Alsa

[Guest lesmouffles]

Hello,

I'm trying to play music on mdk 9.1 but can't get any sound out from alsa.

Alsa is up and running (started at bootup), the sblive card is working with arts

and kmidi can play. If I write a sound file to /dev/dsp I get sound.

I saw in SB Live docs on the net that I have to load a sound bank to the emu10k1, so I installed the AWE tools, (because sfxload is in this package) copy the file 8MBGMSFX.SF2 from the win sb cd, and try sfxload.

It complains with "No AWE synth device is found"

I don't understand why I have to use an AWE tool to looad a bank to the SB Live. but .....

I'm quite a bit lost

Could some kind soul put me in the right way ?

Thanks a lot.

[mtweidmann]

I haven't got much experience of using midi in Linux or windows, but I think its do with the instruments. Midi works not by recording the sound, but which instrument is playing is which note and the sound card then re-constructs it. I think the Sound Blaster AWE cards have their instruments loaded in to them by the driver, hence the need to load file. Not sure why it didn't work on your machine.

 

There is a software alternative called timidity which might be worth a try.

[Guest lesmouffles]

Thanks for your replay, but I know how midi works.

My problem is with ALSA and the emu10k1 driver.

I would kike to know what I missed to get sound this way.

What I don't understand is why (as indicated in some places on the net) we have to load a sound bank in sblive with a utility designed for the AWE card.

I've searched with the emu utilities but sound is still out.

The emu-tools report my card is up and running.

So I'm quite lost. :(

 

Thanks for driving me to the light.(and noise)

[zero0w]

Try

 

su

lsmod

 

If snd-emu10k1, which is NOT an ALSA module.

 

You can check out my tutorial for further detail:

 

http://www.mandrakeusers.org/viewtopic.php?t=1189

[Guest lesmouffles]

Hello zero0w

Many thanks for your tutorial. Sound is back with alsa.

So we could say it's not obvious for the casual user to install AWE tools for an SBlive card. But.... hopefully, you are there :wink:

Now I have the latest question:

Rosegarden has 4 entries in the midi devices, but noone play the sound from the soundbank, they play FM sounds, even if drvmidi works nice and use it.

What do I have to do to tell Rosegarden I have now a good thing to work with.

 

Many, many, many, many, many, many thanks for your help.

[Guest lesmouffles]

Hi zer0w,

I've found a way to load the font at startup:

Copy the (let say) 8MBGMSFX.SF2 file to /etc so it can be accessed by all users. (do su before copying)

Add a line at the end of /home/(your user name)/.bash_profile file with

 

sfxload /etc/8MBGMSFX.SF2

 

It works nice and ensure that all modules are loaded and operationnal before loading the font.

I've tried in system init dir, but it's to early or not available to a user.

 

:D

[zero0w]

I see, glad you make it working.

 

As for Rosegarden-4, I am using the thac's rpm for Mandrake 9.1, which has no problem using the soundbank loaded by sfxload.

 

http://rpm.nyvalls.se/sound9.1.html