Recording Midi sounds into a DAW

[blubee]

I am currently using Ardour 4.4 as my main DAW but I had some experience with Logic on Mac.

I have a few questions about workflow on linux.

Typically on Mac you can set an instrument, record midi sounds and lay down tracks, edit them etc. Since all the instruments were built into Logic it was fairly straight forward if a bit inflexible.

Right now with Ardour I can launch Hydrogen, lay a drum pattern then through Jack I can send the audio from Hydrogen to Ardour and record it to a track but if I want to edit the drum pattern I have to go back to Hydrogen, change and rerecord it back into Ardour.

I have to do this for most of the instruments that I can't get VST's for Ardour, like some of the plugins available in LMMS.

Maybe my workflow is all crazy but this is the way I am currently doing it. I get the feeling that I could be doing things a lot better but don't know how.

That's why I am here asking for assistance on improving my workflow.

[stanlea]

Ardour has midi tracks. But just to be clear : midi is not a sound format. I assume that what you call midi sounds are the sounds produced by a synth plugged on a midi track.
So, first, you have to create a new track, choose "midi" in the type of the track. Then you have to put a synth in the chain, the easiest way is to make it within the mixer window. You should find it easily. Then you can either record midi from an external midi device, or edit midi by increasing the vertical size of the midi track in order to show the grid and the piano roll.
These are the principles, not the details.

[asbak]

Hydrogen can act as a sound-module controlled by an external sequencer or it can use its own sequencer.

The quick answer to your question is to route MIDI from Ardour to Hydrogen, use Hydrogen as a sound-module only, and record those sounds back into Ardour. MIDI & Drum pattern editing is performed on Ardour, not in Hydrogen.
If you don't want to keep having to re-record the audio drumtrack, don't record it until the final version is ready. Rather just fix the MIDI drum track first and keep playing it back to Hydrogen instead of recording it in Ardour.

[blubee]

Hydrogen can act as a sound-module controlled by an external sequencer or it can use its own sequencer.
.

does this mean that I can have Ardour control Hydrogen so that I can edit the drum patterns in real time?

If I make a pattern in Hydrogen and record the sound in Ardour, when I want to change that drum pattern I have to relaunch hydrogren and readjust the pattern then re-record it back in ardour.

[stanlea]

Hydrogen can act as a sound-module controlled by an external sequencer or it can use its own sequencer.
.

does this mean that I can have Ardour control Hydrogen so that I can edit the drum patterns in real time?

If I make a pattern in Hydrogen and record the sound in Ardour, when I want to change that drum pattern I have to relaunch hydrogren and readjust the pattern then re-record it back in ardour.

Yes, you can have Ardour control Hydrogen, but the drums patterns will be edited within the Ardour midi grid, which is not as handy as the pattern editor of Hydrogen.

[rghvdberg]

I would love to see the drum pattern editor of Hydrogen merged in Ardour (or Qtractor)
I still miss the drum editor I used in Cubase on the Atari ST (and later Win95)

[rghvdberg]

Oh and btw, you can sync ardour and Hydrogen via jack

Click on the "Internal" button in Ardour, it changes to JACK (green button now)
Hydrogen automatically starts playing in sync when you start Ardour.
Route the output of hydrogen through a bus in Ardour, so there's no direct need to record the sound of Hydrogen in Ardour.
You can even route to individual sounds of the drumkit to separate busses in Ardour for further processing and mixing.

[blubee]

Oh and btw, you can sync ardour and Hydrogen via jack

Click on the "Internal" button in Ardour, it changes to JACK (green button now)
Hydrogen automatically starts playing in sync when you start Ardour.
Route the output of hydrogen through a bus in Ardour, so there's no direct need to record the sound of Hydrogen in Ardour.
You can even route to individual sounds of the drumkit to separate busses in Ardour for further processing and mixing.

This might be the best answer, I have to try this out and hopefully I can get it working right. Keeping Hydrogen open might be a bit meh but it's awesome that I can do a setup like this.