Planning to make the switch back to Linux

[merlyn]

Kind of crackers to suggest that VNC doesn't work on Ubuntu. How would all those servers be administered?

Then I'm keen to learn how. I've had two Linux experts advising me - both gave up.

If you want, start a new thread about your setup.

[garrettendi]

Going back to the topic, I have created a Live USB stick and plan to install the OS tomorrow (after testing it works from the Live USB itself).

I was going to install my favourite piano: Boz Master Keys using Wine, but I know DecentSampler is available for Linux, and I have trawled the Pianobook site and found 6 nice looking pianos to use.

I figured with 6 to choose from, there's bound to be at least one as good as Master Keys and it will run better natively than running something in Wine. I can always try Master Keys later - it never hurts to have more pianos, especially when elementary OS only takes up a few gb (Windows 11 is over 60 gb!). More room for studio stuff!

[James Perrett]

...it will run better natively than running something in Wine.

My lad was explaining to me yesterday that some things run better under Wine than they do in Windows.

[garrettendi]

...it will run better natively than running something in Wine.

My lad was explaining to me yesterday that some things run better under Wine than they do in Windows.

Wow! I'll bear that in mind. I'll be installing MODO Bass 2 CS and Jamstix under Wine as there are no Linux alternatives to those. I'll let you know how it goes. Jamstix looks particularly likely to not work.

[garrettendi]

As of Saturday morning, Windows is gone and elementary OS (Linux distro) is installed.

Details to follow but a brief summary: Linux is fricking awesome.

[Folderol]

As of Saturday morning, Windows is gone and elementary OS (Linux distro) is installed.

Details to follow but a brief summary: Linux is fricking awesome.

So now (if you get bored with that stringy thing) you'll be able to play with a certain soft-synth I've mentioned occasionally

[garrettendi]

So now (if you get bored with that stringy thing) you'll be able to play with a certain soft-synth I've mentioned occasionally

Already installed! I haven't yet set up my audio interface and I can't get Yoshimi to output sound in standalone mode - probably because I'm missing a step, but in Reaper using PulseAudio it is all good!

I plan on connecting the Arturia Essential 88 at some point and give it a proper dig.

[Folderol]

So now (if you get bored with that stringy thing) you'll be able to play with a certain soft-synth I've mentioned occasionally

Already installed! I haven't yet set up my audio interface and I can't get Yoshimi to output sound in standalone mode - probably because I'm missing a step, but in Reaper using PulseAudio it is all good!

I plan on connecting the Arturia Essential 88 at some point and give it a proper dig.

Yoshimi doesn't directly support pulseaudio (or more correctly PA totally screws up audio), and since pipewire came out we decided not to bother.
For anyone interested, if you delete pulseaudio itself (i.e. just the sever) you get back full control of ALSA/Jack, and all the annoying stuff that wants to beep and burp is silenced

[garrettendi]

Yoshimi doesn't directly support pulseaudio (or more correctly PA totally screws up audio), and since pipewire came out we decided not to bother.
For anyone interested, if you delete pulseaudio itself (i.e. just the sever) you get back full control of ALSA/Jack, and all the annoying stuff that wants to beep and burp is silenced

I tried Jack but it was unable to auto-connect in Yoshimi standalone! And because I'm not using an interface just yet, I can't use ALSA. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[merlyn]

... I tried Jack but it was unable to auto-connect in Yoshimi standalone! ...

As far as I understand it you're using Pipewire. Do you have 'pipewire-jack' installed? If you do, you can install and use 'qpwgraph' to make connections. I would think installing software on elementaryOS is as easy as

Code: Select all

$ sudo apt install qpwgraph

... And because I'm not using an interface just yet, I can't use ALSA. ...

Eh? That doesn't make any sense. ALSA is the most basic audio subsystem and will work on anything.

[garrettendi]

... I tried Jack but it was unable to auto-connect in Yoshimi standalone! ...

As far as I understand it you're using Pipewire. Do you have 'pipewire-jack' installed? If you do, you can install and use 'qpwgraph' to make connections. I would think installing software on elementaryOS is as easy as

Code: Select all

$ sudo apt install qpwgraph

... And because I'm not using an interface just yet, I can't use ALSA. ...

Eh? That doesn't make any sense. ALSA is the most basic audio subsystem and will work on anything.

Jack worked in Reaper when I installed it from Flathub, but I had to uninstall and reinstall from Reaper's website due to issues with LV2 plugins. After that, both Reaper and Yoshimi cannot auto-connect to Jack.

As for ALSA, I know nothing about it so that's why what I'm saying doesn't make sense! All I know is no devices appear in the dropdown in either Reaper or Yoshimi for ALSA.

I'm likely making a pigs ear of this, but its still fun.

[garrettendi]

Will ALSA work if I simply type "default" into the devices drop down?

[merlyn]

In a post above, federr talked about 'using ALSA'. What federr meant was stopping all sound servers (Pipewire, JACK, and Pulse) and connecting the DAW directly to the hardware with ALSA. You may also remember that federr said that his/her browser audio didn't work while doing that. That is because when ALSA is used with a DAW, ALSA takes exclusive control of the soundcard.

That is why there are sound servers -- so that apps can share the soundcard.

If you have Pipewire running, then selecting JACK, ALSA or Pulse uses the Pipewire emulations of those sound subsystems. If you can hear sound and the latency is OK, then all is well.

You could use Yoshimi as a plugin inside Reaper.

[garrettendi]

In a post above, federr talked about 'using ALSA'. What federr meant was stopping all sound servers (Pipewire, JACK, and Pulse) and connecting the DAW directly to the hardware with ALSA. You may also remember that federr said that his/her browser audio didn't work while doing that. That is because when ALSA is used with a DAW, ALSA takes exclusive control of the soundcard.

That is why there are sound servers -- so that apps can share the soundcard.

If you have Pipewire running, then selecting JACK, ALSA or Pulse uses the Pipewire emulations of those sound subsystems. If you can hear sound and the latency is OK, then all is well.

You could use Yoshimi as a plugin inside Reaper.

Yes I have got Yoshimi running as an LV2 plugin!

[Folderol]

By default Yoshimi uses Jack Audio and ALSA MIDI, and will normally auto-connect to these.
I'm not familiar with pipewire so don't know whether the defaults will be recognised. However, if you are running pipewire and don't have pipewire-jack then you'll probably get no audio, but Yoshimi should still see incoming MIDI as seen on the VU displays.

[garrettendi]

I'm pretty sure I have pipewire-jack installed as part of the distro but I'll check.

[Folderol]

Another idea, Try running the virtual keyboard, that will always provide a known input to the rest of Yoshimi.

[garrettendi]

Another idea, Try running the virtual keyboard, that will always provide a known input to the rest of Yoshimi.

Sorry I should have been more explicit. I am not yet using my MIDI keyboard, and the virtual keyboard in standalone Yoshimi is causing the meters to go up but no sound is output. I did notice it is fine in Reaper, and I'll give it another bash tonight, because I have noticed the built-in laptop speakers are very quiet, so I'll try turning the volume up like I did in Reaper.

[Folderol]

Another idea, Try running the virtual keyboard, that will always provide a known input to the rest of Yoshimi.

Sorry I should have been more explicit. I am not yet using my MIDI keyboard, and the virtual keyboard in standalone Yoshimi is causing the meters to go up but no sound is output. I did notice it is fine in Reaper, and I'll give it another bash tonight, because I have noticed the built-in laptop speakers are very quiet, so I'll try turning the volume up like I did in Reaper.

Hmmm. Are you sure audio is 'on' at system level by default?
In days of old it was often disabled by default. I've not seen this for a long time, but it's possible that Reaper is being well behaved and switching it on when in use, but then on exit returning it to it's original state.

[garrettendi]

Hmmm. Are you sure audio is 'on' at system level by default?
In days of old it was often disabled by default. I've not seen this for a long time, but it's possible that Reaper is being well behaved and switching it on when in use, but then on exit returning it to it's original state.

Now that you mention I did notice at one point in my tests, system audio was off when I could have sworn it should have been on, so I shall take a look at that as well.

As I say I'm pretty sure this is a user error somewhere, not a bug in Yoshimi.

[merlyn]

If you have a system that's in the ballpark of working now is the time to make a backup. What I know about Linux mostly comes from borking it. I must have borked twenty installs. But I didn't care because I had a backup.

Will ALSA work if I simply type "default" into the devices drop down?

So my attitude to things like that is "what happens if I type "default" in?" Might bork it, but I have a backup. Having a backup means you aren't worried about wrecking your install.

[Folderol]

If you have a system that's in the ballpark of working now is the time to make a backup. What I know about Linux mostly comes from borking it. I must have borked twenty installs. But I didn't care because I had a backup.

Will ALSA work if I simply type "default" into the devices drop down?

So my attitude to things like that is "what happens if I type "default" in?" Might bork it, but I have a backup. Having a backup means you aren't worried about wrecking your install.

By err... default, Yoshimi uses 'most likely to work' settings. 'Default' is only used in a few places, and not accepted anywhere else. Where it is used in the Jack tab, it's best to leave it alone unless you have a very specific requirement.

[Arpangel]

Hmmm. Are you sure audio is 'on' at system level by default?
In days of old it was often disabled by default. I've not seen this for a long time, but it's possible that Reaper is being well behaved and switching it on when in use, but then on exit returning it to it's original state.

Now that you mention I did notice at one point in my tests, system audio was off when I could have sworn it should have been on, so I shall take a look at that as well.

As I say I'm pretty sure this is a user error somewhere, not a bug in Yoshimi.

I did help a friend who’s is a Linux expert, install Reaper on his machine, I was surprised, we got it working quite well, with no major issues, apart from, the UI was a bit strange, and things weren’t where they normally are, and we couldn't sort that out, it didn’t look normal, it looked like a fault.

[James Perrett]

I did help a friend who’s is a Linux expert, install Reaper on his machine, I was surprised, we got it working quite well, with no major issues, apart from, the UI was a bit strange, and things weren’t where they normally are, and we couldn't sort that out, it didn’t look normal, it looked like a fault.

That sounds like something to do with themes. If you've been using Reaper for a while then it will carry on using the same theme you've always used when you update it but, if you install Reaper from scratch, then it will use the latest theme by default. The current theme is a bit different to the older themes although I quite like it now.

[Arpangel]

I did help a friend who’s is a Linux expert, install Reaper on his machine, I was surprised, we got it working quite well, with no major issues, apart from, the UI was a bit strange, and things weren’t where they normally are, and we couldn't sort that out, it didn’t look normal, it looked like a fault.

That sounds like something to do with themes. If you've been using Reaper for a while then it will carry on using the same theme you've always used when you update it but, if you install Reaper from scratch, then it will use the latest theme by default. The current theme is a bit different to the older themes although I quite like it now.

Thanks James, we need to experiment with themes.