No audio from Rosegarden anymore

[D. Michael McIntyre]

On Sunday 23 March 2008, Paul DeShaw wrote:
> recognized, but in the meantime I would like to troubleshoot audio in
> Rosegarden.

OK, first let's get the terminology straight.  This leads to a lot of 
confusion.  "Audio" in Rosegarden terms means anything played directly 
through JACK, which means audio segments, and DSSI synth plugins.  If you try 
to play a MIDI file, and don't hear anything, this is not an "audio" problem, 
but a "MIDI reproduction" problem.

It's a subtle semantic difference, but it can mean the world in terms of 
concentrating on where the real problem is.

> I used to be able to play MIDI files and hear them, but I 
> can't now.

OK, a MIDI reproduction problem.

> This is true in both Ubuntu Studio and Musix.

I'll concentrate on Ubuntu Studio, because that's what I have in front of me.

> Other apps produce sound through JACK.

Does Rosegarden still produce audio through JACK?  Try loading a DSSI synth 
plugin, and see if you hear anything, or import an audio file, and try to 
play it.  If other apps are producing sound through JACK, Rosegarden should 
too.

> The little meters bounce in the tracks in the main window and the MIDI mixer
> window

That only means Rosegarden is sending MIDI data somewhere.  It doesn't mean 
whatever is on the other end is actually producing sound.
 
> but NOT in the audio mixer window.

If there are no audio tracks, none of the meters in this window should move.  
(I'm not totally sure about synth plugin tracks.)

> I can't seem to find anything 
> mentioning this kind of problem in the Rosegarden manual.

I devoted a giant chunk of my book to trying to explain this ridiculously 
complex situation, but it probably just made everything worse by trying to 
cover every conceivable option, and there are myriad conceivable options.  
All of this really is a total mess.  If I had it all to do over again, I 
would concentrate on the one thing that works for everybody, no matter what, 
even if it isn't their best option.

So.

Ubuntu Studio is supposed to run TiMidity with Freepats out of the box, and 
this should work.  It works for me on a fresh install.  That is probably how 
you were getting MIDI reproduction while it was working.

TiMidity + Freepats sounds pretty bad, and since it's broken anyway, I 
recommend that you run QSynth with fluid-soundfont.  (Unless you are short on 
memory.  Fluid-soundfont is enormous.  In that case, I would get PC51f.sf2 
(google it, I don't have the URL handy.)

Configure QSynth to run via JACK (assuming it is working, which you have 
indicated is probably the case.)  My book is way out of date, but I think it 
probably still covers this situation adequately.

Start here, and ignore all the what-if stuff above this point:

http://rosegarden.sourceforge.net/tutorial/en/chapter-2.html#2_1_3_2_2

> BTW, is there a Rosegarden WIKI or other community documentation project,
> where information can be centralized?  It's not like the Rosegarden team
> has time on their hands to update the documentation.

We have a wiki, but no user documentation there.  The gateway to the 
documentation we do have is here:

http://rosegardenmusic.com/resources/

Which includes a link to the page that links to the book, as well as a new 
series of tutorials I've been working on.

Nothing new to adequately address this hideous "my sound doesn't work" option 
though.

I'm kind of trying to avoid revisiting this horrible topic in the hopes that 
distros like Ubuntu Studio will fix it soon.  Hardy will ship with 
fluid-soundfont and some kind of working soft synth out of the box.  Maybe it 
will stop being an issue soon.  I can only hope.

You might gather I'm not fond of this topic.  :)
-- 
D. Michael McIntyre