Qtractor Wiki qtractor 0.3.0 manual pt3

(continued from qtractor 0.3.0 manual pt2)

5. Qtractor Main Menu

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 – 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.

• 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 on 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

• Shortcuts… – lists the keyboard key combination equivalents of menu items and other commands

• About… – information about Qtractor

• About Qt… – information about Qt, the graphics toolkit used for Qtractor’s user interface.

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](1.html) Qtractor - An Audio/MIDI multi-track sequencer

http://qtractor.sourceforge.net/

http://sourceforge.net/projects/qtractor/

[2](2.html) Qt 4 - C++ class library and tools for cross-platform development and internationalization.

http://www.trolltech.org/products/qt/

[3](3.html) JACK Audio Connection Kit

http://jackaudio.org/

[4](4.html) ALSA - Advanced Linux Sound Architecture

http://www.alsa-project.org/

[5](5.html) libsndfile - C library for reading and writing files containing sampled sound

http://www.mega-nerd.com/libsndfile/

[6](6.html) libvorbis - Ogg Vorbis audio compression

http://xiph.org/vorbis/

[7](7.html) libmad - High-quality MPEG audio decoder

http://www.underbit.com/products/mad/

[8](8.html) libsamplerate - The secret rabbit code, C library for audio sample rate conversion

http://www.mega-nerd.com/SRC/

[9](9.html) LADSPA - Linux Audio Developer’s Simple Plugin API

http://www.ladspa.org/

[10](10.html) QjackCtl - JACK Audio Connection Kit - Qt GUI Interface

http://qjackctl.sourceforge.net/

http://sourceforge.net/projects/qjackctl/

[11](11.html) Cakewalk - Powerful and easy to use products for music creation and recording

http://www.cakewalk.com/

ftp://ftp.cakewalk.com/pub/InstrumentDefinitions/

[12](12.html) SoundTouch - Sound Processing Library

http://www.surina.net/soundtouch/

[13](13.html) rncbc.org - The personal web presence of Rui Nuno Capela, creator and developer of Qtractor and other applications or application GUIs such as Qjackctl a GUI for jackd, Qsynth a GUI for fluidsynth, Qsampler, etc.

http://www.rncbc.org/

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 Times New Roman, Arial and Courier New, respectively.

OpenOffice.org

http://www.openoffice.org/

Red Hats Liberation Typefaces

https://www.redhat.com/promo/fonts/

6.3 Contact Us

For questions, comments and suggestions regarding Qtractor, please contact:

• Rui Nuno Capela, rncbc@rncbc.org

For questions, comments and suggestions regarding the Qtractor manual, please contact:

• James Laco Hines, jhines@cebridge.net

• Stephen Doonan, stephen.doonan@gmail.com

Index

Aiff 18, 27

ALSA 4, 5, 9, 14, 15, 22, 30

Amp 24

Au 18, 27

Audio

• Clip properties & settings 19

• Clips 19

• Connections 22

• Exporting 27

• File types supported 18

• Files, viewing 18

• Importing audio files 18

• Input, getting audio data into Qtractor 9

• Plugins 23

• Plugins, DSSI 24

• Plugins, LADSPA 24

• Plugins, VST 6, 24

• Recording 20

• Sample rate 16

Audio export 27

Autoconf 5

Bus

• Buses in Mixer window 22

• Definition & general information 13

Cakewalk 25, 30

Cakewalk .ins (instrument definition) files 25

Chorus 24

Clip objects 19

Clip Objects 16

Clips

• Audio & MIDI 19

• Audio & MIDI, importing 19

• Audio properties & settings 19

• Definition & information 19

• Editing 20

• Recording 20

Compiling Qtractor

• Standard compilation 6

• With debugging code activated 7

• With VST support 6

Configuration 8

Connections 9, 16, 22

Connections

• Audio & MIDI 9

Contact us 31

Controller-10 22

Controller-7 22

Copy 26

Core dumps 7

Cubic 19

Cut 26

CVS 6

Data flow in, through & out of Qtractor 14

DBfs 22

Debian 5

Debugging 7

Downloading Qtractor

• Standard released source code 6

• “Bleeding edge” active-development source code 6

Drag-and-drop 26

DSSI 6, 23, 24

DSSI-VST 24

Edit menu, main workspace 28

Editing 20

Equalization 24

Exporting Audio or MIDI 27

Fade-in 19

Fade-out 19

Fedora 5

File menu, main workspace 28

Files 18

Files

• Importing audio & MIDI files 18

• MIDI instrument definition file 25

• Viewing session audio and MIDI files 18

Filtering 24

Flac 18, 27

Fluidsynth 30

Freewheel 27

G++ 5

Gain 19

GNU C++ 5

GPL 4

Graphical user interface, Qtractor’s 15

GUI 4, 15

Help menu, main workspace 29

Importing audio & MIDI files 18

Input

• Audio and MIDI 9

• Installing Qtractor

• Compiling from source code 5

• Mandatory & optional prerequisites 5

• With optional functionality 5

Instruments

• Instrument definition file 25

• MIDI: software & hardware tone generators 25

JACK 4, 5, 10, 14, 15, 16, 22, 27, 30

Jackd 10, 30

Keyboard shortcuts for menu & other commands 27

LADSPA 5, 22, 23, 24, 30

Liberation typefaces, free typefaces from Red Hat 31

Liblo 6

Libmad 5, 18, 30

Librubberband 6

Libsamplerate 5, 16, 30

Libsndfile 18, 30

Libvorbis 5, 18, 30

Linear 19

Logarithmic 19

Main window & workspace 15

Menus

• Main menu items / commands 28

MIDI

• Cakewalk & Sonar MIDI instrument definition files 25

• Clips 19

• Connections 22

• Editing 26

• Editing, MIDI clips in main workspace 20

• Editor window 26

• Exporting 27

• Files, viewing 18

• Importing MIDI files 18

• Input, getting MIDI data into Qtractor 9

• Instrument definition file 25

• Recording 20

• Saving a track as an SMF file (Standard MIDI file) 26

MIDI Editor

• Description 26

• Editing MIDI pitch and velocity data 26

• Saving a MIDI track as an SMF file (Standard MIDI file) 26

• “Batch” editing functions for many notes or entire clips 26

MIDI export 27

Mix-down 22, 27

Mixer 16

Mixer

Buses 22

Mixer window 22

Plugins 22

Tracks 22

Monitoring 22

Move 26

Mp3 18

Normalize 26

Ogg 18, 27

Omni 11

OpenOffice & OpenOffice.org 31

Options 17

Pan 22

Paste 26

Piano-roll 21, 26

Plugins

• About LADSPA, DSSI & other audio plugins 23

Qjackctl 30

QjackCtl 22, 30

Qsampler 30

Qsynth 30

Qt 4 5, 30

Quantize 26

Randomize 26

Red Hat 5, 31

Redo 21

References to software & websites 30

Resize 26

Resizing 21

Reverb 24

RMS 21

Rncbc.org 30

Routing

• Definition & general information 13

• Methods of setting & changing 14

• Signal/data flow into, through & out of Qtractor 14

• Technical notes 14

Sample rate 16

Session, a Qtractor recording / Editing project

• Audio sample rate 16

• Files recorded or imported into a session 18

• Options: audio, MIDI, display, plugins, etc. 17

• Properties, basic session-widel settings 16

• Understanding a session 16

Settings (Qtractor settings file) 8

Shortcuts for menu & other commands 27

Signal flow in, through & out of Qtractor 14

SMF 18, 20, 26, 27

Snapping 21

Sonar 25

Sonar .ins (instrument definition) files 25

SoundTouch 30

Square 19

SUSE 5

Tempo 16

Time signature 16

Time stretch 19

Track

• About, audio or MIDI clips 21

• Colors 21

• Definition & general information 13

• Tracks area of main workspace 21

• Tracks in Mixer window 22

Track menu, main workspace 28

Tracker type of application 5

Tracks 21

Transport menu, main workspace 29

Transpose 26

Ubuntu 5

Undo 21

Velocity 19

View menu, main workspace 28

Volume 19, 22

VST 6, 23, 24

VST_PATH 24

VST-SDK 6

Wav 18, 27

Waveform 21

Windows

• Connections: routing, input & output 9, 22

• Main workspace 15

• Main workspace, tracks area 21

• MIDI Editor 26

• Mixer 22

WINE 24

Zooming 21