I've given up on getting my soundcard's MIDI ports working on any of my soundcards (midiman usb 1x1, and "soundblaster compatable" ESS1869, ALS-100, & yamaha ymf-724)

My impression is the most prevalent soundcard for linux users (including midi support) is the soundblaster AWE32, which is out of production (I guess ebay is about the only way to get one?)

There is also the SB live! and the soundblaster16, still available at stores.

Which is the easiest to get running in linux? Your feedback (on any card) is welcome.

Also, if anyone has gotten midi working (using OSS/free, not alsa) on the cards I mentioned I already have (especially usb) please share!

Check this link to find which cards are well supported on Linux systems :
http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc/

well thats for ALSA, but I'd like to hear about OSS support...

plus its one thing to read that something works, but much better to read exactly how to make it work.

Why do you need OSS? It's depreciated, and just about every distro supports ALSA now.

As for MIDI...pretty much every sound card can have MIDI in Linux, though, through virtualization for some. For example, I use an onboard AC97 card, which has no MIDI until I load the proper module. Then it's great. It also sounds better with the ALSA driver than with OSS.

The AWE32 is a fantastic card; I wish I could use mine right now, but it's ISA. I don't know if they ever made PCI AWE32s. There was a PCI AWE64, however. You can also get the Live and SB16 as you said...I would recommend the Live between those two (the 16 has a lackluster MIDI chip).

Me thinks he is talking about the MIDI port, not MIDI output...

Last time I compiled kernel I saw a bit of settings for configing MIDI port for emu10k chip (SB Live line). I didn't try it, but my guess it is supported better than most of the other stuff out there.

My guess, if you really intend to use MIDI for what it's worth, go SB Live:
- been around, much supported on Windows and Linux.
- Exceptionally cleaner analog out. (compared to what you mentioned.)
- Loadable "soundfonts" for MIDI are better than much of the comodity stuff out there.

One thing I dont understand, why go for (free version of) OSS. All the good stuff is in the commercial package. And even that is not much better than ALSA.

I also have onboard AC97 but no midi. Could you please tell me which module do you use ?

Thank you,

snd-virmidi. I don't remember if you have to do anything else after loading...instructions are at the ALSA site.