Ubuntu – MIDI controller problem

keyboardmidimusic

I bought the Arturia Keystep, and I looked up on the website. There was no linux version of the driver/midi center. Any help?

Best Answer

If you are able to see your MIDI controller when you run:

lsusb

then this guide should get you set up with the basics. It goes into quite a lot of detail and discusses possible errors you might face and I wouldn't want to skip anything or take credit away from it.

This command should display your controller:

cat /proc/asound/cards

You do not need WINE for any of this.

On Ubuntu 16.04, I then needed to do the following:

Add an audio group to run your software at the right priority:

sudo addgroup audio

Add yourself to the audio group:

sudo adduser $USER audio

Check what address your soundcard is on for output (it's usually hw:0): 

aplay -l

Install Fluidsynth and a soundfont which will act as your synthesizer:

sudo apt-get install fluidsynth
sudo apt-get install fluid-soundfont-gm

Install JACK2 which will be the sound server that sits on top of Alsa:

sudo apt-get install jackd2

Run the JACK server, but allow it to bypass any concurrent pulseaudio process:

pasuspender -- jackd -d alsa --device hw:0 --rate 44100 --period 1024

Run the synthesizer with one of the default sounds:

fluidsynth --server --audio-driver=jack --connect-jack-outputs /usr/share/sounds/sf2/FluidR3_GM.sf2

Now check what ports your servers are running on. This should display your MIDI controller(note the number after client, I got 129):

aconnect -i

And this should display the port for Fluidsynth(I got 128):

aconnect -o

Connect the two(remember 129 and 128 are for illustrative purposes, use the port numbers you see in the above two commands):

aconnect 129:0 128:0

You should now be able to hear sounds when hitting the keys on your controller!

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