#37 Linux Sound Low - Help - could be just Mint.

[jsw1]

Concern about audio volume. Very pleased that most everything works. Very pleased about the enhancements. EasyABC's volume is same as timidity.

I feel I am missing something.

python3 -V -> Python 3.8.5

re: Timidity
/usr/bin/timidity "Mr McLae's Farewell.mid
python3 easy_abc.py
I tried using the sound font: using the soundfont /usr/share/sounds/sf2/FluidR3_GM.sf2
and also I tried timidity.
volume is the . same.

more detail.
I installed oracle virtual box 6.1.16 on top of centos7, Installed mint 20 , downloaded the EasyABC 1.3.7.8 source followed these instructions fairly closely : https://github.com/jwdj/EasyABC/blob/master/using_EasyABC_in_Linux.txt

when asked about real time settings for jackd - I selected real time. I couldn't find how to change it.

and I pulled in wxPython
sudo pip3 install -U \
-f https://extras.wxpython.org/wxPython4/extras/linux/gtk3/ubuntu-20.04 \
wxPython

Generally everything worked. Pretty Amazing actually. Sound for all of Linux was low. Followed Mint instructions to boost the volume through the volume icon to 150 percent. Now Firefox/youtube etc is loud enough. System sounds loud enough.

EasyABC and Timitity however are still low volume. Thoughts?
Also perhaps an enhansement through python to have a volume slider like these other applications?

Thanks Much
jsw1

[jsw1]

I tried the older EasyABC version 1.3.7.7 with Mint 18.1 and Mint 20 .. but with python2 going away I ran into more problems. Version 1.3.3.8 installed fairly cleanly.

[jsw1]

I just noticed I can play around with timidity's sound.
this is pretty loud:
/usr/bin/timidity -A100,120a "Mr McLae's Farewell.mid"
I suppose I could use timidity.. but is there a way I can do it with the soundfont? so I can still have note following feature that I really like?

[jsw1]

I am not 100% sure I am using alsa however:
apt-get install fluidsynth
if I play without any parameters .. same sound level.
fluidsynth /usr/share/sounds/sf2/FluidR3_GM.sf2 mr.mid
If I add some options .. I get much closer to what I want and I don't know how to set that in EasyABC.

fluidsynth -g1 -a alsa /usr/share/sounds/sf2/FluidR3_GM.sf2 mr.mid

[seymour shlien]

This is just a wild guess. If your sound card is 24-bit rather than 16-bit, there could be an incompatibility. i.e. your audio player is putting the 16 bit output from the soundfont into
the lower position of the 24-bit integer.

[jsw1]

I saw your note and will give it a try. sound on the Centos 7 system (host) is not bad. Sound on the Guest (virtualbox and mint 20.0 ) is where various issues are happening. what recommendations do you have for a mint vm in virtual box? I can also I noticed that the vm was pulse audio yet I think most of mint is alsa? I can also run a different mint. I'll keep looking
thanks.

[jsw1]

I'll keep looking. But firefox plays youtube fine. It now has midi plugin and mp3 plugin that works as expected. musescore was a little quiet, but a mixer setting allowed me to boost it. Still not sure where to look.

[jsw1]

Maybe this is more of a request now. I have come to the conclusion that it is working fine. I had some loud fans running and I could not hear easyabc. I do wish we could boost the volume like other programs mentioned above .. firefox, timidity, even fluidsynth2 from the command line. Thanks for your thoughts. ps. The vm is running pulse audio, the equalizer did nothing. but the sound control in mint let me boost sound to 150%. that then allowed easyabc to be heard, and I could reduce the volume of say players in firefox.