[PlanetCCRMA] Alsa and softsynths

[Fernando Pablo Lopez-Lezcano]

> I'm having problems using *any* soft synths in the newest Planet and alsa. 
> Audio works fine, XMMS etc.  I'm new at this too BTW.  I can call
> Timidity with a midi file and it plays fine, but if I set it up as an
> Alsa server it won't. 

What does it do? If you start it as an alsa server ("-iA", I think) it
just sits there and does nothing (it is waiting for midi commands over
the alsa sequencer port it created). You have to connect its midi input
to the output of something that provides midi commands (for example
vkeybd) through kaconnect. 

Fluidsynth is another one you could use, same behavior. 

> In Rose or Muse, the synths show up but won't play, Muse freezes.

I saw a message recently about this behavior in muse and a patch. I'll
see if I can apply it to see if it works better. 

> If I fire up AMS from a shell I get
> 
> LADSPA_PATH: /usr/lib/ladspa
> can't set sched_setscheduler - using normal priority
> Buffersize 1024 is not available on your hardware. Using 0 instead.
> Cyclesize: 0 Periodsize: 0
> Error setting HW params.

Ams is trying to use a buffer size of 1024 and your soundcard does not
support it. It then tries "0" (don't ask my why :-) and obviously fails.
You can set a different buffer size in the command line, type "ams
--help" to see the options available. Again, you will need to connect
its midi input to something that provides midi commands (use kaconnect
to see what's available and make the connections. 

-- Fernando