[LAU] jackd without MIDI

[jonetsu at teksavvy.com]

On Tue, 17 Nov 2015 12:13:30 -0500
jonetsu <jonetsu at teksavvy.com> wrote:

> I did have a reply from Bitwig today with a series of steps to do and
> I will give it a try.

Basically it boils down to this.  After booting the workstation, bitwig
is started, audio set to jack (not ALSA).  There is sound and the MIDI
keyboard works.  This is as it should be.  Why didn't I see it
before ?  Because I was loading what I'm used to work with first, that
is, Ardour.  So now bitwig is OK.  I start Ardour and load a session.
In this session there is a VST synth plugin.  Since the MIDI keyboard
is not seen in the MIDI tab (only in the ALSA tab) in qjackctl (where
Ardour MIDI connections are seen) I have to do:

% a2j_control ehw start

Now the MIDI keyboard and Ardour are found in the same MIDI tab in
qjackctl and a connection can be made between them.  Note that apart
from the audio tab, there's no bitwig elsewhere in qjackctl.  The
problem is, no MIDI is reaching the VST plugin in Ardour.

What I see is the first app to run gets the MIDI.  The other app that
is launched thereafter will not get.  It works in both ways: bitwig
first then no MIDI for Ardour.  Ardour first then no MIDI for bitwig.
This is extremely reproducible.

The question is now, how to share MIDI between the applications (let
alone which MIDI channel controls what) ?