Arch Linux

snaka

Member

Registered: 2006-10-19

Posts: 2

can't init midi playback

I have troubles with midi initialisation. I use SB Live and ALSA drivers. mp3/wav/ogg playing so good, but I can't load midibank into SB with awesfx-0.5.d (and awesfx-0.4.4 too) from http://www.alsa-project.org/~iwai/awedrv.html
May be exist another way for midi bank load?

[vlad@vixen ~]$ lspci | grep Creative
01:08.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB Live! EMU10k1 (rev 07)
01:08.1 Input device controller: Creative Labs SB Live! MIDI/Game Port (rev 07

[vlad@vixen ~]$ cat /etc/modprobe.conf | grep -v '^#'
alias snd-card-0 snd-emu10k1
alias sound-slot-0 snd-emu10k1

root@vixen vlad]# sfxload /mnt/storage/Soft/multimedia/midi_banks/8RealGS20.SF2
/dev/sequencer: No such device

!!! Why? But devices are presents:

[root@vixen vlad]# ls -l /dev/sequencer* 
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 15 2006-10-22 13:57 /dev/sequencer -> sound/sequencer
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 16 2006-10-22 13:57 /dev/sequencer2 -> sound/sequencer2

[root@vixen vlad]# ls -l /dev/sound/sequencer*
crw-rw---- 1 root audio 14, 1 2006-10-22 13:57 /dev/sound/sequencer
crw-rw---- 1 root audio 14, 8 2006-10-22 13:57 /dev/sound/sequencer2

[vlad@vixen ~]$ lsmod | grep snd
snd_seq_oss            31744  0 
snd_seq_midi_event      6784  1 snd_seq_oss
snd_seq                48240  4 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_pcm_oss            39424  0 
snd_mixer_oss          14720  1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_emu10k1           114592  4 
snd_rawmidi            19968  1 snd_emu10k1
snd_ac97_codec         92580  1 snd_emu10k1
snd_ac97_bus            2560  1 snd_ac97_codec
snd_pcm                68868  5 snd_pcm_oss,snd_emu10k1,snd_ac97_codec
snd_seq_device          7308  4 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_emu10k1,snd_rawmidi
snd_timer              19204  3 snd_seq,snd_emu10k1,snd_pcm
snd_page_alloc          8200  2 snd_emu10k1,snd_pcm
snd_util_mem            4096  1 snd_emu10k1
snd_hwdep               7556  1 snd_emu10k1
snd                    45444  17 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_emu10k1,snd_rawmidi,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm,snd_seq_device,snd_timer,snd_hwdep
soundcore               7776  1 snd

Please help me configure properly midi.
Thanks!

erosa

Member

Registered: 2006-10-17

Posts: 14

Re: can't init midi playback

My soundcard does not support MIDI being an onboard card. But I've used timidity to along with alsa's MIDI routing capabilities to play MIDI files. Timidity acts like a MIDI playback engine by providing patch banks. First, load the snd_virmidi ALSA module. Then, execute timidity in daemon mode as so

timidity -iA

Then, use aconnect to determine the MIDI virtual connection port.

 aconnect -o
client 20: 'Virtual Raw MIDI 1-0' [type=kernel]
    0 'VirMIDI 1-0     '
client 21: 'Virtual Raw MIDI 1-1' [type=kernel]
    0 'VirMIDI 1-1     '
client 22: 'Virtual Raw MIDI 1-2' [type=kernel]
    0 'VirMIDI 1-2     '
client 23: 'Virtual Raw MIDI 1-3' [type=kernel]
    0 'VirMIDI 1-3     '
[emmanuel@~/]$ aconnect -o
client 20: 'Virtual Raw MIDI 1-0' [type=kernel]
    0 'VirMIDI 1-0     '
client 21: 'Virtual Raw MIDI 1-1' [type=kernel]
    0 'VirMIDI 1-1     '
client 22: 'Virtual Raw MIDI 1-2' [type=kernel]
    0 'VirMIDI 1-2     '
client 23: 'Virtual Raw MIDI 1-3' [type=kernel]
    0 'VirMIDI 1-3     '
client 128: 'TiMidity' [type=user]
    0 'TiMidity port 0 '
    1 'TiMidity port 1 '
    2 'TiMidity port 2 '
    3 'TiMidity port 3 '

In my case, the output port will be 128:0
Now, you need to connect a virtual MIDI IN port to this out port. So use aconnect to view IN ports like so.

aconnect -i
client 0: 'System' [type=kernel]
    0 'Timer           '
    1 'Announce        '
client 20: 'Virtual Raw MIDI 1-0' [type=kernel]
    0 'VirMIDI 1-0     '
client 21: 'Virtual Raw MIDI 1-1' [type=kernel]
    0 'VirMIDI 1-1     '
client 22: 'Virtual Raw MIDI 1-2' [type=kernel]
    0 'VirMIDI 1-2     '
client 23: 'Virtual Raw MIDI 1-3' [type=kernel]
    0 'VirMIDI 1-3     '

I'm going to use port 20:0. So to make the connection, run...

aconnect 20:0 128:0

You will notice timidity will recognize the connection. Now, you can use a MIDI capable client to play MIDI files using timidity as the sound engine. One such application is seq24.

If you just want to play a MIDI file, all you need is

timidity myfile.mid

---

Oh boy!

tubasoldier

Member

Registered: 2006-03-25

Posts: 8

Re: can't init midi playback

You will more than likely need to do a modprobe on the synth device.

modprobe emu10k1_synth
sfxload /path/to/soundfont/font.sf2

You can load those two lines into your rc.local file so it will happen automatically at boot.

tafsen

Member

Registered: 2006-05-03

Posts: 141

Re: can't init midi playback

I have a problem with midi aswell.  It's not that I need to play midi files, but I need midi to get scummvm to run with sound.  When I run scummvm i get this error:

Can't subscribe to MIDI port (65:0)

snaka

Member

Registered: 2006-10-19

Posts: 2

Re: can't init midi playback

Thank you for perfect instructions, erosa With timiditi I hear sound!

After inserting module snd_emu10k1_synth (may be you misprint with emu10k1_synth?) I get 'unknown symbol in module'. May be this my kernel rebuilds... I check this later.

Thanks once again