[PLUG] MIDI on Ubuntu 18.04

[Dick Steffens]

I'm using a music notation editing program called Frescobaldi to write
Lilypond files which "compile" to .pdf and .midi files. The .pdf part
works. The .midi part looks like it works, but I can't hear anything.
I've tied adding various MIDI stuff, following instructions on various
websites, but still no go. Here's the error message I get with VLC media
player:

Codec not supported:

VLC could not decode the format "MIDI" (MIDI Audio)

I added FluidSynth plugin for VLC, but that had no effect. I still get
the same error message.

I tried timidity:

$ timidity 1.midi Requested buffer size 32768, fragment size 8192 ALSA
pcm 'default' set buffer size 32768, period size 8192 bytes Playing
1.midi MIDI file: 1.midi Format: 1 Tracks: 3 Divisions: 384 Sequence:
control track Text: creator: Text: GNU LilyPond 2.18.2 Track name:
:soprano Instrument: choir aahs Track name: :tenor Instrument: choir
aahs No instrument mapped to tone bank 0, program 52 - this instrument
will not be heard No pre-resampling cache hit Last 3 MIDI events are
ignored Playing time: ~31 seconds Notes cut: 0 Notes lost totally: 0

This leads me to believe that there's more to configure somewhere in
order to get the "Instrument: choir aahs" but I don't know where to do
that.

Are there any musicians with Ubuntu 18 MIDI experience who can point me
to the right documentation?

Thanks.

[John Jason Jordan]

On Sat, 13 Oct 2018 15:36:31 -0700

Post by Dick Steffens
Are there any musicians with Ubuntu 18 MIDI experience who can point
me to the right documentation?

I'm nowhere close to being a musician, but I can suggest Audacity. If
Audacity can open/play the files, then it can also export to other
things. Audacity is always my go-to app for audio problems.

[Dick Steffens]

Post by John Jason Jordan
On Sat, 13 Oct 2018 15:36:31 -0700

Post by Dick Steffens
Are there any musicians with Ubuntu 18 MIDI experience who can point
me to the right documentation?

I'm nowhere close to being a musician, but I can suggest Audacity. If
Audacity can open/play the files, then it can also export to other
things. Audacity is always my go-to app for audio problems.

Audacity will indeed open a .midi file, and produces a graphical
display. But it doesn't produce any sound. I'm guessing I need to
install something else, but don't know what it is. Zack and Ali shed
more light on the subject.

[Zack Olson]

What soft synth are you using? You won't hear anything from a midi file, it
doesn't create audio. It just tells a synth what to play like the scroll on
a player piano. Does that help or did I misunderstand you and just explain
something you already knew?

I would load a soft synth into an instrument track in Ardour and place the
midi file in that track.

Post by Dick Steffens
I'm using a music notation editing program called Frescobaldi to write
Lilypond files which "compile" to .pdf and .midi files. The .pdf part
works. The .midi part looks like it works, but I can't hear anything.
I've tied adding various MIDI stuff, following instructions on various
websites, but still no go. Here's the error message I get with VLC media
VLC could not decode the format "MIDI" (MIDI Audio)
I added FluidSynth plugin for VLC, but that had no effect. I still get
the same error message.
$ timidity 1.midi Requested buffer size 32768, fragment size 8192 ALSA
pcm 'default' set buffer size 32768, period size 8192 bytes Playing
:soprano Instrument: choir aahs Track name: :tenor Instrument: choir
aahs No instrument mapped to tone bank 0, program 52 - this instrument
will not be heard No pre-resampling cache hit Last 3 MIDI events are
ignored Playing time: ~31 seconds Notes cut: 0 Notes lost totally: 0
This leads me to believe that there's more to configure somewhere in
order to get the "Instrument: choir aahs" but I don't know where to do
that.
Are there any musicians with Ubuntu 18 MIDI experience who can point me
to the right documentation?
Thanks.
--
Regards,
Dick Steffens
_______________________________________________
PLUG mailing list
http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug

[Dick Steffens]

Post by Zack Olson
What soft synth are you using? You won't hear anything from a midi file, it
doesn't create audio. It just tells a synth what to play like the scroll on
a player piano. Does that help or did I misunderstand you and just explain
something you already knew?
I would load a soft synth into an instrument track in Ardour and place the
midi file in that track.

Where do I find soft synths? Are they things that are generic to the OS,
or specific to audio applications?

[Ali Corbin]

Post by Dick Steffens
$ timidity 1.midi Requested buffer size 32768, fragment size 8192 ALSA
pcm 'default' set buffer size 32768, period size 8192 bytes Playing
:soprano Instrument: choir aahs Track name: :tenor Instrument: choir
aahs No instrument mapped to tone bank 0, program 52 - this instrument
will not be heard No pre-resampling cache hit Last 3 MIDI events are
ignored Playing time: ~31 seconds Notes cut: 0 Notes lost totally: 0
This leads me to believe that there's more to configure somewhere in
order to get the "Instrument: choir aahs" but I don't know where to do
that.

You usually have to install instrument patches (AKA sound-fonts) to go with
timidity. On my system, I have a choice in the repo, either freepats,
or fluid-soundfont.

[Dick Steffens]

Post by Ali Corbin

Post by Dick Steffens
$ timidity 1.midi Requested buffer size 32768, fragment size 8192 ALSA
pcm 'default' set buffer size 32768, period size 8192 bytes Playing
:soprano Instrument: choir aahs Track name: :tenor Instrument: choir
aahs No instrument mapped to tone bank 0, program 52 - this instrument
will not be heard No pre-resampling cache hit Last 3 MIDI events are
ignored Playing time: ~31 seconds Notes cut: 0 Notes lost totally: 0
This leads me to believe that there's more to configure somewhere in
order to get the "Instrument: choir aahs" but I don't know where to do
that.

You usually have to install instrument patches (AKA sound-fonts) to go with
timidity. On my system, I have a choice in the repo, either freepats,
or fluid-soundfont.

I found an answer at:

https://askubuntu.com/questions/458616/soundfont-with-timidity

It had me edit /etc/timidity/timidity.cfg and comment out freepats.cfg
and uncomment fluidr3_gs.cfg. That works for timidity.

Now I need to find out how to get the same kind of thing in Frescobaldi
and Audacity.

Thanks!

[Dick Steffens]

Post by Ali Corbin

Post by Dick Steffens
$ timidity 1.midi Requested buffer size 32768, fragment size 8192 ALSA
pcm 'default' set buffer size 32768, period size 8192 bytes Playing
:soprano Instrument: choir aahs Track name: :tenor Instrument: choir
aahs No instrument mapped to tone bank 0, program 52 - this instrument
will not be heard No pre-resampling cache hit Last 3 MIDI events are
ignored Playing time: ~31 seconds Notes cut: 0 Notes lost totally: 0
This leads me to believe that there's more to configure somewhere in
order to get the "Instrument: choir aahs" but I don't know where to do
that.

You usually have to install instrument patches (AKA sound-fonts) to go with
timidity. On my system, I have a choice in the repo, either freepats,
or fluid-soundfont.

You also have to pick an instrument from the list of instruments in that
set of patches. I started out with one that isn't included. I wanted to
switch to piano anyway and chose that. I got sound, but I also got an
error message saying that that instrument didn't exist. That's when I
found the list. Acoustic grand, or something like that is the default
when "piano" is chosen. I changed the setting in my LilyPond code to
acoustic grand and the error messages went away. Somewhere else I
noticed that Frescobaldi is using timidity.

Thanks for all the pointers. I think the rest of my issues will be music
related, and I've found a forum for LilyPond/Frescobaldi where those
questions will go.