Help first connection fails

Using Zynthian
1

Hi, i have a pi4 a touchscreen usb display, a midi keyboard, an hifiberry dac pro plus, and when I use zynthian without midi usb keyboard (nektar impakt) the display works with touch, the raspberry works with audio test file (so audio hifiberry dac pro plus works), but when I add my usb master keyboard nektar impact, everithing goes wrong, the display touch sends midi signals !!!.. and no sound, instead the keyboard nektar impact, not work, no sound from midi, and it open and change the main menu (it act like a pc keyboard instrad of a midi keyboard), so when I press C key , i obtain, the gui menu up (like a pc keyboard up arrow key) and when I press the D key, instead of sound i move the menu , scroll down…like a down arrow key.

What i have to do in wiring and in midi setup, to divide, the touch display , from nektar impact ?
I think in wiring there is a mismatch between usb (touch) and usb midi…

How to configure to listen someting on my amplifier attached to rca exit of hifiberry dac plus pro ?
I listen no midi sound (test midi fails), and i’m very confused because touch display and nektar impact must works separately, instead of sending midi message…
Can you help me ?

2

What a bizarre problem. I don’t have any suggestions to actually fix the problem, and perhaps someone else will. I do have some requests for more info:

Can you get to webconf and give us the main screen, and Wiring and Audio with advanced checked.

Can you go to a terminal and give us the response to amidi -l command.

Is this Oram or stable? If stable I’d suggest trying Oram.

More details on the usb touch screen, particularly manufacturer and model name-number.

Model number of the Nektar impact. Can you use it outside of Zynthian?

3

Maybe you can suggest a correct configuration : how to set “wiring” , and how to choose midi in, midi out and midi effect, on standard setup …

For example: in “midi in” tab is it correct to flag all ?
X Nektar impact 1
X Nektar impact 2
X Alsa
X Usb midi
In midi output ?
X Alsa out
X Nektar impact out
In midi effect
X Alsa out
X Nektar impact out

And in “wiring” what i have to choose ?
X Custom
V1
V2
V3
V4
V5
Standard
Or other choices ?

Nektar impact (there is only one model) works well if connected to my pc with Any other Daw software

The Display is a Waveshare 10.1" touch 1920x1080p
But for a correct aspect ratio I choose 7" touch + Usb 1280x600 (in display options)…otherwise the GUI cannot auto adapt to 1920x1080…

Normally display touch works fine, without Nektar Impact.

Maybe is present a conflict between usb 2.0 and usb 3.0 ports, of pi4 …
But I think i only miss a correct “wiring” configuration …

I have dowloaded the latest “stable” OS…

Where is download link for other OS version ?

Is there a method to exit to terminal ?

For example pressing F4 … ? I don"t know how to exit from program and go to terminal…

4

here:

You can get to a terminal (command line interface) via webconf or ssh.

5

Hi @giandeejay welcome.

What a weird behavior. Here are some points

Hardware configuration:

  • “custom” for kit
  • “dummies” for wiring (this is for encoders and switches and it seems you do not have these)
  • audio and display looks okay

Midi

I guess yes. On another kind of midi device I’ve got two midi in entries as well, the first send midi messages, while the other send Mackie controls.
You can monitor messages from webconf in Interface → Midi log
and see what’s happens when playing Nektar and when touching the display

more debug

  1. unplug the usb touchsrceen
    plug an usb mouse and in Webconf → User Interface → option , choose “enable cursor” (and “enable onscreen button” as well if not done yet) so that you can still use the interface.
    See if things goes better
  2. Maybe uncheck USB Midi in midi configuration

Also, for a Zynthian plays sound when hiting a midi keyboard key, you should have at least one chain enabled.

6

What MIDI channel is your MIDI controller on? The old stable versions enabled “master mode” on channel 16 by default. This slots a MIDI controller to control zynthian using note-on commands.

7

Tested all Zynthian “test” version, but the login password of root is different from the classical “raspberry”…
Anyone have the new password ?

8

opensynth

9

I have download 3 different test version , but this 3 versions have 3 different root password , not “raspberry”, so I have modified the writing method of mictosd using raspbian tools, but the problem persist, no midi sound from nektar impact , no video output from screen…
The problem with zynthian and bookworm is due to bad configuration of config.txt (on bookworm the display is not set by config.txt, but from cmdline.txt, so zynthian “test” versions did not work due to this bug…it tryes to modify config.txt , instead of cmdline.txt…
So no video signal appear…

I give up, i will search another stable daw software…

10

Hi @giandeejay it’s sad to hear your bad experience with Zynthian because in most cases everything should go smoothly.

When using "stable " default password is “raspberry”, but it is not recommanded anymore.
“Oram” will be soon the next stable with default password “opensynth”. This release introduce many new features and some radical changes in chain management.
Yes it is still in a testing state and some bug may occur, maybe like the one you are experiencing. Thé kind of bug that we have to solve before an official release.

You can’t use Raspberry Pi Imager feature for setting password or wifi credentials as Zynthian is an highly customised RaspberryPiOs base. In the same manner, system update aren’t done with apt update, apt upgrade as usual on Debian like distro, but with Zynthian internal update system.

2 Likes
11

I understand your disapointment but you are facing a really unusual behavior and I believe all of us here do want To solve this. Soi that others wont experience the same anymore.

12

It could be a power issue. If you add too many USB peripherals, there may be insufficient power available for all of the connected devices and the zynthian hardware. What PSU are you using? It is recommended to use an official Raspberry Pi PSU.

13

Hi!

I encourage you to consider that Zynthian, while being a fantastic playground for music-making and computer science, is not (yet) a 100% fail-safe environment for every possible application scenario.

Try to think for a moment to the fabled 1980s first digital workstations, that were easily sold for around (or in excess of) 100k. Nobody expected to shell-out the big money and be fully operative within a week or so from the purchase. The NED Synclavier, CMI Fairlight and PPG required a steep learning curve, even from highly successful and wealthy musicians with swarms of technicians at their disposal.

The Zynthian is in fact a sort of such digital marvel of today, available for the masses at a very affordable price tag. It is open and extremely flexible, but this flexibility comes at the expense of time, passion and dedication.

If you legitimately need a switch-on-and-play solution, I advise that you look elsewhere, because the Zynth has its own way to do things and can be at times temperamental, but it will ultimately reward the time invested with useful learning in information technology, and lots of fun making music!

The best :smiley:

3 Likes
14

I think we may have lost @giandeejay before we had a chance to welcome them to our community. If you are still here then, welcome!

It sounds like your initial attempt was with the stable version of zynthian and your nektar may be sending out MIDI on channel 16 which is configured as the control channel in that version of zynthian. We have disabled this by default in the next version.

You may also have to do a few small configuration changes to make your particular setup work. If you want us to help you get this working then please let us know.

Your comment about finding another DAW may be an indication that zynthian was not what you were looking for. It isn’t really a DAW although it shares several features.

If you don’t retry zynthian then I hope you find something that suits you and you can make the music you want to. Good luck.

3 Likes
15

No at the end I have Zynthian 5 Oram working (after 3 hours of headace), with nektar impact and waveshare 10.1" Touchscreen, and Hifiberry Dac+ Pro.
I dowloaded the 2406 test version and password “opensynth” to ptogram it, the problem of touch display persist at first boot (cannot move with touch) but after disconnecting and reconnecting the usb touch, works… the only thing is that I must disconnect and reconnect usb cable of touch display at every boot… but after that it works…

The problem on resolution 1920x1080p is solved by me, i have added this line to config.txt
enable_overscan=1
overscan_left=8
overscan_right=8
overscan_top=0
overscan_bottom=0

So touch display wotks fine, and display area fit the screen.

I have also increased the GUI font, from 16px to 24px… (better)

I have another question:
my nektar impact has midi channel setted to ch1, and a midi master channel setted to ch1 (so I have moved “master midi” to CH2 on nektar impact, and I setted on Zynthian midi master Channel to CH1…but I don’t know if is it correct ?

The nektar impact works, and sound is good, but maybe I don’t know how to set correctly the midi channels… can you explain ?

If I want to choose an instrument , and play it, is very difficult, to choose, because somethimes the back button return to sound libraries, sometime goes to another menu… do you know a method to map some buttons of nektar impact to move on gui interface ?

Eg:
I need to change instruments, from piano to strings, and so on but quickly…

Thankyou for support.

1 Like
16

Hi, same here with my Waveshare 15.6.

I am in the process of designing an enclosure for my Pi5 Oram, and this is one of the aspects which I have to solve beforehand :slightly_smiling_face:

17

Ok no problem…
Disconnect and reconnect USB touchscreen is the minor of the problem.

But the rest of my questions are unsolved…based on midi channels (what midi channel on nektar impact to set, what master ch on netktar impact to set, and what master midi channel on Zynthian to use ?), and how to change quickly the played instrument ?
I’m lost in the menu…not so userfriendly…

I have also mapped some LFO and other knob on nektar impact so zynthian works, but I don"t know how to save this mapping.

Zynthian is a littlebit ostic, or maybe a need an user manual.

18

Look here:
https://wiki.zynthian.org/index.php/Zynthian_UI_User's_Guide_-_Oram

It’s wip.

19

Hi @giandeejay !

Welcome to zynthianland! I’m really happy to know you mostly get your zynthian running.
My 2 cents:

If you edit config.txt by hand it will be overwritten by zynthian config system each time you update your system or change your config from webconf.

I strongly suggest you add these lines from the webconf’s display configuration. Anyway, i just added your configuration for the Waveshare 10.1", so it should be available after updating your zynthian :wink:

Regarding the USB, you are not the first one having this issue. Perhaps somebody in the forum did some progress with it??

Regarding user interface, please remember that you are using a sub-optimal UI. Zynthian UI is primary designed to be managed with the 4 knobs + switches and recently, we added the 20 x push buttons (V5). Although you can interact zynthian using other methods (touch, keybindings, MIDI master channel, etc.), all of them are sub-optimal and documentation incomplete (still more!).

Read it and check “ZS3” for quick changing instruments :wink:

Regards,

2 Likes
20

Yes I know, and after first working test, I save this commands in a custom display profile…

Thankyou for create a new 10.1"

Another suggestion, in some display profile I saw some errors,

For example when you set
hdmi_mode=1
hdmi_mode=87
hdmi_group=2

The second parameters (correct 87, to enable a custom resolution, specified in hdmi_cvt…)
overwrite the first, so you can delete: “hdmi_mode=1”

Another error when you set
hdmi_cvt 1024 600 60 6 0 0 0

You miss (a return) after, so the next line:

dtoverlay=vc4-fkms-v3d

Result to be in a single line (error):

hdmi_cvt 1024 600 60 6 0 0 0dtoverlay=vc4-kms-v3d
(This is an error, on display waveshare 7"+usb)

Here is the correct example (in 2 separated lines):

hdmi_cvt 1024 600 60 6 0 0 0
dtoverlay=vc4-kms-v3d

Another suggestion (add =):
hdmi_cvt=1024 600 60 6 0 0

I will try also with this (maybe can correct USB problem on waveshare 10.1" +usb display):

hdmi_cvt=1280 600 60 3 0 0

The 4th value is the aspect ratio:
3= 16:9
6= 15:9

I will try later…
Or maybe on pi4 we must use “fkms” and not “kms”…videodriver.
I will try…

Thankyou