Ubuntu-Studio-users Digest, Vol 22, Issue 11

[Sean Corbett]

> Message: 8
> Date: Wed, 4 Feb 2009 10:42:47 +0000
> From: Alex Montgomery <apmontgomery at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: Jack patchbay
> To: suemac at empire.net, Ubuntu Studio Users Help and Discussion
>        <ubuntu-studio-users at lists.ubuntu.com>
> Message-ID:
>        <cf66198f0902040242t482fa59hde22aec600ffa2cc at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>
>> But, I don't grock the patchbay.
>>
>> Can't seem to get it to show connections except between system node and
>> ardour node.
>>
>> Doesn't show connections between in & outs.
>>
>> Add new and select snapshot and doesn't restore what I've wired in
>> connections.
>>
>> What am I missing?
>
> I'm not an expert on patchbay, but I'll tell you what I use it for and
> what my experience has been. Patchbay is mainly used for
> defining/naming your own virtual devices and automatically making
> connections between them. For example, my audio card (Hammerfall
> light) has 18 outputs, and I use outputs 9 - 16 as 4 pairs of
> headphones. Not only is it annoying to remember what channel numbers
> correspond to a particular pair of headphones, but I also have to
> break the automatic connections most applications make to outputs 1 &
> 2 (I don't currently use them) and make connections to outputs 9 & 10
> (my first set of headphones). Patchbay allows me to create 4 separate
> stereo devices to represent my four headphones, and to create
> connections between programs and those headphones that are
> automatically set up whenever I open up the applications.
>
> Patchbay lets you create custom devices and add sockets/plugs to them.
> Then you can make connections between these devices so that QJackCtl
> will automatically connect the actual devices / programs whenever they
> appear.  When you click "Add" on either the input socket side or the
> output socket side, you are creating a virtual device to which you can
> add an arbitrary number of plugs, ALSA sound, ALSA Midi, or JACK Midi,
> which are selected from the currently available ports on your system.
> This means that if you want to create a virtual device for Ardour's
> master output, Ardour needs to be open when you're making the
> patchbay. You can then connect that Ardour master device that you've
> made to any other devices you've made, and whenever they're both
> present, (i.e. Ardour is open as is whatever program or sound device
> you've connected it to) patchbay will automagically make connections
> between them.
>
> Hope this helps,
> -- Alex

Another very handy way to use the patchbay is for automatically
connecting inserts in Ardour.  For example, I have a patchbay
definition that connects Ardour to Jamin; all I have to do to connect
it is create an insert in Ardour named "Jamin" (after starting Jamin,
of course), and QJackCtl does the rest.  Additionally, I have Ardour's
master output exclusively tied to outputs 1&2, and no other programs
are allowed to use those outputs.  That way all the programs I'm using
must be directed through Ardour's mixer, either via a bus or captured
in a track.


-- 
Sean Corbett

 __BlacktownSoundLabs__
[http://blacktownsound.com]