Virtual Piano And Synth: Recording Sick Sounds

[misfitplanet]

Create and Record Sick Sounds With Synth Using Virtual Keyboard
This was tested with an updated Mint Julia 10.

You may want to disable desktop effects to get better performance while using the synth. Right Click On Desktop -> Change Background -> Visual Effects -> None

1. Download Packages:

Open up Synaptic Package Manager and Download these packages:
- amsynth
- vmpk
- jackd1 (for testing, when prompted do not check enable realtime, you can change later)

What Each Package Does:
amsynth makes all the cool sounds
vmpk gives you a virtual piano keyboard on screen
jackd1 connects the keyboard to the synthesizer

2. Launch All Programs

From the Mint Menu, and sub-menu: Sound and Video, open these five programs and arrange and resize the windows so you can see everything all at once.

- Sound Recorder
- Jack Control
- Amsynth
- VMPK
- Pulse Audio Volume Control (This is only necessary for set-up)

I like to put my piano keyboard at the top the screen and expand so the keys are bigger than the default size when the program opens.

3. Connect Piano Keyboard And Synthesizer

- In Jack Audio Window, press the Connect button.
- Choose ALSA tab.
- Under Readable Clients, choose VMPK Output
- Under Writable Clients, choose amSynth
- Press the Connect button.
- Hit a key on the piano to test.


4. Record A Sound

This part can maybe be a little tricky, so be patient.

- In the Sound Recorder Window press Record. (The Level at the bottom may not be enabled at this point. We are about to enable it.)
- In the Volume Control Window, choose the Recording Tab.
- There is a pop-down menu button for the Sound Record item. Make sure it is set to Monitor of Internal Audio Analog Stereo.
- Hit a few keys on the piano keyboard to make sure you see the level change in the Record Window.
- Now hit the stop button in Sound Record, and hit play to test that you recorded your sound.

You can close the Pulse Audio Volume Control Window to get it out of the way when you are recording fine.

Now you can create cool Sounds with Mint! I hope you find this as cool as I do. I'm going to create my own log-in and system sounds now! Check out Jokosher if you want to mix sounds together.

Let me know how this works for you. And leave you version of Mint so others can know it can work for them too.

If you want to learn how to use the synth better, watch this guy on youtube.

http://youtu.be/YHR9hQVrRIQ

[Anubisone]

I dont think using vmpk is a good idea, especially if it causes errors on many distros and versions:

Code: Select all

(process:20542): GConf-WARNING **: Client failed to connect to the D-BUS daemon:
Did not receive a reply. Possible causes include: the remote application did not send a reply, the message bus security policy blocked the reply, the reply timeout expired, or the network connection was broken.


I tried many times to solve this problem without success and I see also, that almost nobody is interested in Linux as me, so I think Linux Mint could be a bad choice for doing something.