[PlanetCCRMA] Fitful Audio

[Fernando Lopez-Lezcano]

On Sat, 2007-12-08 at 16:48 -0600, scarl@sewanee.edu wrote:
> I have PlanetCCRMA installed on an IBM ThinkPad running FC5.  I get audio
> from some applications and not others, Jack-enabled or not.
> 
>  * XMMS (no jack) sounds fine.
> 
>  * Audacity (no jack) sounds fine.
> 
>  * XMMS (jack-enabled) with jack started sounds fine
> 
>  * Snd (no jack), no audio
> 
>  * Common Music generating a midi file (no jack) with playing enabled, no
> audio

I don't know what default player Common Music is trying to use. 

> So, to hear the midi file produced by Common Music, I shut those
> applications down, start jack, and try the MIDI sequencer apps.
> 
>  * Rosegarden, no audio (QjackCtl shows it connected)
> 
>  * Muse, no audio
> 
>  * Seq24, no audio

Seq 24 is a MIDI sequencer. It needs to control an external synth of
your choice, it will not make noise on its own. Same holds true for
Rosegarden or Muse if you are playing MIDI tracks only. Some of them
have internal support for (for example) fluidsynth which is a soundfont
player, some require an external sound renderer to make noise. 

To use fluidsynth standalone you can use the Qsynth front end. You will
need a soundfont (for example "yum install fluid-soundfont") and you
will need to configure qsynth to use it. 

> My understanding is that Jack takes over the audio system and needs to be
> stopped before those applications that are not jack-enabled will sound. 

That is correct. But most applications these days (for audio creation)
are Jack aware. 

> However I don't understand why only XMMS seems to want to play when Jack
> is running.

-- Fernando