linux midi

GNU/Linux and MIDI

So far, the best how-to/tutorial I've found is the one written by Ted Felix, called Ted's Linux MIDI Guide. He pretty much covers everything one needs to know in order to get jackd + fluidsynth up and running.
But if you want the TL;DR version:

Packages to install

sudo apt-get install jackd2 linux-lowlatency fluidsynth alsa-utils jack-tools jackeq audacity qsynth amsynth vmpk qjackctl fluid-soundfont-gm 

Please note that these are packages that can be found on a Debian based distro (such as Ubuntu or Linux Mint), in other distros the names might vary.

audio group

sudo adduser `whoami` audio

realtime audio limits

sudo nano /etc/security/limits.d/audio.conf

And add the following lines:

@audio   -  rtprio     95
@audio   -  memlock    unlimited
#@audio   -  nice       -19

bye pulseaudio, hello jackd

pasuspender -- jackd -d alsa --device hw:0 --rate 44100 --period 128

Note that the --device might vary depending on your hardware.