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A Raspberry Pi 3 is a great choice for building a USB MIDI host. Here's how to set it up:

Hardware Setup

1. Raspberry Pi 3
2. MicroSD card (at least 8GB)
3. Power supply (2.5A recommended)
4. Case (optional but recommended)
5. USB hub (if you need more than 4 USB connections)

Software Installation

1. Flash Raspberry Pi OS Lite to your SD card (lighter OS since we don't need a GUI)
2. Boot up the Pi and complete initial setup
3. Update the system:
    

   sudo apt update
   sudo apt upgrade

4. Install required packages:
    

   sudo apt install alsa-utils amidiauto

MIDI Host Configuration

1. Install the ALSA MIDI utilities:
    

   sudo apt install alsa-utils

2. Install amidiauto for automatic MIDI connections:
    

   sudo apt install amidiauto
   sudo systemctl enable amidiauto
   sudo systemctl start amidiauto

3. Create a custom udev rule for your MIDI devices:
    

   sudo nano /etc/udev/rules.d/99-midi.rules

   Add:
    

   SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ACTION=="add", ATTRS{idVendor}=="xxxx", ATTRS{idProduct}=="yyyy", RUN+="/usr/local/bin/midi-connect.sh"

   (Replace xxxx/yyyy with your device IDs, which you can find using lsusb)
4. Create the connection script:
    

   sudo nano /usr/local/bin/midi-connect.sh

   Add basic connection logic (this is a simplified example):
    

   bash

   #!/bin/bash
   sleep 2
   aconnect -l
   aconnect 20:0 128:0  # Connect device to device (IDs will vary)

5. Make the script executable:
    

   sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/midi-connect.sh

Advanced Setup (Optional)

To make it more user-friendly, you could:

1. Install web-based MIDI routing with Node.js:
    

   curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_14.x | sudo -E bash -
   sudo apt install nodejs

2. Create a simple web interface to control connections using a framework like Express
3. Set up headless boot and WiFi for remote access