Jack MIDI vs. ALSA

The crackling issue in Zynaddsubfx that I described earlier is supposed to be solved in Yoshimi, a Zynaddsubfx fork/derivative. There is even a package for it in the Ubuntu repositories, so I gave it a try.

However, I could not connect my MIDI controller (the AKAI MPK mini) to it. Why? Because the controller shows up in Qjackctl's ALSA tab, while Yoshimi is in the MIDI tab. Patchage and a2jmidid don't help, either. Apparantly the exact same problem goes for Bristol, simulator of classic organs and synths.

My MIDI controller is connected through USB, my audio interface is connected through Firewire. Thus I use the firewire driver in jack. I wonder if there is any way of making the controller work with Jack MIDI clients. I mean, OK, Jack MIDI is the new thing and ALSA midi may become obsolete. In any case it would be nice to still be able to use my USB MIDI controller, and I figure there has to be a solution.

EDIT: Starting Bristol with the "-midi alsa" option, or Yoshimi with the "-a" option does the trick. The apps will then show up in Qjackctl's ALSA tab.

New distro, old kernel - Hardy's 2.6.24-22-rt kernel on Intrepid

First off, let me get this straight: I am currently reporting about my experiments with two different versions of the Ubuntu Studio distribution: 8.04 (Hardy Heron) and 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex). I'm dual booting between these two and trying to figure out which one will work better with my hardware and for my purposes. I realize this can be a bit confusing. When I will finally get this somewhat done, I'll write a summary of the pros and cons of each.

I have updated my first post, Introduction / My goals - I've re-structured the sections and added some basic information about my hardware which I guess is quite relevant to this whole experiment.

Thanks to Andreas Nilsson for putting a link to me in his blog!

What I did today
I did what LDiablo][ suggests in his comment to the Intrepid real time kernel bug.

I downloaded the following four packages to downgrade to the old kernel:
linux-image-2.6.24-22-rt (2.6.24-22.45)
linux-rt (2.6.24.22.24)
linux-restricted-modules-2.6.24-22-rt (2.6.24.14-22.53)
linux-restricted-modules-rt (2.6.24.22.24)

...and istalled them with dpkg --force-depends. I'm not exactly sure why I would need the restricted drivers, though.

The system boots up fine, but without ALSA. No sound at all, in other words.

qjackctl says the following:

13:45:02.348 Could not open ALSA sequencer as a client. ALSA MIDI patchbay will be not available.
ALSA lib seq_hw.c:457:(snd_seq_hw_open) open /dev/snd/seq failed: No such file or directory


Also, when trying to use real time mode:

cannot use real-time scheduling (FIFO at priority 10) [for thread -1210079568, from thread -1210079568] (1: Operation not permitted)
cannot create engine


I have a vague memory of fixing the latter issue before in Hardy - it obviously has something to do with permissions. Googling will probably do the trick. I'm more concerned about ALSA.

lsmod |grep snd gives me nothing, and when trying modprobe snd_seq I get the following message:

FATAL: Module snd_seq not found.
FATAL: Error running install command for snd_seq


I'll take a break now for a day or two. Any and all suggestions are welcome!

I'm quite surprised about acutally having readers/commenters already - thanks for contributing, and have a happy new year!