midi and bitwig and cadence set up problem

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calimerox
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midi and bitwig and cadence set up problem

Post by calimerox »

Hi people,

when i try to set up my nano key2 to input midi into bitwig-studio, sometimes it works fine, and sometimes it doesnt work at all, no matter what connections i draw in Catia or qjackctl, although in bitwig it shows the device and everything seems to be there.

and I m realizing I have had similar problems since using linux audio. Is there a good way to set up midi? can someone hint me to a noob guide to how to set up midi correctly in linux? also things like: is it better to plug in usb midi device before or after firing up cadence and the alsa midi bridge? very simple questions i hope to solve my midi problem with. I have the same issue on linux mint and manjaro and on two different machines, so i guess i m making some stupid mistake here.. thanks! :)
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noedig
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Re: midi and bitwig and cadence set up problem

Post by noedig »

Not sure if it has changed since, but if I recall correctly, last time I used Bitwig, it needed sole access to the ALSA MIDI devices. Thus, do not even start the MIDI bridge (and stop it if it is running).

As for the general case, I find no difference between first plugging in the device and then starting the bridge or the other way around.
calimerox
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Re: midi and bitwig and cadence set up problem

Post by calimerox »

noedig thank you for your comment,

after a long night of trial and error I came to similar conclusions: when i start the midi audio bridge, it interferes with the alsa midi and connection is not possible anymore. problem here is: i usually run Mixbus at the same time with a faderport 8 which needs the audio bridge. so this might not be possible... but at least i can connect the nanokey2l to bitwig!
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noedig
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Re: midi and bitwig and cadence set up problem

Post by noedig »

calimerox wrote: i usually run Mixbus at the same time with a faderport 8 which needs the audio bridge
Do you mean MIDI bridge?

Some things to try:

1.) First start Bitwig, make sure its MIDI-in is working from your nanokey, then start the bridge. This way Bitwig already captured the nanokey and the bridge will likely ignore it, but still bridge the other devices.

2.) Use a2jmidi_bridge. This creates a single MIDI bridge port between ALSA MIDI and JACK MIDI and does not automatically connect it. Then, just connect it to your faderport 8. This will leave the nanokey untouched for Bitwig to use.

If it looks like Bitwig also captures the faderport, make sure it is removed from the Controllers section of Bitwig's settings.
calimerox
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Re: midi and bitwig and cadence set up problem

Post by calimerox »

noedig, yes I meant midi bridge! sorry for not being precise.

and thank you for your suggestions! I tried things back and forth and as you suggested, I manage to get midi from the keyboard into bitwig by NOT running the alsa midi bridge. this is great. but then I cannot connect faderport-8 to mixbus anymore( after turning on the midi-bridge..) it seems that just one of the two things seem to work... I hope there will be some kind of workaround for that. if not i need to restart the audio engine between takes etc.. and things get so cumbersome. ..
calimerox
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Re: midi and bitwig and cadence set up problem

Post by calimerox »

A little update on this: it seems to work now!! let s see after the next reboot ;)

what i did: i need to setup bitwig first, make the midi connections.

then i have to start the midi bridge: when i start it within cadence, it didnt work out, my faderport 8 connection was not shown.

however when i do :

a2jmidid --export-hw

it seems that although i toggled export before on the gui, it did not happen..

it works and it shows this

Code: Select all

JACK MIDI <-> ALSA sequencer MIDI bridge, version 8 () built on Thu Jan  1 01:00:00 1970
Copyright 2006,2007 Dmitry S. Baikov
Copyright 2007,2008,2009,2011,2012 Nedko Arnaudov

Bridge starting...
Using JACK server 'default'
Hardware ports will be exported.
Bridge started
Press ctrl-c to stop the bridge
port created: Midi Through [14] (capture): Midi Through Port-0
port created: Midi Through [14] (playback): Midi Through Port-0
port created: Hammerfall DSP [16] (capture): HDSP MIDI 1
port created: Hammerfall DSP [16] (playback): HDSP MIDI 1
ERROR: a2j_alsa_connect_from: can't subscribe to 20:0 - Resource temporarily unavailable
port skipped: nanoKEY2 [20] (capture): nanoKEY2 MIDI 1
port created: nanoKEY2 [20] (playback): nanoKEY2 MIDI 1
port created: PreSonus FP8 [24] (capture): PreSonus FP8 MIDI 1
port created: PreSonus FP8 [24] (playback): PreSonus FP8 MIDI 1
ERROR: a2j_alsa_connect_from: can't subscribe to 28:0 - Resource temporarily unavailable
port skipped: Hua Xing [28] (capture): Hua Xing MIDI 1


now i can connect the faderport and the midi keyboards still work :D
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