JackMIDI output still fails on 2.0 and 2.1

• May 29, 2015 - 14:37

Greetings,

Long-time Linux audio user here, first post to this forum.

MIDI output is non-existent with JackMIDI on my system, which is Fedora 19 x86_64 with Planet CCRMA extensions. I tested the issue with 2.0 and the 2.1.0 preview, both built from source. I ran the output to various synths, got no joy, then ran it through gmidimonitor where absolutely zero output was reported. Also tested Bitwig's MIDI output via the JackAss plugin, worked perfectly when connected to synths and the MIDI activity monitor.

Anyone else seeing this problem ?

Best,

dp

Comments

• Jun 5, 2015 - 12:13

Really ? Not one response ?

Okay, let me put it this way:

If one person using MuseScore 2 or later actually has Jack MIDI output working, please leave a simple message indicating the fact. At this point I'd be happy to learn that it's possible, you don't even have to detail how you did it.

Or is MIDI output just not something MuseScore users are supposed to be using ? Please advise, thanks.

Best,

dp

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• Jun 5, 2015 - 13:03

I thank you for your kind reply, but alas, neither of those threads indicates a solution to the problem.

Still searching. It seems odd that there's little or no interest in this topic. Internal soundfonts are a Good Thing, to be sure, but I prefer my own sounds, which are not in SF2 or SFZ format. And no, I'm not amenable to making my own fonts, that's one more layer of activity that shouldn't be required.

All that said, MuseScore is an excellent program. :)

Best,

dp

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• Jun 5, 2015 - 14:23

Most MuseScore users are using MuseScore to notate music, and less to produce sound. Could be an explanation why you didn't get any answer.

As far as I know MuseScore 2.0 does work with JackMIDI on windows, mac and linux. There are several demos on Youtube for example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3QNFN1CDpk
So if you don't see any output, it could a configuration problem. Is Jack selected as output in Preferences > I/O ?

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• Jun 5, 2015 - 17:06

Thanks for the link to the video, it at least proves that it can be done. It also neatly explains why I prefer the possibility of MIDI output. My intention for using MuseScore is the same as other users, i.e. to notate music, I just want its sonic realization taking place on the instruments of my choice.

Yes, JACK is the selected system and JackMIDI is ticked. Just checked everything again. Zero MIDI is coming out of the mscore port registered in QJackCtl.

Thanks for the reply, I'll keep hacking at the problem for a while.

Best,

dp

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• Jun 6, 2015 - 00:08

JACK midi output is working fine on Windows.

I have also had it working with 2.0 beta on Ubuntu Studio - but I haven't yet tried with the latest releases.

Ergo there is something we need to track down in your Fedora Linux distro.

Frankly I'm a complete novice with Linux, and have had no experience whatsoever with Fedora.

All I can suggest is you contact Robert Leleu who is in charge of providing Nightly builds for Linux to see if he can shed any light on the matter. He is using Mint so the answer may not be forthcoming.

Other than that all I can suggest is you try a different Linux distro which MuseScore 2 is known to work with - there is a list on the Download page.....
https://musescore.org/en/download

Sadly Fedora is not yet listed as being compatible.

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• Jun 6, 2015 - 03:13

Thanks for your message, it led me to the solution. IIRC Ubuntu enables Jack's dbus interface by default. That is apparently not true for Fedora 19. I openened QJackCtl, ticked Setup->Misc->Enable D-Bus Interface, restarted the Jack server, opened MuseScore and loaded a demo, connected the mscore MIDI output port to an instance of QSynth as before, and behold, there is sound from QSynth, driven by MuseScore. Sweet.

Thanks for the trigger. I'd mark this thread as SOLVED but there doesn't seem to be a way to edit my original post (?)

Best,

dp

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