Plug in all devices and activate the applications you intend
to connect to.
You may wish to connect everything manually first, although
it's not necessary. It may help guide you, however, as you
will be re-creating the configuration manually.
Click the Patchbay button in the lower
left of the QJackCtl window. If
needed, you can also open the Connections
window as reference.
In the Patchbay, click the
New button located in the top left
corner of the window.
You will be asked if you wish to create a snapshot of your
current configuration. Somewhat counter-intuitively, the
answer is No.
If you answer Yes to this question, this process
will not work. The correct answer is
No.
Obviously there are nearly infinite varieties of possible
configurations, so the following example is only one of
many. The principle will be the same regardless of your setup.
Click the Add button on the left side
of the patchbay to create a new Output Socket. An Output
Socket in this context is a source of sound or some kind of
signal; it's an output of itself, and it will be sent as an
Input to the computer!
In the New Output Socket window, provide
a logical, human-readable name for your new socket. If you are
defing where you'd like your USB keyboard to be routed, for
example, you might name this socket
USBKeyboard_AKAI.
Define the type of socket; the three types are Audio, MIDI, or
ALSA. These correspond with your
Connections window, so refer to it if
you're unsure. If you had your USB keyboard working as a MIDI
device, then simply look in connections and see how you had it
routed, and emulate that for your socket. In my example, I
would set this socket to ALSA, since I
am using ALSA as my MIDI driver.
Set the Client to reflect the device you
are routing. In my example, I would choose the LPK25_AKAI.
Choose from any available plugs that you wish to use. In my
example there is but one; choose yours, and click the
Add button to add it to the socket.
Click the OK button to confirm. You now
have an output socket available in your custom patchbay. Next,
set an Input socket for JACK.
The process for the Input socket is basically the same; click the
Add button on the right of the
patchbay. In the New Input Socket window,
give a logical name for your socket; in my example, I might
use Qtractor_AKAI or similar.
Set the type to the same as your related Output socket; in
this example, I would choose ALSA.
Choose the destination client from the
Client dropdown menu. In this case, I
would choose Qtractor, but if I
have a dedicated keyboard for a specific synth, then I might
just as likely choose amSynth or
any other potential destination for a keyboard. Again, your
previous experience with your known setup should be your guide
here.
Choose the plug to use for the socket; in this case I have
only one available, so I would select it and click the
Add button, and then the
OK button to confirm the socket creation.
Back in the Patchbay window, there are
now two sockets. Within each socket there is one device. Click
these devices and click the Connect
button.
Repeat this process for each source of sound or signal and
each destination, until you have replicated your typical setup
in this patchbay form.
When you have finished setting up the patchbay definition,
click the Save button to save it as a
preset. Save a copy of the configuration to both a standard
location in your home directory, as well as into your project
folder for safe keeping.
To load this configuration manually, simply click the
Load from the
Patchbay window of
QJackCtl.
If you want this to be your default configuration, then click
the Setup button on the right of the
QJackCtl window.
Click the Options tab and place a
checkmark in the Activate Patchbay
Persistence option. Choose the preset you wish to
have automatically loaded.
Click the OK button to save your changes.
Restart QJackCtl to test the
auto-load.
