Re: playing midi with timiditySOLVED

[Joe Mc Cool <joe@benburb.demon.co.uk>]

Please note I have started another tread re timidity and rosegarden4.
It has nothing to do with this one (different machine), and largely sussed.

> The timidity in debian is supposed to have working alsa support. Heck, I use
> it...  It is supposed to have both alsa output driver support (play to an
> alsa device), and alsa *sequencer* support (which is what -iA enables).
> 
> Debian timidity alsa-sequencing by default uses -iA -B2,8 -Os as
> paramenters. It is controlled by /etc/default/timidity and
> /etc/init.d/timidity.

I'll confess, at this stage, I have googled so much and tried so many
things that I am really rather tired, confused and frustrated and my
poor old brain is just about frazzled !  

So, I started again.

	aptitude remove timidity

and, to be sure to be sure, as root:

	find . -name timidity* -exec rm {} \;

then	
	aptitude install timidity

then 
	timidity /tmp/sweetness.of.mary.mid
	-su: /usr/local/bin/timidity: No such file or directory

so
	/usr/bin/timidity /tmp/sweetness.of.mary.mid

####################################################################
Playing /tmp/sweetness.of.mary.mid
MIDI file: /tmp/sweetness.of.mary.mid
Format: 0  Tracks: 1  Divisions: 480
Sequence: Sweetness of Mary, The
Text: C:Joan McDonald Boes
Text: S:Aly Bain (from a TV programme)
Text: Z:Nigel Gatherer
Text: F:http://www.nigelgatherer.com/tunes/abc/abc6/sweetm.abc. 2005-09-20 07:15:24 UT
Instrument `Tone_000/000_Acoustic_Grand_Piano.pat' can't be found.
Couldn't load instrument Tone_000/000_Acoustic_Grand_Piano.pat (tone bank 0, program 0)
Instrument `Tone_000/000_Acoustic_Grand_Piano.pat' can't be found.
No pre-resampling cache hit
####################################################################

it hangs and no sound.

So, I edit my /etc/timidity/timidity.cfg to read:

####################################################################
# Instrument configuration file for timidity
# $Id: timidity.cfg,v 1.5 2004/08/07 15:59:19 hmh Exp $

# You can change just about every option in TiMidity++ using
# This config file.  Please refer to the timidity.cfg(5) manpage
# for more details

#
## I have tried playing with each of these lines, but that seems to
## make the situation worse - ie very poor quality :
#

## If you have a slow CPU, uncomment these:
#opt EFresamp=d		#disable resampling
#opt EFvlpf=d		#disable VLPF
#opt EFreverb=d		#disable reverb
#opt EFchorus=d		#disable chorus
#opt EFdelay=d		#disable delay
#opt no-antialias	#disable sample anti-aliasing
#opt EWPVSETOZ		#disable all Midi Controls
#opt p32a		#default to 32 voices with auto reduction
#opt s32kHz		#default sample frequency to 32kHz
#opt fast-decay		#fast decay notes

# By default, try to use the instrument patches from freepats:

# if I uncomment this line I get the error messages above
#source /etc/timidity/freepats.cfg

soundfont /uj/usr/joe/soundfonts/kawaistereogrand.sf2

# if I choose this one, I get an organ sound:
#soundfont /u/usr/joe/soundfonts/m3r_organs.sf2
####################################################################

Now, it does play, but it seems to gradually get slower and slower, to
the point where it grinds to a halt, vibrating continually and shakily
on the one note.

My snd modules I have reduced to:

####################################################################
snd_seq_oss            34656  0 
snd_seq_midi            8576  0 
snd_seq_midi_event      7680  2 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi
snd_seq                53872  5 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_ens1371            24932  0 
snd_rawmidi            25124  2 snd_seq_midi,snd_ens1371
snd_seq_device          8200  3 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi
snd_pcm_oss            55080  0 
snd_mixer_oss          20096  1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_pcm                98728  2 snd_ens1371,snd_pcm_oss
snd_page_alloc         11752  1 snd_pcm
snd_timer              25732  2 snd_seq,snd_pcm
snd_ac97_codec         69988  1 snd_ens1371
snd                    57156  12 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event,snd_seq,snd_ens1371,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_device,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_timer,snd_ac97_codec
soundcore              10336  1 snd
gameport                4704  1 snd_ens1371
####################################################################

I only have one card in the machine, represented by the ens1371.

cat /proc/cpu:

####################################################################
processor	: 0
vendor_id	: GenuineIntel
cpu family	: 6
model		: 5
model name	: Pentium II (Deschutes)
stepping	: 2
cpu MHz		: 300.775
cache size	: 512 KB
fdiv_bug	: no
hlt_bug		: no
f00f_bug	: no
coma_bug	: no
fpu		: yes
fpu_exception	: yes
cpuid level	: 2
wp		: yes
flags		: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 mmx fxsr
bogomips	: 591.87
####################################################################

I really would like to use alsa, under 2.6.

I could play Timidity fine under kernel 2.20, but not since I upgraded
to 2.6.

Thanks a lot.

Joe