On Tue, 16 Oct 2012 15:50:30 +0200 (CEST)
Holger Marzen hol...@marzen.de wrote:
On Tue, 16 Oct 2012, k...@trixtar.org wrote:
I found this 2008 rosegarden tutorial by D. Michael McIntyre
@ http://www.rosegardenmusic.com/tutorials/supplemental/zyn/zyn.html
in which he explains how to use the ZYN synth. He begins with
launching ZYN and then watching Qjackctl connect it, etc. But
rosegarden-11.11.42 can use ZYN without it being started manually
i.e. ZYN figures in the synth list. Is there there a difference?
Is this second condition a result of rosegarden having detected
an installed ZYN package and just using it?
The reason I'm asking is that sofar I've found only 2 ways to
get sound from ZYN: via what seems to be the above internal rosegarden
selection with rosegarden running, or without jack (and thus without
rosegarden) when ZYN is started manually with the command padsp
zynaddsubfx.
[OpenSUSE-12.2 in which the jack/qsynthctl/rosegarden combo now
otherwise works nicely].
There are basicalle 2 ways to start a synth:
1.) as a standalone program. You have to set it up to use the correct
audio driver. In Rosegarden you have a MIDI instrument as its
representation.
2.) as a DSSI synth plugin. It integrates into Rosegarden and its JACK
connection AND it won't suffer from ALSA MIDI latencies. In
Rosegarden you have a synth plugin instrument.
Fortunately some synths are available both as a standalone program and
as a DSSI plugin, including fluidsynth and zyn.
I finally got it going with zyn for the time being. To answer my own question
in case someone should google for this topic, starting ZYN synth manually and
independently came out alright and the results when used in rosegarden are far
better and consistent than using the internal zyn syth as I did before (I'll
have to look at all that again).
Do what you must to get ZYN to produce sounds. As outlined in my OP I could not
do that with jack running and that was because it was not connected in the
qjackctl in its Connections map but had been lauched without prepending
'padsp'. So the short of the long is to
-a launch qjackctl and start it
-b start ZYN normally (not prepend padsp to the command)
-c observe possibly click here to load an instrument
There is probably no sound when hitting the keyboard
-d in the qjackctl dialog map select zyn on the left and system on
the right then click Connect. Hit the keyboard again.
If you hear sound it's probably just a default
-e in the zyn part counter set 1
-f observe Midi channel receive window also showing 1
-g observe hitting keys probably still makes no sound
or only a default sound
... at this point Zyn's channel 01 is selected and is ready to
be defined as to what musical instrument THAT channel will be
-h ZynInstrumentShow Instrument bank... chose an instrument
-i hit keyboard again, it should play the instrument just selected
-j repeat process for remaining 15 channels i.e. 1-16
... now whenever Zyn is called as a synth with a channel # it will
play the intrument associated with that channel #. SAVE these
(your) Zyn settings or you will lose them. Unfortunately Zyn's
browse dialog does not let you look reach folders outside your
home folder!
-k start rosegarden
-l revisit the qjackctl Connect map and assure that rosegarden
is also connected and that Zyn is connected to rosegarden as
well as to system
-m in rosegarden single click into the first track (creates a short
empty segment), double click the segment to open it in note editor.
-n observe that with the pencil tool slected clicking into the
new staff drops a note and the note should sound as it's dropped
onto the staff
-o repeat same for track #2, click enabled beside the part
box if not already enabled. If there is no sound revisit e and
set up an instrument on the #2 channel also.
... any instrument sound set up in Zyn for a channel will probably
just play when the corresponding track # is written into in the
staff editor (not sure about this).
-p In rosegarden click the keyboard/soundcard icon to open the
midi dialog. For the midi PLAYBACK section (top) click NEW.
Give the box a name like MyZyn-synth-1.
-q While your new label is selected click the ZYN label in the
right section beside it to highlight it.
-q return to the tracks shown in rosegarden and right click on
any one of them, observe dropdown choices including your just
created 'handle' for Zyn AND its 16 possible channels.
... If a previously defined instrument has been assigned within
Zyn to a channel then attaching Zyn to with that channel #
to a TRACK will play that instrument on any segment on that
track. Moving a segment to another track does NOT migrate the
instrument with it, rather any other segment moved to the
track will then play that
