6 <h2>What Can Ardour Do With MIDI?</h2>
8 <dfn><abbr title="Musical Instrument Digital Interface">MIDI</abbr></dfn>
9 is a way to describe music data and to control music hardware and
10 software. Ardour can import and record MIDI data, and perform a
11 variety of editing operations on it. Furthermore, MIDI can be used to
12 control various functions of Ardour.
15 Ardour does not include a <dfn>synthesis engine</dfn> to produce audio
16 from MIDI data, but relies on plugins or external hard- and software
17 for the task. This can be a stumbling block for first time users who
18 expect MIDI input to result in audio output by default.<br />
19 Please see the section on working with plug-ins for more information on
20 turning MIDI data into audio output.</p>
22 <h2>MIDI Handling Frameworks</h2>
24 MIDI input and output for Ardour are handled by the same "engine"
25 that handles audio input and output. Up to release 3.5, that means
26 that all MIDI I/O takes place via JACK. JACK itself uses the
27 native MIDI systems of the operating system to receive and send
31 <h3>OS X : CoreMIDI</h3>
33 <dfn>CoreMIDI</dfn> is the standard MIDI framework on OSX systems.
34 It provides drivers for MIDI hardware and libraries needed by MIDI
38 <h3>Linux : ALSA MIDI</h3>
40 <dfn><abbr title="Advanced Linux Sound API">ALSA</abbr> MIDI</dfn>
41 is the standard MIDI framework on Linux systems. It provides drivers
42 for MIDI hardware and libraries needed by MIDI software clients.
45 The <dfn>QJackCtl</dfn> control software displays ALSA MIDI ports
46 under its "ALSA" tab (it does not currently display CoreMIDI ports).
47 By contrast, JACK MIDI ports show up under
48 the <kbd class="menu">MIDI</kbd> tab in QJackCtl.
51 <h2>JACK MIDI Configuration</h2>
53 By default, JACK will not automatically detect and use existing MIDI
54 ports on your system. You must choose one of several ways
55 of <dfn>bridging</dfn> between the native MIDI frameworks
56 (e.g. CoreMIDI or ALSA) and JACK MIDI, as described in the sections