TiMidity++

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Resources

Package information

Wikipedia

TiMidity++ is a software synthesizer that can interpret MIDI information,

Installation

Note
If TiMidity++ is to be used as a virtual MIDI instrument, see also the MIDI controller guide.

USE flags

USE flags for media-sound/timidity++ Handy MIDI to WAV converter with OSS and ALSA output support

`X`	Add support for X11
`Xaw3d`	Add support for the 3d athena widget set
`alsa`	Add support for media-libs/alsa-lib (Advanced Linux Sound Architecture)
`ao`	Use libao audio output library for sound playback
`emacs`	Add support for GNU Emacs
`flac`	Add support for FLAC: Free Lossless Audio Codec
`gtk`	Add support for x11-libs/gtk+ (The GIMP Toolkit)
`jack`	Add support for the JACK Audio Connection Kit
`motif`	Add support for the Motif toolkit
`nas`	Add support for network audio sound
`ncurses`	Add ncurses support (console display library)
`ogg`	Add support for the Ogg container format (commonly used by Vorbis, Theora and flac)
`oss`	Add support for OSS (Open Sound System)
`selinux`	!!internal use only!! Security Enhanced Linux support, this must be set by the selinux profile or breakage will occur
`slang`	Add support for the slang text display library (it's like ncurses, but different)
`speex`	Add support for the speex audio codec (used for speech)
`tk`	Add support for Tk GUI toolkit
`vorbis`	Add support for the OggVorbis audio codec

Data provided by the Gentoo Package Database · Last update: 2024-11-26 06:17 More information about USE flags

Emerge

Emerge media-sound/timidity++:

root #emerge --ask media-sound/timidity++

Optionally, install media-sound/fluid-soundfont:

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

Configuration

Available patchsets can be queried using eselect:

user $eselect timidity list

Available TiMidity++ patchsets:
  [1]   fluid-soundfont
  [2]   freepats

As an example, to set the fluid-soundfont as the default patchset for the current user:

user $eselect timidity set 1

Starting the daemon

The TiMidity++ daemon can be run in user mode and need not be a system service:

user $timidity -iAD -Os

Timidity can be used with the JACK audio server. It must be started by the same user that is running JACK, e.g.:

user $timidity -iA -B2,8 -Oj -EFreverb=0 -s 48000

Usage

Convert a MIDI file to mp3

TiMidity++ can be used to "play" a MIDI file to stdout, which can be piped to ffmpeg (install if necessary) to create an mp3 file.

On the command line, run:

user $timidity -Ow -o - <file_to_convert.mid> | ffmpeg -i - <output_file.mp3>

This should create a new .mp3 file.

The -Ow option to timidity specifies that output should be in WAV format, the -o - specifies the output should be sent to stdout. The -i - switch for ffmpeg makes it take input from stdin.

Troubleshooting

Pulseaudio

Unfortunately TiMidity++ has difficulties with PulseAudio.

Two possibilities to overcome the situation:

Remove media-sound/pulseaudio and disable PulseAudio support if installed, by removing the pulseaudio use flag from the system configuration
Emerge media-sound/timidity++ with Libao support by activating the ao use flag then run TiMidity++ with -Oo

Sound output monopolized by TiMidity++

Even with PulseAudio removed, sound may be blocked when TiMidity++ is run as a system service. The solution seems to be that some soundcards require a dmix parameter in /etc/asound.conf:

FILE /etc/asound.conf

defaults.pcm.dmix.rate 48000