Subject: [linux-audio-user] Unable to record MIDI with ALSA serial driver
From: Tevian Dray (tdray_AT_MtHolyoke.edu)
Date: Sat Apr 06 2002 - 00:47:54 EEST
I'm having a problem recording from my external MIDI keyboard.
I've installed ALSA on my laptop, and am trying to use the serial driver.
(Detailed configuration is below.)
Here's what works:
All standard OSS stuff using ALSA's snd-card-maestro3:
Examples: xmixer, timidity, play
All MIDI playback using ALSA's snd-card-serial:
Examples: pmidi, playmidi, jazz
The big problem:
Recording with jazz isn't quite right.
(I CAN record, but the timing is not right.)
I've tried several other programs:
notemidi, rosegarden, tclmidi, midimountain
In each case, either I had problems compiling, or I couldn't figure out how to
record, or both. (Couldn't get rosegarden to record with ALSA; notemidi caused
a kernel timer bug; tclmidi wouldn't compile.)
Other minor but possibly related glitches:
Feedback from mouse & keyboard to external MIDI;
Jazz freezes for ~10 sec after each record or playback operation;
Timidity fails as an ALSA sequencer.
(Timidity examples, with "timidity -iA -B2,8":
1. "aconnect 72:0 128:0", "pmidi -p128:0 foo.mid" sends output to both
sound cards; the result is noise, just barely recognizable as music.
2. "aconnect 72:0 128:0" followed by (MIDI) keyboard input appears to
work (no error messages), but produces no discernible output.
)
At this point, I have no idea whether the problem is alsa, jazz, my hardware,
or some silly configuration error... I'm about ready to give up and try jazz
on a windows machine. (Sigh.)
I am not tied to any particular program, and while I would like to be able to
edit afterwards, the main thing is to be able to record what I play.
(One person has suggested getting a USB MIDI interface. Comments?)
Any suggestions would be much appreciated!
Tevian Dray <tdray_AT_mtholyoke.edu>
==============================================================================
Configuration:
Dell I8000:
Pentium III, 700 MHz, ESS Maestro 3
RH 7.0, kernel 2.2.17-8, glibc-2.2-5
alsa-utils-0.5.10
alsa-driver-0.5.12a
alsa-lib-0.5.10b
jazz-bin-4.1.3
pmidi-1.4.1
playmidi-2.4
TiMidity++-2.10.4
External MIDI device:
Yamaha P-80 electronic piano
/etc/modules.conf:
#
alias parport_lowlevel parport_pc
alias usb-controller usb-uhci
alias scsi-adapter-0 ide-scsi
#
# ALSA native devices
alias char-major-116 snd
options snd snd_cards_limit=2
alias snd-card-0 snd-card-maestro3
alias snd-card-1 snd-card-serial
options snd-card-serial snd_port=0x3f8
#
# OSS/Free setup
alias char-major-14 soundcore
alias sound-slot-0 snd-card-0
alias sound-service-0-0 snd-mixer-oss
alias sound-service-0-1 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-3 snd-pcm-oss
alias sound-service-0-8 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-12 snd-pcm-oss
alias sound-slot-1 snd-card-1
alias sound-service-1-0 snd-mixer-oss
alias sound-service-1-1 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-1-3 snd-pcm-oss
alias sound-service-1-8 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-1-12 snd-pcm-oss
==============================================================================
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b28 : Sat Apr 06 2002 - 00:35:44 EEST