MIDI on Linux?

honey the codewitch

This isn't exactly programming specific but I want to tap some MIDI tech from within a linux based OS but there are so many audio packages for linux I don't know which one is even the most popular in terms of install base (i'd want to target that one as a priority) Does anyone here do any messing with MIDI from a linux box? What do you install to do it with? Any recommendations or packages you know are popular would be helpful, i'm kind of treating this like an informal poll. The internet is giving me 100 different opinions, but i figure i know where you all hang out so I can hold you to your suggestions :laugh:

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Greg Utas

Not that I can help on the Linux front, but I'm not even sure what you're looking for. MIDI IN/OUT for Linux? An audio package for playing with samples?

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honey the codewitch

audio drivers basically that let you use MIDI ports and the sound devices wavetable synthesizer

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pkfox

Have you looked at ALSA ?

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Scott Serl

If you are after a software MIDI synth, then you can use Yoshimi. It is installed with Ubuntu Studio (can also be installed separately). I have never used it (Yoshimi, but have used Ubuntu Studio). If you are trying to control events during a recording session, then use Ardour as the DAW and you can use MIDI to control events. If you are trying to use a MIDI keyboard to enter music notation, then I have no recommendations as I have not done it in a very long time. If you are looking for a software MIDI drum machine, then try Hydrogen. I think the basic MIDI control is in Alsa, but you need a device that is supported by Linux...tricky to figure out, but there are various forums that discuss them (including the Ardour forums). It usually takes awhile for people to write the modules to drive new devices, so community support lags current devices by at least a few months, and often a year or two. Basic MIDI, however, is probably supported for many devices (it's usually the Alsa mixer portion that needs special driver modules).

pkfox

[Ted's Linux MIDI Guide](http://tedfelix.com/linux/linux-midi.html)

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David ONeil

Quote:

This is a very command-line-intensive tutorial.

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honey the codewitch

i appreciate it but I'm trying to narrow my choices down - that has jack and alsa, and i'd like to know which one is better for me to target. also that article is kind of old. Bookmarking it though

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honey the codewitch

Ahhh, brilliant! Your post is actually clarifying something for me. It looks like Alsa might be the way to go for targeting my MIDI code to.

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honey the codewitch

i am now, thanks to another comment. i appreciate it.

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B Alex Robinson

A week or so ago I accidentally impulse-bought a MIDI keyboard, but instead of returning it, I installed Python3 packages and wrote a program to listen to the keyboard and play sounds. It's been fun. The Python packages contain the fluidsynth.py, mido, and sf2utils modules. mido reads MIDI notes from MIDI devices. The "o" at the end of the name is not a typo. fluidsynth plays MIDI audio. I started it with fluidsynth.Synth().start(driver = "pulseaudio") not "alsa". fluidsynth makes sound from instrument recordings contained in "sound font 2" (.sf2) files. fluidsynth, itself, is a separate thing you apt install. The Python script is a wrapper around it. fluidsynth.py is at various places on GitHub. I'm using a very slightly tweaked version of one that has disappeared in the last week, but was a slightly tweaked version of pyfluidsynth/fluidsynth.py at feature/fluidsynth-2 · SpotlightKid/pyfluidsynth · GitHub[^] which is a modified version of the original somewhere else on GitHub. sf2utils.sf2parse lets me read .sf2 files and list the instruments in them. I found nice .sf2 files through a couple of URLs: Soundfonts 4U[^] SoundFonts and SFZ files | MuseScore[^] The fluidsynth package, itself, contains a couple of OK .sf2 files. I could not get LMMS to read my MIDI keyboard and/or make sound. Renoise hogged the CPU and, when running, whether idle or not, caused videos to not play in my browser and possibly not in VLC. Good luck.

SimonHP

If you have simple needs ALSA may be sufficient. For more professional requirements you may want to consider jack (jackd). there is a front end Qjackctl. If your linux repo does not support them, try Fusion repos. Alsa can be bridged to jack with a2jmidi.