Arch Linux

jiyunatori

Member

Registered: 2008-07-04

Posts: 54

[SOLVED] Qjackctl and MIDI patch connection

Hi there.

I'm trying to hook up my USB MIDI keyboard to control programs such as zynaddsubfx, but I'm facing a weird problem.

I followed the informations from this page : http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/USB_Midi_Keyboards

$ aseqdump -l
 Port    Client name                      Port name
  0:0    System                           Timer
  0:1    System                           Announce
 28:0    USB Keystation 61es              USB Keystation 61es MIDI 1

$ aseqdump -p 28:0
Waiting for data. Press Ctrl+C to end.
Source  Event                  Ch  Data
 28:0   Note on                 0, note 74, velocity 72
 28:0   Note on                 0, note 79, velocity 59
 28:0   Note on                 0, note 77, velocity 43
 28:0   Note on                 0, note 76, velocity 63

Obviously, this part is working.

But then I launch qjackctl + zynaddsubfx, and try to connect the MIDI keyboard to zynaddsubfx through the patch bay.

- drag and drop
- the message window displays "15:12:17.206 ALSA connection change."
- the link does not appear and the connection is ineffective.

I have the same problem when I try to patch a software sequencer (seq24) to zynaddsubfx through the patchbay. I also tried to do the connections with patchage, but the result is the same : the connection is created and instantly disapears.

However, I managed to control zynaddsubfx from the Muse sequencer by using the MIDI settings from Muse - and then the MIDI connection appeared in qjackctl's patchbay !

I googled around and found some posts describing the same problem, but no solution :
http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-247682.html
http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-52 … ight-.html

$ amidi -l
Dir Device    Name
IO  hw:3,0,0  USB Keystation 61es MIDI 1

$ amidi -d
ALSA lib rawmidi_hw.c:233:(snd_rawmidi_hw_open) open /dev/snd/midiC0D0 failed: No such file or directory
cannot open port "default": No such file or directory

this is the only error I found, but actually I don't have a clue what this command is supposed to do, so I don't know if it is meaningful ... please, help !

EDIT :
- jackd v0.109.2
- qjackctl v0.3.3

Last edited by jiyunatori (2008-10-26 14:58:44)

jiyunatori

Member

Registered: 2008-07-04

Posts: 54

Re: [SOLVED] Qjackctl and MIDI patch connection

More informations :

Say I have two MIDI devices recognized : the keyboard and the softsynth

$ aconnect -o
client 28: 'USB Keystation 61es' [type=kernel]
    0 'USB Keystation 61es MIDI 1'
client 129: 'ZynAddSubFX' [type=user]
    0 'ZynAddSubFX     '

I try to connect them together with aconnect :

$ aconnect 28:0 129:0
Connection failed (Ressource temporarily unavailable)

Now, if I kill jackd and retry, the connection works and the synth recieves MIDI signal. So I guess jackd is locking the access to some ressources, which prevents anything from making a connection ...

Last edited by jiyunatori (2008-10-26 12:40:24)

jiyunatori

Member

Registered: 2008-07-04

Posts: 54

Re: [SOLVED] Qjackctl and MIDI patch connection

The answer was to run jackd in "seq midi mode" rather than "raw midi mode".