---
layout: default
title: Setting Up MIDI
---                        

<h2>What Can Ardour Do With MIDI?</h2>
<p>
  <dfn><abbr title="Musical Instrument Digital
  Interface">MIDI</abbr></dfn> is a way to describe musical
  performances and to control music hardware and software.
</p> 
<p>Ardour can import and record MIDI data, and perform a variety of
  editing operations on it. Furthermore, MIDI can be used to control
  various functions of Ardour.
</p>

<h2>MIDI Handling Frameworks</h2>
<p>
  MIDI input and output for Ardour are handled by the same "engine"
  that handles audio input and output. Up to release 3.5, that means
  that all MIDI I/O takes place via JACK. JACK itself uses the 
  native MIDI support of the operating system to receive and send
  MIDI data. The native MIDI support  provides device drivers for MIDI
  hardware and libraries needed by software applications that want to
  work with MIDI.
</p>

<dl>
<dt>OS X</dt>
<dd>  <dfn>CoreMIDI</dfn> is the standard MIDI framework on OSX systems. 
</dd>
<dt>Linux</dt>
<dd>
  <dfn><abbr title="Advanced Linux Sound API">ALSA</abbr> MIDI</dfn>
  is the standard MIDI framework on Linux systems.
</dd>
</dl>

<p class="note">
  On Linux systems, <dfn>QJackCtl</dfn> control software displays ALSA MIDI
  ports under its "ALSA" tab (it does not currently display CoreMIDI
  ports).  By contrast, JACK MIDI ports show up under
  the <kbd class="menu">MIDI</kbd> tab in QJackCtl.
</p>
   
<h2>JACK MIDI Configuration</h2>
<p>
By default, JACK will <strong>not</strong> automatically detect and use existing MIDI
ports on your system. You must choose one of several ways
of <dfn>bridging</dfn> between the native MIDI frameworks
(e.g. CoreMIDI or ALSA) and JACK MIDI, as described in the sections
below.
</p>

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