[linux-audio-user] Connecting a MIDI keyboard

Folks,

  What looked simple is not. I have this Yamaha Psr-260 keyboard. I
want to use it to play the ZynAddSubFX synth (one of these days I'll
know how to write that name I guess, if only by multiple repeated
tries).

  So I start a MIDI cable from the OUT of the keyboard and connect it
to the IN MIDI jack of the M-Audio 1010LT card. So far so good I guess.

  Then I start jack using Qjackctl, and press the green button. I also
start the ZynSubAddFX synth (looks like a Polish name, guess that was
the spiritual connection) and it shows up in the jack connect dialog
box, which looks like this:

  Readable Clients / Output Ports

  + 14LMidi Through
  - 16:M Audio Delta 1010LT MIDI
    0:M Audio Delta 1010LT MIDI

  Writable Clients / Input Ports

  - 129:ZynSubAddFX
    0: ZynAddSubFX

  So I connect the last two entries together. The Zyn synth panel
shows MIDI channel 1 selected. Jack uses the ALSA driver.

  I play a few notes on the keyboard and only the built-in Yamaha
sounds are resounding, no Zyn. If I use the Zyn virtual keyboard, I
can hear the software synth all right.

  The mic input of the 1010LT works fine, as well as the rendering
of sounds made by Zyn and Hydrogen. So I presume the card is OK. Maybe
the MIDI cable is not, so I changed it. To no avail.

  Systems are Fedora 5 CCRMA and Studio64.

  Is there something else to be done in order to use a MIDI keyboard to
trigger sounds created by the Linux box ? Or should I start to think
that the keyboard itself is somehow damaged ?

Al
Received on Tue Sep 5 16:15:10 2006