[LAU] Is -Xalsarawidi the same as -Xraw or -Xseq?

[Chris Caudle]

On Mon, June 18, 2018 8:55 am, Victor A. Stoichita wrote:
> using -Xalsarawmidi combined with a2jmidid. I'm still not sure
> whether this is the same as -Xseq or -Xraw.

I think -Xraw is an alias for -Xalsarawmidi, but in any case you should
not use either.

> For the background I got the explanation by Fons Adriaensen (10
> years ago)

Out of date since a2jmidid is available.  Use "none" as the ALSA setting
for jackd, load a2jmidid, and just route through the exposed jack MIDI
ports.

Note that only applies to accessing ALSA hardware MIDI ports.

> I tried to locate the current repo of a2jmidid

Interesting, until you pointed it out I had not noticed that a2jmidid was
not available with all the various zita tools at
http://kokkinizita.linuxaudio.org/linuxaudio/downloads/index.html
There are several distributions which have a copy, you should be able to
find a copy of the source if you need it.   Or just install the binaries
for now for whichever distribution you are running.

> If I only use Ardour, Yoshimi, Qmidiarp and mididings (all of
> which can do jack-midi on their own), should I still connect them
> through a2jmidid just for the sake of timing?

No, a2jmidid is only for getting your ALSA hardware MIDI ports exposed in
jack.  If you are not using hardware synths then you have no need for ALSA
MIDI at all, connect everything through jackd.

> - if I use jack2 and a2jmidid, what -X option should I give to
>   jackd at startup? Will that reproduce the native behavior
>   of jack1?

Use "none" as the ALSA selection if you are starting jackd through
qjackctl or similar.  If you are starting directly from a terminal you do
not need to give any argument for MIDI, just leave out the "-X" section of
the command line.

-- 
Chris Caudle