Re: [LAU] Audigy too

On 14/03/11 20:40, Batz wrote:
> An advantage of using dedicated hardware such as this is that it is
> relatively bullet proof. Removing at least 4 layers of software from the
> equation. (7 if you're also using a java based VM as your front-end.)
> Removing such a house of cards from a live performance always makes for
> a better, more confident gig IMHO. :)

Yep, that's a fair point -- if you just want something that will let you
play GM MIDI in to and get sound out of, the Audigy's synth is a
definite option.

As you rightly point out, it's not a rompler, but a sample playback
engine, and there are no samples physically stored in ROM on the card.
It loads SoundFonts, so as others have suggested, you just need to use
the "asfxload" tool to load an appropriate SoundFont in to the card. The
Windows drivers do exactly the same thing -- they just automatically
load a SoundFont to the card on boot.

If you look on your Windows install, or your driver CD, you'll probably
find a .sf2 file -- this is the SoundFont file that the Windows drivers
would be loading at boot. Take a copy of this, use asfxload to send it
to your card, and the synth should sound just like it does under Windows.

If you don't have asfxload available, just install it -- on
Debian/Ubuntu and derivatives (like KXStudio) it's in the "awesfx" package.

FWIW, I'd be perfectly comfortable using JACK and a software synth like
Qsynth/FluidSynth in a live environment. I haven't actually performed
with it yet, but I have a setup in testing here where I have seq24
controlling various software synths (Hydrogen and PHASEX in my case) and
a hardware synth (a Waldorf Blofeld), using Ardour to mix the synths and
apply realtime effects, all via JACK. It's been quite solid in my
testing so far.

> Having said that. I re-installed KXstudio again last night and it seems
> to be actually working. Albeit, dog slow. In fact it's behavior in
> general is altogether different to the first time I tried installing it.
> Still, although I can bring Linux Sampler up, Jack won't connect to it.
> It won't see the ENVY24/DSP124 sound card either and certainly won't see
> the CreatiFlabs card. Though ALSA MIDI will see both. And the emu10K1
> synth as well. It insists on using something called pulse audio.
> Whatever that is? But I recall someone saying that if pulse exists,
> nothing else will work. So I'm guessing it's time to move on.

AFAIK, KXStudio runs everything, including Pulseaudio, via JACK, so
having Pulseaudio running shouldn't be of any concern for music-making.
This connection of Pulseaudio to JACK could be causing some of your xrun
issues, though.

Personally, I use Ubuntu (standard, not Studio), and install the audio
packages I need on top of that. I can't say whether it'll work for you,
but I can tell you that it works for me.

> Also, where can one get a suitable GM sample set to load into Linux
> sampler assuming I ever see it working? Need some banks to test it with.
> This is supposed to be automatic with things like an emu10K1 but
> evidently you need to fend for yourself with linux sampler?

LinuxSampler is a sampler more in line with Kontakt or GigaStudio --
it's for loading large, sophisticated instruments that usually cover
just one sound (the 2GB Salamander Grand Piano, which is an SFZ
instrument for use in LinuxSampler, is a good example).

If you want a GM set, the best option for a synth would be Fluidsynth (a
command-line tool) or Qsynth (a GUI frontend for Fluidsynth); like your
Audigy it runs SoundFont files, which can be single instruments or
complete GM sets. There's an excellent (large-ish) GM set called Fluid
-- it's packaged in most distributions (in the "fluid-soundfont-gm"
package in Debian/Ubuntu and derivatives). Otherwise, you could load the
SoundFont file that shipped with your Audigy.

Thanks
Leigh
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Received on Tue Mar 15 16:15:01 2011