Qtractor - An Audio/MIDI multi-track sequencer
Contents
1. current track navigation First Previous Next Last Move move current track navigation Top Up Down Bottom Auto monitor current track auto monitoring Import Tracks import either audio or MIDI track Export Tracks export either audio or MIDI track 5 4 View Menu Menu Bar toggle whether the menu bar is shown Status Bar toggle whether the Status Bar is shown Tool Bars toggles various tool bars on and off Files toggles whether the Files directory is on or off Messages toggles whether the Messages dialog is on or off Connections displays the Connections dialog Mixer displays the Mixer window Otractor User Manual 0 3 0 Zoom zoom the main view In Out Reset Snap change the snap per beat setting Refresh refresh the view contents Instruments displays the instruments dialog Buses opens the buses editor dialog Options opens the program options dialog 5 5 Transport Menu Backward playhead jumps backward to beginning of range markers or session Rewind playhead moves backward at greater than usual speed Fast Forward playhead moves forward at greater than usual speed Forward playhead jumps forward to marker or end of session Loop play the range marked as a loop over and over again Loop Set mark selected range as a loop Play playhead moves forward at normal speed Record prepare to record audio or MIDI on2. te Est Track View Transport Help A ES A E E ESAS E MA E ellis ave ilo 00001557 pm oe p UU TN Audo Prei e EA E Piana Right a Master a s u Master a La 5 Auda a s LS a Master MU BE a Master E s e Piano Let Hara a master a u u T o S O Connections Q rE er Auto e MDI 1923297124 192340806 se A 192381641 0 A A eee 19 23 43 674 Se 192342 110 Qtractor 19 23 42 712 M e Masterfout_1 sees o oO versn 0 3 0 December 2008 Table of Contents SD ACO UNG CON aces caress tactende oa 4 PP ee aA 2s PMU LUC ON saraaaite sscactsieistcauaniehcetrs ase sausuae TA to 4 2 Installing ANd Configuring QtrACtOTF cconccocnnococcnccnonaconccconanonanonnaronaronanrnnarenanrnanrnaanenas 5 2 1 About Compiling Qtractor from its Source CONO ocooocccccncccnccccncconcnnconncnconnnnncnnnnos 5 2 2 Preparation Required and Optional Prerequisites ooccoccccoonconcnconnconccnncnnnnos 5 22d IMMANCALONY SONWAl Oeir lada 5 2 2 2 Optional Support Libraries at build tIMEe ooccocccconcnncccncnnncncncnoncncnancnncnnnnnnncnnns 5 2 3 DOWNIOAGING Oia la dl 6 23 1 OIacior TO EVE ON ica 6 2 3 2 Qtractor for the Experienced and AdVenturQUS ccoocccocccocncncncnonconnconnnoncnoncnnnnnnonnnnons 6 2 4 Compiling ana Installing Qtacto ii dic iadds 6 2 4 1 Standard Compiling and Instal
3. _ eee Beats Bar 4 14 a Horizontal Zoom 100 Description This is the best recording project Ive ever done fira paa ES e cau 100 5 p OK XX Cancel Illustration 4 3 Session properties window showing both Session and Properties tabs A new feature which applies to existing audio clips will reflect all tempo changes with a corresponding time stretching effect Time stretching is thus applied in real time at the buffering level as a custom WSOLA algorithm based and derived from the SoundTouch 12 library 16 Otractor User Manual 0 3 0 4 3 3 Session Options Access the Options windows via the View Options menu item This window and its tabs allows you to control the global parameters of Qtractor and these are the default settings which are not saved within your session file a Options Otractor Audio MIDI Display Plugins Capture Export File type FLAG FLAC Lossless Audio Codec E Sample format Signed 16 Bit s Quality 4 E Playback Sample rate converter type Sinc Fastest lv Automatic time streiching w WSOLA time sireiching WSOLA quick seek Dedicated audition pre listening player outputs Metronome Enable audio metronome Elle bar it File beat _ Dedicated audio metronome outputs Otractor User Manual 0 3 0 vox x cance Illustration 4 4 Session Options window showing both Audio and MIDI tabs sections Optio
4. there could be problems that eventually show up This short guide will explain to you how to build Qtractor with debugging code built in making it easier to locate where the code exhibits problems Rebuild it all from scratch with configure enable debug amp amp make Enable core dumps in a shell session ulimit c unlimited From the same shell command line run the program until it crashes You ll see something like this in the output when it happens Segmentation fault core dumped Locate the dumped core file Depending on your environmental settings it might be just named core or something like core 1234 1234 is the process id number of the crashing program located on the last directory the program was current Load the core dump file into gdb gdb qtractor path to core Otractor User Manual 0 3 0 7 At the gdb prompt just enter gdb gt bt or gdb gt thread apply all bt 2 5 Qtractor s Configuration Settings File Qtractor keeps a separate set of its run time settings and configuration state a memory of certain settings for each person who uses Qtractor in a file located in the user s home directory as in the following example on your computer the word user in the example would be replaced with your own user name home user config rncbc org Qtractor conf Normally there is no need to edit this file because it is recreated and rewritten every time Qtractor is run 8 Otractor User Manual 0 3
5. 0 2 6 Audio and MIDI Input Qtractor can record both digital audio and MIDI data but it does not know what audio or MIDI data you wish to record nor does Qtractor automatically make any connections to sources for that data Instead you must route audio and MIDI data to Qtractor manually like building a pipeline from the source of the audio or MIDI to Otractor Qtractor includes a utility for doing this the Connections window pictured below But Qtractor and its Connections utility depend upon the supporting software infrastructure mentioned previously composed of ALSA and Jack in order to both recognize sources of data and to receive data from those sources ALSA is responsible for knowing about and communicating with audio and MIDI hardware and some software and Jack is used for routing audio and MIDI data to and from various hardware and software ports within the computer or attached to it Both ALSA and Jack working together make it possible to route audio and MIDI data to Otractor You simply must remember to connect at least one source of that data to Qtractor first before you can record some of that data in Qtractor Connections Otractor Audio E MIDI All All Readable Clients Output Ports ig Otractor Master out_t Ya Master in_1 Master out_2 Ya Masterin_2 system system A capture_1 fe playback_1 A capture_2 fie playback_2 4 capture_3 cfc playback_3 A capture_4 fi playback_4 A Ccap
6. Mixer window These items are also selectable from the View menu Otractor User Manual 0 3 0 15 Two utility windows are additionally featured the Messages window specially suited for debugging and the Files window where audio and MIDI files are organized and selected on demand Dialog windows for editing session track and clip properties are also accessible in their proper context which will be discussed in their respective sections Finally session and application configuration options are assisted through respective customizing dialogs Buses Instruments and Options available from the View menu in the main menu bar 4 3 Understanding a Qtractor Session recording or editing A Qtractor session project contains all the information about all your Clip Objects placement of Clip Objects Mixer setup plug ins tempo time signature and Connections patch bay When creating or saving a project all this and any related settings are saved on your hard disk within this session project file 4 3 1 Session Audio Sample Rate It is important to note that Qtractor sessions are locked to a session project sample rate This is dependent on the sample rate of the JACK 3 server running at the time the session is created Any attempt to convert non matching sample rate sessions will result in a recommendation warning message However individual audio clip files are automatically converted on playback in real time to the host sample rate
7. all configuration options before entering the command sequence above type configure help After typing the configure and make commands and waiting until the program has finished being compiled become an administrator of your system using either the sudo or su command to become temporarily the user root and finish the installation by entering the following command make install which will copy the gtractor binary executable the Qtractor application or program and associated desktop and icon files to common standard system locations 2 4 2 Compiling for Native Linux VST Support optional VST is a Virtual Studio Technology developed by Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH for their own proprietary audio and MIDI applications VST support is not very easy to accomplish and is suggested only for experienced users Because of licensing issues for this proprietary software one must download the VST SDK software developer s kit from the Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH website specifically searching in the 6 Otractor User Manual 0 3 0 third party developers section It doesn t matter whether you choose version 2 3 or 2 4 of VST but choose one and only one Do not use VST 3 0 It will not work In order to download the VST SDK Zip archive you will have to accept the license and supply some personal data then download and unpack de compress and or de archive the pertinent program header files which are found in one of t
8. and TeMPO oocccccccncccncncncnnncnnncnnnnos 16 SO AA ono Pa 17 LA PCR A A 18 A e A a O 19 ASEC lo Ulla la AAA eee O O E eon eee eee eee 19 202 Audio CHp POOL 19 O a A o PI 20 2 Otractor User Manual 0 3 0 4 6 Qtractor Main Workspace TrackS AVrea ccccccccceeeceeeeceeeceeeeeeeeseesaueeaeeeseeeeaes 21 AT MIKO aenn a ee ee eee ee 22 4 97 CONNECTIONS WING Wisin AAA AA AA 22 A J AUCIO Elecis POIS dd eel eno 23 4 9 1 SUM AV A AAA EEEE TA 23 AR ev AN BB SRA a pr ne ee ee ne eee ee 24 OD Sl eee areata reat es ses ease aise sere seep nae aoe eee ae 24 49A VST ON Md a 24 ALO MIDI MAS TUMMEN Saad 25 LE A O A 26 AA 2 FOCI MID MEP dei 27 4 S KeyDo0ara SNOMCULS Edil isc ia 27 gt Otractor Mal Melia 28 S L FIE Men Uria aaa adiciona 28 52 GIL MICU src dan vides secewaateaacenta E aN 28 So Mack Mesa radic 28 SA MEW Mena 28 Jo NANS OOM Me Uisrrsntait a 29 50 GID Melon RS ANA ASS 29 0 APPENA Sia 30 OL ROrerencOS a stp nins AE T A 30 SAA A E T EEEO ETE OE TE EE 31 0o COMA CUS rana E E 31 MAE A a a a a E 32 Qtractor User Manual 0 3 0 1 Introduction 1 1 Abstract Qtractor is a multi track Audio and MIDI recorder and editor The program is written in C and for the GUI graphical user interface elements the Qt4 Toolkit and Qt Designer are used Qtractor is free open source software licensed under the GPL and the project welcomes all collaboration and review from the Linux audio developer and user community in
9. and routes available in Qtractor through which audio or MIDI data can flow Input Output in Bus monitor Bus out monitor Track d R ci M 5 monitor Yolu me Pan Track gt Plug ins R Clips M amp Re Record EE M lute monitor S 5olb Track he R Clips M S in ae monitor as out monitor Track be _ M S Clips Illustration 4 1 Audio amp MIDI data flow in through and out of Qtractor 4 1 2 Routing in Qtractor Routing in Qtractor is accomplished in several ways including O using the Connections window Illustration 2 1 to connect Otractor s input and output buses to outside sources for reading data in order to record it for example and destinations for writing data to an outside destination in order to play back and listen to it for example O inthe Track Properties window reference to illustration goes here where input and output buses are assigned to each track e changing the state of each track their are four states explained in detail later record mute solo and monitor some of which are mutually exclusive and others which are not O using the buttons R record M mute and S solo which are visible within each track s entry in Otractor s main window O adding plugins to tracks or buses in the Mixer window or View gt Buses window 4 1 3 Routing Technical Notes Otractor
10. do the same action through the menu item Transport Record Now you re ready to record your first MIDI track Take a little breath and press Play the space bar or Transport gt Play menu item you re rolling Hit the MIDI keyboard and see a brand new MIDI clip taking shape while you re performing When done press Play again to stop Save your session and enjoy 12 Otractor User Manual 0 3 0 4 Qtractor An Overview 4 1 Routing Connections Ports Tracks and Buses 4 1 1 Routing General Concepts and Information Qtractor can record and play digital data specifically digital audio and MIDI data To record Qtractor must get the audio or MIDI data from somewhere and to play that audio or MIDI data Qtractor must send it to somewhere that is capable of understanding an audio or MIDI data stream and producing for example some sound The process of directing such digital data to and from and through certain software and hardware is called routing which is simply choosing the route that the data will take Not much routing is done automatically most routing is left to the user because it is the user s preferences desires and goals in any specific project that in large part determine how the audio and MIDI data should be routed In order to route data one must have a knowledge and understanding of the various connections and pathways that are available and through which data can flow or be deposited A bus is lik
11. e e 0 ho e a ma E gt tat ieii aai l MIDI lead Master 2 a MIDI PC PO oa a Q FEWE prerecorded drums MOD REC MUTE SOLO 00 00 26 500 48000 Hz a J a Jl a Illustration 4 10 Audio and MIDI tracks in the main workspace of Qtractor Tracks are arranged as a sequence of one or more overlapping clips of the same file type either audio or MIDI The tracks window is the main application workspace serving as a virtual canvas of a multi track composition arranger Most of the editing operations are made on this tracks area of the main workspace window The tracks area has two panes the left one displays the list of tracks with their respective properties and the center right pane is the main tracks view canvas window where multi track composition and arranging activity is pictured and performed As usual tracks are stacked on horizontal strips and clips are layered on a bi dimensional grid in time sequence for each track strip Time is modeled on the horizontal axis and pictured by a bar beat scale ruler at the top of the track view Clips may be conveniently aligned to discrete time positions depending on the current snap mode setting When not set to None the snapping is always carried out to MIDI resolution quantized to ticks per quarter note granularity Each track has its own user assignable colors for better visual identification Audio clips are displayed with app
12. particular and the public in general Currently the Qtractor project has one developer the originator of the project Rui Nuno Capela Development was started April of 2005 initially as a Qt3 application Since October 2006 it is officially a Qt4 2 application The initial target OS platform is Linux in which ALSA Advanced Linux Sound Architecture 4 and JACK the Jack Audio Connection Kit 3 form the supporting infrastructure for recognizing sources of digital audio and MIDI musical instrument digital interface data communicating with those sources and routing the data to and from various locations and programs applications including Qtractor both inside and outside the computer and involving both software and hardware interfaces The goal is to develop Qtractor into a more and more full featured and robust digital audio MIDI workstation especially appropriate for personal home recording studio use i Alene imc Pome T 2g tractor La o e fr Track Hame EE Se E ie eS Peadable Clients Oulpan Ports 1 Illustration 1 1 Main GUI window showing audio amp MIDI tracks Mixer amp Connections windows 1 2 Introduction Although Qtractor will become more and more full featured as it is developed it can already be comfortably used by hobbyists as a personal home recording studio or bedroom studio It can record import arrange and edit both digital audio and MIDI data The functionality of Qtractor
13. record enabled tracks Punch record the range marked to punch in out Punch Set mark selected range to record punch in out Metronome turn the metronome s audio or MIDI output on or off Follow Playhead the tracks will scroll so that the playhead is always visible Auto Backward playhead returns to beginning of range markers or session automatically when playhead is stopped Continue Past End playhead will continue to move forward even after end of recorded tracks is reached 5 6 Help Menu e Shortcuts lists the keyboard key combination equivalents of menu items and other commands e About information about Qtractor e About Qt information about Qt the graphics toolkit used for Qtractor s user interface Otractor User Manual 0 3 0 29 6 Appendixes 6 1 References Certain words terms or items in the manual have a bracketed number after them indicating a reference to items in this appendix where sources are given for more information about those items 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Qtractor An Audio MIDI multi track sequencer http qtractor sourceforge net http sourceforge net projects qtractor Qt 4 C class library and tools for cross platform development and internationalization http www trolltech org products qt JACK Audio Connection Kit http jackaudio org ALSA Advanced Linux Sound Architecture http www alsa project org libs
14. via libsamplerate 8 This method while it works very well is not the recommended method due to possible errors in the real time sample rate conversion Real time sample rate conversion is also going to use quite a bit more valuable CPU resources Rui Nuno Capela is working toward eliminating this shortcoming by taking control of JACK from within Otractor and restarting it using the session s project parameters This will ultimately reconnect any plug ins set the proper sample rate etc Until this feature is available please follow the recommendations listed above 4 3 2 Session Properties including Time Signature and Tempo To access the session properties choose the File Properties menu item Here you can name your Otractor session set the tempo time signature how many beats per bar and decide how many ticks the smallest time unit in a session will be within the time span of each beat Although you may select any time signature and tempo for your session by present design Sessions can only contain a single constant tempo Tempo must be regarded as a global setting of a session Qtractor does not presently support tempo mapping but may eventually do so Session Qtractor EJ i Session Qtractor Session Properties Session Properties Name Time View ERRE ae sample Rate 46000 w Snap Beal Beat 4 zj Directory i i eee EN Tempo 120 0 a Pixels Beat 32 home my usemame Otractor
15. was not already running Then open Qtractor s Connections window pictured in Illustration 2 1 page 9 In the Connections window MIDI tab connect the MIDI output of the sound card in the left pane marked Readable Clients Output Ports to Qtractor s listing in the right pane of the window marked Writable Clients Input Ports One can connect an output port the source of the data MIDI or audio to an input port the port that will receive the data 4 in several ways one is to highlight a port in the list in the left pane highlight a port in the right pane ane then right click third button click if a person is left handed and uses a mouse in a reverse configuration and from the pop up menu select Connect another way is to click a port on the left side and with the mouse button held down drag the mouse to a port in the list at the right until the port is highlighted then release the mouse button Using either method a line representing a virtual cable will appear between the two ports in the middle section of the window Then close Qtractor s Connections window by clicking its button near the top of Qtractor s main window and workspace 10 Otractor User Manual 0 3 0 3 4 Creating a MIDI track File Edit Track View Transport Help Now that Qtractor can receive MIDI data it s time to create O W gt Cu GE the first track in order to record that data Right click in the blank pane at the l
16. Also you may drag and drop all plug in instances over the mixer strip channels You can move drag and drop inside the same strip or over to and from any other You may also copy plug ins from one channel strip to another as well A mini menu will ask if you want to copy or move the plug in Individual plug in control parameters can be modified in real time through provided dialog windows and maintained as named presets for re usability Mixer Otractor MN Master Out dix 4 pole a TAP Scaling Fisnge LR iM 13 Activate m Activate All Deactivate All Move Up Move Down Edit Plugin Illustration 4 12 Mixer window showing audio plug in area at top plug ins are added removed activated deactivated moved in the processing chain and their settings edited using a right click context menu Qtractor User Manual 0 3 0 23 4 9 2 LADSPA LADSPA 9 has been the Linux audio plug in standard for many years There are literally hundreds of LADSPA plug ins available for Linux LADSPA plug ins give the user many standard options such as Equalization Filtering Reverb Chorus Amp and speaker simulation etc Qtractor must be told the location path in the file system hierarchy of the LADSPA plug ins that have been installed by the user This path can be specified in the View Options window under the Plugins tab see Illustration 4 13 below 4 9 3 DSSI DSSI plug in support is available for DSSI effects p
17. DI Instruments There are many MIDI hardware tone generators available from a variety of manufacturers such as Yamaha Roland and Korg In Qtractor information about the sound patches and sound banks of these tone generators is obtained from instrument definition files Qtractor supports the instrument definition files used by the Cakewalk Sonar 11 MIDI sequencer software offering a convenient MIDI bank select program change mapping for existing MIDI instrument patch names and easier intelligible selection of MIDI track channels These Cakewalk Sonar instrument definition files ins files can be imported using the View Instruments window Instruments Otractor Instruments ile Path E E MU Ultra Proteus home my username Music roland fantom xr ins jf Patch Names for Banks gt srx 09 ins home my username Music roland srx 09 ins m Bank Select Method Normal YamahaMUSOR ins home my username Music yamaha YamahaMUS0OR ins E Korg Triton Studio ST 86 e ULTR_PRO INS home my username Music emu ULTR_PRO INS B Kurzweil PC 88mx E Korg Triton Studioins home my username Music korg Korg Triton Studio ins y Roland Fantom X Patch PCBBMX INS home my username Music kurzweil PGG6MALINS D Roland SRA 09 World Collectio gt Roland SRX 09 World Collectio By Yamaha MUSOR ea 0 Patch Names W Note Names E Controller Names RPN Names H NRPN Names Bank Selec
18. IDI signal routing paths functioning as fundamental device interfaces Input buses through exposing their respective input ports are responsible inlets on capture and recording Output buses are the main signal outlets and are responsible as playback and more importantly as mix down devices Buses are independently assigned to tracks Each track is assigned to one input bus for recording and to one output bus for playback and mix down The assigned output bus determines the number of channels the track supports Clips bounded to disparate multichannel audio files for which their number of channels do not match with proper bus track s one are automatically resolved on mix down Illustration 4 1 page 14 shows one typical signal flow block diagram 4 2 Qtractor s Main Window and Work Area Otractor s graphical user interface follows a standard design of most modern digital audio and MIDI workstations The interface is easy and intuitive enough to easily interact with in order to discover the potential of the underlying inner core of the application where its functionality is implemented The following illustration shows an overall view of the GUI with an example session loaded into the home my username Qtractor EAT MY MUSIC qtr Qtractor File Edit Track View Transport Help Dea 2 08 ze s 4 4 lojoj m a b wm aa mor gt lo ME a a Nr Track Name Bus Ch Patch Instrument l o 5 Piano just Master 1 Patch Us
19. actor 2 1 About Compiling Qtractor from its Source Code If Qtractor is not available as a package for your particular type of Linux a deb package for Debian Ubuntu or other Debian based system or an rpm package for Red Hat Fedora SUSE etc then it must be compiled into an executable application from its source code from the C programming code in which Qtractor is written before it can be installed In that case one s computer must have an appropriate compiler program installed Such as G the GNU C compiler in order to compile the C source code of Qtractor For those who have experience compiling programs the following preparation and instructions based on autoconf will be familiar The process is fairly easy and straightforward but both the process and the build environment a collection of programs necessary for compiling can be confusing for those who are not experienced so those persons may wish to learn a little about the process first There are many books and online resources such as Linux forums email lists wikis that can be consulted and used to learn how to compile and install programs source code 2 2 Preparation Required and Optional Prerequisites In order to compile the source code of Qtractor to create an executable program as well as to run Qtractor some software must be installed the mandatory software listed below and some may be installed if the user wishes to enhance the abilities of Qtra
20. ae nem ete re Ter er Re ened ere geo oree ore eeae rea e eee ree 9 stalling O MAC a e OS COMmpililiing MOM SOUCO COUE siii e eae de O 5 Mandatory amp Optional prereg lSte S AS 5 Wittopional NCHONANY sasoe e E a ores 5 NSTUMENS scrani e a a A eee Hstrument CS TION TNC tease tail data liseli a ett o ca 25 MIDI software amp hardware tone GENELalONS ccccceccceecceeeecesceccecueecsseecaeeesseeseeecsueescueeseusseseesaeeeaesesseessass 25 JACK CEP as recat orig nc aide snc eaaaed ea acuta zed Guaetannecue can eiatseraeatas eometeeenc ates elaeatenes 4 5 10 14 15 16 22 27 30 e A OA 10 30 Keyboard shortcuts for menu amp Other COMMAnNOS occccocnccncnnncnnoncncnnncnncnnnnnnnncnnnnnnnnnnonnrnnnnnnrnnnrnnnnrnrnrnrnrenrnenanennss 27 PPD SA seers asst are capac are eta its 5 22 23 24 30 Liberation typefaces free typefaces from Red HaAl cccccccccececeececeeeceeeseeecaeeeeeeesceeeceeeseueesausseseesasesseeseeesses 31 BE o OP ME O AOS 6 A A A A nb a Eales 5 18 30 Moe odo a 6 AA o are Me eee te ee eel Renee eee nee ene eee eee eee ee re ee eee ee eee eee 6 HEY 65575 A ne eer ee a ee cee eee eee errr ee 5 16 30 CD AOC aea eae ne awe A eRe een ee eee ene See ee SO ee eee eee eee ne Eee eee er 18 30 o bien catch cas eda adie as naar han coated eoeeaesacoguciande a ies oeaesieesasueue as 5 18 30 A O DE E nn A 19 A A A ee 19 Main WINCIOWS WOKSDAC Out e elena endo e otto ade 15 O Mam menu ems COMMand Strict
21. ctor the optional support libraries 2 2 1 Mandatory Software e Qt 4 core gui xml C class library and tools for cross platform development and internationalization http www trolltech org products qt JACK Audio Connection Kit http jackaudio org ALSA Advanced Linux Sound Architecture http www alsa project org e libsndfile C library for reading and writing files containing sampled sound http www mega nerd com libsndfile e LADSPA Linux Audio Developer s Simple Plugin API http www ladspa org 2 2 2 Optional Support Libraries at build time If the functionality that these additional software libraries provides is desired for Qtractor they must be installed before Qtractor itself is compiled from its source code e libvorbis enc file Ogg Vorbis audio compression http xiph org vorbis e libmad High quality MPEG audio decoder http www underbit com products mad eo libsamplerate The secret rabbit code C library for audio sample rate conversion http breakfastquay com rubberband Otractor User Manual 0 3 0 5 librubberband Rubber Band Audio Time Stretcher an audio time stretching and pitch shifting library http breakfastquay com rubberband e liblo Lightweight OSC implementation needed for DSSI GUI support http liblo sourceforge net e DSSI An API for soft synth plugins with custom user interfaces http dssi sourceforge net O VST SDK Steinberg s Virtual S
22. e OO AA PP A eee er 22 A o O o A A eee eee Re cee 22 MONON str a e Sa 22 MOV tit Rg aN seal a Na AN AO Ns A gaa a aa aa ca 26 MPa dada idea 18 dl A O A 26 OG A OA 18 27 Bt a ener eae mre eee ere ee Ne ee er ee oe ere eng ee ee eee eee reece eee ee eee ee eee eee 11 OpenOlICe OpenOMMce Ds ri da eee ee 31 NAO ea ne Re er ee cre eee ene ey eee ree ee ee ee Teer ee ere eee oe eee eee eee 17 a 22 PA TO 26 o A E 21 26 O A e aa r ete e eee Pate ere ee About LADSPA DSSI amp other audio DIUGINS ii sdaeeeetaeedsvensenbesteetersedeeetsbeeteeeieeeee 23 A O O O O nee eR Ce eee ee mee tee ee eee eee 30 dile 811 WOR ee ee gg PA ee ere ee eee ae eee ee ee ee ee ee ee 22 30 Beye Te 0 1 CP OO Po ee REIS Pei nee et oa ee A eae ee ee 30 OGY D shade EP PEE ESE O O O O O 30 Oia idas E EE 5 30 Te ACA COPE E SEC E 2 O A A A 26 RaNGOMIZO is 26 FRO Ada A ic 5 31 A A A gn EE E eae eee ee 21 References to software amp WEDSINCS siii ds 30 Fo FA Re eR ETN OCT a a a a a a eee 26 ERS SIZ o Gla ae eee geese aga 21 A A AN N net N ede 24 O eT eer 21 FRING IG OG rerin Scene Se see a ace pn ea asin named eee eer eee ewan aan 30 A rade aenetanee Delintion s general INTONM AULONS ica lan 13 Otractor User Manual 0 3 0 35 Metnods of setting e cnangihg de db dd ba e 14 Signal data flow into through amp out Of QtTActoOT ooocccocncccnncccnncncnnncncnnononcnnnncnnoncnnnrnnnnrnnnnnnnnnnrnannnnrnnnanennrnnnnns 14 Tecnica notes e reat Oe a eg a
23. e a pipeline through which data can travel Often more than one stream of data can flow through a single bus side by side so to speak A port is like a valve at one or both ends of a bus The valve is normally closed not allowing any data to flow through unless a connection such as another bus is made to the other side of the valve In that case the valve port opens to allow data to pass through it from one bus or pipeline into another However simply because a connection is made and the port is open doesn t mean that data is flowing through the available port and buses The data flow in either direction is initiated by the software or hardware at one or both of the ends of the buses Often the data in buses can travel in only one direction Sometimes it can travel in both directions duplex mode Otractor has input buses both audio and MIDI to which data streams from other software or hardware can be connected and output buses which can be connected to the ports and buses of other software or hardware both inside and outside the computer using routing procedures explained in this manual A track can be thought of as a place where digital audio or MIDI data is deposited rather than a pathway through which such data moves The data is placed into a track by a recording or paste or import procedure for example Despite this tracks are a part of the signal or data flow the pathway that audio or MIDI data can take through Qtractor and o
24. e ee a eres 14 SAM a o A 16 Session a Qtractor recording Editing PrOJECt coooccoccccconcoccnnconnononononcononononnononconnnonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnononenannenancenanenons ea taht Sd eee ieee cere ASR ae ty al Ae he Aaa eat a eek ati ati i ua i 16 Files recorded or imported into A SESSION cccccceccseeecceeeceeeccececaseceucesaeeeeeeesueeeeeueceeeseeeesesetegeessesseeesaeesses 18 Options audio MIDI display PIUQIAS Clica os 17 Properties basic session widel SettiNgS cccooccconcoconnoconoconncnonenonccnonnonnnonnnnnonnnnnnnnnnnonanenonnennennnnenancennnnnnns 16 Understand a SOS o e e o 16 Settings Otractor settings ING rca ii A ta 8 SNONCuts Tor men Omer COMMANIS A oe E 27 signal Town Arougn amp Out OF OACI A A AAA ee et een 14 SN Bl reise er terete nc E A wean oan eens eaten Gis 18 20 26 27 O E e ee ee ea ee ee 21 A eaaa a a a aa a a ela wi a taco mac een ee at raed eae 25 SONAL INS IMstumentacinton IES a a de io 25 A II ee OR ee ER eee ee eee 30 AS resect cect canes setae ree cae ee eee ees ees es ae eee eas ered treet ete as ee aotaene 19 SUSE a iia 5 TEMO lod 16 A A o E are eg ae ee eo en eee ene ee ere ed reece een eee ena 16 A A tech a A DO ee oR a ences Pa Pe a a ee ee 19 o Cierra et nn Seta ee ere Oe ee TE TET eee ee EE ere ee ee eee POOUL QUITO OF MIDECIDS ANN ens aa edd iat 21 In 21 Definition amp general INfOrMatiON ccccccccseccsececseeececceseecceeecueecceeesauecceeesaaee
25. ee eee eee eee mer ee eee ere ee 5 DU estic BUSES T MIXE WINAOW ted iso 22 Definition amp general INFOrMALION ccceecccsecceececseeeeecceeecceeeseeeccueesaueceeesaseesaeesaeeesauesseeessuesceesceueseeeeseeesaees 13 CONE APC OA A lin tpt ee ee ee aes 25 30 Cakewalk ins Instrument definition TIleS cooocccocncccnncccnnoncncnononnnnnnononnononnnnoncnnonnnnnrnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnonanenannoncnnnnes 25 A A A ee ee eee 24 El O nn O II O A eee ee 19 Al A o A A eee ere ee Reel ree eee 16 OP RO A O A II ye ee Audio SM Da ds 19 Audio AMD APA ee eses oUea 19 Audio properties amp SEUNG St is 19 DEMING NOMAN ee e A acacia 19 EGUNO gaea Pee ee 20 RECON o do 20 COMPING OU ACI ON 6 o doi Eo Standard COMPILA e POR oOo Orn Pear ere ee Cn 6 With debBugo ma code activated a a a S 7 WANS E SUD DO arna a a A S O S 6 32 Qtractor User Manual 0 3 0 Si ere Meee a ae ee Mee ee crc e RE eC eter Dre ee 8 OPS OAS A o O gntn ace ered tes eae ee ete Cae ee a eA 9 16 22 COMMAS cl ds cd AU MD A en ee eee ees eee ee eee 9 COIN o A A 31 CONTE in o ae ee eer eee ee ee ee 22 CONTO A e e nee a e 22 O E o e 26 e A ee 7 A A O eee ee ee 19 eee ae A O 26 C E E E RE Oe eee 6 Data TOW I ThrOUON GeOUL Ol O Maclean 14 DE on UOC o ne Oe ee ee eee 22 DA e eee eee 5 Deuda ii A ae ea eC eee nee ee eee 7 DOWIICadina OU ACTON aa dd a a eden standarra feleased SOLNCE CONO iii iii ai 6 Bleeding edge active development source CON ccoccc
26. eft in Qtractor s main window and from the iq 4 PB r Pp g popup menu choose Add track or you could choose the y menu item Track gt Add Track Ar Track Name Bus Ch Qtractor s Track Properties window opens Add Track ohilit Ins Track Otractor Remove Track Shitt Del Track Plugins Name Track Properties shift Fe2 Piano comp Inputs l Right click and SpA choose Add Track Type Input Output Audio MIDI Master Master a MIDI Instrument Omni Channel fi E Import Tracks Bank Select Method 1 Normal Export Tracks 4 Bank 5 None Program None AAA In the Track Properties window click the View Colors MIDI radio button you want this track to be ee used for MIDI rather than audio data As Foreground 7 Background ccfff w soon as you click the MIDI button Qtractor automatically connects the track to Qtractor s master MIDI input and output busses These can be changed by using the drop down lists and the ellipsis button in the Input Output area of the Track Properties window but there is no reason right now to do so You can replace the default name Track 1 with Illustration 3 1 Track Properties window for instance Piano comp Leave the MIDI Channel at the default 1 although this really makes no difference at the moment because this channel designation is mainly for
27. enus Special tools for batch processing are also implemented and applicable to the any event selection quantize transpose normalize randomize and resize All MIDI editing operations are available and processed in real time effective while playback Several MIDI Editor instances may be active and open in any time provided each one refers to its own clip All MIDI content may be saved as standard MIDI files SMF Format O all tracks reduced to one track preserving channel assignment data or format 1 multi track The format for the SMF files format O or 1 may be set in View Options under the MIDI tab 26 Otractor User Manual 0 3 0 4 12 Audio MIDI Export All or part of the session may be exported to one audio or MIDI file Audio export is implemented through the special JACK freewheel mode thus faster than real time resulting in the complete and exact mix down of selected audio material into a designated audio file of the opted format wav flac au aiff or ogg MIDI export is just the same but for MIDI material only resulting in the merging and concatenation of selected MIDI tracks and clips into a single MIDI file SMF Format O or 1 The user preferred format for exported audio files OGG FLAC WAV etc and MIDI files SMF 0 all tracks reduced to single track or SMF 1 multi track can be set in the Options window View Options 4 13 Keyboard Shortcuts Editor Keyboard shortcuts are useful for t
28. er Roland Far compin La My_Great_Music_Proje m y My_Great_Music_Proje cc MES My_Great_Music_Proje My Ultra Hard E Master 2 Roland Far Electro Bass CICI Legendary Master 3 Roland Far Miy_Great_Music_Froject Melody_Lead 1 lalu O Ado MIDI PO eee ALSA final selected ae format for capture 32bit li little endian ALSA use 2 periods for capture ALSA final selected sample format for playback 32bit little endian ALSA use 2 periods for playback SSE2 detected SUPER Audio Mix 00 00 16 645 48000 Hz Illustration 4 2 Qtractor s main window and work area workspace The main Qtactor window is initially laid out in this fashion O Menu and Tool bars at the top e Track list and information at the left e Track audio and MIDI data view representation and file list on the right with time scale above The track data view section in the middle is where most of the action takes place It contains visual displays and representations of audio waveforms or MIDI data This section is used for editing Clip objects portions or all of any particular audio or MIDI file recorded or imported and for navigation within the project or session Otractor also has other useful windows such as the Mixer window and the Connections window Both these windows can be opened using the F8 key for Connections window the patch bay and the F9 key for the
29. he power user in such that it provides for a quick mechanism for performing often used commands quickly without the use of your mouse Export Audio Qtractor File expo rted audio tracks ogg tg Range Output Session Master Loop a Format Edit Frames Custom Time start 00 00 00 000 jpcnooonoo a a End 00 00 26 500 a fr OK X Cancel Illustration 4 16 Audio export window where the audio tracks in a session can be named and exported as a single audio track in the particular format previously specified by the user in the View gt Options window Keyboard shortcuts may be customized to your preference by using the shortcuts editor This editor may be found in the Help menu Help Shortcuts Keyboard Shortcuts Action J New fe Save Save As Properties Description New session file Open session from file Save session to file shortcut Ctri N Ctri O Ctri s Save current session with another file name Edit current session properties F2 Exit Exit this application program a Undo u Redo amp Cut da Copy ES Paste Min lata Undo last action Redo last action Cut selection to clipboard Copy selection to clipboard Paste clipboard contents Malato caolartinn Cirl Cirl shittZ Ctrl 4 Cirl C Ctrl V Mal J Illustration 4 17 Keyboard Shortcuts Editor window available from the Help Shortcuts menu item It is very straight f
30. he directories listed below VST SDK 2 3 Directory vstsdk2 3 source common Files aeffectx h AEffect h VST SDK 2 4 Directory vstsdk2 4 pluginterfaces vst2 x Files aeffectx h aeffect h Just copy the two files to somewhere else in your computer s directory structure It is recommended that you copy those files into a standard include directory eg usr local include or usr include in which case all will be handled automagically by the configure build step Otherwise you ll need do supply the path yourself as in configure with vst path to vstsdk2 x include Once Qtractor is properly compiled you will probably want to download some native VST plugins But Otractor must be told where it can find these VST plugins To accomplish this currently you ll need to set create and assign a value to a variable known as an environment variable The variable must be named VST_PATH and the value assigned to this environment variable must be the path location on the computer where the VST plugins have been placed You can do this by entering the command in a command line terminal or terminal window export VST_PATH path to vst_plugins Some ready made Linux VST plug ins can be found on the following web sites http www linux vst com http www linux vst com http cern linux vst googlepages com home 2 4 3 Compiling Qtractor with Debugging Code Included Although Qtractor is a mostly stable program
31. imes New Roman Arial and Courier New respectively OpenOffice org http www openoffice org Red Hat s Liberation Typefaces https www redhat com promo fonts 6 3 Contact Us For questions comments and suggestions regarding Qtractor please contact e Rui Nuno Capela rncbc rncbc org For questions comments and suggestions regarding the Qtractor manual please contact O James Laco Hines jhines cebridge net O Stephen Doonan stephen doonan gmail com Otractor User Manual 0 3 0 31 A tetra ols a i yaaeeen Wants eeta nt Reno E ease ieoes 18 27 PRES Pas ated Ste enc tok es sins wes a E ae 4 5 9 14 15 22 30 TNA Re te ee A ORE e rr ae Ra ee ge eee ee 24 A A erica eatin T S 18 27 AU e la e e a alo ee GIDDIOPENIES 6 SONO o o ss 19 A ken me recone TE a Ante a eReader Se ee ae ne ere ey ee en eee 19 COINS CU OMS cs toate cee tec a ec eae et els 22 EXPONO Benen tater pe ise ese arn A 27 FIRE TY DES SUP OO li aceite eto ee len ed a ee Seco x cecil en Sew ees 18 FNS SCV IN inn ear eats 18 Tag sre gil gle audio MOS unite ri Brera een eee re ee oom at te tetera ee eee ee eee ee eee 18 InDUL getting AUGIO data Into OUACIOl ascii id 9 PIO Sir A tica 23 PICAS DS rad ia 24 PUTAS A A didas 24 PICAS VO dae 6 24 O A A ee ee 20 Sra ASA ra ee on o A eee ee ee ere eee eee eee ee erect ee 16 VO gt 4 8101 q SPA CONO ZE A ene ee eee ee ere eee Meee ere eee eer eee 27 O ae er orc yq ener eee Cree et ee eee ee cee C
32. inanici n 28 O A A e PE CES PEO o a AN Cakewalk amp Sonar MIDI instrument definition fileS coocccccnnccncnncncnncnnncncnnnnnnnncnncnnnnnnnnrnnnnnnnnanonanonnnnos 25 A O O ene cee O A eee eee 19 COMUN iaa 22 gt tae cate syce eta tate Se eae steee asadeng semen E pouse ares emeetes culled 26 Editing MIDEeps m Malin Works pace ee ee iia iio 20 A E neteedstuentian to anchiige spaniiiegduanacheaneaaeuaiossees 26 EPON A tr ge ee ET COR oe Pe PE OO Tae een ee or 27 A caiu eS rr RE a ep PT ET A 18 MPONDE MID TNS S ias 18 input getting MiB data Into Otat in a ei o ee Do cidcid 9 feia o A et te tee rn ieee ree ee oP re ep ann cae ope 25 RECONTO ete acer eters a eno a etc RO cE CSO ONO a ee 20 Saving a track as an SMF file Standard MIDI file ooccooocccocncoccnnccnnonnncnononononnnononononcnnoncnonanonaronnnnonons 26 34 Otractor User Manual 0 3 0 AIDA A A Le Icey Se ORI A PSS Cin ON Manea SaaS e e o ol e e ee eta et 26 Editing MIDI plena Velocity aaa o dd 26 Saving a MIDI track as an SMF file Standard MIDI fil o cooocccoccccccncoccnnncncncnnnncnnnonnnncnoncnnoncncnnnonnss 26 Batch editing functions for many notes OF entire ClIPS oocococncccnncccnconcncncnnonnncnnnonnnnnnnnonnnnnnnnonnrnonnnnnnnnnnnos 26 NUDO ds 27 ND dO AA AA 22 21 MIC a A o e Sai at ac 16 A ec anata ees a ac Be Del Ua seta Talc at ot aa tiara talon A O een 22 Mixer WING Wisin nao 22
33. ips only gt 4 5 3 Clips and Tracks Illustration 4 8 Select Mode context menu right l l click menu Tracks may be armed for recording making way for creating new audio and MIDI clip files with captured material Tracks can also be muted and soloed on mix down which also applies when exporting Most editing operations should be possible Nr Track Name Bus while playback is rolling but not completely safe though there are many PE 5 procedural helpers but not completely assisted with lock free primitives yet MIDI clip objects are representations of a sequence of events of one single MIDI channel as extracted from a SMF format O file or of one single track as from a SMF format 1 either in whole or in part Master Illustration 4 9 Mute Solo Record buttons for individual tracks COMDE 20 Qtractor User Manual 0 3 0 4 6 Qtractor Main Workspace Tracks Area home my username Qtractor an_ example session qtr modified Qtractor File Edit Track View Transport Help es a a 4 D Pl Nr Track Name Bus Ch Patch l prerecorded drums Master a E bs EBE MIDI comp Master MIDI a jiu D an example sessidn MID _comp 2 audio lead Master IE T E A ES Se NY PO q i PO O O PU E E f pas Audio Boc moea eee A pee em ne comp Master 0155 S SS Co woes S amp S gt S amp S ll p S ES Era example sessin San pee
34. is a fairly massive multi threaded application For instance each audio clip has a dedicated disk I O executive thread which synchronizes with the master engine and for all purposes to central JACK real time audio processing cycle through a lock free ring buffer These audio file ring buffers are recycled filled emptied at one second threshold and has a maximum streaming capacity of 4 5 seconds of audio sample data Smaller clips are permanently cached in a RAM buffer Audio thread scheduling is mastered and mandated through the JACK callback API model MIDI clip events are queued in anticipation through one MIDI output thread which feeds a ALSA sequencer queue synchronized on one second periods to the JACK process cycle A single thread is responsible for listening polling for MIDI input and multiplexes all incoming events through record armed MIDI tracks Time stamping is done through the ALSA sequencer facility 14 Otractor User Manual 0 3 0 Looping is made possible through the audio file buffering layer right at the disk I O thread context The same consideration is adopted for MIDI output queuing JACK transport support is not an option as playback positioning is constantly kept in soft chase fashion Audio frame relocation is accounted from successive JACK client process cycles i e buffer period resolution On this particular design JACK and ALSA sequencer ports are logically aggregated as buses with respect to the audio and M
35. is contained within a graphical desktop environment that will be familiar to users of other popular multi track recording editing applications on any computer operating system and follows the same design principles with many of the same or similar elements 4 Otractor User Manual 0 3 0 In addition to recording digital audio and MIDI Qtractor provides an environment for multi track clip oriented composing techniques common in modern music making and aims to be intuitive and easy to use yet powerful enough for the serious recording enthusiast Note Qtractor is not what is known as a tracker type of audio MIDI application although it has the potential to function in that way if needed When used merely as an audio and or MIDI recorder a MIDI recorder was historically called a sequencer or arranger Qtractor is non destructive which means that the underlying files that contain the audio or MIDI data are not altered when those files are apparently cut into pieces duplicated pulled or pasted into a different order in time or manipulated in any number of ways within the main Window GUI interface of Qtractor However when used as an audio or MIDI recorder for example or when editing previously recorded MIDI data in the dedicated MIDI editor Qtractor s actions can be destructive in the sense that newly recorded data or altered MIDI data replaces previously recorded data on the same track 2 Installing and Configuring Qtr
36. latiON ooccconicocncccncnonccnnnonnnnnnonnnonnnnonononononanos 6 2 4 2 Compiling for Native Linux VST Support OptiONAl oocccocccocncocnconnconcnnncnnncnnn 6 2 4 3 Compiling Qtractor with Debugging Code Includeo occcocccocccconccncconcncncncnnnnnno T 2 5 Qtractor s Configuration Settings Flle occocccccocccccniconccccnoconononocnonocanccnnnnnos 8 20 AUGIO ana MIDI DUN na A a 9 3 Learning Qtractor An Example S SSION sccccescseseseeseeeeeeeeseesseneseeeseeneneneees 10 3 1 PODA MO rt E AAA AAA 10 3 2 IMPORTO aN AUGIO A e 10 3 3 Connecting the MIDI data source tO Otractor occoocccoccooccoccconnconncncncncncncnoncnnnos 10 34 Creating a MIDI o cd nea enero ona caca Ode 11 A Otractor An OVOIVIO Wisin 13 4 1 Routing Connections Ports Tracks and BUSES oocccocnccccccncncconcnncnnncncnnnnnncnnnons 13 4 1 1 Routing General Concepts and INformatlQN occcocncocncoccnccnncncnnncnnnoncnnncnanonanonns 13 ALA RODO I COU sn e ne rtaeteatactoauaeias 14 4 1 3 Routing Technical Notesin a 14 4 2 Qtractor s Main Window and Work Alrea ccccccceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaeetess 15 4 3 Understanding a Qtractor Session recording Or editing occoocncoccccccncccnnos 16 4 3 1 Session Audio Sample Rate ooocoonccconococcconoconnocnconanenonononononononenonncnnnnnncenanenanenas 16 4 3 2 Session Properties including Time Signature
37. le or MIDI file A clip object is also non destructive and can be copied truncated and time stretched as if it were actual audio MIDI data Illustration 4 6 An audio clip with left and right upper corner handles drawn inward to create a fade in and fade out 4 5 2 Audio Clip Properties Clip properties include its label Name File path start time location offset and length in frames fade in and fade out length in frames and time stretch percentage respectively from the start and end of the clip Although fade in and fade outs are always displayed as straight lines the actual audio volume gain and MIDI Clip Otractor Name prerecorded drums File Mhome my username prerecorded drums wav w Parameters Format Start 00 00 00 000 O Frames Offset 00 00 01 335 Time B i BBT Length 00 00 26 500 Fade In Out Fade In 00 00 00 000 Quadratic Fade Out 00 00 00 000 Quadratic Audio Time Stretch 100 0 Piteh Shift 0 0 semitones i A FA Illustration 4 7 Audio clip properties window which appears with a double click or right click Clip gt Edit on an audio clip s visual representation in Qtractor s main workspace Otractor User Manual 0 3 0 velocity effect can be opted to be of either linear square or cubic characteristic in as for an approximation to the logarithmic model of human ear perception Clips are placed on tracks either by importing audio and MIDI files as
38. le session files an exam AAA A a le Illustration 4 5 The Files pane of Qtractor s main workspace both Audio and MIDI tabs are shown Files can be imported using the menu command Track Import Tracks Audio or MIDI or by using the context menu right click menu in either the Audio or MIDI tabs of the Files pane and choosing Add Files Individual and multiple files can be drag and dropped from the desktop environment and within the provided tree list This lists all the files which are referred in the working arrangement session File items can be drag and dropped directly into the track window thus creating new clips in the working arrangement This is mainly used as a your audio MIDI file data pool The Files pool can also allow you to preview the files shown in the windows either by double clicking the file name or by click the play button on the lower right hand side of the Files Pool window Audio file format support is provided by libsndfile 5 and supports wav aiff flac au etc Optional libraries provide support for both ogg and mp3 formats libvorbis 6 ogg and libmad 7 mp3 MIDI file support covers the usual SMF formats O and 1 through a native home brew implementation 18 Otractor User Manual 0 3 0 4 5 Clips 4 5 1 Clip Summary Clip objects are the elemental items of a session arrangement and can contain either Audio or MIDI data A Clip Object is merely a region of an actual samp
39. lug ins DSSI Instrument plug ins are not yet supported You must have the core DSSI subsystem installed in order for this type of plug in to function When DSSI is present the DSSI VST wrapper may also be used This wrapper uses WINE http www winehg org to allow a user to run native Windows VST applications The DSSI paths may be set within the View Options window under the Plugins tab or with an environment variable Options Qtractor Audio MIDI Display Plugins Paths DSSI_ 4 usrfib dssif v Bl Add Remov a iD E T ir Ba Up Do Vi 1 Instruments Dedicated audio outputs Illustration 4 13 The locations paths of LADSPA and DSSI audio plugins can be specified in the View Options window under the Plugins tab 4 9 4 VST Linux Native Native Linux VST plug in support is also available Presently there are only a few native Linux VSTs available but more should be on the way soon thanks to some aggressive ongoing projects Please see section 2 4 2 for complete information on building Qtractor with native VST support Note Native Linux VST support does NOT include running of Windows VST plug ins Please use the DSSI VST wrapper when attempting to use this type of plug in and make sure your Windows VST plug ins are located within your DSSI path environment variable the variable name is VST_PATH 24 Otractor User Manual 0 3 0 4 10 MI
40. mounted tone generator outside the computer although it could just as easily be a soft synth inside the computer will produce the sound for the MIDI parts as Qtractor plays them back The audio tracks will be either recorded from some external source or pre recorded audio files will be imported into played back and edited in Qtractor A final mix down audio track in Qtractor will contain the combined audio result of playing back and simultaneously recording the other audio and MIDI tracks 3 2 Importing an Audio File The first thing you would like to do is to import a pre recorded audio file of drums and other percussion to form the basis of the rest of the recording session 3 3 Connecting the MIDI data source to Qtractor Your MIDI piano like keyboard normally routes its MIDI data created when you strike the keys for example to its own internal tone generator which then sounds like you re playing a real piano or electric piano harpsichord bass guitar etc However for this project in Qtractor you want to route the external keyboard s MIDI data to Otractor So using a standard MIDI cable you connect the keyboard s MIDI output to the MIDI input of your sound card and inside the computer you will route the MIDI data from the sound card to a Qtractor MIDI input bus After connecting the MIDI cables launch Qtractor which also launches the JACK daemon jackd part of the Jack Audio Connection Kit mentioned previously if jackd
41. ndfile C library for reading and writing files containing sampled sound http www mega nerd com libsndfile libvorbis Ogg Vorbis audio compression http xiph org vorbis libmad High quality MPEG audio decoder http www underbit com products mad libsamplerate The secret rabbit code C library for audio sample rate conversion http www mega nerd com SRC LADSPA Linux Audio Developer s Simple Plugin API http www ladspa org 10 QjackCtl JACK Audio Connection Kit Qt GUI Interface http qjackctl sourceforge net http sourceforge net projects gjackctl 11 Cakewalk Powerful and easy to use products for music creation and recording http www cakewalk com ftp ftp cakewalk com pub InstrumentDefinitions 12 SoundTouch Sound Processing Library http www surina net soundtouch 13 rncbc org The personal web presence of Rui Nuno Capela creator and developer of Qtractor and 30 other applications or application GUIs such as Qjackctl a GUI for jackd Qsynth a GUI for fluidsynth Osampler etc http www rncbc org Otractor User Manual 0 3 0 6 2 Colophon This manual was produced using the free open source office suite OpenOffice org office and typeset using the free Liberation family of typefaces from Red Hat Linux which consist of the typefaces fonts Liberation Serif Liberation Sans and Liberation Mono all of which have the same metrics proportions as the proprietary T
42. new tracks or by dragging and dropping files into the track view arranger window Empty clips may also be created by right clicking on a track and choosing Edit Clip New After being placed on their respective tracks you may perform clip region operations such as drag copy cut paste delete truncate fade in out etc Altering clip fade in and fade out is accomplished by dragging the handles square boxes on the top ends of any clip A Clip may be split by positioning the playback head where you want to split it right click the Clip and choose Edit Clip Split If you use this often it is far more convenient to assign a keyboard shortcut to accomplish this task 19 Most clip editing operations are accomplished through the usual mouse interaction by first selecting one or multiple clips and or regions and applying the edit action upon the resulting selection Ctrl 2 Ctrl Shift 2 There are three selection modes available clip range and rectangular modes Edit Select Mode ut Ctrl X e In Clip mode clip objects are selected as a la Copy Ctrl C whole with no sub clip regions possible la P Ctrl V o In Range mode clip object regions are selected on all tracks between a given time interval or range Del a e In Rectangular mode only the regions that fall ta under a rectangular area are selected this means E Rectangle for adjacent tracks and cl
43. ns tractor File format SMF Format 1 Quantize None Control _ Dedicated MIDI control inpubouiput Metronome Y Enable MIDI metronome A Channel 10 Note bar Hi Wood Block 7 Velocity oar 96 Duration bar 24 5 un nor Wo cy pon 5 TE ton pean a Dedicated MIDI metronome output 17 4 4 Files Sound file selection is made available through a tabbed mini organizer Audio and MIDI file lists are kept separate on their respective tabs O a m 3 Files E gt Name Ch Frames Rate Time Path E 48 002 _ home my username prerecorded drums wav a an_example session audio lead 1 009 2 M4606 46 00 home my usemname Otractorfexample_ session _files an La an example session audio lead 1 flac 2 177792 48 00 home lmy username Otractorfexample session files an La an example session audio lead 2 flac 2 6 2064 48 00 home my usemname Otractorfexample session files an z La an _example_session comp 1 flac 2 08864 48 00 home my username Otractor example session files an a Q 0 Avo Midi gt er EE 8 Files Name Fmt Tracks tpb Path A an example session MIDI_comp 1 mid 2 6 home my usemame Otractor example session_files an_exam k l Track O k l Track 1 La an example session MIDI_comp 2 mid 1 2 6 home my usemame Otractorexample session files an_ exam an_example_session MIDI_lead 1 mid 2 6 home my usename Otractor examp
44. occncnccncncncccnconononcnnoncnnoncnonnnnoncnnnnnnnnrnnnnrnnnnnnnnnnenanenanennenes 6 Wad anO O pemmenurns ie tee tae cm Ae OL II 26 y A ree OE re eee RE eet ene Pe eer eee ree ee eee eee ee tree 6 23 24 es EY ES CPP O ont ee a are renee eer ore Ser cee ee eee ee ees eee ee eee eee 24 EI Menu malk WOMKS DAC E ani a a daw iain Shae ons beni aerate ae 28 O LT 0 PA re nee eae erecta a ree nee ta eet eee a eon dee eee eee eg eee er eee 20 EUA IZAN id eae 24 EXPOTIna Avdo Or MID il dodo 27 A A Paes eee ee ee ee EEE ee eet eee eee ee ee ee 19 FoC OU Bienen cer O A en ed ea ey eee ee e Ea ery ee ene 19 A O A ee ee eee ee eee ee 5 File menu main WOIKS PACO ii nennen rerne rre rreren rrer ner nnne 28 o E E A ET E 18 E ET EAEE E EA o EA E E E EA EE E PE E O A Mporing audio MIDHE Seaan a a A A a a a 18 MIDIIAstamentaenntoO TE sat ai 25 VIEWING session audio and MIDI TES AS 18 Md dl rd eden 24 O V EAEE O 18 27 A ora Urea ee a eeac ala ae sae Meee Des Gee oases cadence a atu iee ce ania Macatee esata anata 30 A A AA 27 E aea EEE I AAE A ON EPE tana toutes EAEE N E A E A AET neces EEA E E AE A SE mere E E 5 A A A A 19 ENUE C rs UC E SSE Re EN E E E a E E enn ae 5 OPE O A E E uetiats see aacugmsteaan meena Gua eas edneue ata aeuvenen acs 4 Otractor User Manual 0 3 0 33 A Ao ae EE A E E E E E E E E E A E 4 15 Hen mMenu MaN WOKSPA CE is a E ested ease gcd a oes 29 IANO FUNG audo MIDES a ld bo de haber tae hs 18 MP o o ts E E N e ll AAA SO o e
45. orward in its use Simply find the item you want to create a shortcut for left click in the shortcut cell and type on the key you wish to be assigned to that function You will then see whatever key or key combination you chose appear in the context Otractor User Manual 0 3 0 27 5 Qtractor Main Menu 28 5 1 File Menu New creates a new session project Open opens a previously created session project Open Recent contains a list of several of your last used session projects Save saves your current session project Save As saves your current session project with naming conventions Properties opens the session properties dialog Exit exits the program 5 2 Edit Menu Undo undo the last action Redo redo the last action Cut deletes and copies the item to the clipboard Copy copies the item to the clipboard Paste pastes the item from the clipboard Delete deletes the selected item Select Mode selects the edit mode one of Clip Range or Rectangle Select None Range Track or All Clip New Edit Split Normalize and Export 5 3 Track Menu Add Track add either a new audio or MIDI track Remove Track removes a track Track Properties calls the track properties dialog Inputs shows current track inputs Outputs shows current track outputs State current track state Record Mute Solo Monitor Navigate
46. output That is to say when the track is played back and its MIDI data is sent to somewhere outside Qtractor like to a tone generator or synthesizer that data will be sent on the MIDI channel specified here there are 16 possible channels But you re going to record now so the eventual output MIDI channel doesn t matter and can easily be changed later after you have recorded all the MIDI tracks you wish to record and before you play them back What does matter however is the Omni checkbox This setting determines whether Qtractor will record MIDI information received on any MIDI channel omni means all or whether if unchecked will record only the MIDI data it receives on the same MIDI channel number as the output channel number displayed just to the right of the Omni checkbox Your MIDI keyboard might be set to transmit MIDI data on only one channel e g MIDI channel 1 so you have to make sure that each of the MIDI tracks you plan to record will receive data from any MIDI channel which will of course include the MIDI channel your MIDI keyboard is transmitting on by selecting the Omni checkbox despite the fact that all MIDI tracks will later be set to send their MIDI data each ona different channel channels 1 2 3 etc Click the OK button and a new empty track appears in Qtractor s main window Now is a good time to save this new session so choose the menu item File gt Save This opens the Session Properties window Ill
47. roximate waveform graphic with peak and RMS signal envelopes as read from the respective audio file segment MIDI clips are shown as a piano roll like graphic with note events shown as small rectangles depicting pitch time and duration All session track and clip editing operations are undo redo able Discrete view zooming and track vertical resizing operations are also available Otractor User Manual 0 3 0 21 4 7 Mixer Mixer Otractor Master in Master In MAS TES o MIDI Jead Master Oui Master Oui de moio monitor monio monitor monitor A monitor A monitor dh monio monitor Cm momo ao eee HA uo A rr rr 00 MS ES Coo E Cos 3 1 pa e IA 5 80 50 40 20 m i a n ale e The mixer window serves for session control monitoring recording and assistance in mix down operations The mixer is divided in three panes the left accommodates all input buses the center with individual track strips and the right for the output buses Each mixer strip offers a volume and pan control and monitors each one of the respective buses and tracks Audio strips also offers the possibility to chain plug in effects LADSPA 9 Monitoring is presented in the form of peak level meters for audio and note event velocity for MIDI both with fall off eye candy MIDI mixer strips also feature an output event activity LED Illustration 4 11 Mixer window Audio volume i
48. s presented on a dBfs scale IEC 268 10 and pan is applied in approximated equal power effect trigonometric weighting For MIDI tracks volume control is implemented through respective channel controller 7 and system exclusive master volume for output buses MIDI pan control is only available for track strips and is implemented through channel controller 10 MIDI input buses have volume and pan controls disabled 4 8 Connections Window The Connections window Illustration 2 1 page 9 serves to establish the audio and MIDI port connections between the internal core layer input and output buses ports and the external devices or client applications Incidentally the Connections window can also be used to make connections between external client application ports either JACK clients for audio or ALSA sequencer clients for MIDI In fact it almost completely replicates the very same functionality of QjackCtl 10 All connections on the existing input and output buses are properly saved and restored upon session recall 22 Otractor User Manual 0 3 0 4 9 Audio Effects Plug ins 4 9 1 Summary There are three types of plug ins Supported within Qtractor LADSPA DSSI and VST Plug in support is available for all audio input and output buses and for all audio tracks All plug in types are aggregated seamlessly as one single instance on a multi channel context and can be individually selected activated and moved within the plug in chain order
49. saeesaeeeseeecaeeeeeueseesceeesseeesenesaess 13 TACKS ACA OMA WOKS DAC niana T 21 RACKS IN IMIXCT WIN COW 22226 x02 2 06 iia a des 22 Track menu main WOIKSDACE siria Ai taci n 28 Tracker type Ol appIca lOs aia leas 5 o A e o eer eee eee ee ee eee ee er 21 Transport menu mali WOrKSDACCS accesses a ed enendannsueandaie a aa aaa aA E 29 Trans DOS Cs eere Di TS 26 A i E E CE PE a A 5 oe soueeomense seen aes iascene sists quad tecia estos coe 21 A a A eR CT OS O 19 VIEW ment WORKS io oca 28 O A PETS aE 19 22 A A 6 23 24 MS IRA Tai 24 VS TS DS oca 6 NAY A ea taco echt Ae tac sala hea sets a ease chase ea els dase isso ease aoe dee ature soe suede a donated 18 27 36 Otractor User Manual 0 3 0 AYA ira A E Te OEY E ne ERT eee 21 TIN O ae er tetas marae es eae eas setae a een CONNECTIONS TOUTING IAPUESCUPU E ld ea 9 22 MAN WOME SID AC Cac a5 Sac cade at scsi onan asc ge eee 15 Malin Workspace racks Ma e ee 21 MIDE OOP eorr e e e a ear edo ee 26 y ee eer teeter er age Oi a een ey ene tae ear ee 22 WINE asset A AO 24 A a eer SC ts Pe ee ge ae ere eee ee eterno eee 21 Otractor User Manual 0 3 0 37
50. t Methods Export Close Reload Illustration 4 14 Instruments window where MIDI instrument definition files for various popular MIDI tone generators can be imported exported and moved Cakewalk Sonar instrument definition files for many popular MIDI tone generators and synthesizers can be downloaded from http Awww cakewalknet com in the Downloads section of the website Otractor User Manual 0 3 0 25 4 11 MIDI Editor Each MIDI clip content may be readily edited under a dedicated and fairly complete piano roll type editor with individual pitch velocity and controller editable trough the usual GUI operations such as multi extended selection drag and drop move cut copy paste deletion of every event in the MIDI Sequence is rightly accessible on the fly MIDI session Piano 4 mid Track 1 modifed Otractor File Edit View Tools Transport Help y 4 YN 2 o a Ba x Elm pau Note On al Note Velocity 0 Bank Select coarse Li p Ta 1 E af EN E EE IAS O CY VEN HT pi MIDI session Piano 4 home my username Qtractor MID session MIDIsession Piano 4 mid Track 1 MOD 00 00 15 695 Illustration 4 15 MIDI Editor window showing notes in a familiar piano roll type of graphical display above and a graph of their velocities below The notes and their velocities can be selected and edited in many ways using the mouse menu commands and context m
51. tudio Technology http www steinberg net 2 3 Downloading Qtractor 2 3 1 Qtractor for Everyone Otractor is still in its alpha stages of development but is already fully functional The latest versions are publicly available from the gtractor sourceforge net project web site 1 http qtractor sourceforge net 2 3 2 Qtractor for the Experienced and Adventurous The bleeding edge source code may be found in the CVS repository through anonymous pserver access with the following instructions At the command line in a text terminal or terminal window login to the CVS repository cvs d pserver anonymous qtractor cvs sourceforge net cvsroot qtractor login When prompted for a password hit enter and proceed for check out all in the same line Cvs Z3 d pserver anonymous qtractor cvs sourceforge net cvsroot qtractor co qtractor Prepare the configure script on the just created gtractor source tree directory cd qtractor make f Makefile cvs Hopefully the source tree will be now ready for build and installation 2 4 Compiling and Installing Qtractor 2 4 1 Standard Compiling and Installation After downloading Qtractor and decompressing and extracting the archive if necessary with the applications gzip and tar for example change directory in a command line terminal to the resultant gtractor directory Once inside the qtractor directory type and enter the following command configure amp amp make NOTE To see
52. ture_5 fe playback_5 A Disconnect 3 Disconnect All 5 Refresh Connections Otractor Audio MIDI All All Readable Clients Output Ports Writable Clients Input Ports FJ 14 Midi Through l FJ 14 Midi Through Ci 16M Audio Delta 1010 BJ 16M Audio Delta 1010 F3 129 Otractor aon FJ 128 TiMidity Clg 1280tractor J Connect X Disconnect s Disconnect All Refresh Illustration 2 1 Qtractor s Connections window showing both the Audio and MIDI tabs readable ports are sources of data where audio or MIDI data can come from while writable ports are places that data can be routed to sent to Otractor User Manual 0 3 0 9 3 Learning Qtractor An Example Session This chapter is written for those who may not be very familiar with digital audio recording or MIDI sequencing applications or who wish to gain a quick overview of how Qtractor works and can be used before exploring the program in greater depth and learning its features in detail It describes an example Qtractor session and serves as a walk through of the program The reader can follow the writer as he creates a Qtractor session and uses Qtractor to record import and edit MIDI and audio data 3 1 Preparation You ll use Qtractor to record or import several tracks of MIDI and audio data A MIDI triggered tone generator in this case a rack
53. ustration 4 4 page 17 In the Session tab of the Session Properties window give the project Session a name Qtractor will append the filename extension qtr or qts to this name to indicate a Otractor session file and you may choose to create a directory for Qtractor to store the MIDI and audio files that will become a part of this project or session Give the directory you create a name similar to the session name Otractor User Manual 0 3 0 11 Now that the session has been saved open the Session Properties window again using the menu item File Properties This time click the Properties tab of the window and set both the time signature roughly how many beats per measure and the tempo so that you can use the metronome to help you keep the MIDI parts synchronized as you record them You need to arm or set the track ready for recording by clicking on the record button for that track That button is the R button that is present on every track strip besides the other M and S respectively for Mute and Solo track state settings You can also set the record ready state for the current selected track by checking the menu item Track State Record Either way the R button will turn red and the track is then set armed and ready for recording Now it s time to turn on session recording mode This is accomplished by clicking on the Record button in the main transport tool bar big red circle You can
54. ut of Qtractor via a bus to other software or to a hardware port on the sound card installed into one s computer for example The reason that a track is considered part of the signal or data flow is that a track can be examined by Qtractor in a sequential fashion to pluck a copy of the data from the track and send that data to one or more buses and through those buses to other destinations During recording a track becomes the destination for audio or MIDI data coming into Qtractor s input bus es During playback a track becomes the source of audio or MIDI data that is then sent through a Qtractor output bus to a destination such as to the sound card and its attached speakers Routing is very flexible and therefore signal data flow can become very complex Data streams can merge and flow through the same bus for a while or split and go through separate buses to different destinations or even through different buses to the same destination meanwhile passing through separate and different intermediate software or hardware environments in which the data is possibly manipulated or altered in some way Because of this complexity it is beneficial to develop a solid understanding of the issues related to routing and the many possible routes or pathways that data can take and the many possible connections that can be made all at the user s discretion Otractor User Manual 0 3 0 13 Below is a representation of the connections ports buses
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