renderman-dexed-linux
Full instructions for using the RenderMan Python API for controlling the Dexed FM synthesizer on Linux. We use Dexed 0.9.4 since later versions drop VST2 support. (This might not matter under Linux?)
If you would like to use OSX, the Spiegelib documentation is great.
Since Renderman is no longer maintained, it was easiest to build our Docker image using Ubuntu 18.04 with Python2.7 (gross, I know). If you have suggestions about how to build it under Python3, perhaps using Projucer to create a new Makefile, great. Alternately, you can consider exposing the API in Docker through a simple local web-service.
Initial Setup
In principle, your base system can be any Linux flavor.
We have been able to get initial setup to work on the following configurations:
- LambdaLabs cloud instances (Ubuntu 20.04 Focal).
- Ubuntu 18.04 (Bionic), on a Digital Ocean droplet with only 1GB of memory.
With Ubuntu 20.04, we had issues getting the headless xserver working, described here. If you have more luck, please submit a pull request.
Unfortunately, the Ubuntu 18.04 instructions used to work for Ubuntu 20.10 (Groovy), but no longer work.
Ubuntu 18.04 (Bionic)
As root:
git clone https://github.com/turian/renderman-dexed-linux.git
cd renderman-dexed-linux
./setup.sh
# Let's reboot so we get everything we dist-upgraded on
/sbin/shutdown -r now
Log out and SSH back in as ubuntu user. Note that the ubuntu
user has no password, and uses the same SSH authorized keys as root.
Proceed to the section 'User Instructions'.
LambdaLabs Ubuntu 20.04 (Focal)
SSH in, don't use the web console:
export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt install -y docker.io xinit
sudo usermod -aG docker ${USER}
sudo perl -i -pe 's/allowed_users=.*/allowed_users=anybody/' /etc/X11/Xwrapper.config
Log out and SSH back in. Proceed to the section 'User Instructions'.
User instructions
Now, SSH in as ubuntu user and run:
screen
In one screen, start Xorg:
startx
In other screen, run the docker:
docker pull turian/renderman-dexed
# Or, build the docker yourself
#docker build -t turian/renderman-dexed .
docker run -v /tmp/.X11-unix:/tmp/.X11-unix -e DISPLAY=$DISPLAY -h $HOSTNAME -v $HOME/.Xauthority:/home/renderman/.Xauthority -it turian/renderman-dexed bash
FYI, within the docker, renderman has sudo permissions with password renderman.
cd ~
python example.py
ls -l example.wav
If everyone goes well, example.wav should exist and contain 441388 bytes.