How to enable MIDI output on SB Live! under Linux
From ArticleWorld
The SB Live! sound cards are still very popular, years after they have been launched. This comes part due to the fact that they are very common, thus having a lot of documentation, tools and a great community behind.
However, Creative has not released a complete bundle for Linux. While this means some hassle with configuration, it also means quite some freedom given to you. Here is how to configure SB! Live for MIDI output under Linux.
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Procedure
- Set up ALSA, if you have not already done so.
- Install the awesfx driver, either from your distribution's package repositories or from the project's page on the ALSA web page.
- Copy the following files from the SB Live! CD or otherwise obtain them if you lost the disk: 2GMGSMT.SF2, 4GMGSMT.SF2 and 8MBGMSFX.SF2. You can use any other AWE-compatible sound font. Some can be found on the Internet, offered for free.
- Open a console and execute:
asfxload [filename]
replacing [filename] with the filename of the bank you wish to load. You may need to load the snd_emu10k1_synth module.
You can load any bank you wish. Generally, the larger ones offer better quality, but need more RAM (as the SB! Live does not have its own bank memory).
- If you want, automate the process by ensuring that asfxload <path-to-bank> is ran at every boot. This depends on the distribution you use, so you should refer to its documentation for details on how to do it.