see is to check if your Windows system has the sound font files for your card. There are different formats of sound fonts available so do check if that format is supported by your card.

duffmckagan · 01-22-2006, 01:42 AM

I think that MIDI support also needs to be built into the kernel.

vharishankar · 01-23-2006, 08:28 AM

Duffmckagan, if you have Timidity you don't need kernel support since it's a software synthesizer. You're right though. Hardware MIDI support requires driver support and very few cards are actually supported under Linux.

deepclutch · 01-25-2006, 11:12 AM

Well,I am able to play midi using timidity++ GUI
(timidity -ig) it doesnt seems taking much resources.Alsa midi-emulation thats what we'll call it eh?
snd-rawmidi
snd-seq
these are loaded as seen on /etc/modules file.b/w i have a Intel 915GAV with onboard hda.I use ALSA v1.0.9 on a custom compiled kernel and alsa-kernel-modules(made from latest Alsa-source package) of same versions.Best of LUX to ALL.seems i need to try Rhythmbox and xmms-midi next to play .mid.whether any gstreamer-plugins available for MIDI...Thank You All.

imwacko · 04-18-2006, 07:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dead Parrot

I used "aptitude install timidity freepats". Synaptic should also work.

Some sort of GUI is installed with the main package and some extra interfaces can be made available by installing the "timidity-interfaces-extra" package. You can also use timidity from the command line by typing something like "timidity some_song.mid". Man page lists the options you can use with timidity.

Can I use Timidity as the sequencer for the sound system,
So it will play in rosegarden and Kmid?