Synth sound dies and does not come back even toggleing Synthesizer's check box

[ghost]

Synth sound dies and does not come back even toggleing Synthesizer's check box

I use ubuntu 16.04.1 with kxstudio repositories The Synth keeps disconnecting and I have no way to get the sound back without restarting composer.

Please anyone using ubuntu 16.04.1 try to reproduce this to verify it as a bug.

My guess would be that the synth used for playback on composer panics very easy. Only exiting composer and starting it again brings the synth's sound back, but the sound goes away again after one or two synth playbacks, and I see no panic button on composer to bring the synth's sound back on.

It would be easy for me if on a jack patchbay like Catia I would have synth MIDI output coming out of composer so I can connect it to the synth of my choice (maybe TiMidity or Qsynth). Or a menu item on composer with MIDI connection options for composer's synth playback.

On the other hand I don't know if synth outputs would bring extra issues to other users (maybe new users), like trying to fine tune a song using bad soundfonts (meaning out of tune soundfonts).

MIDI output would be very helpful for me, but its your call. A panic button to bring back the current synth would be very helpful if no MIDI output is possible.

Thank you for the time reading, and any thing you do regarding this issue.

[nieknooijens]

Haven't been able to reproduce this yet, not on 16.04 and not on 14.04, will try tonight on 16.10.

[ghost]

I just tried again and indeed the synth stopped working after playing about one minute. I am still using Ubuntu 16.04.1 On composer: Synth playback stops working. The piano keys drawn on composer's left border still make sound.

On performous: Synth mode (ctrl + S ) works fine without problems. (but I did not compile performous, I installed from https://launchpad.net/~performous-team/+archive/ubuntu/daily)

I am using Cadence and ALSA audio reads snd-aloop daemon, started, ALSA MIDI Bridge is running, and PulseAudio is started and bridged to JACK.

[nieknooijens]

does it also occur without JACK?

[ghost]

Hi I use Ubuntu 16.04.1 plus KXStudio repositories Without JACK I get no sound at all on this system. I have to start jack first using an application called Cadence to get any sound on this system. ALSA and PulseAudio can be run after that, using JACK Bridges, but you can not run them if JACK is not turned On first.

[ghost]

I will try all options available on Cadence and see if the problem gets solved. I will take one day or two for it, and after that I will post the outcome.

[ghost]

So far I noticed that only JACK and the PulseAudio bridge need to be running for composer synth to work, and also, the synth gets choked when it goes over the most short notes (=0.0500 s) which is the most small note size composer will allow.

I want to point out that as I was getting a song ready, I noticed that in some songs, the phrase endigns end in an acrobatic voice run, where the last note is the tail of a descending run; and you would need a more short note than (=0.0500 s) for the singer to have a chance at all of scoring a star on that note. That is because the hole note has to be filled up completely to score a star on it. Sometimes you hit that last note but if the note is drawn longer than needed you do not have a chance to fill up the whole note, because the run is going downwards not horizontally ¿Is it possible for you to allow shorter notes than (=0.0500) on composer? And if you do. Will those short notes keep choking synth playback on composer?

[nieknooijens]

well the reason why I'm asking this is because I run a default ubuntu setup with JACK installed, but in my case, it routes everything through pulseaudio first, and when I start JACK only then will it kill pulseaudio and setup a bridge. when running pulse without JACK the synth works perfectly fine here, both on 16.04 and 16.10. when I have JACK running it kills pulseaudio and I have no sound at all on composer.

[ghost]

I need this setup because this computer is mainly used to make music and most applications I use need JACK engine running, and PulseAudio turned off to work in an optimized manner. Low latency is a must here. I use Ardour a lot and lots of JACK based audio applications very often. When I was using Ubuntu Vanilla I had lots of problems regarding PulseAudio because it kept interfering with JACK. I could remove PulseAudio from the system completely and see what happens. Will Composer connect to ALSA directly if PulseAudio is not present?

[ghost]

I removed PulseAudio and I get no synth playback. The good thing is that I get Audio playback using only ALSA. If your synth is PulseAudio based, I will not get Synth playback in Composer on this system. But if whenever you can in the future, you code one ALSA MIDI output for Composer, I could use it as a workaround. In JACK's patch bay I could route that MIDI output, to one of Timidity input ports (perhaps Timidity input port 0). Or I could even route to any other softSynth, or hardware Synth.

[nieknooijens]

I understand low latency is a must, and I also record/mix audio on this machine. but I'm doing that just for hobby and therefore I don't need JACK all the time. only when I'm going to use music apps I enable it, killing pulseaudio in the process. this has only one drawback: the pulseaudio sink/source plugins for Jack don't work on my system, but ardour/mixxx/xine support jack natively so for my situation it's not a problem. your results may vary. I just wanted to know if the problem is directly related to composer's code or that it's just composer not handling a particular setup very well.

[ghost]

I will figure a way (It may take some time because I have to find out how) to disable jack completely and work with pulseaudio only. I will let you know when I test that.

[ghost]

I tried with JACK turned off, removed ~/.pulse folder, and logged off and on. Without opening cadence, and JACK turned off, I run pavucontrol to make sure my USB interface was default for PulseAudio The synth chocked just as before. No ALSA or JACK synth I have used in the past has chocked on this system, Composer's synth showed on pavucontrol as QtPulseAudio:13312: QtmPulseStream-13312-35100960 Audio playback is fine and showed on pavucontrol as composer: Playback Stream

[ghost]

Same song on Performous plays Synth mode (ctrl + s) with no problems on the same system.

[ghost]

Could you reproduce it using the same song file I am using? Here it is in a tar.gz file. Juan Luis Guerra.tar.gz

[nieknooijens]

I can' t unfortunately: https://www.dropbox.com/s/r0agyfo1p3jl44z/synth-test.ogv?dl=0

[ghost]

Thank you for trying. If you can put a MIDI out on composer please do. As for this issue I think is time to close it.

[nieknooijens]

you can open a new issue "add midi output" with a detailed description. I' ll add the label "enhancement" and put it on the roadmap.

[ghost]

I already posted 'Please add midi output' thank you.

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From: niek nooijens notifications@github.com Sent: Saturday, October 22, 2016 1:22 AM To: performous/composer Cc: ap1325; Author Subject: Re: [performous/composer] Synth sound dies and does not come back even toggleing Synthesizer's check box (#28)

you can open a new issue "add midi output" with a detailed description. I' ll add the label "enhancement" and put it on the roadmap.

You are receiving this because you authored the thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHubhttps://github.com/performous/composer/issues/28#issuecomment-255514757, or mute the threadhttps://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AV2doTE88cphDGm3D5kQi26QQq825wV6ks5q2cfDgaJpZM4Kamg9.

[ghost]

Thank you I will

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From: niek nooijens notifications@github.com Sent: Saturday, October 22, 2016 1:22 AM To: performous/composer Cc: ap1325; Author Subject: Re: [performous/composer] Synth sound dies and does not come back even toggleing Synthesizer's check box (#28)

you can open a new issue "add midi output" with a detailed description. I' ll add the label "enhancement" and put it on the roadmap.

You are receiving this because you authored the thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHubhttps://github.com/performous/composer/issues/28#issuecomment-255514757, or mute the threadhttps://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AV2doTE88cphDGm3D5kQi26QQq825wV6ks5q2cfDgaJpZM4Kamg9.