Rosegarden

Rosegarden – A MIDI sequencer

Music composition software is quite rare, if you try to find it in the FOSS community. While Linux does not have much software suited for music, there is one that stands out. Rosegarden, one of those few. This remarkable software has almost all the functions that anyone needs. It allows for composers to use four different methods for creating music. The notation method allows for composing the traditional way, drawing the notes on the staffs themselves. As well there are the matrix, percussion and event editor methods.

The massive download of files has not allowed me the time to test some of the other more advanced functions but I did get a feel for the program. If you want to try it, go ahead and visit www.rosegardenmusic.com

That would be a good ending for this post if it was that simple. One of the events that people will abandon Rosegarden for is the initial setup phase. First off - if you are running Ubuntu or Mint – is to download the software thru the software center. Then, you must get another program that will receive the signals that rosegarden puts out, and re-route them to the speakers. The JACK system included in the RG install is quite confusing to setup, so many will use something else. I would recommend the use of either qSynth or TiMidity. The qSynth setup is quite straightforward, and a good tutorial can be found here: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linuxquestions-org-member-success-stories-23/setting-up-rosegarden-for-midi-music-in-linux-ubuntu-8-04-a-697198/

I have found that it took quite a bit of system resources while running. So I did a bit of experimenting with the TiMidity software. I installed the package labeled TiMidi ++ Midi Sequencer. I have yet to figure out how the entire thing works, but it seems to automatically start when you login. RG will auto-configure to the proper TiMidity ports as well.

Well, I hope this is a good introduction to Rosegarden, bringing this post to the end.