Datasheet

Note
If a MIDI player is interrupted during playback, a continuous sound
may persist. If this happens, run the all_notes_off script or restart
ALSA as root with rcalsasound restart.
Note
Many sound cards (like Soundblaster AWE and Live!) have an internal
WaveTable synthesizer that converts MIDI events into audible sounds. These
MIDI events can be sent to the WaveTable synthesizer by an external MIDI key-
board or by a program, such as a MIDI player or sequencer. For Soundblaster
AWE and Live! cards, the WaveTable synthesizer must be initialized with a sound
font before any sound can be heard.
15.9.1 Loading Sound Fonts: SB Live! and AWE
The package awesfx contains the sfxload command for loading sound fonts
in Soundblaster AWE and Live! cards. Suitable sound font files are available on
the driver CD of your sound card. The start-up script of ALSA can automatically
load the sound fonts required for the WaveTable synthesis, provided the respec-
tive files were installed from the Creative driver CD using YaST. Currently, the
script only works for one sound card. However, ALSA can easily manage up to
eight sound cards.
Sound fonts can be loaded with a command like sfxload -D <n>
/usr/share/sfbank/creative/8MBGMSFX.SF2. hni stands for the number
of the sound card (0, 1, etc.). This may not be the number under which the sound
card was configured. This number is instead determined by the order in which
the individual sound drivers are loaded.
You can also load one of the sound fonts installed in /usr/share/sounds/sf2.
The sound font Vintage_Dreams_Waves_v2.sf2 by IAN WIL SON contains
128 analog synthesizer sounds and eight drum sets. It is suitable for SB AWE as
well as for SB Live! cards. The ROM sound font gu11-rom.sf2 by SAMUEL
COLLINS is only suitable for SB AWE cards. It provides an extended general
MIDI bank for these cards. Review the copyright files and the documentation
in /usr/share/doc/packages/snd_sf2. More sound fonts are available at
URLs such as http://www.hammersound.net.
194 15.9. ALSA and MIDI