Timidity++

TiMidity++ is a software synthesizer. It can play MIDI files by converting them into PCM waveform data; give it a MIDI data along with digital instrument data files, then it synthesizes them in real-time, and plays. It can not only play sounds, but also can save the generated waveforms into hard disks as various audio file formats.

Prerequisities

Timidity++

• Timidity++

Patchset

A patchset is required for MIDI files to be audible through TiMidity++. Choose one of them.

• Freepats
• Eawpats - Sounds nicer, but may have some intellectual property issues. If this is a concern to you, use freepats instead (For more information, see /usr/doc/eawpats-12/copyrigh.txt).

Installation

Compile it from source or use slackbuild.

Configuration

Timidity++ won't play any sound by default. If you encounter this error, you have to tell Timidity++ where to find patchset.

No instrument mapped to tone bank X, program YY - this instrument will not be heard

To do so, add following line to /etc/timidity.cfg

For Freepats:

source /etc/timidity/freepats.cfg

For Eawpats:

source /etc/timidity/eawpats.cfg

Using

At this point, you should have Timidity++ working. Test it by command:

# timidity somemidifile.mid

Playback

To play MIDI type previous command

 # timidity <somemidifile>

Sound server for other apps

This is useful, when application native sound engine doesn't work or Timidity++ sounds nicer than the application native sound engine (eg. TuxGuitar using Java soundbanks).

To start a sound server using ALSA

# timidity -iA -Os

where

• -iA means Launch TiMidity++ as ALSA sequencer client
• -Os means Output to ALSA

Other usage

For other usage see manpage.