[Wine] status of Jack?

[Csillag Kristof]

Hey Jordan,

>> I decided to check the "Wine + WineASIO + Kontakt-Standalone-App" direction
>> first.
>>
>> After installing latest WINE, WineASIO and Kontakt Player, Kontakt can
>> detect that I have ASIO (besides the DirectSound interface), but if I select
>> it, it says that the device is "Not present".
>>
>> Do you have idea what do I need to do to actually run it?
> I've run kontakt before, but not in a long while. it sounds like you
> are close, but maybe forgot a step. did your register wineASIO with
> the Wine registry??
Yes.
>   if you are using a 64bit system (and OS),
(I am.)
> did you 1st specify your wine prefix as being win32 before registering wineASIO?
Yes. (And I saw that it installed to the proper place.)
> What version of jack are you using?
jack2, v1.9.7, from Debian Unstable.

> Apps using WineASIO will actually be using ALSA-midi NOT Jack-midi.
And how do I configure ALSA midi for wine?


> You must specify what midi ports you plan on using inside of your app, usually somewhere in the
> VSTi's preferences/options.... ie: midi-keyboard for midi-in, or
> possibly alsa-midithrough + setting the midi channel - depending on
> what you are trying to do.
Kontakt listed no MIDI ports on the MIDI tab of settings.

> Note: you should be able to use a2jmidid as
> well, for alsa-midi to jack-midi bridge. - although, i haven't tried
> this, as i don't require it for the apps i run with WineASIO.
I have tried a2jmidid before, and it worked; so if I can configure ALSA 
midi input for WINE app, then it should be sufficient.

> FST/Festige uses Jack-midi exclusively with wine/VSTs.
That sound promising. I am trying that next.

> I would also make sure that you have wineASIO properly installed, as
> you may like to use it as well. for example, sometimes a VSTi may
> crash (or be unstable) using FST, while with wineASIO it works
> flawlessly (or vice-versa). there may be other times, when a VSTi
> doesn't work with FST and does NOT have a standalone version (only a
> .dll) ~ in this case, you might want to checkout SAVIhost or VSTHost,
> as they provide a method of hosting a single-vst (SAVIhost) or
> multiple (with VSThost). link;
>
> http://www.hermannseib.com/english/savihost.htm
>
> VSThost is also available there.
>
> anyways, in a circumstance like my second example, you may want to
> wrap the vst's .dll into an .exe (standalone app) - which will require
> WineASIO to work.
I have not (yet) given up in WineASIO; I will keep experimenting with it 
later.

> running windows proaudio apps in wine +
> jack-audio-connection-kit can be a bit confusing at first.
Well, I have no problem with having to do a bit of experimenting ....  
if it works in the end.
> * I still have to say though, running a sampler-type VSTi through
> wine, isn't necessarily the best idea. [...] I've ripped a few vst's with it. very useful utility.
I understand what you say, but i simply can't find a satisfactory native 
Linux app for what I want to do. (Which is, authentic piano sound.)

A good piano synth engine is quite a bit more than a sampler; there are 
many, many sophisticated interactions between the various notes, the 
damper pedal, etc, etc... it's hard to get it right. It's not just a 
matter of playing back samples. (Galaxy Pianos does this with 
sophisticated Kontakt scripts.) The only app that comes close is 
Pianoteq: it has a native Linux version, and can use JACK midi and 
audio. I have successfully used it with my system (the demo version of 
it, anyway), but the sound is just not satisfactory. (It is almost 
completely modeled, uses very small sample set, smaller than 50M. Ivory 
II is 40G (for 4 pianos); Galaxi Pianos are about 5G, per piano.)

    * * *

So I would like to  try to get Galaxy Pianos working first. Since I am 
not going to do any commercial performances, a few xruns here and there 
can be acceptable. (And I plan to improve the quality by adding RAM, so 
that most samples can be cached.)

   * * *

Can you suggest a simple windows application, the runs in wine, and I 
can use it for testing my WineASIO installation, independently of Kontakt?

Thank you for your help:

    Kristof