[ardour-users] external midi controller in os x and few other questions

[Jesse Chappell]

On 2/9/06, Libero Mureddu <libero.mureddu at gmail.com> wrote:

> Unfortunately, I have some problems connecting the external controller:
>
> 1) my ardour.rc file, as default doesn't include the line <MIDI-port
> tag="coremidi" device="ardour" type="coremidi" mode="duplex"/> as
> explained in the manual. So I tried to put this line manually, but I
> don't know in which part of the xml file it has to be inserted. Can
> you help me?

Yes, it should be right near the top of the file ~/.ardour/ardour.rc :

 <?xml version="1.0"?>
<Ardour>
  <MIDI-port tag="ardour" device="ardour" type="coremidi" mode="duplex"/>
  <Config>
    .....
  </Config>
....
....

> 2) I'm using a physical midi hardware, do I have to define some
> virtual ports or not? I think I didn't understand well the explanation
> in the manual.

No, in OS X you just need to download and use the MIDI Patchbay application
from http://www.pete.yandell.com/software/.   In that app, just add a
patch where the source is a port on your midisport (should show up in
the dropdown list), and the destination is ardour.  MIDI Patchbay must
be running the entire time you want to use the connection.

> My setup is the following: midisport4x4 connected with a doepfer
> pocket fader (midi controller).
>
> Also, in my version of ardour, I don't have the midi panel in the
> option editor window, and the midi panel of qjackctl is grey and I
> cannot select it.

You will get the midi panel once you get that line in the ardour.rc.
And qjackctl does not support MIDI on OS X, so that is normal.

> Few other questions:
> 1) The meters in the mixers reacts a bit in a irregular way: sometimes
> they go to a certain level according to a certain sound, and
> immediatly after they don't do the same for the same sound. This makes
> a little hard to set the recording level.

Interesting, hadn't heard of that one.

> 2) Maybe this is not the right place to send this, in case I apologize
> for that. I have to change my audio device quite often, because
> sometimes I use the internal mac card, and sometimes an external
> device. It seems that with qjackctl this is not possible, so I have to
> open jackpilot, turn off jack, change the preferences, turn on jack,
> and finally switch again to qjackctl that is much more handy than jack
> pilot. Any help for that?

You should be able to start and stop, and change the interface in
qjackctl.  To the right of the Interface: dropdown you should see a
button with > on it, pressing that should show a menu of the available
HW devices (along with long IDs), and selecting one will set the value
and channel counts appropriately.   You can save different presets to
make switching easier too.

jlc