MIDI in ALSA -- file plays, but no sound

vharishankar · 02-23-2005, 04:21 AM

I would like to know how to configure to play MIDI files through my sound card. I have tried many times, but I have never got it to work.

Now with ALSA, I compiled the "virtual midi" module from the kernel and enabled it at system startup.

Now though KMid shows the MIDI file as playing, I still get no music. I have tried the alsamixer volume control, but that doesn't have a MIDI balance/control.

How can I play my MIDI files in Slackware? I am using kernel 2.6.10.

sovietpower · 02-23-2005, 11:14 AM

does sound work in anything else like XMMS if not you may want to go back into alsamixer and unmute the master control and the pcm

vharishankar · 02-23-2005, 08:36 PM

Yes. Sound works when playing music and MP3s.

I am not that dumb

gt73 · 03-01-2005, 03:42 AM

The same happens to me. I have an old Creative Soundblaster PCI 128 whose ALSA driver is ens1371. I can hear sound when playing WAV and MP3 but no sound when playing MIDI. On the net and inside the documentation in /usr/src/linux/Documentation/sound there is written that this card, because it is a cheap model, doesn 't have a MIDI synthetizer on board. So to hear MIDI playing, one must use a software like Timidity++ that converts in real time a MIDI in WAV.

Just my two cents,

vharishankar · 03-13-2005, 01:25 AM

Yes.

The solution has been found. Though I did this in Gentoo, it should apply equally to slackware.

For those who have no wavetable card (unless you use Creative SBLive!) Just download and install timidity++ and the timidity EAW patches.

Then configure timidity++ to load up on boot time in your init scripts.

The sounds are pretty good. Not quite the same as hardware synth, but quite nice.

huepfendes_schaf · 11-20-2006, 03:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by harishankar

Yes.

The solution has been found. Though I did this in Gentoo, it should apply equally to slackware.

For those who have no wavetable card (unless you use Creative SBLive!) Just download and install timidity++ and the timidity EAW patches.

Then configure timidity++ to load up on boot time in your init scripts.

The sounds are pretty good. Not quite the same as hardware synth, but quite nice.

I have the same problem.
How can I configure timidity++ to load up on boot time in my init scripts?

vdemuth · 11-20-2006, 11:40 PM

Add the following to your /etc/rc.d/rc.local script:-

#add synth midi support here using timidity software
timidity -iA -B2,8 -Os -EFreverb=0 &
#end midi support here