[iiwusynth-devel] Re: [Rosegarden-devel] Not all Linux stuck notes are Rosegarden...

[Chris Cannam]

[cc'ing iiwusynth list and preserving most of the quoted text, because 
this seems relevant]

On Friday 07 February 2003 15:27, Mark Knecht wrote:
>    OK, so I know the title is obvious, but I thought I'd report
> back anyway. Last evening I used kaconnect to hook up my MIDI
> keyboard to a couple of soft synths, and qjackconnect to route
> their audio to my headphones and just bypassed RG for a while to
> see what happens. I am still getting a _few_ stuck notes. Not too
> often, but maybe one every 10 minutes or so.
>
>    I was using the HDSP MIDI input. (Well, the ONE that works, but
> that's another issue...)  I want to try the USB MidiMan 2x2 this
> evening to see if there is any difference.
>
>    Are others seeing this at all? This doesn't happen at all when I
> use external synths since the MIDI path is from the controller to
> them directly, and not through the PC.

OK, you've prompted me to try this out too (the fact that I've just 
acquired a MIDI keyboard doesn't hurt either).

I notice no problems when connecting the MIDI keyboard to either 
ZynAddSubFX 1.0.4 or an offboard synth via ALSA with kaconnect -- 
without a sequencer application or JACK.

But when I connect it directly to iiwusynth 0.2.2 that way, I get very 
frequent stuck notes (using some patch with slow decay, like a 
cello).  Even more weirdly, every time I hold down a key, the note 
actually restarts repeatedly and regularly about 3-4 times a second 
-- it sounds like I'm pressing the key very regularly without 
releasing it in between.  Every single note.  I have never heard this 
effect with other synths, and it doesn't happen when playing to 
iiwusynth from Rosegarden.  It also doesn't seem to depend on the 
soundfont I have loaded.

(The keyboard is an Evolution MK-225C, and the soundcard is a basic 
AMD768 on-motherboard chipset which I think uses the intel 8x0 
driver.  I'm not sure what version of ALSA is installed -- it's the 
one shipped with SuSE 8.1.)


Chris