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virtual ALSA midi device for BITWIG studio?

Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2014 6:55 pm
by lilakmonoke
hi all ... im doing my fist steps in producing with bitwig studio and want to trigger bitwig instruments via software midi sequencers i wrote in pure data. bitwig studio is amazing btw, once this takes off it will put linux seriously on the map as a professional audio production platform.

bitwig does not show up as an ALSA midi device but can receive or output to all existing midi hardware devices. for this the ALSA/jack midi bridge needs to switched OFF in case you want to try this yourself! how do i set up a virtual midi device that registers like hardware? the midi through doesnt work for that btw

Re: virtual ALSA midi device for BITWIG studio?

Posted: Tue Jul 22, 2014 3:11 am
by lilakmonoke
hi falktx ... midi bridge needs to be off for any midi to work in bitwig so jackass is no option. there is no no virtual alsa midi device around? right now i can send midi data to bitwig by pluging the output of my midi-sport 1 into midisport-2 ... but thats kind of dumb.

Re: virtual ALSA midi device for BITWIG studio?

Posted: Tue Jul 22, 2014 3:26 am
by glowrak guy
lilakmonoke wrote:hi all ... im doing my fist steps in producing with bitwig studio and want to trigger bitwig instruments via software midi sequencers i wrote in pure data. bitwig studio is amazing btw, once this takes off it will put linux seriously on the map as a professional audio production platform.

bitwig does not show up as an ALSA midi device but can receive or output to all existing midi hardware devices. for this the ALSA/jack midi bridge needs to switched OFF in case you want to try this yourself! how do i set up a virtual midi device that registers like hardware? the midi through doesnt work for that btw
try the command

modprobe snd_virmidi

Now, start bitwig and in bitwig preferences,
select your midi controller device script.
When choosing your midi controller, there is an easily overcome caveat,
the device will now be in the list, but may be invisible. If it is, click the first invisible item,
immediately below any visible items, and you should be in business.
The same invisibility is also an issue when selecting hardware for
the bitwig Hardware Device, just select the first invisble one,
just below the top of the list.

Now look in qjackctl, and there should be bitwig i/o locations to use with
the normal range of linux apps, as well as a bunch of virtual midi ports.
Makes for a lot of options, since native linux vsts will also work within bitwig,
and it's fx section is quite excellent.

This was back in bitwig V1.0.7 days, haven't had time to test V1.0.11 yet.
Good luck