Misery with Rosegarden

Declan · 2010-10-11 00:45:59

Hey everyone. I'm trying to just get a MIDI editor/sequencer to work. I don't want anything fancy, I don't plan on playing with an external instrument or anything. All I want to do is enter some MIDI info into a program and have it play it back to me.

So I was suggested Rosegarden, but it is giving me hell. I suspect part of the reason is that I'm kind of clueless as to how the whole thing works. I don't understand why we need to mess with modules and drivers and plugins and jack if I can already play music and such on my computer. Why can't the program just interpret the MIDI file and then play it like it would play any music format?

Anyway, when I open rosegarden, there are 4 little symbols at the bottom right of the window. If I hover over the leftmost one, it says "MIDI OK". The next one was giving me trouble until I started rosegarden after starting qjackCtl; now when I hover over it says "Audio OK". The 4th one is fine too. But the third one gives me this message:

So I tried loading that module. Apparently I don't have it. I really don't want to have to use a different kernel to do this, that seems ridiculous. Can anyone point me in the right direction so I can just get this stuff to play?

Thanks!

sand_man · 2010-10-11 04:45:28

What you have to understand is that midi sequencers like rosegarden won't just playback your midi file without connecting is to an instrument whether it's virtual or physical.
If you do want to use a sequencer for very basic things then I wouldn't suggest using rosegarden. It is quite a complex piece of software more geared towards professional use. Some other options are seq24 or muse, both are very capable and simple to use but you will still need an instrument to play each channel to (even if you use timidity).

By the way, that message you are getting is just a warning to let you know that you are not using a low latency/realtime kernel.

Last edited by sand_man (2010-10-11 04:46:43)

Declan · 2010-10-11 09:20:09

I guess I don't understand why they don't just include a simple virtual instrument like GarageBand does. As much as I hate Apple, GarageBand makes this MIDI thing very easy. Is that low latency/realtime kernel why I can't play my midi?

Anyway, I got the muse package, and it's installing, I'll give it a try.

karol · 2010-10-11 10:58:43

http://linuxappfinder.com/alternatives? … GarageBand
LMMS has some virtual instruments and is easy to setup and play. It should even have some sample "songs" so you can see (hear) the possibilies of this tool.

drcouzelis · 2010-10-11 12:07:54

Like sand_man, I too really like seq24. I, like you, also had too much trouble trying to setup Rosegarden. Seq24 is much simpler, but if you are serious about using it, please be sure to read all of the documentation. I wrote the Arch Wiki page for it: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Seq24 If you try following it and run into any problems, please let me know.

karol wrote:

LMMS has some virtual instruments and is easy to setup and play. It should even have some sample "songs" so you can see (hear) the possibilies of this tool.

I hadn't heard of LMMS before. If it's as easy to setup as it looks, it might be just what Declan is looking for. But I'm guessing is still doesn't "come with" a MIDI server.

Declan wrote:

I guess I don't understand why they don't just include a simple virtual instrument like GarageBand does. As much as I hate Apple, GarageBand makes this MIDI thing very easy. Is that low latency/realtime kernel why I can't play my midi?

No, the latency / realtime kernel issue is a problem if you are trying to sync instruments, audio, and MIDI tracks. I don't think it will be an issue for what you want to do.

As far as I know, both Windows and Mac OS X have always come with a simple MIDI server with some default ugly sound fonts. Linux isn't usually setup by default with a MIDI server, probably because not that many people seem to care about it anymore. Like many things in Linux, and especially in Arch, you have to set it up yourself. I can recommend Timidity++, because I use it.

My experience was that MIDI in Linux was very very confusing, but the more I studied how MIDI works in general the more everything made sense.

schivmeister · 2010-10-13 23:29:21

All the more reason for more people to shed some light. Please, if you find the time, expand on http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/MIDI

And that's right, OP needs LMMS. It makes the MIDI thing very easy.

And in case anyone's been running Rosegarden with FluidSynth, see if you can contribute to https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/21031

sand_man · 2010-10-14 02:22:06

LMMS is a clone of FL Studio. I've never used it though because it has no jack transport.
On a side note, lmms is being forked for better jack integration http://www.linuxmusicians.com/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=2662

Cdh · 2010-10-15 09:30:11

I had no clue how to setup rosegarden too.

It worked for me when I installed timidity and fluidr3 soundfont from AUR. Then you'll need to setup timidity for using this soundfont.
Then I discovered that timidity had a daemon called /etc/rc.d/timidity++. When it is started and working, you should be able to use rosegarden without even starting jack.

Arch Linux

#1 2010-10-11 00:45:59

Misery with Rosegarden

#2 2010-10-11 04:45:28

Re: Misery with Rosegarden

#3 2010-10-11 09:20:09

Re: Misery with Rosegarden

#4 2010-10-11 10:58:43

Re: Misery with Rosegarden

#5 2010-10-11 12:07:54

Re: Misery with Rosegarden

#6 2010-10-13 23:29:21

Re: Misery with Rosegarden

#7 2010-10-14 02:22:06

Re: Misery with Rosegarden

#8 2010-10-15 09:30:11

Re: Misery with Rosegarden

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