[ardour-users] Ardour & BCF2000 USB control surface

[Phil Frost]

On Sun, Dec 25, 2005 at 08:11:12AM -0700, Steve D wrote:
> Hello all--
> 
> I recently bought a Behringer BCF2000 USB control surface. It works well
> with Ardour, with one small problem that I can see--
> 
> I use Ardour on an DeMuDi/Debian system (I upgraded DeMuDi 1.2.1 to
> 1.3.0 using the program demudi-upgrade, which was installed by the
> DeMuDi package). In addition, I have installed several packages from
> a Debian "etch" (testing) repository.
> 
> If I plug the BCF2000 into a USB port on the computer I can see it in
> qjackctl, whether I plug the BCF2000 into the computer before or after I
> launch qjackctl and start jackd.
> 
> However, if I then launch Ardour and try to connect the BCF2000's
> midi-via-usb output to Ardour in qjackctl's "Connect" window, a
> graphical line representing the connection between the two appears very
> briefly, then disappears. I can't seem to connect the BCF2000 to Ardour.
> 
> But, if I quit Ardour, then turn the power off on the BCF2000 (or pull
> its USB plug from the computer), then launch Ardour and *then*
> plug-in/power-up the BCF2000, in reverse order (Ardour *before* the
> BCF2000), both Ardour and the BCF2000 appear in qjackctl's Connect pane
> and can be connected.
> 
> So, powering-up and attaching the BCF2000 before launching Ardour does
> not seem to work (Ardour is unresponsive to the control-button2click
> MIDI controller assignment, and qjackctl refuses to allow the
> connection), but launching Ardour first, and then turning on and
> plugging in the BCF2000 seems to work fine.
> 
> I just thought I would send this information to the list, for the
> archives in case others experience the same problem.
> 
> -sd

I have a bcf2000 and use it with ardour and many other programs with
none of the problems you describe.  In my experience, problems like
these are caused by a program which is using a raw midi device. 'lsof
/dev/midiWhatever' might be able to tell you what is using it. You might
also try making the same connections to a program that is not ardour.

Also, there was a firmware update I did to my bcf2000. Instructions are
in the ardour manual at ardour.org. I don't think that would solve your
problem, though.