Hi Dave :)

thank you for your reply.

> My work is on-line, see 
> http://linux-sound.org/ardour-music.html to find  it. The instrumental 
> works are all MIDI compositions.

I know your Blues songs with vocals. They are very good and obviously 
done without MIDI. I'll listen to your instrumental songs later, I never 
heard one.

> In particular you might want to listen 
> to the MIDI rendition of Stefan Wolpe's Form for piano and to my own 
> Imaginary Trio for flute, guitar, and bassoon. Both of those pieces were 
> made with internal synths. Carousel Ride is an earlier piece that was 
> made with external synths (a lot of them), it's at 
> http://linux-sound.org/audio/studiodave-carousel_ride.mp3 if you'd like 
> to hear it.
>   

I will listen to this one too.

The problem for MIDI with Linux isn't using just internal or just 
external equipment, trouble starts when you are using external MIDI 
devices in combination with recordings of external MIDI devices. I avoid 
recording guitars etc..

> I agree that more research into MIDI + Linux needs to happen. Perhaps 
> you've seen this PDF :
> /
> /    
> http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~mnelson/papers/Nelson_Thom_-_MIDI_Performance_-_NIME04.pdf
>
> Unfortunately that research is old, but it could serve as a good 
> jumping-off point.
>   

I flip through the test, best result was for Windows XP, with 2.0ms 
jitter, for the worst case, this means MIDI is also unusable for 
Windows, the way I used MIDI with a C64 and Atari ST, those computers 
from the Stone Age don't have noticeable jitter.

The test confirmed what some experienced MIDI users told me. You can't 
work with MIDI, when using modern Computers, excepted Nuendo, they found 
a way to use this program which should be the only one, that should be 
able to do MIDI work, but also with limitations, because of technical 
issues.

I only have Cubase for XT, anyway, I'll check the jitter there too. I 
guess I can import Qtractors MIDI files by Cubase.

>> Has anybody experiences with MIDI by USB and MIDI by D-Sub MPU-401? What 
>> is the more stable interface for Linux?
>>   
>>     
>
> I've used a MidiMan 2x2 USB interface with good results. I currently 
> employ a SoundBlaster Live! and a SoundBlaster PCI128 for their hardware 
> MIDI ports. I have a Yamaha MJC8 that lets me connect those interfaces 
> to external gear or between computers in the studio. I've also used the 
> hardware interfaces to test MTC transmission/reception in Ardour.
>   

Ardour's MTC seems to be proper, but only for receiving or transmitting, 
not for both, as far as I can remember, while Rosegarden's MTC is 
broken. I made a test some time ago, it might be different today. I'm 
still thinking of using Linux or Windows as hard disk recorder and the 
Atari ST as sequencer. That's why I tested MTC with the Atari ST and 
other external equipment, I guess it was a Yamaha "drum computer".

> I can't involve myself further at this time. My workload is heavy and I 
> need to devote my time to getting it done. I suggest that you start your 
> trouble-shooting list and start reporting results from commonly 
> available gear. A software test suite is essential, I'll be happy to run 
> short tests as time permits.
>   

Again, just using internal or external MIDI synth is fine.

A test scenario that seems to give good information:

1. We play a MIDI groove: Bass, bass drum, snare drum, hi hat
2. We record each instrument on it's own audio track
3. We play e.g. Bass, snare drum, hi hat by the audio tracks and we mute 
their MIDI tracks, while we mute the audio track for the bass drum and 
play it's MIDI track.

On my machine the groove then isn't a groove any more. And as 
above-mentioned, other MIDI users confirm this should be for Linux, 
Windows and MacOS the same. They also don't know such behaviour from the 
C64 and Atari ST.

Just four to the floor, playing MIDI and audio in unison, isn't a good 
test scenario.

I guess my old Asrock mobo with a gameport MIDI had less jitter for Linux.

Cheers,
Ralf
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