Distro with midi out of the box

[vinnie]

This is my first post, i try to ask a thing there because I'am totaly unexperted.
I'm looking for a distro that has midi working by default (then included soundfont and synthesizer configuration).
If it works even live it would be appreciated, so you can try it too.
If I understand ubuntu studio needs further configurations after being installed to make midi work

[Lyberta]

For a basic MIDI setup you can try QSynth + QJackCtl. I dunno if there are distros that come with these preinstalled.

[Linuxmusician01]

Midi works out of the box in every distro. It's supported by ALSA (Linux's sound driver). One just has to learn how to work w/ one's Midi gear in combination w/ a DAW and/or softsynth etc. Depends very much on what you want to do w/ Midi and what software (DAW) you want to use.

Good luck with Linux!

[tavasti]

This is my first post, i try to ask a thing there because I'am totaly unexperted.
I'm looking for a distro that has midi working by default (then included soundfont and synthesizer configuration).
If it works even live it would be appreciated, so you can try it too.

Simplest way to have midi & synths working is to install LMMS. Soundfonts are not included there, but at least in Ubuntu, lmms package suggests fluid-soundfont-gm. There you have pretty many synths with presets, and it is nice DAW, but without audio recording capability.

[Linuxmusician01]

This is my first post, i try to ask a thing there because I'am totaly unexperted.
I'm looking for a distro that has midi working by default (then included soundfont and synthesizer configuration).
If it works even live it would be appreciated, so you can try it too.

Simplest way to have midi & synths working is to install LMMS. Soundfonts are not included there, but at least in Ubuntu, lmms package suggests fluid-soundfont-gm. There you have pretty many synths with presets, and it is nice DAW, but without audio recording capability.

Yep. Apart from choosing between Jack or ALSA for LMMS's audio. And I have a sneaking suspicion that the topic starter might have probs because of that. He states "In Windows it just worked". To me that screams Linux problems like Pulseaudio, Jack and ALSA.

[wakoo]

What about the latency with midi workflow? Almost with virtual instruments I never can avoid xruns.

[Musicteacher]

As this is not distro-specific, you'd probably be better off asking this in the "system tuning and configuration" sub:

viewforum.php?f=27

However, as a quick info: playing software synths with low lacency via a midi keyboard is definitely possible, so it is likely that you have done something wrong or your hardware is insufficient.