How to play midi files? Does anybody actually know?

SystemParadox · 2007-08-17 16:22:51

Not even the guys at my LUG have been able to help me with this one. How in the world do I play midi files in Linux? I've been trying to do this for a very long time, but keep giving up. There are plenty of threads on this forum about it, but I don't understand any of them. Now I'm pretty advanced with Linux, and I have my own server and I do some programming, but sound has always been an issue. I'm going to be honest about this- I HATE ALSA. Why? Because it sucks. It's too damn complicated with no real documentation. Until dmixing became the default setup I was unable to play multiple sounds. It seems that nobody actually knows what most of the configuration options do and you can't tell if ALSA is actually paying attention to any of them or not because if it doesn't work you can't get any meaningful information (or more likely no information at all) from it as to why.

It's much the same situation with midi. One of the threads I found mentions a command like "aconnect 0:64 1:132"- WHAT IN THE WORLD DOES THAT DO? That epitomizes the problem with ALSA- lots of magic numbers with no documentation on what they mean. I tried to use aplaymidi, but that just complains that it wants me to specify a port to use. So I tried 0, but apparently even as root that's not permitted- where am I supposed to find out what port to use?

I have an Asus mobo (yes I know) with an nforce chipset (no idea which one- lspci isn't helping here), and a ThinkPad T23 with an intel chipset. Both require the snd-intel8x0 module. I haven't been able to get midi files to play on either of them.

Since some cards can't actually handle midi (I'm sure these can though) I tried to use timidity, which is supposed to be able to play midi by synthesizing it itself. Timidity is apparently easy. Sure. So long as it 'just works'. If it doesn't- there is not debugging output whatsoever.

I EVENTUALLY noticed some passing mention of soundfonts and discovered that these are required. Why isn't this mentioned in any howtos anywhere? Anyway, armed with this valuable but neglected information I downloaded the yamaha DX7 soundfont from hammersound.net, and added it to the timidity config file.

I'm still getting the following message:
"No instrument mapped to tone bank 0, program 48 - this instrument will not be heard".

Now I can't find any debugging options for timidity which actually work, so I have no idea whether it's actually using my soundfont or not.

Perhaps once that is working I can try and find out how to get the hardware midi support working, and then maybe try to connect my piano to it.

Please can somebody provide some clear instructions on what I need to do to get midi files to play in Linux.

Thankyou in advance
Simon

Last edited by SystemParadox (2007-08-17 16:25:10)

lucke · 2007-08-17 16:43:48

I remember that using this I was able to play FF7 midi files.

There's been a midi plugin for xmms, but getting sources for that might be a tad tricky.

SystemParadox · 2007-08-17 17:11:50

lucke wrote:

I remember that using this I was able to play FF7 midi files.

Ok so I've installed that package, but the install scriptlet is missing. What do I have to add to the horrific timidity config file to get it to use those patches?

Gilneas · 2007-08-17 17:17:21

"this instrument will not be heard" messages mean your soundfont is incomplete.
There are sites which have free soundfonts but they usually only satisfy a certain niche (e.g. drum kits, piano kits)

What you want for playing midi files is a General Midi soundfont.
Check out the soundfonts in aur.

Mikko777 · 2007-08-17 17:32:43

Do you understand what midi is?

It is like this: midi files contain notes for a song, then you need instruments to play those notes.

Now some soundcards have ram on em that contain soundfonts, ie prerecorded instruments that can be used to play those notes.

If you dont have a soundfont soundcard, you can still use the notes to control soft synths etc to get sound or
use timidity to play them with downloaded soundfonts.

Now using progs like soundgarden the notes dont usually automatically get sent to righ instrument, thus ports and need to know what instument plays what notes.

BTW

i got asus and nforce too and the spdiff was pain in the arse to setup. although midis work:

install timidity, install fluidr3 (soundfont), get midifiles http://www.mididb.com/ , play with timidity:
"timidity download/Unforgiven.mid" works for me.

more info from first google attempt:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/linux/ans … I_on_Linux

trusktr · 2010-08-19 05:12:58

I know this is an old thread, but it still came in handy. Does anyone know if eaw replaces fluidr3, or can be used in conjunction with fluidr3 in timidity.cfg?

jasonwryan · 2010-08-19 05:50:42

If you know it is an old thread -- three years, to be precise -- why are you posting in it?

You have been warned about this before - please start acting like a responsible member of the community, read the Forum Etiquette, and think before you post.

Closing

Arch Linux

#1 2007-08-17 16:22:51

How to play midi files? Does anybody actually know?

#2 2007-08-17 16:43:48

Re: How to play midi files? Does anybody actually know?

#3 2007-08-17 17:11:50

Re: How to play midi files? Does anybody actually know?

#4 2007-08-17 17:17:21

Re: How to play midi files? Does anybody actually know?

#5 2007-08-17 17:32:43

Re: How to play midi files? Does anybody actually know?

#6 2010-08-19 05:12:58

Re: How to play midi files? Does anybody actually know?

#7 2010-08-19 05:50:42

Re: How to play midi files? Does anybody actually know?

Board footer