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0.4.1 feedback
Hi,
i just built 0.4.1 for amd64 Ubuntu 8.10, no problems. I did not have VST SDK, otherwise everything is included. I noticed following while playing around a while:
1) I make 4 beats long piece of drum track and used cut&paste to fil the rest of track. Track plays ok but when I want to select the track it doesn't behave like other tracks (which were played in completely in one session). Select picks only one block (4 beats) at a time. That makes editing the drum track tedious.
2) I'd like to have "tools" menu available also for a complete track instantly after that track is selected i.e. no need to open piano roll mode if I want to run for example quantize for an entire track.
3) Something strange with patch numbers: I selected in a box 35, resulted 34 in the main screen... ???
Cheers
Arto
Re: 0.4.1 feedback
1) if I understand you correctly, you're copying and pasting clips. Clips are independent entities once created and changing one contents doesn't affect any of the others, unless they refer to same file. Are you saying that some copied clips don't play at all?
2) the tools menu is only available per MIDI clip; however, you have the normalize and quantize commands under the Edit/Clip menu-- just make a track region selection, and left-click to invoke this Clip context sub-menu. Take care that Normalize applies to both audio and MIDI clips while Quantize only makes sense on MIDI ones.
3) when you don't have an instrument definition setup, bank/program patch numbers are zero-based (0-127); however, in MIDI track dialog the drop-down list will show and let you select program numbers in 1-base fashion (1-128)--yes, it can sometimes seem strange and misleading--I'll see ;)
HTH
Cheers
Re: 0.4.1 feedback continued...
1) I create first a minimal length of drums on one midi track, then copy/paste on the same track one hudred times (or whatever) to fill that same track. They plays ok, no problem there. I'm in trouble when I notice for example that "oops, hi-hat of drum set is now too loud" and want to fix that. Now, those clips on the same track are not handled as one entity but 100 separate clips i.e. you need to open 100 times a clip to fix it... There should be some way to connect those clips together so that you can handle a midi track as one entity (i.e. I don't need any more separate clips after i have put those one after another on the same track).
How you thing about "Join Clips" or "Auto Join = yes/no" tool / option ? I would default always to "Auto Join"... Or another way: Change "Select" so that clicking a clip will select that clip only but clicking track number will select entire track ? Available "Tools" would naturally be context sensitive i.e. if you select midi you have tools related to midi and again if you select audio "Tools" would show audio related choice of tools.
2) Tools menu only per midi clip: No problem if I had an option / tool to connect many clips to one big "clip". Actually that could be optionally automatic join.
3) -
4) Maybe no problem here but: Yesterday I once got warning about different sample rate when starting Qtractor. However, everything appeared to be normal and I continued adding midi track for bass. Saved my work "Ctrl-S" and closed. This morning I opened Qtractor to continue but... One Little Problem, all tracks were empty except that midi track for bass. I understand that warning for different sample rate needs to be taken serious. Maybe Qtractor could have an option for keeping a backup copy of work file ? That would require keeping two files, current and previous. That would possibly allow restore in case something goes wrong with current work file (your child pressing "boot" while you work, electricity drop, ...)
Re: 0.4.1 feedback continued...
1) There's no clip "join" or "merge" facility, at least yet. You can however use the Track/Export Tracks/MIDI... option to export all clips in a track or range into a MIDI file, then replace the whole bunch of clips with a single one from that exported file. There you'll have one single clip that you can edit as a whole. Take note that if you have several MIDI tracks/channels, you should mute them wisely, otherwise they will be exported to the same file as well--this is specially important if you have other MIDI tracks of the same MIDI channel.
2) Clip "join"/"merge" has been suggested before, as being the counterpart of "split". As answered above, there's only Track/Export to the rescue at this time.
3) -
4) Qtractor sessions are indeed locked to the jackd sample-rate; trying to open the same session file later with a different sample-rate, as set from newer jackd server settings, can be a source of trouble; even though, qtractor tries to refurbish the session as best as it can, specially regarding audio clip positions and lengths. A warning message is issued, nevertheless, suggesting you to save the session file as soon as possible and preferably with a different filename. You should leave the original (as of previous sample-rate) untouched, that is. Whether the new and some tracks becoming empty is expected behavior I must say it isn't--there must be a bug in there, yes.
Please, help me getting rid of it, possibly by trial and error, until you find the most probable set of steps to reproduce that failure. It's already a step forward knowing this might be related to session/jackd sample-rate mismatches. Please, always remember to save your sessions with distinctive names (qtractor doesn't have any auto-save facility, yet, sorry).
Byee
Re: clip merge facility
1) There's no clip "join" or "merge" facility...
There's good news from latest CVS repo (qtractor-0.4.1.1311+):
- Clip merge is now featured both for audio and MIDI tracks
(see Edit/Clip/Merge...). (EXPERIMENTAL)
Just select the clips to merge and tell the file name for the resulting new clip. Note that it only works for clips selected from the same track However, as you might imply, clips don't necessarily need to be contiguous and may even overlap.
Cheers
Putting it to a good use
Putting it to a good use already. Thanks a lot!
Re: 0.4.1 feedback continued...
Export idea sounded quick & simple but I faced there something strange: I exported track #3 i.e. drums. The test clips are still there though contents of clips empty. Did import from that file and --- there was actually track #4, bass ! Ok, tried exporting track #2 (expecting to get now actually track #3). What happened: Still track #4 actually exported. Looks whatever I select for track export the result is last track #4.
It's my pleasure to help with testing of Qtractor.
Cheers
Arto
Re: 0.4.1 feedback continued...
Strange indeed :) Are you sure you're not messing with audio vs. MIDI track exports? Remember, audio export only applies to audio tracks and clips, only. The same prediction applies to MIDI tracks and their respective clips. Is that your case, all strictly MIDI tracks and clips? Did you manage to create more than one MIDI output bus? Mind that export only takes effect on tracks assigned to one selected export bus, either MIDI or audio. Are all other tracks muted but the one you want to export its contents?
Yep, too many questions; maybe just one answer :)
Cheers
Re: 0.4.1 feedback continued...
Mute ?? I could never imagine "M" is needed for that purpose. I supposed select is enough. Let's do some further testing... :-)
Re: 0.4.1 feedback continued...
There are two kinds of export in Qtractor:
a) Track/Export Tracks - this works as a mix-down (for audio) or merge (for MIDI) of your complete session arrangement; track solo (S) and mute (M) takes effect on which tracks are mix-down/merged into the export audio/MIDI file; current clip selection doesn't apply here; any inserted audio fx plugins are processed so take track export here as a faster-than-real-time bounce recording.
b) Edit/Clip/Export... - this applies to one clip at a time and thus takes current clip selection into account; only clip properties (gain, pitch-shifting, time-stretching) take effect here; track plugins are not; it's kind of a file copy process only.
the kind that you should be interested in, to emulate clip merge, is the first kind, MIDI track export.
Seeya
Solo works too
You can also just solo (S) the track(s) you want to export. At least with audio, this works.
Lexridge
RE: Solo works too
Of course. I suppose I tend to explain simple things in the most complicated form; yes, solo is the same as muting everything else :)
Thanks
0.4.1 feedback continuing...
For me problems appear the way like some uninitialized variables in the code. Some problems listed here:
1) I often get audio engine initialization error:
creating alsa driver ... hw:0|hw:0|1024|2|44100|0|0|nomon|swmeter|-|32bit
control device hw:0
SSE2 detected
all 32 bit float mono audio port buffers in use!
cannot assign buffer for port
cannot deliver port registration request
all 32 bit float mono audio port buffers in use!
cannot assign buffer for port
cannot deliver port registration request
Nothing changed but restart Qtractor --- oops, now it started ok.
2) Patch / instrument initialization code: Some problem here. Appears for me this way: Created 4 midi tracks, ok. Record on first track, ok. Attempt recording any track 2,3 or 4, result failure, recording runs but tracks stays blank. Select some patch & instrument (in my case Korg X5) for a track, record now, result ok. In this case first track recorded ok without selecting any patch, other tracks no way without selecting patch.
3) Import midi file: It doesn't care whatever mute / solo I select but creates a new track. May be related to 2) ?
4) Sure way to crash always my Qtractor: Cancel now import (Ctrl-Z) and start to record to one of existing four tracks, the moment you press start recording Qtractor will crash / exit.
Arto
Re: blank MIDI recordings
Do you see any event in monitoring the 2nd, 3rd, 4th recording tracks?
Take a note that, unless you tell each track is listening in Omni or is in (auto-)monitor mode, that track will only capture/record those events in the track's assigned MIDI channel. All events of any other channel will get lost, that is, won't get recorded at all.
You should always check the track monitor meters for actual events being detected and routed and that those events get actually pictured on-the-fly while recording is rolling.
When record stops, any empty take resulting from no event being recorded is discarded automatically, thus the result being blank. Perhaps that's the case you're reporting.
If you created the MIDI tracks in sequence, the first one gets assigned to MIDI channel 1, the second to MIDI channel 2, and so on. To record into those tracks you'll have to either set your master keyboard to send in the correct MIDI channel, make use of the auto-monitor feature and keep the recording track as current selected (see Track/Auto-monitor) or set each track in Omni or/and Monitor mode.
Please check whether this all makes any sense and, most importantly, is the case in question.
HTH
0.4.1 feedback continuing...
No problem here. My Korg X5 keyboard is 16 part multitimbral, and can play 16 instruments in Multi mode at one time. Thus, it doesn't matter which midi channel (1..16) is selected at sequencer (=Qtractor) while recording. Channel 10 is always assigned to drums (typical to General Midi).
A problem track will start to capture events after opening track properties and pressing Cancel (i.e. no actual changes needed in that form/box/panel/ what-ever-it might-be-called).
I like a lot Qtractor, design looks the way I want, nice & professional. You sure have done hard work to build Qtractor. For me stability is at the moment the problem, not lack of features. I'm not after Bells & Whistles but just stable basic sequencer functionality.
Cheers
Arto
0.4.1 feedback continuing...
Another way to activate a "recording resistant" track is to drop there something with copy/paste, recording ok that track after that deleting all away. We come again to initialization things when Qtractor program starts. Would you please double check that point in your code i.e. make sure there is a predefined value for each variable ?
Arto
0.4.1 midi editor, quantize...
As I started with recording some midi tracks, i tried to use the functions quantize, set length, ...
What I realized is, that the midi editor window does not really display the changes, when changing the length of the midi notes with this functions? When I close the midi editor, I can see the midi note lengths in the track overview, but re-opening the midi editor still shows the short midi notes...
Is this a bug? Or just not yet implemented? Or do i misinterpret something?
Re: 0.4.1 midi editor, quantize...
The MIDI clip editor should always show all and any changes immediately. There must be something in your view, maybe zoom level is set too low (-).
Seeya
Re: 0.4.1 midi editor, quantize...
Hm ... is swear ... there was a problem ... and there some conditions which end up with a problem in displaying the notes. But at the moment, I can not find a reproduce-able way which I could report .... ;-)
Solo feature
Hello there,
first of all thank you for the great program you did!
I don't know if this has already been noticed:
It would be great it you could fix that when you SOLO a track it should MUTE all others and somehow maybe change the background of all those MUTED ones.
You should also only be able to SOLO only one track at a time. I suppose thats the reason it is called SOLO ? ;-)
I'll be testing more and give feedback soon.
Regards
Re: Solo feature
[S]olo and [M]ute states in Qtractor track stack is working exactly as designed. In fact, setting one track to [S]olo will mute all others but it won't the be same as pressing the [M]ute button on all that. You can have several tracks in solo state at the same time, meaning that only those will play, all others logically muted. You can also have all combinations of [S]olo and/or [M]ute tracks, following that [M]ute has precedence semantics.
This design is nothing new in fact. It is intentional and at least tries to replicate the behavior of good old Cakewalk Pro Audio last time I've touched it ;) It is also the same in several other contemporary DAWs but I can't really tell which as I don't quite follow theirs.
In addition, In case you did not found, there's also this exclusive toggle feature when switching those track [S]olo and [M]ute buttons. Just try it while the SHIFT or CTRL is pressed :)
Cheers
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