Configuration with VMPK

[mctom]

Hi again,

It is true, I forgot to mention that PulseAudio does not have any MIDI handling capabilities, and it's fine to use something else for MIDI. I believe ALSA MIDI is a way to go for you.

I followed your steps again and I see nothing suspicious this time, it should work actually. Except that this time you didn't show the MIDI input setup, but should work fine with its default settings (I found no way of changing defaults).

What I suggest you is to rule out that there is anything wrong with your instance of VMPK. I imagine you might have tinkered with its settings trying to solve your problem. Get a MIDI sniffing software like Kmidimon (ALSA-compatible), and see if pressing keys on VMPK produces any output. IT should look a bit like this:



Secondly, in Giada's config screen, Misc tab, enable debug messages to standard output - this way you'll get more messages in your terminal window. Here's mine, so you may compare it against yours. Last entries are related to detected key presses from VMPK.

Code: Select all

[init] Giada 0.16.3
[init] Build date: Jun 19 2020
[init] Dependencies:
[init]   FLTK - 1.3.5
[init]   RtAudio - 5.1.0
[init]   RtMidi - 4.0.0
[init]   Libsamplerate
[init]   Libsndfile - libsndfile-1.0.25
[init]   JSON for modern C++ - 3.7.3
[init]   JUCE - 5.3.2
[midiMapConf::init] scanning midimaps directory '/home/mctom/.giada/midimaps/'...
[midiMapConf::init] unable to scan midimaps directory!
[midiMapConf::read] midimap not specified, nothing to do
[init] MIDI map read failed!
[KA] using system 0x20
[KA] Opening devices 0 (out), 0 (in), f=44100...
[KA] 1 device(s) found
  0) PulseAudio
[mixer::init] buffers ready - framesInSeq=88200, framesInBuffer=1024
[mixer::enable] enabled
[KA] latency = 0
[KM] using system 0x2
[KM] 2 output MIDI ports found
  0) Midi Through:Midi Through Port-0 14:0
  1) VMPK Input:VMPK Input 129:0
[KM] 2 input MIDI ports found
  0) Midi Through:Midi Through Port-0 14:0
  1) VMPK Output:VMPK Output 128:0
[KM] MIDI in port 1 open
[geColumn::cb_addChannel] id = 1
[midiDispatcher] MIDI received - 0x902F6400 (chan 0)
[midiDispatcher] MIDI received - 0x802F0000 (chan 0)
[midiDispatcher] MIDI received - 0x90306400 (chan 0)
[midiDispatcher] MIDI received - 0x80300000 (chan 0)
[midiDispatcher] MIDI received - 0x90316400 (chan 0)
[midiDispatcher] MIDI received - 0x80310000 (chan 0)
[midiDispatcher] MIDI received - 0x90326400 (chan 0)
[midiDispatcher] MIDI received - 0x80320000 (chan 0)
[midiDispatcher] MIDI received - 0x90336400 (chan 0)
[midiDispatcher] MIDI received - 0x80330000 (chan 0)
[midiDispatcher] MIDI received - 0x90346400 (chan 0)
[midiDispatcher] MIDI received - 0x80340000 (chan 0)
[midiDispatcher] MIDI received - 0x90356400 (chan 0)
[midiDispatcher] MIDI received - 0x80350000 (chan 0)
[midiDispatcher] MIDI received - 0x90366400 (chan 0)
[midiDispatcher] MIDI received - 0x80360000 (chan 0)
[midiDispatcher] MIDI received - 0x90376400 (chan 0)
[midiDispatcher] MIDI received - 0x80370000 (chan 0)
[midiDispatcher] MIDI received - 0x90386400 (chan 0)
[midiDispatcher] MIDI received - 0x80380000 (chan 0)
[midiDispatcher] MIDI received - 0x90396400 (chan 0)
[midiDispatcher] MIDI received - 0x80390000 (chan 0)

[cuppajoeman]

Hey mctom,

I took a break for a couple days, after reading your comment, it got me thinking, the problem probably isn't giada. Instead I decided to look at vpmk, and I managed to find that in the "midi connections" settings I had to set the output, to ALSA: https://streamable.com/63o3e7. Now I get midi into giada!!!

Thing is, while the sound goes into giada, I can't hear the piano anymore! Do you know of anything to remedy that?

Thanks.

[mctom]

Hi!

Sure, you need to set Giada output to something that understands MIDI notes and plays some sounds back, some sort of virtual instruments (or synthesizers).
Some come as standalone applications, and some as audio plugins.
I'd recommend ZynAddSubFX, but AFAIK it work on ALSA, Jack or OSS, no PulseAudio support. Calf Studio Gear would be a great for a beginner as well, but again, no pulseaudio support.

So I guess I'll let you look for some synthesizer on your own, that accepts ALSA MIDI input and has pulseaudio output. I noted earlier that most audio production software for Linux typically does not support PulseAudio and you'd be far better off installing Ubuntu Studio for this.
It seems that VMPK would suit you needs though, but you'd need another instance of VMPK for playing notes that were sent from Giada, each with a different configuration, or use some other program as your virtual keyboard.

[cuppajoeman]

Hi mctom,

Just wanted to thank you for being so helpful! So I tried your recommendation about having two instances of vmpk running, one getting the input from giada and the other feeding input into giada and it works!

But the issue I was describing slightly earlier was that I wanted to play notes on vmpk, hear them being played (I think my synthesizer is SonivoxEAS that's what pulsemixer shows) but also send them to giada. That is the output from one vpmk instance is split between the two.

The reason why is because it's incredibly hard to make music when you can't hear the notes you're playing until after it's recorded! Thanks again.

[mctom]

Hey there,

Yes, I find the same thing quite problematic as I am rather a novice user too. For people like us, I have already suggested a similar feature of Cue output:
https://github.com/monocasual/giada/issues/367
The principle is to make it work with sample channels, but also with MIDI channels if they happen to use instrument plugins.

When you use a separate program as your virtual instrument, this is a problem outside of the scope of Giada possibilities for now. Currently I discuss with Giada maintainers my ideas for overhauling the whole MIDI handling system. If this comes true, an ability to pass notes from MIDI controller to Giada output, aside from processing them itself, will be a breeze to implement.

However, a workaround that might work for you now is to switch to Jack powered system (like that Ubuntu Studio that I urge you to finally dual boot to), and create an extra MIDI connection from one VMPK instance to another, bypassing Giada. This way, MIDI notes will be sent both to Giada AND your VMPK playing notes. Giada will also work just like it works now.
In order to do this, a patchbay application is necessary, like excellent Catia, from Cadence tool package:
https://kx.studio/Applications:Catia
It is installed with Ubuntu Studio by default, along with preconfigured Jack. It allows you to route audio and MIDI signals as simple as drawing connection lines. They can branch and all. A must have for a novice audio production explorer.

Unfortunately, AFAIK there is no way to do similar stuff without Jack.

And thanks to you too for your patience. You indeed helped develop some new ideas and actually found a new scenario to recreate a bug!

Good luck!

[Juraf38]

It seems that your virtual piano has channel 4 set. This must be set to the same channel as in Midi Input Setup screen, and I assume there is "1" set, as default.

This is a MIDI standard feature that might be useful if you plan to use the same controller on multiple MIDI channels in Giada. By switching between channels in your controller Carton déménagement double cannelure, you are able to play different different channels in Giada.

Don't give up, try again.

And hopefully we will see MIDI channels in Giada support all incoming notes to avoid such confusion in the future..

It's nice to have explained to us the principle and the functioning of this tool.