External midi devices [partially solved]

[joste]

I have an sb live platinum (emu10k1) The internal midi works fine, I can play sound fonts no problem. I also have a yamaha mu10 sound module with both midi ports and a serial port connection, this used to work fine under an older version of Mandrake (though I can't remember which one) by simply running 'modprobe snd-serial-midi' (I think that is correct), however this driver seems to now be non-existent. I did try to recompile the kernel a while ago with the module enabled but though there was an option in menuconfig it failed to compile as the source files for the module where missing. Does anyone know what happened to this driver or how to resolve the issue?

 

 

The other options are the the midi ports on the live drivve but according to alsa's website they don't work and probably never will, or the gameport. I have a gameport to midid cable attached but no data appears to come out of it though it does show up both in the alsa tab of the connections box in jack and in rosegarden. Am I missing something obvious here or do I need to load another module?

 

Ideally I would like both ports working, the serial and the gameport (I don't hold a lot of hope for the live drive) but either would suffice.

 

It is most frustrating as I did have it working previously including the editor for the mu10 running under wine.

 

Any help or suggestion of places to look would be much appreciated all my googling seems to turn up out of date info or how-tos on getting sound fonts working (incluing a rather god one here).

 

All the relevant drivers seem to be loaded:

 

lsmod | grep snd
snd_mpu401_uart		 6424  0
snd_seq_midi			6016  1
snd_emu10k1_synth	   5760  4
snd_emux_synth		 28064  5 snd_emu10k1_synth
snd_seq_virmidi		 5000  1 snd_emux_synth
snd_seq_midi_emul	   5120  1 snd_emux_synth
snd_rtctimer			2592  0
snd_seq_dummy		   2692  0
snd_seq_oss			26148  0
snd_seq_midi_event	  5768  3 snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_virmidi,snd_seq_oss
snd_seq				40716  20 snd_seq_midi,snd_emux_synth,snd_seq_virmidi,snd_seq_midi_emul,snd_seq_dummy,snd_
seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_pcm_oss			33544  0
snd_mixer_oss		  12808  1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_emu10k1		   119380  10 snd_emu10k1_synth
snd_rawmidi			17424  4 snd_mpu401_uart,snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_virmidi,snd_emu10k1
firmware_class		  6912  1 snd_emu10k1
snd_ac97_codec		 89540  1 snd_emu10k1
ac97_bus				2176  1 snd_ac97_codec
snd_pcm				60972  5 snd_pcm_oss,snd_emu10k1,snd_ac97_codec
snd_seq_device		  6164  8 snd_seq_midi,snd_emu10k1_synth,snd_emux_synth,snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,
snd_emu10k1,snd_rawmidi
snd_timer			  17052  4 snd_rtctimer,snd_seq,snd_emu10k1,snd_pcm
snd_page_alloc		  7304  2 snd_emu10k1,snd_pcm
snd_util_mem			3336  2 snd_emux_synth,snd_emu10k1
snd_hwdep			   6284  2 snd_emux_synth,snd_emu10k1
snd					40548  22 snd_mpu401_uart,snd_emux_synth,snd_seq_virmidi,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_pcm_oss,s
nd_mixer_oss,snd_emu10k1,snd_rawmidi,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm,snd_seq_device,snd_t
i
mer,snd_hwdep
soundcore			   5572  1 snd

[Greg2]

I don't have your device to check this, but you could try using/loading the snd-serial-u16550 module. Please read: alsa.opensrc.org

[scarecrow]

One thing to do is trying the module Greg2 suggested, and another one is always using 16bit/48K samplerate: this card's DSP is fixed at that samplerate, and everything out of that is done via downsampling/upsampling, which will create issues.

I've managed to work with that card a few years ago for a couple of months, including MIDI, but I got tired of its idiosyncarcies rather quickly, and replaced it with an M-Audio Audiophile 2496- so I have lost the latest trends with its driver.

Edited February 29, 2008 by scarecrow

[joste]

Thanks for the replies, I did try loading snd-serial-u16550 but got 'fatal error module not found' or something similar - I'm at work at the moment so I can't replicate it. I will try either this evening or tomorrow depending on how tired I am when I get in.

[Greg2]

'fatal error module not found'

If this is the error, please post the output of

uname -r

and please post the complete error message.

This module is included in the 2.6.22.9-desktop-1mdv > 2.6.22.12-desktop-1mdv, and laptop kernels.

[joste]

Ok making some progress, I at least have a flashing data light!!

 

The error running modprobe snd-serial-u16550 was no such device, fixed that by running setserial /dev/ttyS0 uart none first.

 

I now need to find out what settings to send - the best result so far has been with no parameters - this produces a flashing data light and very occasional random notes which leads me to think I need to specify the base rate, based on info on the alsa page.

 

Back to google.

[joste]

Finally got it working the magic line is:

 

/sbin/modprobe snd-serial-u16550 port=0x3f8 irq=4 speed=31250

 

Though I'm not sure it is all strictly necescary.

 

Now I can concentrate on getting the mpu401 interface working.

[Greg2]

Have you tried adding an adaptor parameter? Maybe the 'Generic device with multiple input support', which is adaptor=4 will work.

[joste]

I did indeed try all the adaptor options, to no avail (in fact I tried everything I could find/think of) . I will work out which options are necessary some other time, I've got a bit bored with loading/unloading drivers today. I still want to get the other interface going - I don't actually need it but it's annoying that it doesn't work.

 

Thanks again, knowing the correct name for the driver really helped it seems to have been variously known as snd-serial, snd-serialmidi and snd-serial-16550.

 

I spent the last while listening to some old midi files - the quality of the MU10 compared to the soundblaster is just miles better, and if I remember correctly it was cheaper too.

[scarecrow]

It isn't difficult at all to achieve better sound quality than a Soundblaster.

Yamaha, Echo Audio, M-Audio, Terratec, all make cards with similar prices and WAY better sound quality, while the professional series of the Sounblaster cards ( branded as E-MU) are also nice sounding.