MIDI. Through USB. In Linux.

August 6, 2004 5:01 AM

Help required regarding MIDI. Through USB. In Linux. Feel up to it? More inside.

I've installed Mandrake 10, and I'm trying to get my MIDI keyboard working in ALSA-based software like Hydrogen and Simsam.

It seems to be partly working - for instance, if I cat /dev/midi characters are displayed on the screen as I kit keys on the keyboard. However, no applications list any MIDI devices when I run them. In fact, to start with, most ALSA-based applications complained that /dev/snd/seq cannot be found. However typing modprobe snd-seq-midi added the appropriate device file - but applications still don't see any devices or recieve input.

lsmod lists "usb-midi" as a loaded module - so the driver side of it seems fine - but does anyone have any tips of how I make ALSA recognise it as an actual MIDI device? I figure it involves something in /etc/modules.conf - but my modules.conf looks nothing like the ones in the "How to configure MIDI" FAQs.

posted by Jimbob to computers & internet (2 comments total)

What's your midi device? (I know it's USB, but there are a lot of usb-midi devices). Did you look at the alsa website to see if there's anything listed? I have a Tascam us-122 and I had to do some magic to get it to work, but the alsa website let me through it. I've never tried it with midi, but I use the sound input and output portion all the time, works great.
posted by RustyBrooks at 10:27 AM on August 6, 2004

It's an Edirol UM-2 - plain MIDI, no audio, which is what's confusing me - most of the HOW-TO's describe how to set up modules.conf for a soundcard and MIDI all-in-one, rather than one where MIDI input is a whole separate device.

However, thanks for your kind of obvious suggestion - searching for the exact device is turning up some information I hadn't come across before.
posted by Jimbob at 3:15 PM on August 6, 2004