Hello, everyone! It's hard to form a user friendly subject, but the first word is the key: I'm introducing myself to this list. Also joined the other lists (bugs, dev).
Note: this post became quite long. At first there is a lot of background info, not requesting feedback for those chapters. And in case you want details of my equipment or links to web/IG/Twitter/Youtube, feel free to ask directly. I don't consider it cool to spam about it here right away. Rosegarden technical talk / issues in the end. I'm over 40, from Finland and started using MIDI hardware in early 90's with Amiga 500 and OctaMED 4 tracker. On PC I started using jeskola buzz tracker around 2000, which I still use when needed (just made a remix to be released later into the spring). Also done more music on Android phone (Caustic 3). I still have the Amiga with MIDI-interface, also C64 but I haven't used the C64 for music production, yet. I haven't made money with my music, and I don't have a budget, but I've managed to build a studio for electronic music. Major milestone was the purchase of my first real studio mixer in the autumn 2016. And now, in February 2019 I've got what I call "ready for work" studio. The focus is shifted to the computer and software. I never picked up DAWs, either for lack of time, creativity or money for Windows software or devotion for Linux and its software. Now I have had Ubuntu Studio for years in my studio-to-be, but only now it was time for a completely fresh install of Ubuntu Studio 18.04. I got two M-Audio Delta 1010LT cards, which seems to be a common configuration (or has been). I'm only using one card for audio, but the MIDI ports of both. This works really well. At one point I really wanted to make them one virtual card, and I was able to run it for a while with glitches - though the MIDI ports were not available. I haven't found info on how to deal with MIDI on aggregate devices. Most likely I will have USB MIDI interface(s) later on. I really wanted to use Ardour, but I don't see its MIDI highly usable. It is usable, to a certain degree. Too many problems for me, starting from MIDI latency corresponding to audio latency. I don't know if there's a way out of it, but there are other issues so I don't really care. Too much stuck on notes. Slow GUI. Programming velocities... no "ruler". I had tried Rosegarden long time ago, but I thought the audio tracks are a problem (really simple support and narrow waveform view). I tried even running Ardour and Rosegarden synced but it just didn't work well. Could be partially because of my old computer with several times upgraded Ubuntu Studio, or my lack of knowledge with JACK. After seeing the Ardour problems, I became more interested in Rosegarden again, to get things done. My first tests this year: I saw MIDI going through through Rosegarden without delay, recording audio and MIDI at the same time worked fine and all the new and old tracks played back in perfect sync - no calibration or tweaks required! Out of the box! It must have been one of the best moments in my studio :) That raised a question if I really need that much features from audio tracks? Well, I do, like plugin automation, but let's start with the basics. Multi track recording and playback works fine. The next step is to see if Qtractor works better for me, but I'm really interested in seeing rg developing and if my time permits, testing and reporting problems. * Rosegarden technical stuff - what I've experienced with rg 17.12.1 / Ubuntu Studio 18.04. I'm writing here first, because I took a look at bug tracker and the rules and found out that it helps to have a longer history with rg, knowing the terminology and even previous related fixes. The rules are ok, logical. No use to post about bug that has been posted etc. What I'm looking here is experienced users that may have a word on the issues I've met. If I don't have the time for proper bug report, then I don't. 1. Play MIDI keyboard through rg track and switch to another track - the NOTE OFFs are lost (notes on the MIDI channel of the first track are stuck ON). 2. Program change and CC (most notably pan and volume) are sent sometimes even though not programmed into segments. I haven't found out the logic when they are sent, but when that occurs I see it like this: Yamaha V50 is playing sounds that were muted in the performance or they are routed to wrong outputs (L and R outputs are used for having a dry and effected group via mixer, and I confirmed from the user manual that in the performance mode CC PAN is received). I am pretty sure I get away with these when I *do* explicitly set the volume and pan and program in the track / sequence (unless there are bugs related to rewinding CCs or stg). 3. Sometimes when I've record the keyboard, the sounds I play back are louder than when recording. I haven't touched the MIDI mixer. It could be channel volume CC, but as I haven't had MIDI monitor I can't tell. It has happened on two different synths so far. The note velocities are recorded correctly. The synth sound volumes do not indicate a change in the panel (maybe there are separate "channel main volume" and CC volume). Switching the performance program to something else and back resets the channel volumes to default. 4. Boss Dr-550 does "M er" at times (MIDI error, received something bad), and during that display it doesn't do anything. Have to press stop on the unit to clear the error. A fix would be filtering out everything except NOTE ON, as the unit doesn't listen to anything else (apart from MIDI start/stop/continue/clock). -> an application running MIDI plugins, connected after rg? 5. Yamaha V50 sometimes says "MIDI buffer full!", and I haven't seen a logical reason for this. Surely there is MIDI data coming in, but where is it from and what, that is unclear. Could be multi channel CC too quickly and a too small MIDI buffer in the synth. I haven't seen that causing problems with playing. 6. Matrix editor zooming from the bottom right corner using a regular scroll wheel is sometimes cumbersome. H or V zoom levels are not reflected to the combined zoom roller -> it has its own memory of zoom level. I'm not sure if it's supposed to continue form where the H/V zoom was left or always force 1:1, but it is a bit cumbersome. 7. Positive: comprehensive settings for MIDI sync! I can turn sending the sync off. Say, I want to record some live audio, with sounds from Korg Volca Bass. I can hit record and nothing unwanted happens, I just play the keyboard and everything is fine. When I try the same in Qtractor, the Korg starts playing its pattern, because a MIDI start and clock is sent. Didn't find a way to turn it off in there. 8. Positive: rg is stable and runs well in my Core 2 Duo @ 2 GHz, 2 GB RAM. I had a Quad core 6 GB RAM set up, but it started acting up before I got anything to do, so this is a backup for now. I lost a week for the fresher computer and trying to make it work. I had three motherboards and three PSU's. Later on I deducted the problem is that the CPU has gone bad due to the original failing PSU. Interestingly, it only runs on that failing PSU (giving undervoltage by my measurements). 9. The scores, notation! Most likely I will need to print out notes to someone later. Experimenting scores after I've done something worth of "making notes of" :) What I might want in rg: * Per track / per channel MIDI OUT filter could be useful. In short: MIDI out plugins. * Settings to disable sending pan/cc. etc from the track parameters. I did take a look at a few CC bugs and it really can get complicated. It is also a question, if everything should be set correctly at the rg side, matching to what was intended with the synthesizer settings. It may be a question of getting used to certain workflow. Might be as simple as doing the settings and saving a template (which I've done, but not to the degree of pan controls, because my synths generally don't have pannable sounds, but here we are...). Many different synths give many things to learn :) Best regards and huge thanks! -- Sami Jumppanen http://netti.nic.fi/some-e
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