diff --git a/sndiod/sndiod.8 b/sndiod/sndiod.8
index 404b0e1..81f868d 100644
--- a/sndiod/sndiod.8
+++ b/sndiod/sndiod.8
@@ -271,6 +271,14 @@ the need to restart programs using it.
 .It Fl q Ar port
 Expose the given MIDI port.
 This allows multiple programs to share the port.
+If no
+.Fl q
+option is used,
+.Nm
+will use
+.Pa rmidi/0 , rmidi/1 ,
+.No ... ,
+.Pa rmidi/7 .
 .It Fl r Ar rate
 Attempt to force the device to use this sample rate in Hertz.
 The default is 48000.
diff --git a/sndiod/sndiod.c b/sndiod/sndiod.c
index 56cde52..cacf8e3 100644
--- a/sndiod/sndiod.c
+++ b/sndiod/sndiod.c
@@ -111,6 +111,15 @@ char usagestr[] = "usage: sndiod [-d] [-a flag] [-b nframes] "
     "[-Q port] [-q port] [-r rate] [-s name] [-t mode] [-U unit]\n\t"
     "[-v volume] [-w flag] [-z nframes]\n";
 
+/*
+ * default MIDI ports
+ */
+static char *default_ports[] = {
+	"rmidi/0", "rmidi/1", "rmidi/2", "rmidi/3",
+	"rmidi/4", "rmidi/5", "rmidi/6", "rmidi/7",
+	NULL
+};
+
 /*
  * SIGINT handler, it raises the quit flag. If the flag is already set,
  * that means that the last SIGINT was not handled, because the process
@@ -352,7 +361,7 @@ mkopt(char *path, struct dev *d,
 int
 main(int argc, char **argv)
 {
-	int c, background, unit;
+	int c, i, background, unit;
 	int pmin, pmax, rmin, rmax;
 	char base[SOCKPATH_MAX], path[SOCKPATH_MAX];
 	unsigned int mode, dup, mmc, vol;
@@ -490,6 +499,10 @@ main(int argc, char **argv)
 		fputs(usagestr, stderr);
 		return 1;
 	}
+	if (port_list == NULL) {
+		for (i = 0; default_ports[i] != NULL; i++)
+			mkport(default_ports[i], 0);
+	}
 	if (dev_list == NULL)
 		mkdev(DEFAULT_DEV, &par, 0, bufsz, round, rate, hold, autovol);
 	for (d = dev_list; d != NULL; d = d->next) {