MIDI Software Synthesis

[fishfork]

I'm achieving terrible performance with timidity.

Even after disabling all the settings in the cfg file, timidity still uses most of my cpu.(Ath XP 1800.) Why is this? I remember running a midi sequencer under a 486.

Weird. I had it running fine on my old AMD K6-2 450, so your hardware certainly should be up to it.

[jrincon87]

You could try some different midi files. Other than that, I've no idea I'm afraid. Perhaps someone else can help?

Hey, this is the second time I try to get MIDI on Ubuntu to work. I still don't hear anything. But, I found that timidity does play the files but throughout the wrong sound card. I have two soundcards. Timidity is playing the files through the hw:0,0 (first sound card), and the soundcard I have the speakers plugged into is hw;1,0 (second sound card). Everything is set up to go through the second card (Preferences -> Sound->2nd sound card). It seems that Timidity is configured by default to sound through the first sound card. How can I make Timidity to play the files through the second sound card?
Thanks.

[jrincon87]

Hey, this is the second time I try to get MIDI on Ubuntu to work. I still don't hear anything. But, I found that timidity does play the files but throughout the wrong sound card. I have two soundcards. Timidity is playing the files through the hw:0,0 (first sound card), and the soundcard I have the speakers plugged into is hw;1,0 (second sound card). Everything is set up to go through the second card (Preferences -> Sound->2nd sound card). It seems that Timidity is configured by default to sound through the first sound card. How can I make Timidity to play the files through the second sound card?
Thanks.

Any ideas? Please, I'm really urged to make the MIDI work (that's the only thing that's preventing me from totally switching to linux)

[zoarre]

Ask questions here, and the answers will be gradually incorporated into the Wiki page.

I have questions abvout three errors I get while using timidity with dosbox. I did not install any soundfonts.

After installing timidity as described in the HOWTO, sound began to work in dosbox when run from the terminal. I do still get the following errors, however:

ALSA:Can't subscribe to MIDI port (65:0)
MIDI:Opened device:oss

1. What does the first error mean and how do I correct it?
2. Why is dosbox using OSS instead of ALSA? Is there a way to correct this? Does it matter?

Also, sound doesn't work when running dosbox from an application launcher. I get the following errors:

MIXER:Can't open audio: No available audio device , running in nosound mode.
ALSA:Can't subscribe to MIDI port (65:0)
MIDI:Opened device:oss

3. Why do I have to run from the terminal to get sound to work? Is it a permissions issue? How do I fix this?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[jobezone]

I have questions abvout three errors I get while using timidity with dosbox. I did not install any soundfonts.

After installing timidity as described in the HOWTO, sound began to work in dosbox when run from the terminal. I do still get the following errors, however:

ALSA:Can't subscribe to MIDI port (65:0)
MIDI:Opened device:oss

1. What does the first error mean and how do I correct it?
2. Why is dosbox using OSS instead of ALSA? Is there a way to correct this? Does it matter?

Also, sound doesn't work when running dosbox from an application launcher. I get the following errors:

MIXER:Can't open audio: No available audio device , running in nosound mode.
ALSA:Can't subscribe to MIDI port (65:0)
MIDI:Opened device:oss

3. Why do I have to run from the terminal to get sound to work? Is it a permissions issue? How do I fix this?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hi, you'll have to use a customized dosbox.conf file. First, copy /usr/share/doc/dosbox/dosbox.conf.example.gz into your home directory. Gunzip it:

gunzip dosbox.conf.example.gz

, and edit it, go to the [midi] section, and add 128:0 next to config= . So it looks like this:

mpu401=true
intelligent=true
device=default
config=128:0

Now this will be your default dosbox.conf file. I advise you to have a dosbox.conf file inside each game directory, specifically tuned to it. Then, in the game's launcher, make the command be something like this:

/usr/bin/dosbox -conf "/home/ines/jogos/Heart of China/dosbox.conf" "/home/ines/jogos/Heart of China/HOC.EXE"

You also said "I did not install any soundfonts" . But you must install at least one.

sudo apt-get install freepats

P.S.-I haven't tested this yet with a midi game in dosbox, but now it won't give you errors.
P.S.S.-Hope these instructions aren't too confusing...

[boow]

I've just installed timidity and it works but the startup script that came with it refuses to work but I am able to start it up like this.

timidity -iA -B2,8 -Os1l -s 44100 &

is anyone else having this problem.

#!/bin/sh
#
# TiMidity /etc/init.d/ initscript for TiMidity++
# $Id: timidity.init,v 1.6 2004/09/30 01:04:04 hmh Exp $
#
# Copyright (c) 2004 by Henrique M. Holschuh <hmh@debian.org>
# Distributed under the GPL version 2
#

PATH=/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
DAEMON=/usr/bin/timidity
DESC="TiMidity++ ALSA midi emulation"
PMIDI=/usr/bin/pmidi
PIDFILE=/var/run/timidity.pid

set -e

test -x ${DAEMON} || exit 0
test -x ${PMIDI} && pmidi_enabled="true" || pmidi_enabled="false";

. /lib/lsb/init-functions

TIM_ALSASEQ=true
TIM_ALSASEQPARAMS="-iA -B2,8 -Os1l -s 44100"
[ -r /etc/default/timidity ] && . /etc/default/timidity
[ "${TIM_ALSASEQ}" != "true" ] && exit 0
PARAMS="${TIM_ALSASEQPARAMS} -iAD"

START="--start --quiet --exec ${DAEMON} --pidfile ${PIDFILE} -- ${PARAMS}"

case "$1" in
start)
[ -d /proc/asound ] || {
log_warning_msg "ALSA is not active, cannot start $DESC"
exit 0
}
log_begin_msg "Starting $DESC..."
if start-stop-daemon ${START} >/dev/null; then
log_end_msg 0
#if [ $pmidi_enabled = "true" ] ; then
# sleep 1
# echo -n "Emulating midi on ports: ";
# pmidi -l | grep "TiMidity" | cut -f 1 -d ' ' | xargs
#fi
else
log_end_msg 1
exit 1
#if start-stop-daemon --test ${START} >/dev/null 2>&1; then
# echo "(failed)."
# exit 1
#else
# echo "already running."
# exit 0
#fi
fi
;;
stop)
log_begin_msg "Stopping $DESC..."
if start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --pidfile ${PIDFILE} \
--exec ${DAEMON} --retry 10 ; then
log_end_msg 0
else
log_end_msg 1
exit 1
fi
;;
restart|force-reload)
$0 stop
exec $0 start
;;
*)
echo "Usage: $0 {start|stop|restart|force-reload}" >&2
exit 1
esac

exit 0

[Zooropa]

Hi, you'll have to use a customized dosbox.conf file. First, copy /usr/share/doc/dosbox/dosbox.conf.example.gz into your home directory. Gunzip it:

gunzip dosbox.conf.example.gz

, and edit it, go to the [midi] section, and add 128:0 next to config= . So it looks like this:

mpu401=true
intelligent=true
device=default
config=128:0

Now this will be your default dosbox.conf file. I advise you to have a dosbox.conf file inside each game directory, specifically tuned to it. Then, in the game's launcher, make the command be something like this:

/usr/bin/dosbox -conf "/home/ines/jogos/Heart of China/dosbox.conf" "/home/ines/jogos/Heart of China/HOC.EXE"

You also said "I did not install any soundfonts" . But you must install at least one.

sudo apt-get install freepats

P.S.-I haven't tested this yet with a midi game in dosbox, but now it won't give you errors.
P.S.S.-Hope these instructions aren't too confusing...

Bit of a bump here, but this is a great bit of advice - I was constantly getting the 65 error, but editting the dosbox.config to 128 worked a treat!

[Ariod]

Hey guys,

I followed the instructions and I can play MIDI files using solely Timidity. However, what I need is playing MIDI files within programs such as TuxGuitar (Java-based) or KGuitar. Both won't work properly if they can't play MIDI files.

Do you have any suggestions on how to fix this?

[Efnian]

I've just installed timidity and it works but the startup script that came with it refuses to work but I am able to start it up like this.

timidity -iA -B2,8 -Os1l -s 44100 &

is anyone else having this problem.

I have the same problem with my system. It seems that the snd-seq-* -modules aren't automatically loaded at the startup.

[function1]

I ran through the HowTo, but I did achieve the desired result. I did not install the timidity-patches-eaw package, and I do not think I need to: playing a midi file with timidity on the command line (i.e. `timidity mymid.mid') works. I modprobe'd all the modules listed (snd-seq-device, snd-seq-midi, snd-seq-oss, snd-seq-midi-event, and snd-seq) and then ran `timidity -iA -B2,8 -Os1l -s 44100'. I got the following message:

Requested buffer size 2048, fragment size 1024
ALSA pcm 'default' set buffer size 7524, period size 3760 bytes
TiMidity starting in ALSA server mode
Opening sequencer port: 128:0 128:1 128:2 128:3

Looks good. I have a look at `pmidi -l':

 Port     Client name                       Port name
 14:0     Midi Through                      Midi Through Port-0
128:0     TiMidity                          TiMidity port 0
128:1     TiMidity                          TiMidity port 1
128:2     TiMidity                          TiMidity port 2
128:3     TiMidity                          TiMidity port 3

Cool. So then I try to play a midi with pmidi `aplaymidi --port 128:0 mymid.mid' and I hear nothing. No output in the pmidi terminal window, and in the timidity terminal I see:

Requested buffer size 2048, fragment size 1024
ALSA pcm 'default' set buffer size 7524, period size 3760 bytes

Looks normal to me, but I hear nothing. Again, playing the file directly with timidity as `timidity mymid.mid' works.
I was speaking with someone on the #ubuntu chan on freenode and he recommended that I look at `strace -fF aplaymidi --port 128:0 mymid', the output of which I have pastebin'd at http://pastebin.com/826804. (Note the "<unfinished ...>" bit at the bottom--I had to ctrl+c it, because nothing was happening). I am not sure how a midi session is supposed to work, so I can really only look for explicit error messages in the strace output. I see "No such file or directory" for the files "ld.so.nohwcap' and "/etc/asound.conf". The asound.conf file sounds perhaps like its a bit more generic that just dealing with midi playback, yet audio seems to work fine overall on my system. I did not get anywhere with googling 'ld.so.nohwcap'.

P.S. I am running Edgy on a Thinkpad T60, audio chipset AD1981HD with Intel HDA interface.