[Alsa-user] SBLive, sound fonts and simultaneous MIDI voices

[Taupter <ta...@ba...>]

Hello


I have properly configured ALSA-0.9.0beta8a drivers for SBLive Platinum 
5.1 (Emu10K1) on my system, and I can load sound fonts and play MIDI 
files, but it seems some voices are missing.

When I play a MIDI file (using pmidi 1.5.4), some voices  simply don't 
play, cutting at a time some drums, at another time some instruments (in 
the same play), as if the Emu10K1 were eating notes at random. When I 
play the same midi file in Windows 98, everything works fine. I tested 
with various MIDI files with different kinds of complexity, and the same 
behaviour occurs. These skips occur more as more complex the MIDI file is.

I'm using kernel 2.4.10 with RTC enabled (without any low-latency 
patch), 256MB of RAM, the same 8MB SF2 bank I use in Windows.

Interesting to note I got this output:

bash-2.03$ pmidi -l
  Port     Client name                       Port name
  65:0     Emu10k1 WaveTable                 Emu10k1 Port 0
  65:1     Emu10k1 WaveTable                 Emu10k1 Port 1
  65:2     Emu10k1 WaveTable                 Emu10k1 Port 2
  65:3     Emu10k1 WaveTable                 Emu10k1 Port 3

I tested and I was able to play four simultaneous MIDI files without 
ploblem. Well, to me would be better if I had just one MIDI port but 
able to play without missing notes! :)

I would like to know what is wrong, if am I doing sometrhing wrong or 
the driver itself is acting erraticly.


Thanks


Claudio