bcf200 confusion

Hi together,

System: UbuntuStudio, Ardour 2.0.5, BCF2000 via USB.

today my BCF2000 arrived. I updated the firmware, the bcf is shown everywhere and everything seems fine. Then I started to follow the manual regarding the bcf2000. After setting the knobs I tried to bind the faders of my project to my bcf, as described in the manual. I realized, that strg+button 2 didn’t showed me anything. Since my ardour2 is brandnew (system reset before that) I’m sure the controlls are still out-of-box.
Ok fine, I searched here and found a newspost from february about support for the Logic Control Emulation http://ardour.org/node/737.
Fine, thats even easier. Setting the bcf in LC-Mode worked well, but nothing else. I added the lines in the ardour.rc (tried both in /etc and home-dir but, as mentioned in the newspost-comments, they are disappearing sometimes.

However, I’m confused now because I’m not sure what information is uptodate and which not(“manual”). I’m confused which ports I have to use in the midi-options and which to connect in JACK and if thats all still needed with LogicControl emulation.

In short: What is the actual (and easiest) method to get this bcf work. Maybe If we collect all the ways here Its also possible to update the manual.

greetings,
Nils

Hi,
By far the easiest way to use the BCF2000 is as described in the manual page Using the Mackie driver for MCU and BCF2000. It should just work out of the box but you may need to check the Mackie item in the “Options/Control Surfaces” menu. You should determine the actual device to use as described in the documentation, but this may change between boots of the system (or plugging and unplugging hardware) if you have multiple devices (e.g. I have a USB audio interface and a controller keyboard as well as the BCF) so you might need to check each time or ensure that the devices are powered on or plugged in the same order each time if you don’t want to reconfigure.

Because the configuration as described uses the raw midi ALSA device you do not need to connect the device ports (also bear in mind it won’t show as connected in, say, KAconnect or similar) - the device path in the configuration is sufficient.

It is also possible to turn off the USB in the BCF altogether in its “GLobal Settings” which will stop the BCF working as far as ardour and ALSA are concerned - you can check this by keeping the “mode” button (i.e the top third one from the left) pressed in as you switch the device on - after displaying “LC” it will display “EG” (i.e. Global Edit") which lets you alter some device parameters: by turning the left most knob at the top you can change the USB + MIDI mode, if you aren’t using the other MIDI ports on the device you want it to be “U1” ( you can read about the other modes in the BCF manual.) To return to normal operation with the “LC” mode press the “Exit” button on the right hand side of the BCF.

You will notice that when the BCF is in “Logic Control” mode and not connected to ardour the display has “LC” and that all the sliders will return to the bottom if moved. When it is successfully connected to ardour the display “Ar.” and the rightmost slider (the master buss strip) should move to about three quarters of the way up.

A final caveat, there was at least one recent (in the last month or so) revision in SVN for which the Mackie code wasn’t working at all for me, if you have built ardour from the the 2.0-ongoing branch and it isn’t working then I’d recommend getting a new checkout and trying that out.

Hope that helps.

/J\

Version 2.05 official release.

I tried the Mackie Mode, following the handbook. Everything seems fine: cat /proc/asound/cards shows the BCF correctly, I am in Logic Control Mode, i have added the entry in all three config files. But when I choose the “Mackie” in ardour, the programm shuts down.

I hope someone has an idea.
Here is my terminal output:

nils@steele:~$ ardour2
WARNING: Your system has a limit for maximum amount of locked memory!
This might cause Ardour to run out of memory before your system runs out of memory. You can view the memory limit with ‘ulimit -l’, and it is normally controlled by /etc/security/limits.conf
Ardour/GTK 2.0.5
(kompiliert mit Version 2234 und GCC Version4.1.2 20061115 (prerelease) (Debian 4.1.1-21))
Copyright © 1999-2007 Paul Davis
Einige Teile Copyright © Steve Harris, Ari Johnson, Brett Viren, Joel Baker

Ardour wird Ihnen ohne jegliche Gewährleistung und ausdrücklich ohne die Zusicherung
für allgemeine oder spezielle Gebrauchstauglichkeit zur Verfügung gestellt.
Dies ist freie Software und Sie dürfen sie gerne weiterverbreiten,
solange Sie sich an die Bedingungen, die in der Datei COPYING aufgeführt sind halten.
loading default ui configuration file /usr/local/etc/ardour2/ardour2_ui_default.conf
loading user ui configuration file /home/nils/.ardour2/ardour2_ui.conf
Configuration::pack_canvasvars () called, canvas_colors.size() = 82
ardour: [INFO]: Loading ui configuration file /usr/local/etc/ardour2/ardour2_ui_dark.rc
theme_init() called from internal clearlooks engine
loading system configuration file /usr/local/etc/ardour2/ardour_system.rc
loading user configuration file /home/nils/.ardour2/ardour.rc
ardour: [INFO]: Using SSE optimized routines
ardour: [INFO]: looking for control protocols in /home/nils/.ardour2/surfaces/:/usr/local/lib/ardour2/surfaces/
ardour: [INFO]: Control surface protocol discovered: “Mackie”
ardour: [INFO]: Control protocol Tranzport not usable
ardour: [INFO]: Control surface protocol discovered: “Generic MIDI”
Unable to open “/dev/input/event0”: Permission denied
Unable to open “/dev/input/event1”: Permission denied
Unable to open “/dev/input/event2”: Permission denied
Unable to open “/dev/input/event3”: Permission denied
Unable to open “/dev/input/event4”: Permission denied
Unable to open “/dev/input/event5”: Permission denied
Unable to open “/dev/input/event6”: Permission denied
Unable to open “/dev/input/event7”: No such file or directory
Unable to open “/dev/input/event8”: No such file or directory
Unable to open “/dev/input/event9”: No such file or directory
Unable to open “/dev/input/event10”: No such file or directory
Unable to open “/dev/input/event11”: No such file or directory
Unable to open “/dev/input/event12”: No such file or directory
Unable to open “/dev/input/event13”: No such file or directory
Unable to open “/dev/input/event14”: No such file or directory
Unable to open “/dev/input/event15”: No such file or directory
powermate: Opening of powermate failed - No such file or directory
ardour: [INFO]: Control protocol powermate not usable
loading bindings from /home/nils/.ardour2/ardour.bindings
Gtk-Message: (for origin information, set GTK_DEBUG): failed to retrieve property GtkWidget::cursor-color' of typeGdkColor’ from rc file value “((GString*) 0x8c0f570)” of type GString' Loading session /home/nils/test using snapshot test (1) ardour: [ERROR]: AudioEngine: cannot connect ZynAddSubFX:out_1 (ZynAddSubFX:out_1) to ardour:Bordun/in 1 (ardour:Bordun/in 1) ardour: [ERROR]: AudioEngine: cannot connect ZynAddSubFX:out_2 (ZynAddSubFX:out_2) to ardour:Bordun/in 2 (ardour:Bordun/in 2) Loading history from '/home/nils/test/test.history'. MackiePort::connect_any already connected MackiePort::connect_any already connected ardour-2.0.5: /usr/include/boost/shared_ptr.hpp:247: typename boost::detail::shared_ptr_traits<T>::reference boost::shared_ptr<T>::operator*() const [with T = ARDOUR::Route]: Assertionpx != 0’ failed.
Aborted (core dumped)

You can lose the:

Gtk-Message: (for origin information, set GTK_DEBUG): failed to retrieve property ‘GtkWidget::cursor-color’ of type ‘GdkColor’ from rc file value “((GString*) 0x8c0f570)” of type ‘GString’

by moving the directory /home/nils/.ardour2 out of the way (it will be recreated).

The assertion failure appears to be associated with failing to recreate the routing to zynAddSubFx - you should start that first.

/J\

Update:
I’ve moved the .ardour2 dir in my home, after restarting ardour (and closing) I readded the values in the .rc .
Ardour is stable but nothing happens after choosing the Mackie in options.

All I can say is, that the firmware is up to date, the BCF2000 shows “LC” in its LCD after starting and when I move a fader it returns to its original state.

Now the output (with a blank project) is this, the last two lines are given after activating the Mackie.

nils@steele:~$ ardour2
WARNING: Your system has a limit for maximum amount of locked memory!
This might cause Ardour to run out of memory before your system runs out of memory. You can view the memory limit with ‘ulimit -l’, and it is normally controlled by /etc/security/limits.conf
Ardour/GTK 2.0.5
(kompiliert mit Version 2234 und GCC Version4.1.2 20061115 (prerelease) (Debian 4.1.1-21))
Copyright © 1999-2007 Paul Davis
Einige Teile Copyright © Steve Harris, Ari Johnson, Brett Viren, Joel Baker

Ardour wird Ihnen ohne jegliche Gewährleistung und ausdrücklich ohne die Zusicherung
für allgemeine oder spezielle Gebrauchstauglichkeit zur Verfügung gestellt.
Dies ist freie Software und Sie dürfen sie gerne weiterverbreiten,
solange Sie sich an die Bedingungen, die in der Datei COPYING aufgeführt sind halten.
loading default ui configuration file /usr/local/etc/ardour2/ardour2_ui_default.conf
loading user ui configuration file /home/nils/.ardour2/ardour2_ui.conf
Configuration::pack_canvasvars () called, canvas_colors.size() = 82
ardour: [INFO]: Loading ui configuration file /usr/local/etc/ardour2/ardour2_ui_dark.rc
theme_init() called from internal clearlooks engine
loading system configuration file /usr/local/etc/ardour2/ardour_system.rc
loading user configuration file /home/nils/.ardour2/ardour.rc
ardour: [INFO]: Using SSE optimized routines
ardour: [INFO]: looking for control protocols in /home/nils/.ardour2/surfaces/:/usr/local/lib/ardour2/surfaces/
ardour: [INFO]: Control surface protocol discovered: “Mackie”
ardour: [INFO]: Control protocol Tranzport not usable
ardour: [INFO]: Control surface protocol discovered: “Generic MIDI”
Unable to open “/dev/input/event0”: Permission denied
Unable to open “/dev/input/event1”: Permission denied
Unable to open “/dev/input/event2”: Permission denied
Unable to open “/dev/input/event3”: Permission denied
Unable to open “/dev/input/event4”: Permission denied
Unable to open “/dev/input/event5”: Permission denied
Unable to open “/dev/input/event6”: Permission denied
Unable to open “/dev/input/event7”: No such file or directory
Unable to open “/dev/input/event8”: No such file or directory
Unable to open “/dev/input/event9”: No such file or directory
Unable to open “/dev/input/event10”: No such file or directory
Unable to open “/dev/input/event11”: No such file or directory
Unable to open “/dev/input/event12”: No such file or directory
Unable to open “/dev/input/event13”: No such file or directory
Unable to open “/dev/input/event14”: No such file or directory
Unable to open “/dev/input/event15”: No such file or directory
powermate: Opening of powermate failed - No such file or directory
ardour: [INFO]: Control protocol powermate not usable
loading bindings from /usr/local/etc/ardour2/ardour.bindings
Gtk-Message: (for origin information, set GTK_DEBUG): failed to retrieve property GtkWidget::cursor-color' of typeGdkColor’ from rc file value “((GString*) 0x8c23660)” of type `GString’
Loading session /home/nils/test2 using snapshot test2 (1)
Loading history from ‘/home/nils/test2/test2.history’.
MackiePort::connect_any already connected
MackiePort::connect_any already connected

BCF2000 working again. My BCF 2000 stopped working for me since I upgraded some alsa related packages from the 64Studio testing repository. I upgraded ardour too, from the same repository. Now I’m running ardour 2.1. I’d like to report the following:
There can be a misunderstandig, but just adding the line suggested to the /home/me/.ardour2/rc does not work. You have to substitute the device and type, as explained, but within the line which has the tag = “mcu”, not add a new line (curiously, the order in the line of type and mode has changed with respect to that found in the manual, but that seems insignificant).

I have not needed to change the /etc/ardour2/ardour.rc and /etc/ardour2/ardour_system.rc.

A comment to this, by Jonathan:
“You should determine the actual device to use as described in the documentation, but this may change between boots of the system (or plugging and unplugging hardware) if you have multiple devices (e.g. I have a USB audio interface and a controller keyboard as well as the BCF) so you might need to check each time or ensure that the devices are powered on or plugged in the same order each time if you don’t want to reconfigure”.

Following FAQ nº10 in http://www.64studio.com/faq_user should solve this inconvenience

Pablo

Hi,
that FAQ entry unfortunately doesn’t address the situation where there are multiple devices using the same driver, e.g. multiple USB devices (in my case midi keyboard, bcf2000 etc).

http://alsa.opensrc.org/index.php/MultipleUSBAudioDevices might be more helpful.

/J\