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The following verbosity intends to be one's formal sidenote regarding the distinction between QjackCtl Connections and Patchbay widgets, while quite similar in their aspect, aren't at all fitting the same purpose nor functionality. Let's just hope this makes it a bit more bearable ;)

QjackCtl Connections

All audio and MIDI connections and routing are controlled under the QjackCtl Connections window. These are flexible but imperative connections that can be made between all the Audio/MIDI software application programs (clients) that run in the system, establishing an actual signal path from source to destination ports.

In the Connections window you will see all Audio/MIDI signal sources on the left pane (Readable Clients/Output Ports) and all possible Audio/MIDI signal destinations in the right pane (Writable Clients/Input Ports).

Actual connections are established between source (Output Ports) and destination (Input Ports) by selecting one item in either side and pressing the [Connect] button at the bottom-left of the Connections window.

It is also possible to establish a connection by dragging an item and dropping it over the other side (Note: it doesn't matter from either side you start dragging).

To disconnect a currently established connection you proceed in a similar manner: select each item in either side and press the [Disconnect] button.

Actual and established connections are shown as color directed lines in the middle pane of the Connections window. Each color indicates a single and distinct source module (client) that is currently connected.

It is possible to route every audio and MIDI from and to where you see fit, provided that JACK and ALSA sequencer services and client applications are up and running.

QjackCtl Patchbay

All connections made in the Connections interface are kept as long you don't power-cycle the JACK server (jackd). That is, all connections will be lost when the JACK server or any of the client application programs are closed or terminated. Those connections just don't get setup whenever the server and any of its client applications get started later again.

To maintain a custom and persistent connection configuration layout, you'll have to edit and activate a patchbay definition profile. Patchbay definition profiles are connection models that are edited and created in the Patchbay window, which is accessed via the [Patchbay] button on the main QjackCtl panel.

The Patchbay window is very similar to the Connections one. However, it is here where you prepare and set your intentional and persistent connections, not the actual connections. When activated, this patchbay definition profile will keep all declared connections automatically, as long as QjackCtl is kept alive.

Following the Patchbay model, you declare connections between sockets (clients). When two sockets are said connected, it is implied that each one of its plugs (ports) are declared about to be connected in turn, one by one, in a one-to-one basis.

Take special note on the plug/port order in the socket plug list, as each plug of each other socket is about to be connected in the precise order those are listed on either end.

The Patchbay handles both Audio and MIDI connections. However you can only instruct to connect between sockets of the same type.

Each actual Audio/MIDI client program is mapped into one or more items in a patchbay definition, here called sockets. Thus far, a socket is just one representation to a specific subset of all the ports (plugs) of a given client.

For example, you can have a stereo socket on to which only two of the ports from a given client are listed. When you refer to this socket you are actually referring only to those ports. Take special care that you'll have to agree to yourself to always list the ports in the very same and logical order, e.g. Left always followed by Right channel, which is the most common.

You can set a socket as being in Exclusive mode, meaning that the patchbay routine will enforce that no connections are to be held at any one time, other than the ones explicitly declared by the active patchbay definition.

As an additional feature, you can also set one socket to Forward and therefore replicate all its connections to yet another one. This option feature may be found useful, for instance, when you wish to replicate all connections made onto the main audio outputs to some aux or cue (eg. phones) outputs.

Hope it helps a little bit.
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rncbc aka Rui Nuno Capela