How to assign midi channels?
How do I assign each midi track to its own channel?
In Ableton it seems to do this automatically but not so in Ardour.
Just tried with Chat GPT (see chat below) but ended up with a complicated mess.
Surely this isn’t that difficult?
Here’s a summary of your system information based on what you’ve shared:
Operating System:
Distro: Linux Mint 22.1 Xia (based on Ubuntu 24.04 Noble)
Desktop Environment: Xfce 4.18.1
Kernel:
Currently Running: 6.8.0-31-lowlatency (also keeps multiple kernels at boot)
Hardware:
Laptop Model: PC Specialist OptimusIX 17
CPU: Intel Core i7-8750H
RAM: 32 GiB
Graphics:
Integrated: Intel UHD Graphics 630 (using i915 driver)
Discrete: NVIDIA GTX 1050 Ti Mobile (using proprietary NVIDIA driver v550)
Sound Card:
Focusrite Scarlett Solo 4i4
Storage:
Samsung SSD 870 QVO 1TB
A-Data SU650 111.79 GiB SSD
Audio & Creative Software:
Music Production: Installing and using Ardour (official paid version from ardour.org )
paul
April 19, 2025, 5:48pm
#2
Define what you mean more precisely, please. Ableton Live is famous for not really supporting the concept of MIDI channels much at all. Ardour, by contrast, supports multichannel MIDI tracks as a sort of default.
So if I open two tracks in Ableton, I will only hear sound from one track at a time unless I arm them.
In Ardour, all midi tracks will play at once when I hit a key on my midi controller. I can’t assign
Track 1 to channel.1
Etc
They are all on the same channel.so I have to mute channels I dont want to hear instead of them just being separate like they are in Ableton.
paul
April 19, 2025, 6:07pm
#4
We have a video that covers a significant part of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L81cxZiFOY0
By default, all Ardour MIDI tracks have no specific channel assignment at all. They handle whatever MIDI comes their way. You can right click on the track header, choose the Channel Selector, and control how this works for both capture and playback.
1 Like
I will try that out tomorrow, got some JACK/ALSA issues to sort out first. Thanks.