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- updated trouble shooting section of the Windows HOWTO

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6     <title>LinuxSampler For Windows</title>
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11 schoenebeck 1593 <h2><center>LinuxSampler for Windows &nbsp; <img src="gfx/logos/windows.png"> &nbsp; HOWTO by Benno Senoner&nbsp;</center></h2>
12 senoner 1575 <br>
13 schoenebeck 1593 <center>December&nbsp;13th,&nbsp;2007</center><br>
14     <div style="background-color: #F4F4FF; margin: 1em 3em 1em 3em; padding: 1em 1em 1em 2.2em;">
15     <a href="#intro">1.&nbsp; Introduction</a><br>
16     <a href="#requirements">2.&nbsp; Requirements</a><br>
17     3.&nbsp; Installation ...<br>
18     <a href="#install_w_inet">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;3.a&nbsp; with Internet Connection</a><br>
19     <a href="#install_wo_inet">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;3.b&nbsp; without Internet</a><br>
20     <a href="#using">4.&nbsp; Using the Applications</a><br>
21     <a href="#setup_midi">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;4.1&nbsp; Setting up MIDI Input</a><br>
22     <a href="#setup_audio">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;4.2&nbsp; Setting up Audio Output</a><br>
23     <a href="#load_samples">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;4.3&nbsp; Loading Samples</a><br>
24     <a href="#save_session">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;4.4&nbsp; Saving a Sampler Session</a><br>
25     <a href="#houston">5.&nbsp; Installation Troubleshooting</a><br>
26     <a href="#docs">6.&nbsp; Detailed Documentation</a><br>
27     <a href="#bugs">7.&nbsp; Bugs, Problems and Feature Requests</a><br>
28     <a href="#contact">8.&nbsp; Contact</a><br>
29     </div>
30    
31     <a name="intro"></a>
32     <h3>1.&nbsp; Introduction</h3>
33     The LinuxSampler development team is happy to announce that
34     LinuxSampler, the most advanced free, open source sampler finally runs on
35     MS Windows too. More information will be added here soon, so check back frequently.<br>
36 senoner 1575 <br>
37 schoenebeck 1593 For now the sampler supports the Windows Multimedia Extensions System (MME)
38     for MIDI input and ASIO for audio out. This means it currently runs only
39     as a standalone application. A VST interface will follow soon, along with
40     a network module to run multiple sampler slaves distributed on Windows or
41     Linux machines (Linux provides better performance) all controlled from a
42     Windows box i.e. running the VST sequencer.<br>
43 senoner 1575 <br>
44     LinuxSampler is implemented as a client/server application. This means
45 schoenebeck 1593 the sampling engine (the server / backend) runs
46     independently from the GUI (the client / frontend). Sampling engine and
47     client can be run on the same box or on different machines too, connected
48     over the network.<br>
49 senoner 1575 <br>
50     The MS Windows version provides all the features of the Linux version
51 schoenebeck 1593 (except of the instruments DB feature yet) since it is built from the
52 senoner 1575 same source code base. This means when new features will come out the
53 schoenebeck 1593 Windows version will usually provide the same feature set as the Linux
54     version. This was made possible by the very modular design of both
55     low level, operating system functions and flexible audio / MIDI driver
56 senoner 1575 system.<br>
57     <br>
58     The Windows version comes as a self extracting .exe file which will
59 schoenebeck 1593 install all the necessary modules to run both the server ( linuxsampler.exe )
60     and the GUI client. It installs 2 GUI clients:
61     <ul>
62     <li>One is <b>QSampler</b>, a light-weight frontend based on the
63     cross-platform Qt4 GUI toolkit with native OS GUI widgets</li>
64     <li>Another is <b>JSampler "Fantasia"</b>, a Java based GUI client called,
65     providing a modern skin-based user interface</li>
66     </ul>
67     At the moment JSampler is more advanced than QSampler as it implements all
68     the functionality present in the LinuxSampler engine. Due to the Java
69     virtual machine however it occupies a bit more RAM than the
70     QSsampler GUI (around 30MB or so) and takes a bit longer for startup,
71     but on a 1GB+ RAM box the difference should be negligible.
72    
73     <a name="requirements"></a>
74     <h3>2.&nbsp; Requirements</h3>
75     <ul>
76 schoenebeck 1595 <li>Intel Pentium4 or recent AMD processor (use
77     <a href="#old_cpu_workaround">this workaround for older processors</a>)
78 schoenebeck 1593 <li>Windows 2000, ME, XP or Vista</li>
79     <li><a href="http://www.gtk.org/">GTK+</a> (<a href="http://downloads.sourceforge.net/gladewin32/gtk-2.10.11-win32-1.exe?modtime=1175123376&big_mirror=0">version 2.10.11</a>)</li>
80     <li><a href="http://www.gtkmm.org/">gtkmm</a> (<a href="http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/gnome/binaries/win32/gtkmm/2.10/gtkmm-win32-runtime-2.10.11-1.exe">version 2.10.11</a>)</li>
81     <li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Java_(Sun)">Java Runtime Environment</a> (<a href="http://www.java.com/getjava/">version 6</a>)</a></li>
82     <li>sound card with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_Stream_Input/Output">ASIO</a> driver</li>
83     </ul>
84     <a name="asio_tip"></a>
85     <b>Tip:</b> For consumer audio cards which do not come with their own ASIO
86     drivers you can install <a href="http://www.asio4all.com/">ASIO4ALL</a> to be
87     able to use LinuxSampler with your soundcard.
88     We recommend to use version 2.7, perhaps on Vista 2.8beta1 works better but
89     we did not perform tests on Vista so we cannot tell it. Please let us know
90     about your results so we can share them here!
91    
92     <a name="install_w_inet"></a>
93     <h3>3.a&nbsp; Installation with Internet Connection</h3>
94     Simply download the latest version of the LinuxSampler Windows installer
95     from the <a href="http://www.linuxsampler.org/downloads.html">LinuxSampler
96     Download Page</a>, execute the installer and follow the instructions. It will
97     automatically detect if the required software components are already installed.
98     If not, it will download them from the internet and install them on your
99     computer.
100    
101     <a name="install_wo_inet"></a>
102     <h3>3.b&nbsp; Installation without Internet</h3>
103     First download the required components with a machine which has connection to
104     the internet:
105     <ul>
106     <li><a href="http://downloads.sourceforge.net/gladewin32/gtk-2.10.11-win32-1.exe?modtime=1175123376&big_mirror=0">gtk+ 2.10.11</a></li>
107     <li><a href="http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/gnome/binaries/win32/gtkmm/2.10/gtkmm-win32-runtime-2.10.11-1.exe">gtkmm 2.10.11</a></li>
108     <li><a href="http://www.java.com/getjava/">Java Runtime Environment 6</a></li>
109     <li>and of course the latest <a href="http://www.linuxsampler.org/downloads.html">
110     LinuxSampler Windows installer</a></li>
111     </ul>
112     Transfer the downloaded files to the computer where you want to install
113     LinuxSampler and install them in the following order:
114     <ol>
115     <li>gtk-2.10.11-win32-1.exe</li>
116     <li>gtkmm-win32-runtime-2.10.11-1.exe</li>
117     <li>jre-6u2-windows-i586-p.exe</li>
118     <li>linuxsampler_20071207_setup.exe</li>
119     </ol>
120     The order is important, since the components depend on each other and would
121     otherwise try to download the missing component from the internet.
122    
123     <a name="using"></a>
124     <h3>4.&nbsp; Using the Applications</h3>
125     Now that we installed everything, let's get wet and start the applications:
126     <ol>
127     <li>First start the LinuxSampler backend: Click on <i>"Start" ->
128     "LinuxSampler" -> "LinuxSampler 0.5.1 (backend)"</i>. A black console
129     window should immediately popup. It does what you think it does:
130     nothing ... yet ... because this is "just" the raw sampler, without a
131     user interface.</li>
132     <li>Now start a "frontend" application to actually control the previously
133     started sampler. For beginners and / or unpatient people, we recommend
134     you to use JSampler: Click on <i>"Start" -> "LinuxSampler" ->
135     "JSampler 'Fantasia' 0.8a (frontend)"</i>. This usually takes about
136     20 seconds or so until the application finally appears on the
137     screens.</li>
138     </ol>
139     </div>
140    
141     <a name="setup_midi"></a>
142     <h3>4.1&nbsp; Setting up MIDI Input</h3>
143     Once the GUI opens, click on the left round button in the MIDI devices
144     tab.
145     At this point a window will open where you can create a new MIDI device.
146     Press Create. The window will close and the MIDI device will be created.
147     (MIDI Device 0 MME).
148     Now click on the right arrow which points downwards.
149     You can see that a MIDI device with a single Port (Port 0) was created.
150 senoner 1575 Under Windows MME LinuxSampler always creates MIDI devices which are
151 schoenebeck 1593 connected to a single MME port.
152 senoner 1575 To select the MIDI input port you must click on the field located on
153 schoenebeck 1593 the left of PORT.
154 senoner 1575 A combobox pops-up where you can select the Windows MIDI port.<br>
155     <br>
156     You can create an arbitrary number of MIDI input devices by repeating
157 schoenebeck 1593 the procedure above.
158     Each MIDI input device is connected to a single Windows MME MIDI port.
159 senoner 1575 This means LinuxSampler has no limitation in terms of number of MIDI
160 schoenebeck 1593 ports.
161     Each MIDI device can be routed to arbitrary sampler channels.
162    
163     <a name="setup_audio"></a>
164     <h3>4.2&nbsp; Setting up Audio Output</h3>
165     LinuxSampler currently only supports the ASIO driver model for audio output
166     on Windows. ASIO drivers ensure reliable low-latency operation and are
167     virtually available for any soundcard (see <a href="#asio_tip">
168     ASIO requirements tip</a>).<br>
169 senoner 1575 <br>
170 schoenebeck 1593 Click on the left round button in the Audio Devices tab.
171     At this point a window will open where you can create a new MIDI device.
172     When creating the Audio device you can set several parameters:
173     <ul>
174     <li><b>CARD</b> : The name of the soundcard, in case you have multiple cards
175     installed. It will show the default value (first card found).</li>
176     <li><b>CHANNELS</b> : Number of audio output channels, can range from 1 to
177     maximum number of channels your soundcard supports. We recommend to
178     leave the default value which is the maximum number of channels your
179     soundcard supports.</li>
180     <li><b>FRAGMENTSIZE</b> : ASIO buffer size in samples. The card's default
181     value is shown. If you experience clicks and pops during audio
182     playback then initialize the audio output device with bigger values.
183     (better if it's always a power of 2:&nbsp; e.g. 256, 512, 1024)</li>
184     <li><b>SAMPLERATE</b> : Sets the samplerate. The default value is shown.<br>
185     </ul>
186     Now Press "Create". The window will close and the Audio device will be
187     created: "AUDIO DEVICE 0 (ASIO)" appears.
188    
189     <a name="load_samples"></a>
190     <h3>4.3&nbsp; Loading Samples</h3>
191     In the middle of the screen below the volume slider, you see the sampler
192     channel strip pane. press on the round button located on the left.
193     This will create a new sampler channel. Click on "Load Instrument".
194     This opens a dialog which allows you to select an instrument to be
195     loaded in the sampler channel
196    
197     (for information on how to use "orchestras" <a
198 senoner 1592 href="http://www.linuxsampler.org/jsampler/manual/html/jsampler.html#USING_ORCHESTRAS">click
199 schoenebeck 1593 here</a>, but note: orchestras, a.k.a "instruments database" is not yet supported in this
200     first Windows version of LinuxSampler, but will certainly be on the next Windows release).
201    
202 senoner 1575 On the row&nbsp; "Select instrument from file" click on the orange icon
203 schoenebeck 1593 located on the right side. This opens a file dialog which allows you to
204     select a sample to be loaded
205     (currently only the GIG format is supported).
206     Select the sample to be loaded and then click on "Open".
207     At this point the fields Instrument file shows the filename.
208 senoner 1575 You can click on the Instrument index and select the specific
209 schoenebeck 1593 instrument contained in the instrument file. Now press "OK".<br>
210 senoner 1575 <br>
211 schoenebeck 1593 While it loads you see: "Loading" .. "90%" .. "100%" <br>
212     <br>
213     Once loaded, you see the Instrument's name: i.e.&nbsp;"FreePiano"<br>
214     <br>
215 senoner 1575 On the left side of the sampler channel click on the arrow below
216 schoenebeck 1593 "Options".
217 senoner 1575 This pane permits to set MIDI input device, port and channel and oudio
218 schoenebeck 1593 output channel.
219     Notice that under Windows MME the Port value is always 0.
220     So the only values you can change is "MIDI device" (normally 0 if you
221     created only a single
222     MIDI input device) and the MIDI channel (from 1 to 16).
223    
224     <a name="save_session"></a>
225     <h3>4.4&nbsp; Saving a Sampler Session</h3>
226     Click on the 3rd icon from the left on the row where you see the round
227     icon with the LinuxSampler "S"-shape logo.
228     Now select the directory where you want to save the file to (extension
229     .lscp = <i>Linux Sampler Control Protocol</i>).
230     Enter the name and press save (add .lscp at end of file otherwise you
231     will not see it in the file-open dialog later, when you want to load it again).<br>
232 senoner 1575 <br>
233     Next time you can load a sampler session by clicking on the second icon
234 schoenebeck 1593 from the left, then select a .lscp file in the file dialog and press "Open".
235 senoner 1575 This will automatically set up the MIDI devices and audio devices,
236 schoenebeck 1593 create the sampler channels and load all the samples that were previously
237     loaded by you in the saved sampler session.
238    
239     <a name="houston"></a>
240     <h3>5.&nbsp; Installation Troubleshooting</h3>
241 schoenebeck 1595 <ul>
242     <li>
243     <div style="background-color: #FFF2F2;">
244     <u>Problem:</u> The LinuxSampler backend application
245     (<i>linuxsampler.exe</i>) fails to start with an error message that
246     claims that a DLL file is missing (e.g. <i>libatkmm-1.6-1.dll</i>)
247     </div>
248     <div style="background-color: #F2FFF2;">
249     <u>Reason / Solution:</u>
250     It could happen that due to previous installations of Gtk+ and gtkmm
251     DLLs even after deinstallation leave some stale keys in the windows
252     registry which could fool the installer into believing that the needed
253     DLLs are already installed therefore skipping its installation which
254     will cause the sampler not being able to start due to the missing
255     DLLs. We recommend in this case to install gtk+ and gtkmm manually as
256     described above in "<a href="#install_wo_inet">Installation without
257     Internet</a>". Just install those mentioned Gtk+ and gtkmm versions
258     and then LinuxSampler should work correctly.
259     </div>
260     </li>
261     <li>
262     <div style="background-color: #FFF2F2;">
263     <u>Problem:</u> The LinuxSampler backend application
264     (<i>linuxsampler.exe</i>) fails to start with the error message
265     "<i>The application failed to initialize properly (0xc000001d). Click
266     on OK to terminate the application.</i>"
267     </div>
268     <div style="background-color: #F2FFF2;">
269     <u>Reason / Solution:</u><a name="old_cpu_workaround"></a>
270     This first Windows release of LinuxSampler requires at least an Intel
271     Pentium4 processor or a recent AMD processor. If you have an older
272     processor and get the error message from above, you can use the
273     following workaround for now:
274     <ol>
275     <li>Download and extract
276     <a href="http://download.linuxsampler.org/dev/win32_probs/ls686_20071207.zip">
277     these replacement binaries.
278     </a>
279     </li>
280     <li>Copy the 3 binaries manually in your LinuxSampler installation
281     directory (default installation directory:
282     "C:\Program Files\LinuxSampler"), that is overwrite the existing
283     binaries in the LS installation directory with the 3 ones from the
284     zip file.
285     </li>
286     </ol>
287     Use this workaround only if you got the mentioned error message,
288     because the replacement binaries will otherwise decrease runtime
289     efficiency! This is of course just a temporary workaround. We'll
290     address this issue with the next release of LinuxSampler (see also
291     <a href="https://bugs.linuxsampler.org/cgi-bin/show_bug.cgi?id=67">
292     bug report #67</a>).
293     </div>
294     </li>
295     </ul>
296 schoenebeck 1593
297     <a name="docs"></a>
298     <h3>6.&nbsp; Detailed Documentation</h3>
299     You find more detailed documentation about our software, i.e. about JSampler
300     or gigedit on our official <a href="http://linuxsampler.org/documentation.html">
301     LinuxSampler documentation site</a>.
302    
303     <a name="bugs"></a>
304     <h3>7.&nbsp; Bugs, Problems and Feature Requests</h3>
305     Since the Windows port of LinuxSampler is very young, there could be several
306     bugs which we hope to root out soon.
307     Please report them using our bug tracking system:<br>
308 senoner 1592 <br>
309 schoenebeck 1593 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="http://bugs.linuxsampler.org/">http://bugs.linuxsampler.org/</a><br>
310 senoner 1592 <br>
311 schoenebeck 1593 Some bugs and problems I discovered so far:
312     <ul>
313     <li>when adding a channel there noises could occur while playing on other
314     channels</li>
315     <li>if you overload the sampler (CPU overload or disk overload) it
316     produces noises</li>
317     <li>when editing an instrument using gigedit, after saving it, it could
318     happen that LinuxSampler does not accept commands from the GUI anymore.
319     if this happens close the GUI and the LinuxSampler console window and
320     restart both.</li>
321     </ul>
322    
323     <a name="contact"></a>
324     <h3>8.&nbsp; Contact</h3>
325     If you have questions or want to help us to improve the sampler,
326     subscribe to the <a href="http://www.linuxsampler.org/developers.html">
327     LinuxSampler Developer's mailing list</a>. Alternatively, since I did most
328     of of the Windows porting, you can write me (Benno) directly about Windows
329     related issues. You can find my email address here:<br>
330 senoner 1592 <br>
331 schoenebeck 1593 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="http://www.linuxsampler.org/developers.html">http://www.linuxsampler.org/developers.html</a>
332     <br><br>
333     That's it, enjoy!<br>
334 senoner 1592 <br>
335 schoenebeck 1593
336 senoner 1575 </body>
337     </html>

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