I am thinking of buying the Dell Inspire mini 9 running linux, to play midi files thru a ketron sd2, which will then go into a PA system for backing tracks. Has anyone tried this or has feedback if this will work?

The dell mini 9 is small and the stage footprint will not take up much room. I play sax and akai 400s windsynth.

Any feedback will be appreciated.

i will give it a shot later today when I move the ketron to the midi box. It means that the edirol usb to midi thing has to work too, if that works then I suspect the ketron will be fine.

I would suspect that your biggest issue is not whether the Ketron works or not, since MIDI is MIDI, no matter what the OS is, but whether or not you'll be able to find an interface that has drivers for MIDI in Linux.

Gary

Thanks for the help. I forgot that drivers are also needed. I was hoping that it was just a plug and play.

You're correct on that issue. I will be curious to see if john is able to get his attempt to work.

If John's experiment works out, it is still not a guarantee that same would work out on a Dell. Dell is, well, Dell. They don't have a stellar track record when it comes to music making programs. Some will and other models won't.



--Mac

Thanks Mac, any suggestions on what would be a good setup?

I've just looked at M-Audio, and the Audiophile 2496 PCI card DOES have Linux/Unix drivers for it, but I don't know if they support the MIDI interface. The stand alone MIDI boxes do not, so you'll need to find something that will support the Linux OS.

Good Luck.

Gary

Dell Inspire mini 9 is a mini laptop.

Can't install a PCI card like the Delta in there.

I'd first try using the onboard soundcard for the realtracks and realdrums and a USB MIDI connector to get to the SD2.


--Mac

I don't know enough about Linux to find an interface that'll work. The M-Audio stuff doesn't support Linux/Unix, at least as far as the USB ports are concerned.

There were some people who were modifying the old Midiman (now M-Audio) Midisports to work with Linux, but that seemed to be a firmware change, meaning that it would be hard to go back.

Others were using the Roland UX-1EM with a sequencer without drivers, and it worked.

I don't know, I think it's going to be tough to run it with Linux, unless you run Windows inside of Linux.

Gary

I have a Sony Vaio laptop running Ubuntu 7 - Gutsy Gibbon

Open Applications - Terminal

$ aplaymidi -l (hit enter)
gives..
Port Client name Port name
14:0 Midi Through Midi Thru

Now I plug in the Edirol UM1 and repeat
and

Port Client name Port name
14:0 Midi Through Midi Thru
20:0 UM-1 UM-1 Midi


I played a midi file through my JV 1010 external midi device and it worked fine. I did not need to download firmware as some suggest. SO caveat, if your usb2 port recognizes the UM1 you are good to go. I would buy a UM1 and take it to the store and run the above test.

If I get time in the next few days I'll record the JV1010 and the ketron on the save file and post the output.

Coolbeans, John!

Thanks,


--Mac

I am running the upgrade to ubuntu as we speak it projects an hour to dowload and reconfigure. I will recheck the midi connection. Then I will try band in a box under wine. Or if I do it after supper I might do it with and under wine, but I gotta take the ride to the mechanic cause some coolant is leaking that freaky green colour and I just had the engine changed so something is amiss....

John,
I'm glad you were able to get the Roland to work in Ubuntu.

I hope the coolant leak is a very small issue, easily fixed, and not the harbinger of something more serious.

Gary

Somehow or other I don't think ya want to be the mechanic who forgot to tighten the hoseclamp on John's engine.

just sayin'...



--Mac

I would like to thank eveyone for their knowledge, help and assistance in answering my question if it would work. I am definitely going to buy the um1-ex midi/usb interface with sd2.

Thanks again to all,
Patrick

p.s. John, I hope the leak is not anything serious on your car.

So I tested the UM-1 on ubuntu gutsy gibbon and it worked fine.
I upgraded to ubuntu 8.10 Hardy Heron and that was not fun, I should have read the forums first and realized I should have waited a bit, however after an hour of tweaking it's working.
And I can confirm that the kmidi player works the same and the UM-1 works fine.

I am seeing that people are operating Microsoft Office without problems in Wine so I'm going to give Band in a Box a shot too. With Open Office I've never bothered with Microsoft Office, but I guess some people have corporate stuff that needs that software...anyway....

I would suggest if you have ubuntu 7 you wait a while longer to go to 8.