Setting up digital piano and computer with MIDI interface

Question

I have a MIDI cable that has IN and OUT interfaces.

I want to connect my piano (Yamaha P95) with the laptop (running Ubuntu), so I can record midi songs.

I connected the cable between piano and laptop like in the following scheme:

 Yamaha P95
     +-- OUT :: IN-----------\
     +-- IN  :: OUT-----------\------USB :: USB--+Laptop

No software can detect piano events.

What are the ways to debug the problem? Have I done something wrong?

Relevant output:

ionicabizau@laptop:~$ lsusb
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 8087:8000 Intel Corp. 
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:8008 Intel Corp. 
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 004: ID 0bda:0139 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTS5139 Card Reader Controller
Bus 003 Device 003: ID 04f2:b3fd Chicony Electronics Co., Ltd 
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
ionicabizau@laptop:~$ modprobe snd-usb-audio
modprobe: ERROR: could not insert 'snd_usb_audio': Operation not permitted
ionicabizau@laptop:~$ sudo modprobe snd-usb-audio
[sudo] password for ionicabizau: 
ionicabizau@laptop:~$ lsusb
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 8087:8000 Intel Corp. 
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:8008 Intel Corp. 
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 004: ID 0bda:0139 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTS5139 Card Reader Controller
Bus 003 Device 003: ID 04f2:b3fd Chicony Electronics Co., Ltd 
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
ionicabizau@laptop:~$ arecordmidi -l
 Port    Client name                      Port name
 14:0    Midi Through                     Midi Through Port-0

@CL. How to load `snd-usb-audio`? After making sure it's loaded, I will run `lsusb` (right now I am not connected to the piano). — Ionică Bizău, Jul 03 '14 at 16:01
Is that Chicony thing a web cam? If the device does not even show up with `lsusb`, you have a hardware problem. (Note: loading the driver would not affect `lsusb`, only the output of `arecordmidi -l`.) — CL., Jul 04 '14 at 16:33
@CL. Probably it is (my laptop has webcam). I don't have any experience with MIDI connection. My laptop is an Asus N550JV-CN163D. Is the connection supposed to work, the cable being connected this way? I read in the [Yamaha P95](http://download.yamaha.com/search/product/?site=usa.yamaha.com&language=en&product_id=1056818) that there are MIDI channels. Is this related to my problem? Should I configure the keyboard/laptop somehow to be connected? — Ionică Bizău, Jul 04 '14 at 16:41
The USB/MIDI cable should show up in `lsusb` automatically. Try it on another port or with another machine; or try another device on this port. — CL., Jul 04 '14 at 16:43
@CL. How to connect it on another port? I also tried to connect it with another machine running Ubuntu, but it's the same problem. Maybe, if I will have a Windows machine, I will try it. I suppose it should work on Linux too... — Ionică Bizău, Jul 04 '14 at 16:48
Does your laptop have another USB port? (But if it doesn't work with another machine, it looks as if the USB/MIDI cable is broken.) — CL., Jul 04 '14 at 17:11
@CL. I will try to set it on another port. I don't have a good experience with audio recordings on Linux... This is one of the things that stop me [to post new YouTube videos](http://www.youtube.com/IonicaBizau)... I also tried to [record midi via a roll up piano using an USB cable](http://askubuntu.com/q/391148/148451). Maybe together, someday we will fix these issues. :-) — Ionică Bizău, Jul 04 '14 at 17:53
@CL. Related question: http://stackoverflow.com/q/24932387/1420197 — Ionică Bizău, Jul 24 '14 at 11:35

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 03 '14 at 15:54

0

Switch the plugs. I had such a cable once, and at least in that case I had to connect "IN" to "IN" and "OUT" to "OUT".

answered Jul 03 '14 at 15:54

Daniel

214
1
6

I just tried this, but it doesn't work. See the output. – Ionică Bizău Jul 04 '14 at 15:26

Setting up digital piano and computer with MIDI interface

1 Answers1