[Ardour-Users] Midi replay problems

[David Kastrup]

Paul Davis <paul at linuxaudiosystems.com> writes:

> On Mon, Jul 11, 2011 at 1:28 PM, David Kastrup <dak at gnu.org> wrote:
>> David Kastrup <dak at gnu.org> writes:
>>
>>>> On Mon, 2011-07-11 at 17:21 +0200, David Kastrup wrote:
>>>>> Ardour3b9 refuses to import files with names like "BEGUINE.MID" into
>>>>> tracks (the canonical file name on DOS floppy disks, more or less a
>>>>> standard medium for sequencers) even though the file selector gives them
>>>>> an icon suggesting a music file (two semiquaver notes).
>>>>>
>>>>> Renaming them into "beguine.midi" will make this work, but I really
>>>>> think that ardour should recognize the DOS style extensions without
>>>>> additional prodding.
>>>
>>> The above example was straight from
>>> <URL:http://www.ketronus.com/zip/MS40%20Disks.zip>
>>
>> Apropos: I have now imported "BALLAD.MID" from the above-mentioned disk
>> set.  When replaying through an Ardour track, it sounds like a cat
>> playing with the turntable, including speedups, slowdowns and pitch
>> going up and down.  The original does include bends and slides, but is
>> not out of whack in that manner.
>>
>> Timidity does not have the respective voices/channels, so I can't check
>> replay there.  Can anybody check the results on a non-Ketron expander?
>
> I'm playing it back via the mda ePiano LV2 plugin and I'm not hearing
> anything that really matches what you've described above. I don't have
> any GM-compatible synthesizers around.
>
>> I should have thought that importing a midi file and replaying through
>> Ardour should be more or less the same as playing it via aplaymidi, but
>> that's quite an impressible bit off.
>
> What ALSA MIDI/JACK MIDI "bridge" are you using, -X seq or -X raw or
> a2jmidid -e ?

I was using qjackctl, and using either raw or seq does not appear to
make a qualitative difference.

It is somewhat hard to tell since Ardour has a habit of ignoring jackd
changes.  For example, start it with jackd not providing Midi ports, and
it will not adapt when you stop jackd (even if you stop it through
Ardour itself which is advisable if you don't care for segmentation
faults) and restart it with Midi ports on.

Yes, I know, like with sample rates it is likely all my own fault and I
have no idea what working with a DAW means, but it is somewhat pointless
if Ardour offers menu entries for stopping and restarting jackd that it
will not look whether anything has changed.  What would you stop jackd
for otherwise?

Anyway: to be really sure, I need to try one fresh session per Midi
configuration (starting with templates does not feel reasonably safe
since it is not clear to me just what will be imported and what not).

-- 
David Kastrup