A good MIDI sequencer?

Support & discussion regarding DAWs and MIDI sequencers.

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Mister Mint
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A good MIDI sequencer?

Post by Mister Mint »

Can someone reckommend a good simple MIDI editor/ sequencer for Linux Mint 17.1? A simple one where you can import a MIDI file and start editing it's tracks right away. Rosegarden and Muse are to troublesome for me, I couldn't get them to work at all, and Ardour's MIDI part is too cumbersome, with all the setting for each track (choosing synth, etc) before you can get started. The same with Qtractor. It's okay with a MIDI-only sequencer, because I don't think a Linux sequencer exists that handles both MIDI and Audio easily?

There's a list of MIDI sequencers here http://linux-sound.org/midi.html, but don't know if they're updated...
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Re: A good MIDI sequencer?

Post by English Guy »

Seq24 is a long standing basic midi sequencer.
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Re: A good MIDI sequencer?

Post by Mister Mint »

Thanks, but Seq24 is TOO simple, after all. I need to able to edit notes, and change the volume of tracks.

A problem with Ardour is that it has the ANYTHING but reasonable "Reasonable Synth" as default. You can choose another synth under Edit > Preferences > Midi > Midi Audition, but "Reasonable Synth" stays as default! :cry: Probably a bug.
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Re: A good MIDI sequencer?

Post by Lyberta »

I use Rosegarden for MIDI and have never had problems with it. Just start your synth as a separate app and connect the MIDI out of Rosegarden to your Synth.
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Re: A good MIDI sequencer?

Post by rncbc »

Mister Mint wrote:... MIDI part is too cumbersome, with all the setting for each track (choosing synth, etc) before you can get started. The same with Qtractor. It's okay with a MIDI-only sequencer, because I don't think a Linux sequencer exists that handles both MIDI and Audio easily?
so qtractor is too cumbersome? you probably have your own first impressions and reasons.

but before it sticks with that, have you ever seen and heard any of these?
  • 1. qtractor wiki, formerly the user manual and quick start guide.
    2. Why, Phil?, an awesome series of in-the-zone tutorials re. qtractor making music all along the watch tower ;)
hth.
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paulmerchant
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Re: A good MIDI sequencer?

Post by paulmerchant »

rncbc wrote:
so qtractor is too cumbersome? you probably have your own first impressions and reasons.

but before it sticks with that, have you ever seen and heard any of these?
  • 1. qtractor wiki, formerly the user manual and quick start guide.
    2. Why, Phil?, an awesome series of in-the-zone tutorials re. qtractor making music all along the watch tower ;)
hth.
cheers
Second qtractor, and I'm not even the developer. :wink:
I keep coming back to qtractor because it's great with midi.
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Re: A good MIDI sequencer?

Post by chaocrator »

There's a list of MIDI sequencers here http://linux-sound.org/midi.html, but don't know if they're updated...
that list is certainly outdated.
another one, which is (relatively) up to date, is here:
http://wiki.linuxaudio.org/apps/categories/sequencers

anyway, if we look closely, we would say that it's hard to find such thing as a pure track-oriented MIDI sequencer nowadays.

for MIDI purposes we have either full-blown DAWs with MIDI capabilities (MusE, Qtractor, Ardour, proprietary Bitwig Studio, etc), or a few pattern-oriented (not track-oriented) alternatives, such as Non-Sequencer or Seq24/Seq64. the rest of stuff is abandoned & dead.

in particular, my favorite HarmonySEQ is abandoned for a long time too, and not packaged for modern distros.

so, since all-in-one DAW paradigm is dominant in music production nowadays, you probably should learn one or more DAW(s) you like. (qtractor is definitely a good choice. MusE is quirky, but i like it anyway, beacuse its workflow and feature set are close to earlier versions of cubase which i came from.)

on the other hand, you can try alternatives, e.g. Non-sequencer, or build HarmonySEQ from source, but pattern-oriented paradigm is not that universal and much less common.

and just for fun, i must mention such things as Machina, or upcaming Senode that is announced to be for linux too :mrgreen:
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Re: A good MIDI sequencer?

Post by Babarosa »

Simple but fine sequencer programs are for example
Midi Editor - http://midieditor.sourceforge.net/
Aria Maestosa - http://ariamaestosa.sourceforge.net/
Speedy Midi - https://sourceforge.net/projects/speedy ... =directory
qtractor is too cumbersome
:? QTractor is a great piece of software!

Debian 12 - MOTU M4, ESI Maya22 USB - Rosegarden, Reaper

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Re: A good MIDI sequencer?

Post by folderol »

"anyway, if we look closely, we would say that it's hard to find such thing as a pure track-oriented MIDI sequencer nowadays."
Ummm.
I don't find Rosegarden at all hard to find :lol:
The Yoshimi guy {apparently now an 'elderly'}
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Re: A good MIDI sequencer?

Post by chaocrator »

currently Rosegarden is certainly a DAW, i.e. all-in-one audio + MIDI + plugin host thing.
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Re: A good MIDI sequencer?

Post by rncbc »

shamelessly, it cannot be easier that drag-and-dropping a MIDI file (SMF) and get the party started on qtractor ;)

of course you'll need a sound module, as synth or, generally speaking, a MIDI instrument to actually make some noise; qtractor doesn't have any built-in instruments. it's a sequencer, remember? imho. a pure MIDI sequencer doesn't either, so you still have to always come by yourself with an external stand-lone synth, either soft or hard, outboard that is, or one or more of the plug-in kind.

remember this: you're in charge, not the software.

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Re: A good MIDI sequencer?

Post by folderol »

chaocrator wrote:currently Rosegarden is certainly a DAW, i.e. all-in-one audio + MIDI + plugin host thing.
It doesn't do audio editing.
It is pure track orientated, very much so.
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Re: A good MIDI sequencer?

Post by dathho »

Rosegarden does audio. Not anything like Ardour does though. I used to use it exclusivly for MIDI until I got a handle on http://qtractor.sourceforge.net/qtractor-index.html .

I encourage you to get to know qtractor. Particularly if you work with an external keyboard or device with a sequencer and it's own voices. It can use the cakewalk instrument definition files so your device support is just as good. It absolutely has a better workflow for moving sequence data to and from a device and keeping your instruments straight then anything else I have ever tried. Not just GM either. It is a stable, rocksolid app by the author of the most popular jack GUI, qjackctl. It's not all that different from Ardour for audio in my opinion but it probably doesn't look as good. When Ardour's MIDI capability reaches qtractor's it will get a lot more use from most I'd suspect.

Good Luck
dathho
fdaw: Fedora 24, AMD FX - 9590, 32 GB, 2x256GB SSD, 1x6TB HDD, Presonus FP10, JACK, Ardour5, MixBus, Qtractor, MIXXX, TouchDAW
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Re: A good MIDI sequencer?

Post by folderol »

dathho wrote:Rosegarden does audio. Not anything like Ardour does though. I used to use it exclusivly for MIDI until I got a handle on
It plays audio tracks. It doesn't edit them.
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Re: A good MIDI sequencer?

Post by rghvdberg »

For midi : qtractor
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