Re: I (and others) can't play lilypond-generated MIDI files

[Vaughan McAlley]

On Wed, 19 Feb 2025 at 10:26, Stanton Sanderson  wrote:

> Laura,
> As I understand it, fluidsynth requires a sound font (easy to find), and
> qsynth provides an easy way to use it. I’m using Frescobaldi, and preview
> files from the midi window. Garage Band will play MIDI and convert it to a
> sharable file. I installed Fluidsynth from MacPorts long ago- haven’t paid
> much attention to why it works…
> If Qsynth is running when I open Frescobaldi, it just works. Otherwise I
> have to go to the preferences and hit the refresh audio button.
>
> VLC also plays midi files (on my machine(s) at least -Early 2014 MB-air,
> newer desktop (don’t recall the model) & a 2024 MacBook Air running Sonoma).
>
> Sorry I can’t be more specific! -
> -Stan
>
> > On Feb 18, 2025, at 8:49 AM, Laura Conrad  wrote:
> >
> >Stan> For what it's worth, I am a Mac user- for many years I have
> been using
> >Stan> qsynth as a front end for fluidsynth, with sound fonts from
> various
> >Stan> sources. I’d hate to be without it!
> >
> > So if I tell my mac user to install fluidsynth, would his browser start
> > using it and play the MIDI files?  And is installing fluidsynth easy
> > enough that he could do it?
>
>
It looks like MidiPipe is still available. I used it all the time when I
had a Mac. I would create a SMF player on one side and a DLS Synth on the
other (among many other things).

http://www.subtlesoft.square7.net/MidiPipe.html

Vaughan

Re: I (and others) can't play lilypond-generated MIDI files

[Stanton Sanderson]

Laura,
As I understand it, fluidsynth requires a sound font (easy to find), and qsynth 
provides an easy way to use it. I’m using Frescobaldi, and preview files from 
the midi window. Garage Band will play MIDI and convert it to a sharable file. 
I installed Fluidsynth from MacPorts long ago- haven’t paid much attention to 
why it works… 
If Qsynth is running when I open Frescobaldi, it just works. Otherwise I have 
to go to the preferences and hit the refresh audio button.

VLC also plays midi files (on my machine(s) at least -Early 2014 MB-air, newer 
desktop (don’t recall the model) & a 2024 MacBook Air running Sonoma).

Sorry I can’t be more specific! - 
-Stan

> On Feb 18, 2025, at 8:49 AM, Laura Conrad  wrote:
> 
>Stan> For what it's worth, I am a Mac user- for many years I have been 
> using
>Stan> qsynth as a front end for fluidsynth, with sound fonts from various
>Stan> sources. I’d hate to be without it!
> 
> So if I tell my mac user to install fluidsynth, would his browser start
> using it and play the MIDI files?  And is installing fluidsynth easy
> enough that he could do it?

Re: I (and others) can't play lilypond-generated MIDI files

[David Wright]

On Tue 18 Feb 2025 at 09:53:18 (-0500), Laura Conrad wrote:
> > "David" == David Wright writes:
> 
> >> "aplaymidi -p 14:0 score.midi" doesn't crash but hangs and doesn't play
> >> anything.
> 
> David> It "hung" here for the exact length of the MIDI file (about 4 
> seconds
> David> for the output from your attached .ly file, 46 seconds for 
> tenor.midi),
> David> and I heard nothing. Then I got the prompt.
> 
> Yes, you're correct.  The MIDI file I was originally  using was a couple
> of minutes long.  When I do i t on test.midi, it hangs for only a few
> notes time.
> 
> David> However, I then set up a MIDI listener—on one xterm, I typed:
> 
> David>   $ timidity -iA
> David>   Requested buffer size 32768, fragment size 8192
> David>   ALSA pcm 'default' set buffer size 33868, period size 3760 bytes
> David>   TiMidity starting in ALSA server mode
> David>   Opening sequencer port: 128:0 128:1 128:2 128:3
> 
> David> and on another, observing the above, I typed:
> 
> David>   $ aplaymidi -p 128:0 /tmp/tenor.midi
> 
> David> and heard part of "Sumer is icumen in" played very slowly.
> 
> Yes, "aplaymidi -l" lists the "midi through" port, so I'm sure if I'd
> done what you did, it would have worked for me, too.

Wouldn't that need testing, as you just posted that timidity dumps core.

> >> This worked fine for years.  It seems to be a problem not only with
> >> current MIDI files but with (all?) the others on my website that were
> >> generated years or decades ago.
> 
> David> Peter Chubb appears to be running timidity 2.14.0-8.3 from Debian
> David> testing/trixie, three versions newer than my June 2018 version.
> David> I've had no problems with 2.14.0-8, but that said, I don't run
> David> it as a client or server for other processes. I always just type:
> 
> David>   timidity [options](or a script does).
> 
> That's all I was doing either.

Sorry, I was just explaining that whereas you appeared to be familiar
with aplaymidi in your first post, it was new to me, and I had to
work out that it needed another program to make the computer emit sound.
So I was mystified as to why you thought aplaymidi just hung. Is port
14 normally meant to produce sounds without help? There's obviously
something special about 14, because every other number ≤127 is an
"invalid argument", except for 0, which is "not permitted".

> But my version is only one behind
> Peter's.  I suppose linux mint should be nudged to update.

Without actual version numbers, it's not clear what's meant by
"one behind" and "before the last update". It depends what you're
tracking and how closely.

Cheers,
David.

Re: I (and others) can't play lilypond-generated MIDI files

[Laura Conrad]

> "David" == David Wright  writes:

>> "aplaymidi -p 14:0 score.midi" doesn't crash but hangs and doesn't play
>> anything.

David> It "hung" here for the exact length of the MIDI file (about 4 seconds
David> for the output from your attached .ly file, 46 seconds for 
tenor.midi),
David> and I heard nothing. Then I got the prompt.

Yes, you're correct.  The MIDI file I was originally  using was a couple
of minutes long.  When I do i t on test.midi, it hangs for only a few
notes time.

David> However, I then set up a MIDI listener—on one xterm, I typed:

David>   $ timidity -iA
David>   Requested buffer size 32768, fragment size 8192
David>   ALSA pcm 'default' set buffer size 33868, period size 3760 bytes
David>   TiMidity starting in ALSA server mode
David>   Opening sequencer port: 128:0 128:1 128:2 128:3

David> and on another, observing the above, I typed:

David>   $ aplaymidi -p 128:0 /tmp/tenor.midi

David> and heard part of "Sumer is icumen in" played very slowly.

Yes, "aplaymidi -l" lists the "midi through" port, so I'm sure if I'd
done what you did, it would have worked for me, too.

Thanks for looking at the problem.

>> This worked fine for years.  It seems to be a problem not only with
>> current MIDI files but with (all?) the others on my website that were
>> generated years or decades ago.

David> Peter Chubb appears to be running timidity 2.14.0-8.3 from Debian
David> testing/trixie, three versions newer than my June 2018 version.
David> I've had no problems with 2.14.0-8, but that said, I don't run
David> it as a client or server for other processes. I always just type:

David>   timidity [options](or a script does).

That's all I was doing either.  But my version is only one behind
Peter's.  I suppose linux mint should be nudged to update.

-- 
Laura   (mailto:lcon...@laymusic.org)
(617) 661-8097  233 Broadway, Cambridge, MA 02139   
 

Copyright law has abandoned its reason for being: to encourage
learning and the creation of new works. Instead, its principal
functions now are to preserve existing failed business models, to
suppress new business models and technologies, and to obtain, if
possible, enormous windfall profits from activity that not only causes
no harm, but which is beneficial to copyright owners.

William Patry, in his farewell post on "The Patry Copyright Blog".

Re: I (and others) can't play lilypond-generated MIDI files

[Laura Conrad]

> "Stan" == Stanton Sanderson  writes:

Stan> For what it's worth, I am a Mac user- for many years I have been using
Stan> qsynth as a front end for fluidsynth, with sound fonts from various
Stan> sources. I’d hate to be without it!

So if I tell my mac user to install fluidsynth, would his browser start
using it and play the MIDI files?  And is installing fluidsynth easy
enough that he could do it?


-- 
Laura   (mailto:lcon...@laymusic.org)
(617) 661-8097  233 Broadway, Cambridge, MA 02139   
 

It can't be any new note. When you look at the keyboard, all the notes
are there already. But if you mean a note enough, it will sound
different. You got to pick the notes you really mean!

Thelonius Monk, on being asked how he got a special sound out of the piano

Re: I (and others) can't play lilypond-generated MIDI files

[Laura Conrad]

> "Peter" == Peter Chubb  writes:

> "Laura" == Laura Conrad  writes:
Laura> Here's a test file that reproduces the
Laura> problem:

Laura> I have used both timidity and aplaymidi on Linux.  'timidity
Laura> test.midi" results in a segmentation fault.  It says:

Peter> This is a Timidity bug I think --- with timidity version 2.14.0-8.3
Peter> (Debian) I can play Midi (including the ones on your website) without
Peter> issues.  Before the last update, Timidity crashed on some Midi files,
Peter> whether generated by Lilypond or from other sources.

Thanks.  I have installed fluidsynth, and now my MIDI files play fine
through vlc.  The version of timidity that's crashing for me is
2.14.0-8.2ubuntu1.

This solves my problem, and if it didn't, I could probably figure out
how to install the working version of timidity on my (Linux mint)
system.

But does anyone have a good thing to tell the mac user?  It's possible
he's also using timidity.  But I don't know enough about how to do MacOS
support to even figure out how to find out what he's using when he
clicks on a MIDI file in his browser and it doesn't play.

-- 
Laura   (mailto:lcon...@laymusic.org)
(617) 661-8097  233 Broadway, Cambridge, MA 02139   
 

When I die and there's a memorial service, I want you to go to the
piano and play _The Man I Love_ in my key. If I don't come out on that
stage, then you'll know I'm gone.

Kitty Carlisle Hart, (Quoted at her memorial service, where they did
in fact play _The Man I Love._)

Re: I (and others) can't play lilypond-generated MIDI files

[Stanton Sanderson]

> On Feb 17, 2025, at 7:54 PM, David Wright  wrote:
> 
> On Mon 17 Feb 2025 at 13:36:09 (-0500), Laura Conrad wrote:
>> 
>> This was originally reported by a non-technical MacOS user, so he was
>> presumably using the default browser with watever default MIDI player
>> that uses.
>> 
>> There are no error messages when I run lilypond.
>> 
>> I have used both timidity and aplaymidi on Linux.  'timidity test.midi"
>> results in a segmentation fault.  It says:
>> 
>> Segmentation fault (core dumped)
>> 
>> But there isn't a core file.  (Maybe a "ulimit -c 0" somewhere I can't
>> find?)
> 
> There may be some lines in the kernel log. I have that ulimit in my
> ~/.bash_profile: it's debatable how many people can make any sensible
> use of a core dump—I certainly can't.
> 
>> "aplaymidi -p 14:0 score.midi" doesn't crash but hangs and doesn't play
>> anything.
> 
> It "hung" here for the exact length of the MIDI file (about 4 seconds
> for the output from your attached .ly file, 46 seconds for tenor.midi),
> and I heard nothing. Then I got the prompt.
> 
> However, I then set up a MIDI listener—on one xterm, I typed:
> 
>  $ timidity -iA
>  Requested buffer size 32768, fragment size 8192
>  ALSA pcm 'default' set buffer size 33868, period size 3760 bytes
>  TiMidity starting in ALSA server mode
>  Opening sequencer port: 128:0 128:1 128:2 128:3
> 
> and on another, observing the above, I typed:
> 
>  $ aplaymidi -p 128:0 /tmp/tenor.midi
> 
> and heard part of "Sumer is icumen in" played very slowly.
> 
>  System: Debian 11 (bullseye)
>  $ aplaymidi -V
>  aplaymidi version 1.2.4
>  $ timidity -v
>  TiMidity++ version 2.14.0
> 
>  Package versions:
>  timidity 2.14.0-8 amd64
>  alsa-utils 1.2.4-1 amd64
> 
>> This worked fine for years.  It seems to be a problem not only with
>> current MIDI files but with (all?) the others on my website that were
>> generated years or decades ago.
> 
> Peter Chubb appears to be running timidity 2.14.0-8.3 from Debian
> testing/trixie, three versions newer than my June 2018 version.
> I've had no problems with 2.14.0-8, but that said, I don't run
> it as a client or server for other processes. I always just type:
> 
>  timidity [options](or a script does).
> 
> Cheers,
> David.
> 
For what it's worth, I am a Mac user- for many years I have been using qsynth 
as a front end for fluidsynth, with sound fonts from various sources. I’d hate 
to be without it!
-Stan 

Re: I (and others) can't play lilypond-generated MIDI files

[David Wright]

On Mon 17 Feb 2025 at 13:36:09 (-0500), Laura Conrad wrote:
> 
> This was originally reported by a non-technical MacOS user, so he was
> presumably using the default browser with watever default MIDI player
> that uses.
> 
> There are no error messages when I run lilypond.
> 
> I have used both timidity and aplaymidi on Linux.  'timidity test.midi"
> results in a segmentation fault.  It says:
> 
> Segmentation fault (core dumped)
> 
> But there isn't a core file.  (Maybe a "ulimit -c 0" somewhere I can't
> find?)

There may be some lines in the kernel log. I have that ulimit in my
~/.bash_profile: it's debatable how many people can make any sensible
use of a core dump—I certainly can't.

> "aplaymidi -p 14:0 score.midi" doesn't crash but hangs and doesn't play
> anything.

It "hung" here for the exact length of the MIDI file (about 4 seconds
for the output from your attached .ly file, 46 seconds for tenor.midi),
and I heard nothing. Then I got the prompt.

However, I then set up a MIDI listener—on one xterm, I typed:

  $ timidity -iA
  Requested buffer size 32768, fragment size 8192
  ALSA pcm 'default' set buffer size 33868, period size 3760 bytes
  TiMidity starting in ALSA server mode
  Opening sequencer port: 128:0 128:1 128:2 128:3

and on another, observing the above, I typed:

  $ aplaymidi -p 128:0 /tmp/tenor.midi

and heard part of "Sumer is icumen in" played very slowly.

  System: Debian 11 (bullseye)
  $ aplaymidi -V
  aplaymidi version 1.2.4
  $ timidity -v
  TiMidity++ version 2.14.0

  Package versions:
  timidity 2.14.0-8 amd64
  alsa-utils 1.2.4-1 amd64

> This worked fine for years.  It seems to be a problem not only with
> current MIDI files but with (all?) the others on my website that were
> generated years or decades ago.

Peter Chubb appears to be running timidity 2.14.0-8.3 from Debian
testing/trixie, three versions newer than my June 2018 version.
I've had no problems with 2.14.0-8, but that said, I don't run
it as a client or server for other processes. I always just type:

  timidity [options](or a script does).

Cheers,
David.

Re: I (and others) can't play lilypond-generated MIDI files

[Peter Chubb]

> "Laura" == Laura Conrad  writes:

Laura> Here's a test file that reproduces the
Laura> problem:

Laura> I have used both timidity and aplaymidi on Linux.  'timidity
Laura> test.midi" results in a segmentation fault.  It says:

This is a Timidity bug I think --- with timidity version 2.14.0-8.3
(Debian) I can play Midi (including the ones on your website) without
issues.  Before the last update, Timidity crashed on some Midi files,
whether generated by Lilypond or from other sources.


Peter C