[18:48] <tatie> hello, i installed virtual midi keyboard however nothing happens when i press the keys. midi sound doesn't play. am i missing somehting here?+
[18:49] <holstein> tatie: yup... you'll need to route it to a sound
[18:49] <tatie> amarok is playing MP3, VLC i use for AudioCD, but midi i haven0t tried so far
[18:49] <tatie> ok how do i do that?
[18:49] <holstein> a lot of the stuff in ubuntustudio doesnt do anything... you need to know how to pair them up
[18:49] <tatie> i am using Kubuntu
[18:49] <holstein> the virtual keyboard is just that... a virtual keyboard
[18:49] <holstein> tatie: its all ubuntu
[18:50] <tatie> in windows it plays ok
[18:50] <holstein> the same repos
[18:50] <holstein> tatie: in windows, what plays ok?
[18:50] <tatie> the virtual keyboard
[18:50] <holstein> not the virtual keyboard from the ubuntu repositories
[18:50] <tatie> VMPK
[18:50] <holstein> nah
[18:50] <holstein> thats not the same application, AFAIK
[18:50] <tatie> well no obviously not bu tit's the same one. got it form sourceforge
[18:50] <holstein> anyways, you need to route it to a synth
[18:50] <holstein> you can use aconnectgui
[18:50] <holstein> you can use JACK
[18:51] <holstein> you can go into the applications and do it somehow as well, but i use JACK, which has its own learning curve
[18:51] <tatie> no i do not have an instruments. i wont' to mkae sounds  with computer keyboard. i can do that in windows wiht this porgramme
[18:51] <holstein> tatie: right, this is *not* windows
[18:52] <holstein> the one in windows is a standalone application
[18:52] <tatie> http://vmpk.sourceforge.net/
[18:52] <tatie> this is it.
[18:52] <holstein> with sounds and the controller all in one place
[18:52] <holstein> tatie: let me say...
[18:52] <holstein> i have used the virtual keyboard in linux
[18:52] <holstein> and it makes sound
[18:52] <holstein> if you would like to hear about how that works
[18:53] <holstein> its *not* the same as in windows
[18:53] <holstein> if you are looking for an all-in-one , standalone application that is its own controller and application, check out lmms
[18:53] <tatie> Ah so same porgramme with same source code wokrs in windows (plays sounds when you press a key) but not in linux after install?
[18:53] <holstein> i dont think lmms requires JACK
[18:54] <holstein> tatie: i dont know what is automatically happening in you particular windows installation midi-wise
[18:54] <holstein> the virtual keyboard isjust that
[18:54] <holstein> it makes no sound
[18:54] <holstein> it only controls sound modules
[18:54] <holstein> you might have something automatically routing the midi signal in windows for you
[18:55] <holstein> the way i do it...
[18:55] <holstein> i open jack, start it.. that is controlling my audio at that point, then i route whatever applications or hardware to whatever other applications or hardware (virtual or otherwise)
[18:56] <holstein> the way you might want to do it is to just install lmms, and try and make the virtual keyboard use some of the sounds im lmms
[18:56] <holstein> tatie: virtual keyboard makes no sound... its not a bug, its just not what it does
[18:58] <holstein> the most simple one i usually talk folks through is using JACK with a virtual or actual keyboard and zynaddxubfx (or the newer fork, yoshimi)
[18:59] <holstein> that is the way MIDI works... you have a controller and a synth, or tone generator, or sound module... MIDI brain is what they call it
[18:59] <holstein> when you see that in action on a hardware level, there is an actual midi cable plugged between the hardware
[19:00] <holstein> now, we can do that via USB, or just inside the box in routing hardware such as JACK, or aconnectgui
[19:01] <holstein> there are applications, and actuall hardware that are both controllers and sound modules, but these are usually lower end, more consumer grade gear
[19:01] <holstein> not very "garage-band" like
[19:03] <holstein> tatie: feel free and check with the some of the MIDI experts i hang with over in #opensourcemusicians
[19:03] <tatie> thanks this is too complicated
[19:03] <holstein> tatie: yup
[19:03] <holstein> tatie: lmms is not though
[19:04] <holstein> its all in one, and cross platform
[19:04] <holstein> very "garage-band" like
[19:06] <tatie> in windows i tried two keyboards and one i only untziupped while this one i extracted the exe file. when i press the buttons on computer keyboard it produces sounds. i can change the type of sound (for example drum, violing...just like with syntesizer).it doesn't require any programming, routing, additional setup nothing. i remember a short porgamme in BASIC on spectrum that did the same /similar thing albeit with limited soiunds it could
[19:06] <tatie> produce)
[19:06] <holstein> tatie: yes... lmms is like that
[19:06] <holstein> tatie: however, that is *not* just like a synthesizer
[19:06] <holstein> a synthesiser is just that
[19:07] <holstein> its synthesises sounds
[19:07] <holstein> the fact that we associate that with a keyboard, and an all-in-one unit is actually mis-use of that term
[19:07] <holstein> they call that a 'workstation'
[19:07] <holstein> an all in one
[19:07] <tatie> i am looking at lmms it porduces no sound
[19:08] <holstein> a synthesiser (hardware or otherwise) has no controller necessarily, though it can
[19:08] <tatie> though the lights blink when i click on keyboard
[19:08] <holstein> tatie: you might need to check the routing
[19:10] <holstein> i find the addition of the pavucontrol package helpful when troubleshooting pulse audio sound
[19:16] <tatie> Qsynth1: Failed to create the audio driver (jack).
[19:17] <tatie> 0:16:36.299 JACK is starting...
[19:17] <tatie> 20:16:36.299 /usr/bin/jackd -dalsa -dhw:0 -r44100 -p1024 -n2
[19:17] <tatie> 20:16:36.307 Could not start JACK. Sorry.
[19:17] <tatie> 20:16:44.693 JACK was stopped with exit status=255.
[19:17] <tatie> 20:16:44.694 Post-shutdown script...
[19:17] <tatie> 20:16:44.694 killall jackd
[19:17] <tatie> jackd: no process found
[19:19] <holstein> tatie: yeah, i would like for you to avoid JACK use if you can
[19:19] <holstein> its not trivial, and quite overkill for what you are doing
[19:20] <holstein> http://lmms.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Troubleshooting
[19:20] <holstein> i would look at the routing...
[19:20] <holstein> i know i keep saying that, but at some point, you have to look at thw routing, of configuration... whatever you want to call it
[19:21] <holstein> you need to see that the audio device/driver, whatever you want to call that, inside of LMMS, is set to alsa, or pulse, not JACK
[19:21] <holstein> then, you should have no issues with JACK then
[19:21] <holstein> you can also look and see about the MIDI routing... make sure that an instrument is selected
[19:22] <holstein> if you see a light in LMMS, you could be triggering the controller, and have not selected a sound yet
[19:22] <holstein> tatie: qsynth works with JACK
[19:22] <tatie> lmms works now.
[19:22] <holstein> tatie: qsything is *not* trivial
[19:24] <tatie> but it crashes often
[19:24] <holstein> are you one 10.04?
[19:24] <tatie> eh i give up. time for dinner anyway. thanks for the help. i will look into documentations a bit more see if i can figure it out
[19:24] <tatie> 10.10
[19:25] <holstein> you could look for a PPA
[19:25] <tatie> will try
[19:25] <holstein> anyways, the dev hangs in #opensourcemusicians sometimes
[19:25] <tatie> thanks again. bye,
[19:25] <holstein> sure