[linux-audio-user] Midi recording

Hi guys. Hope you can help me figure this all out ... I've been reading
this list for awhile and, even though I figure I'm a not-so-bad musician
and fairly computer literate ... I have to admit that half the
comments/questions I read here just turn to jelly in my brain.

Anyway, what I want to do is to create some decent recordings using MMA
backing tracks and me playing sax. So, what I'm doing right now is to
play the MMA midi file though a keyboard and record that onto a little
multi-track recorder. Then, I listen to the background track and record
myself playing sax. Next, I transfer the tracks to the computer and do
some rudimentary mixing with Audacity. Honestly, it doesn't sound all
that awful (for my latest effort,
http://mellowood.ca/music/recordings/). Biggest problem I see with this
is that I can't tweak just the (for example) bass or piano in audacity
since all the background is "mixed" into a stereo track.

But, I'd like to do better :)

So, I see a need to be able to split the MMA track into several audio
tracks ... one for each MIDI track. So, question 1: what linux software
will act as a synth which will split the midi out into separate audio
tracks? I looked at timidity, and it doesn't appear to have that
feature. If I've missed something there, I still have a problem with the
quite awful default sounds it has ... so if I need to use timidity,
where would I get better sounds. Or would I be better off to play/record
the background multiple times though the hardware synth ... But I don't
see how I'd ever get that synchronized.

Question 2: Assuming that I have recorded a decent multi-track
background, can I use audacity to record my sax playing off a mixer
board? I've got a ICE1712 - M Audio Audiophile 24/96 audio card.

Question 3: what questions have I forgotten to ask?

Thanks.

-- 
Bob van der Poel ** Wynndel, British Columbia, CANADA **
EMAIL: bob@email-addr-hidden
WWW:   http://www.mellowood.ca