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re. I wonder if it's already known, but in Qtractor 0.7.1. the menu item /Edit/Track is exactly the same as /Track. To me this is irritating and redundant.

yeah. might be redundant when invoqued from the main menu bar, but think about when it's the right-click context-menu over the main tracks view. then i take it as not so redundant at all :)... the same reasoning applies to the Edit/Clip menu, in case you missed ;) it's all intentional and working as design.

re. Yesterday I installed Calf Studiogear Plugins and had graphical problems when using them with Qtractor. But this probably is not a Qtractor bug.

what graphical problems? last time i've checked, the Calf plugins UI is based in Gtk+ and thus it needs to go through so called "Gtk in Qt" wrapper complication to work at all--i know this is too technical gibberish but it cruelly depends on too much variables and specific versions, mainly of Calf, Gtk2, Qt4, Qt5 and of course the wrapper version (drobilla.net's libSUIL)--so, what version and build is all that of yours? for instance, last Calf stable release (v0.0.60 IIRC) works a treat on most systems while latest bleeding-edge from Git might vary (an a lot, by the day:)).

re. When using Fluidsynth / Qsynth as external soundgenerator (starting Qsynth as standalone, before starting Qtractor), the effect plug-ins for midi channels don't work. You have to start Fluidsynth as an internal Qtractor plugin (DSSI-Fluidsynth or Calf Fluidsynth) to use midi channel effects. I think it's a case of routing or so... not important for me.

that's correct--when using an external sound-generator you're about routing and delivering plain MIDI events to it, through an outbound, qtractor's output MIDI bus. then, the audio signal generated by such a device is routed, externally through JACK until your sound-card device's D/A and ultimatelly to your speakers or headphones--it doesn't go through any of the originating qtractor MIDI track plugin chain whatsoever.

otoh. at the same time it goes out, the MIDI event stream also goes into the respective MIDI track plugin chain, where you may insert a MIDI instrument plugin, the output of which goes immediately through all audio-fx plugins inserted thereafter and thus, yes, affecting the generated audio signal which in turn is routed to an audio output bus, usually the first ("Master out") or dedicated JACK output ports if you opt so.

re. Even if I use Fluidsynth via Qsynth or as a Calf Plugin, I don't seem to have to define instruments and/or busses, as the soundgenerators are already there and work well if they just have a channel number and are jack-connected. So, I'm not sure if I need instruments / busses definitions at all, as long as I don't have to do complex routings and as it is much easier to use plugged-in soundgenerators.

you need instrument definitions if want to select a different patch or bank/program from the supplied ones by its human readable and designated name, instead of having magic numbers for MIDI select_bank and program_change channel messages. otherwise you get what the default channel-preset/program mapping and, for example, may only have access to the first 16 presets of a soundfont2 file that might offer more than just that (eg. a GM soundfont2 usually provides at least a bank of 128 melodic programs plus one percussion program (usually pre-assigned to channel 10).

hth.
cheers