Introducing JackAss

[ssj71]

PS: Why JackAss? Because it outputs to JACK.

Oh I get it! So one side interfaces with JACK and the other side interfaces with...

[autostatic]

Thanks falkTX for this. Now it's also possible to route MIDI that was generated within a Qtractor MIDI track out of Qtractor. Normally this isn't possible. The fact that it's JACK-MIDI is an extra bonus Now I can use the QMidiArp plugins with my Volca Keys. Thanks again!

[lazyklimm]

looks nice

[danboid]

I can't believe we didn't have an app or plugin called JackAss already so I'm happy to see that hole plugged, so to say.

I've got a great idea for the name of a plugin that would take JACK dumps, btw.

Thanks F!

[GMaq]

Hi, great work falkTX!

Question: Where do the Wine DLL's go? In the system WinVST folder (ie /usr/local/lib/vst) or in some folder in ~/.wine ?

[skei]

fantastic!!!
but... unfortunately, bitwig studio gives me this:

64 bit plugin host reported errors: Pluginhost returned non zero exit code 255
Other messages:
Printing plug-in meta data for /home/skei/vst/jackass/linux64/JackAss.so ...
libjack.so.0 loaded sucessfully!
Exception Thrown:Plugin main function not found

32 bit plugin host reported errors: Pluginhost returned non zero exit code 255
Other messages:
Printing plug-in meta data for /home/skei/vst/jackass/linux64/JackAss.so ...
Exception Thrown:Failed to load VST plug-in //home/skei/vst/jackass/linux64/JackAss.so: //home/skei/vst/jackass/linux64/JackAss.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS64

[Drumfix]

You can use the linker option --defsym main=VSTPluginMain to get a "main" alias exported

[Drumfix]

I'm using it that way on linux and the vst-sdk 2.4, and it certainly works.

My linker line looks like this:

g++ -shared -DVST_64BIT_PLATFORM -DREENTRANT -Wl,--defsym,main=VSTPluginMain,-soname,myplugin.so -o myplugin.so *.o ....

[StudioDave]

@falkTX - I used DrumFix's suggested linker option to build the git sources for Jackass, no trouble compiling. Both JackAss and JackAssFX appear in Bitwig's Resource browser, both instantiate with apparently no problems, and they show up in the JackMIDI panel in QJackCtl. A brief MIDI loop in BW seems to be working correctly: the virtual LEDs light up on both sides of the device, but I get no response from the instance of Yoshimi wired to JackAss. To the sight, the plugin appears to work as it should, but no MIDI message of any kind is reaching Yoshimi. I have the same problem with the pizmidi plugins (reported to the mighty piz), they'll instantiate in BW, they seem to work, but no MIDI messages are actually getting to their destination.

Just to report. JackAss is a very cool plugin, it would make MIDI connectivity much easier in BW.

Best,

dp

EDIT: I rebuilt the pizmidi plugins with the defsym, they now work in BW. Sweet.

[StudioDave]

Can you try a midi monitor to see if any messages are being sent?

Tested with gmidimonitor, and yes indeed BW is sending valid MIDI to it. I then attached a different synth (amSynth), connected it to JackAss, and voila, amSynth is playing nicely with Bitwig.

Perhaps bitwig is sending data in a different channel than yoshimi is expecting.

Tested with every channel on Yoshimi, got no joy. Perhaps there's a bug in Yoshimi ?

Anyway, JackAss does work with Bitwig. Nice.

Btw, I also rebuilt the Nekobi VST with drumfix's link options, plugin still fails to load because of a missing main. Weird, I'm obviously missing something too.

Built the Foo-YC20 as a native VST too, it shows in the BW resource browser but crashes when invoked.

Best,

dp

[skei]

email from dom@bitwig: "it looks like only the Linux version did not look vor VSTPluginMain, the others already did... will be fixed!"

[StudioDave]

@skei - Thanks for the news, I figured they'd want to get that one repaired asap. falkTX started a thread on the topic too, on the BW forum at KVR.

The dev team has been responsive so far. A number of niggling and irritating bugs have been fixed, and so far all the major features appear to be solid. However, my tests are far from exhaustive.

Best,

dp

[hreggi89]

Hei @falkTX, thanks for the plugin! I've been using it to send midi from Bitwig to Hardware Instruments. Ii works great but is there any way assign midi channels to each instance of the plugin? My audio interface only has one midi out port and I'm running two different instruments through it. It's a Motu Ultralite mk1 and there is no ALSA driver for it so I can't use the normal Bitwig route. I'm running the KXStudio 14.04b image and would love to hear if someone knows any way to accomplish sending different midi signals from Bitwig through the single port.

[hreggi89]

Yeah that would be perfect! It fits the whole modular idea of Linux Audio systems very nicely, so I think users will like it. I know I will ^^
It might be easier for you to add a channel selector to Jackass instead of implementing a channel joiner to Carla, but I may well be wrong since I have no idea how Jackass works.

[hreggi89]

Turns out there already is a way to accomplish what I needed using a plugins named midiChannelize, so you can scratch the channel joiner if your schedule is busy.

But there is another thing I was hoping you could help me out with. I'm trying to modify the source code for the plugin to compile a version with specific control change (MIDI CC) options for each of my hardware instruments. Problem is that I have no idea how to compile it, the usual ./configure, make and install doesn't seem to cut it this time. I'm only interested in compiling a 64bit Linux VST at this point in time, could you give me any information on what I need to accomplish this?