Rosegarden

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Resources

Rosegarden is a music composition and editing environment based around a MIDI sequencer that features a rich understanding of music notation and includes basic support for digital audio.

Installation

Emerge

root #emerge --ask media-sound/rosegarden

Configuration

Kernel

KERNEL Enable sequencer support

Device Drivers --->
  <*> Sound card support Search for <code>CONFIG_SOUND</code> to find this item. --->
    <*> Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Search for <code>CONFIG_SND</code> to find this item. --->
      <*> Sequencer support Search for <code>CONFIG_SND_SEQUENCER</code> to find this item.

Each of the above kernel configuration options can instead be built as a module (<M>), but in that case the system must be configured to load the snd-seq-midi module and its dependencies at boot. To do so, add a file in the /etc/modules-load.d/ directory, creating the directory if necessary:

FILE sequencer.conf

snd-seq-midi

Software synth

Install a software synth that can be used by Rosegarden. Qsynth is a Qt GUI frontend to FluidSynth (media-sound/fluidsynth):

root #emerge --ask media-sound/qsynth

Install a soundfont that can be used by the software synth, e.g. the Fluid Release 3 (Fluid R3) General MIDI soundfont:

root #emerge --ask media-sound/fluid-soundfont

Configure the synth to use the relevant soundfont and audio driver. For example, in Qsynth, the soundfont can be specified via Settings -> Soundfonts, and the relevant Fluid R3 file is /usr/share/sounds/sf2/FluidR3_GM.sf2; and PipeWire can be specified as the audio driver via Settings -> Audio.

Usage

Before starting Rosegarden, ensure the software synth (e.g. Qsynth) is running:

user $qsynth

Start Rosegarden:

user $rosegarden

If not using JACK, but instead using e.g. PipeWire, ensure that the following Rosegarden settings, available via Edit -> Audio, are disabled:

Make default JACK connections for audio outputs
Make default JACK connections for audio inputs
Start JACK automatically

Exporting to MP3

Rosegarden can export a composition to a MIDI file, which can then be converted to an MP3 via the use of TiMidity++ and ffmpeg (see those respective articles for installation instructions).

In Rosegarden's main window, select File -> Export -> Export MIDI file, and specify an appropriate filename, e.g. composition.mid.

See the TiMidity++ article section on converting MIDI to mp3 for instructions on how to convert this exported MIDI file to mp3.