How to get MIDI working?

[mkeller]

I have a SB Live! 24bit audio card, and would really like to get MIDI to work. In Debian Sarge, which I had installed previously, it didn't work at all, and KMid would crash whenever I opened it. I tried to fix it, asking for help on the Debian forums, but it didn't do any good, so I gave up and came to Kubuntu. Well, there were other factors involved, but anyway - KMid opens properly, and I'm even able to open MIDI files without any negative effects. KMid is able to recognize how long a piece is, and can recognize the title of it too ( ) but no sound emerges from the speakers ( ). Any ideas on how I can get it to work?

[mchuskie]

Re: How to get MIDI working?

Try playing around with Timidity, is the only advice I can give (because that's as far as I've gotten so far!) I've managed to get it playing MIDI, at least, though I can't quite remember how...

[mkeller]

Re: How to get MIDI working?

Yeah, I've used Timidity in the past, and it works good for just playing MIDI, but does anyone know if I can set it up to work in the background and provide MIDI to my whole system (so that I can use it in Kmid, Rosegarden, ScummVM games, etc.)?

[Guest]

Re: How to get MIDI working?

Your best bet is to set up timidity as a midi server, that boots at start up. I found this guide helpful.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Mi...SynthesisHowTo

I also have the issue with Kmidi crashing whenever it tries to open a file - ends up with a system freeze. Never had that problem in edgy.

[MoonRise]

Re: How to get MIDI working?

See if anything here helps:

http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...59777#msg59777

[mkeller]

Re: How to get MIDI working?

Hello again,

I found a great tutorial to set Timidity up as a MIDI driver here. MIDI sounds great from the command line, but in both Rosegarden and NoteEdit, it sounds really scratchy and crumby. And the sound still doesn't work from Kmid.

And weesismansis, from that page that you linked, it shows that my card (SF Live! 24bit) ought to work with hardware MIDI, so I think I might give that a try. Would still be nice to know why Timidity sounds so bad in Rosegarden, though . . .

[mkeller]

Re: How to get MIDI working?

I've now got hardware MIDI working! I have some friends, though, whom I'm trying to convince to use Kubuntu, who do not have hardware-MIDI supported cards, so I'd still really like to know what it is that makes Timidity sound so scratchy in external programs. Anyone know?