Topic by leekola

  • Avatar
  • leekola
  • Member
  • Offline
  • Registered: 15-10-2021
  • Posts: 6

Topic: Pianoteq not showing up in JACK (Linux), any tips?

OS: NixOS

I've been trying to get Pianoteq set up such that i can play with it over music ala Spotify, Youtube, etc. I've had various configurations of JACK installed (by itself, with PipeWire, etc) and as far as i can tell JACK works successfully in all configurations. Other applications like Firefox and Musescore identify as JACK clients and show up with Inputs/Outputs to redirect in various JACK/PipeWire GUIs.

With that said.. i can't seem to make Pianoteq show up properly. Any tips to what might be missing here? Pianoteq feels like a black box when it comes to JACK. No settings to configure, no logs to understand what JACK it's looking for, etc. Hoping someone here has some insight on how to debug where Pianoteq is failing to connect while everything else seems to connect fine.

Appreciate any thoughts

Last edited by leekola (22-04-2022 20:50)

Reply by mprimrose

  • Avatar
  • mprimrose
  • Member
  • Offline
  • From: Otautahi, Aotearoa
  • Registered: 08-02-2021
  • Posts: 76

Re: Pianoteq not showing up in JACK (Linux), any tips?

This article, from last year, and the subsidiary article mentioned within the text, may be of some use to you

https://forum.modartt.com/viewtopic.php?id=8774

I have always found correctly configuring audio in Linux to be somewhat of an arcane art, which probably involves frozen chickens and lots of muttering, but this article does seem to be very straight forward in its explanation.

If I want to connect Pianoteq to another audio application via jackd, I don't tend to use my standalone application, which for some reason, now long forgotten, is configured to run with ALSA and not Jack. Using the VST version of Pianoteq, either in REAPER, as my DAW, or with Carla, if I want to quickly assemble instruments and effects, is reasonably straight forward. I use Qjackctl to do my virtual wiring and plugging, and Pianoteq  appears in the audio and midi tabs of the connection window, thus allowing it to be linked to other applications.

Pianoteq does appear to be a bit of a "black box" with respect to Jack and only has outputs and events-in, but I haven't found a way to open the bonnet and have a poke around inside as yet, but given time it may yield.

I hope this helps a bit

Michael

Pianoteq 8 Studio plus all Instrument packs; Organteq 2; Debian; Reaper; Carla

Reply by leekola

  • Avatar
  • leekola
  • Member
  • Offline
  • Registered: 15-10-2021
  • Posts: 6

Re: Pianoteq not showing up in JACK (Linux), any tips?

It does help, thank you - gives me a lot to try and poke at.

If i may, how does Pianoteq normally work when JACK is enabled? Ie do you have to select a device? Does JACK show up as a device? I'm puzzled as to what the expected UI looks like in Pianoteq itself when it is able to use JACK

Reply by varpa

  • Avatar
  • varpa
  • Member
  • Offline
  • From: Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
  • Registered: 26-02-2011
  • Posts: 165

Re: Pianoteq not showing up in JACK (Linux), any tips?

To use Jack with Pianoteq, start jack first.  I do this with qjackctl, but there are other ways to start it, such as directly on the command line.   The audio device that you will use will be configured in Jack, not Pianoteq.  Then start Pianoteq.   In the Option panel, select JACK as the audio device.   Pianoteq should then automatically connect to Jack and you can use the Test button to test that audio works.   If you have a keyboard connected to your computer it should show up in the "Active MIDI inputs" box.  Select your keyboard in the box.    If you are using qjackctl you can open the connections button and see Pianoteq listed in the audio tab.   You can also connect a keyboard to Pianoteq using the qjacktl "MIDI" (Jack Midi) or "ALSA" (Alsa midi) tabs, but this is no needed if you connected using the "Active MIDI inputs" box to select the keyboard.  Actually you should only connect the keyboard in one place, otherwise Pianoteq will complain about duplicate midi events. I would post a picture of all this, but I cannot figure out how to do that.

Last edited by varpa (26-04-2022 03:39)

varpa's Website

Reply by leekola

  • Avatar
  • leekola
  • Member
  • Offline
  • Registered: 15-10-2021
  • Posts: 6

Re: Pianoteq not showing up in JACK (Linux), any tips?

varpa wrote:

To use Jack with Pianoteq, start jack first.  I do this with qjackctl, but there are other ways to start it, such as directly on the command line.   The audio device that you will use will be configured in Jack, not Pianoteq.  Then start Pianoteq.   In the Option panel, select JACK as the audio device.   Pianoteq should then automatically connect to Jack and you can use the Test button to test that audio works.   If you have a keyboard connected to your computer it should show up in the "Active MIDI inputs" box.  Select your keyboard in the box.    If you are using qjackctl you can open the connections button and see Pianoteq listed in the audio tab.   You can also connect a keyboard to Pianoteq using the qjacktl "MIDI" (Jack Midi) or "ALSA" (Alsa midi) tabs, but this is no needed if you connected using the "Active MIDI inputs" box to select the keyboard.  Actually you should only connect the keyboard in one place, otherwise Pianoteq will complain about duplicate midi events. I would post a picture of all this, but I cannot figure out how to do that.

Unfortunately my setup fails with the "select JACK as the audio device" step. While every other JACK / PipeWire client i have tested works fine, i cannot seem to make Pianoteq connect to either a JACK setup nor PipeWire setup.

Best i can get is if i use Pipewire explicitly, then i see a "PipeWire Sound Server" option in Pianoteq, but selecting it fails with "Could not open output device 'pipewire': No such device address (-6)".

Think i may just be out of ideas. Everything else works with both PipeWire and JACK though, so maybe i'll try running Pianoteq as a VST under a DAW.

Appreciate the help all, thanks for trying