manual/include/generic-midi-learn.html

<h2>Philosophy</h2>
<p>
There are no "best" ways to map an arbitrary MIDI controller for
controlling Ardour. There may be very legitimate reasons for different
users to prefer quite different mappings.
</p>
<p>
On every platform that Ardour runs on, there are excellent
free-of-charge tools for making connections between MIDI hardware and
"virtual" MIDI ports like the ones that Ardour creates and
uses. Rather than waste precious developer time replicating these
connection/patch managers, we prefer to leverage their existence by
having users rely on them to actually connect Ardour to other MIDI
devices and software. On OS X, we recommend Pete Yandell's MIDI
Patchbay. On Linux, a wide variety of tools are available including
QJackctl, aconnect, Patchage, and more.
</p>

<h2>Basics</h2>

<ol>
  <li>Enable Generic MIDI control: <kbd class="menu">Edit &gt; Preferences
  &gt; Control Surfaces &gt; Generic MIDI</kbd></li>
  <li>Connect Ardour's MIDI port named <samp>control</samp> to whatever
  hardware or software you want (using a MIDI patchbay app)</li>
  <li><kbd class="mod1 mouse">Middle</kbd>-click on whatever on-screen
  fader, plugin parameter control, button etc. you want to control</li>
  <li>A small window appears that says "Operate Controller now"</li>
  <li>Move the hardware knob or fader, or press the note/key.</li>
  <li>The binding is complete. Moving the hardware should control the Ardour fader etc. </li>
</ol>

<h2>Avoiding work in the future</h2>
<p>
If you want the bindings you set up to be used automatically in every
session, the simplest thing to do is to use <kbd class="menu">Session &gt; Save
Template</kbd>. Then, when creating new sessions, select that template and
all the bindings will be automatically set up for you.
</p>