# Behringer DDX3216

The Behringer DDX3216 isn't actually a dedicated control surface, it is a digital mixer. However it does have the capability to control ardour using it's faders and the pan pots, through it's midi I/O. Unfortunately for some bizzare reason, the protocol for mute toggling changes on the Behringer and is not compatible with ardour. Most commonly you would setup ardour so the mixer and panning was reflected by the Behringer, however you can control other elements of ardour such as plugin controls/automation. This can potentially save a lot of time given you can control a lot more than just one level at a time, as opposed to one when using a mouse. The DDX3216 can also receive MTC (MIDI Time Code) from ardour and control ardours transport via MMC (Midi Machine Control), making it a very useful go between for any other external devices that can also receive MTC. On top of that, any other software synced to JACK will be controlled via the DDX3216 as well!

The setup is quite simple as follows:

1. On the DDX3216 select the MMC/MIDI button. Press the Previous/Next buttons to move to the RX/TX page. Make sure that you have both RX and TX selected for 'Control Change', and TX selected for 'Machine Control'. Under the menu 'RX/TX Only', make sure Fader and Pan is selected.

2. To receive MTC do the following. Press the Previous button to get to the Setup page. Select MTC as your source. Make sure the receive channel is set to OMNI so it will listen on all channels, and the MMC device is set to 7F (all). Save a new Preset on the DDX3216, something like MMC/MTC.

3. Connect your midi in and out cables to your sound card, and to the Behringer DDX3216. Start qjackctl, and then start ardour. In qjackctl go to the connections dialog, and select the midi tab. Select the Midi output on the left window and the ardour input on the right window, and press connect. Select the ardour output on the left window and the midi input on the right window, and press connect.

4. I suggest making a template in ardour so you don't have to do these following steps each time. Load a new session with your desired amount of tracks (I used 16). Go to menu Windows Options Editor and select the MIDI tab. Select all the options and make sure the midi port you have connected to in qjackctl is 'online'.

5. Open the mixer window (AltM) and then hold down Ctrl and click the middle button of your mouse, on the fader control for track 1. A dialog will appear over the fader asking you to `operate MIDI control now`. Move the fader on the Behringer that you want to control track 1 ardour fader - and whalla! I use fader 17 (fader 1 in page 2) as it isn't used for analog inputs and saves confusion. Now do the same thing for the panning, ctrl and middle click on the pan control in ardour, and move the pan pot on the DDX3216. Repeat the Step for as many tracks as you have. Then save the template as 'MIDI controlled' or something similar. Next time you create a session, select this template from the drop down list and you are ready to cruise.

   Remember you can assign the DDX3216 pan pots or even faders if you want, to the plugin controls, send levels, inserts etc etc.

6. You can also operate the ardour transport and have ardour transmit MTC back to your DDX3216 (it is only capable of receiving timecode, not transmitting it). Go to the ardour menu Windows Option Editor and the Sync Tab. Set Positional Sync to Sync with Jack. Select Send MTC and Jack time master. Set your SMPTE to the appropriate frame rate for your region (PAL - 25 frames, NTSC 30 frames/drop frames). On the DDX3216 in the MMC/MIDI screen, select the Machine Control Tab and you can now press play and watch ardour begin playback, and the time code start rolling! Of course if you have hydrogen/rosegarden/muse/whatever also running, then they will begin with ardour as well.

With ardour set to sync with JACK you cannot rewind from the transport control, because JACK does not support global varispeed. If you are just working with ardour and nothing else, then you can change the Sync option to internal. You also will want to enable the -12dB gain reduction for ff/rew in the Misc tab for sanity reasons.