How to prevent midi events from being echoed back

I have a MIDI piano whose MIDI in and out are connected to an es1938 soundcard *). I can record and play back MIDI without any problems, currently using alsa. **Problem** However, when I don't do *anything* MIDI-wise on the computer, all MIDI events from my piano are echoed back to it. Thus, each note is triggered twice, once from the piano keyboard and once from the echoed MIDI event it receives from my computer. **What I tried** This happens as long as this card doesn't have any midi alsa connections**) on my computer. If I start a process that reads the es1938 MIDI events or connect it to OPL3, the echo stops. I tried to automate this, but I am having trouble with the card numbers, which for some reason change occasionally. **Questions** - Is there a way, I can prevent this MIDI echo once an for all? I *never* need or want it. - Alternatively, what is the easiest was to make a MIDI connection for this card (thereby preventing the echo) without referring to the card number (and without writing a script to determine the number) ---- *) full name of the card: Multimedia audio controller: ESS Technology ES1938/ES1946/ES1969 Solo-1 Audiodrive (rev 01) **) /home/martin >**aconnect** -lio client 0: 'System' [type=kernel] 0 'Timer ' 1 'Announce ' Connecting To: 128:0, 129:0, 130:0 client 14: 'Midi Through' [type=kernel] 0 'Midi Through Port-0' client 20: 'ESS ES1938 (Solo-1)' [type=kernel,card=1] 0 'ESS ES1938 (Solo-1) MIDI' client 21: 'OPL3 FM synth' [type=kernel,card=1] 0 'OPL3 FM Port ' client 28: 'M Audio Audiophile 24/96' [type=kernel,card=3] 0 'M Audio Audiophile 24/96 MIDI '