[lug] MIDI Keyboard for Linux

Sun Dec 27 12:46:21 MST 2015

I can see a small keyboard taking less space when you don't use a stand.

Some of the music I am learning covers 2 octaves + 2 semitones. Other pieces
don't have quite that much range but between all the different high/low
notes, they span close to three octaves. I assume you know the range of the
music you will be working with and can transpose to make a 2 octave range
work.

Jack definitely complicates things. I just spent 30 minutes configuring
gstreamer to use jack and then configuring jack's patch bay so firefox audio
would route to audacity. So I wouldn't change an existing setup to use jack
unless really needed.

On 12/27/2015 10:18 AM, Jed S. Baer wrote:
> I'm definitely looking at a MIDI keyboard. Plenty of those available,
> even under $100. At the moment, I can plug things together using
> patchage, and I don't know that, for my purposes, I need to switch to
> using Jack. I recall quite a lot of hollering when Pulseaudio first came
> out, and articles about how to get rid of it, and get Jack working.
> 
> Amsynth plays through the sound card, and I can use pavucontrol to turn
> on capture on the Alsa interface, if I want to record. It all seems to
> play well together, though I'm not wild about the UI for Amsynth or
> patchage. But they're functional, which is good enough for my current
> purposes. I'll probably try some other softsynths at some point.
> 
> While I recognize the tradeoffs, I think a 2 octave keyboard is good for
> now. I really need to be in the mode of getting rid of things, vs.
> acquiring more stuff, so smaller is better.
> 
> I've been able to capture the output of vmpk using nted, but trying to
> edit from there was not a happening thing. Perhaps I will need to read
> the instructions.
> 
> I'm currently on kernel 3.11 (long story, different topic), but
> everything seems to be working OK.
> 
> On Sat, 26 Dec 2015 14:13:21 -0700
> Lee Woodworth wrote:
> 
>> Things I have discovered fiddling with a 61 key Casio keyboard w/
>> usb-midi. It was a special sale ~ $80. Seems to be a common price is ~
>> $100.
>>
>> o Not all of the low-end keyboards have USB midi.
>> o The Casio works w/o ucode loading or a dongle, just needs a USB cable.
>> o Keyboards may be able to receive midi events (be played from the
>> computer) as well as send key events (the casio does this)
>> o AFICT, a controller requires a connection to a synth of some kind.
>> Thats why I went with a keyboard.
>> o If you want to hear multiple sound sources via the computer
>> head-phone jack (e.g. play a music file and hear a soft synth)
>>   ALSA device exclusivity can be a problem.
>> o Using jack will allow simultaneous use of multiple sound sources but
>>   does complicate usage. Also your software needs to support jack and
>> be configured o Qsnyth + soundfonts works as plain soft synth and works
>> with jack o Rosegarden records midi and converts to music notation and
>> works with jack o Qjackctl helps with connecting jack sources/sinks
>>
>> Software I have installed:
>>     media-sound/fluid-soundfont-3.1
>>     media-sound/fluidsynth-1.1.6-r1
>>     media-sound/rosegarden-14.12
>>     media-sound/jack-audio-connection-kit-0.121.3-r1
>>     media-sound/qjackctl-0.3.10
>>
>> Kernel 4.3 config/drivers that work for me:
>>     CONFIG_SND_RAWMIDI=m
>>     CONFIG_SND_RAWMIDI_SEQ=m
>>     CONFIG_SND_VIRMIDI=m
>>
>>     snd_usbmidi_lib        16064  0
>>     snd_seq_midi            4448  0
>>     snd_rawmidi            14992  2 snd_usbmidi_lib,snd_seq_midi
>>     snd_seq_midi_event      4416  1 snd_seq_midi
>>     snd_seq                39320  2 snd_seq_midi_event,snd_seq_midi
>>     snd_seq_device          2376  3 snd_seq,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_midi
>>
>> Kernel modules that are explicitly loaded:
>>     snd-seq-midi
>>     snd-usbmidi-lib
>>
>> On 12/26/2015 09:33 AM, Jed S. Baer wrote:
>>> Hi Folks.
>>>
>>> Idly pondering picking up a small MIDI keyboard controller. I can't
>>> call myself a musician, as such, so I'm not looking for something
>>> like a Nord Clavia. But, on rare occasions, I get the urge to play
>>> around. I discovered, yesterday, that using an on-screen keyboard
>>> (vmpk) was nuts.
>>>
>>> Just looking around, I note products such as the Alesis V25 can be had
>>> quite cheaply.
>>> http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IWWBSD6/
>>> It gets mixed reviews, but I'm not sure the issues raised will matter
>>> to me.
>>>
>>> Right now, there's a nice price on the Arturia Minilab too, and I
>>> suspect it's a better piece of gear. But I'm reading comments about
>>> needing a "USB License key". Ruh-roh - not Linux compatible?
>>>
>>> Akai and M-Audio have cheap stuff too.
>>>
>>> I will have to do some looking about for Linux compatibility issues,
>>> but I figured I'd see what recommendations / advice anyone here might
>>> have.
>>>
>>> Best,
>>> jed
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>>
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>>
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