Writing and recording a song with Muse, Hydrogen and Zynaddsubfx

License of this post.

This post is about the Muse sequencer, you may want to use Seq24 instead.

First, you'll have to install jackd and the low latency kernel.

Then you can install Muse, Hydrogen and Zynaddsubfx by entering (in a terminal) :

sudo apt-get install muse hydrogen zynaddsubfx

You can now launch Qjackctl :

qjackctl &

Then click on the Start button to start the jack daemon.

Launch Muse :

muse &

Then launch Hydrogen :

hydrogen &

and minimize it.

In Muse, go to Settings>Midi Ports/Soft Synth. Click on the Peripheral Name of the Port 1 and select Hydrogen Midi-In

Now right-click in the track area and select "New Midi Track". O-Port should show 1(Hydrogen Midi-In).

Then right-click in the sequences area on the right. Select "Pencil". Draw a four-bar sequence. Then select "Pointer" and double-click on your sequence.

You can now click on the piano keys above d#2 to ear hydrogen play. Then you can right-click in the grid, select "Pencil" and draw some notes. Press the "Play" button to play your sequence. When you're satisfied of it you can cut and paste it in the main window to repeat it.

Now start Zynaddsubfx with

zynaddsubfx -r 48000 -b 128 &

In Instrument>Show Instrument Bank, select an instrument.

In Muse, go to Settings>Midi Ports/Soft Synth, and change Port 2's Peripheral Name to Zynaddsubfx.

You can now add a Midi Track, set its O-Port to 2(Zynaddsubfx), and record a Zynaddsubfx tune.

Since Zynaddsubfx is multi-channel, you can have several Zynaddsubfx tracks with only one Zynaddsubfx instance running. To do so, move Zynaddsubfx channel to "2" with the up and down buttons just above the volume, click on the "Enable" checkbox, and select an instrument. Then in Muse, add a Zynaddsubfx track and set its "Ch" attribute to "2". You can now add a second instrument theme.

Muse has its own drum kit. You can use it by adding a Drum Track instead of a Midi Track.

You may now want to record your song using Ardour. Read the end of this post, it's Seq24-centered but the recording steps are exactly the same.

Happy music making !