Control mapping

How do I set up ardour so that when I hit play on my midi controller it plays etc.? I want to do this so that I can make reason and ardour play at the same time and do different things in each program and here how they sound together then eventually mix it all down to an audio track.

I tried using jack but it’s just too confusing so I figured this is one way of getting round the problem.

Any ideas much appreciated

First thing to do is to find out what what your MIDI controller’s “play” button actually sends. It would be simplest if it just sent MMC commands (like a mixing console play button would), but its likely that its sends an MIDI Song Position message instead.

Either way, you need to (a) check in Preferences->MIDI which ports are configured for control (simplest is to have the default “control” port handle everything, then (b) connect the relevant ports together (see the “ALSA” tab of qjackctl’s connection dialog, then © click the “trace input” button for that port. This is after starting ardour from the command line. Press the play button, see what message shows up in the terminal window where ardour is running.

Then report back.

And yes, it probably should be easier than this. Better yet, it might be already :slight_smile:

I didn’t get any message or anything. What do you mean “after starting ardour from the command line”? These things are so complicated :frowning:

Thanks for your help!

What platform are you on?

You realize that these sorts of issues get solved about 10x quicker on IRC?

Lol i don’t even know what IRC is! I’m on a mac. I think I’m gonna abandon ardour and go for cubase. Thanks for your help!