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Hello and Qtractor questions
Mr. Capela
Firstly thank you for all your great applications, I'm a big fan of QSynth and have been using it for both recording and live performances for a couple of years now, there is nobody in the Linux audio world that hasn't also been a user of the excellent Qjackctl as well.
I have been an Ardour user for a couple of years now and have only just recently become aware of Qtractor, I have just built it and look forward to putting it through it's paces, so far it looks very good!
I maintain a small but growing Debian based A/V Distro called AV Linux http://www.bandshed.net/AVLinux.html
Although Ardour has been the centerpiece so far I am not a real fan of Rosegarden and would be interested in asking your permission to include Qtractor in subsequent AV Linux releases. I know it is Open-Source but since it is in early alpha development I though I'd better ask first!
I really am looking forward to trying Qtractor and seeing it as it develops further.
Regards, GLEN
Re: Qtractor questions
hi Glen,
You're welcome and thanks (you don't need to be that formal here though ;)
By all means you can include Qtractor in your current and future AV Linux releases. Although still on-going in alpha development it's functional enough for packaging and distribution. The more the better ;) Please try to package with full optional features included, most specially librubberband, liblo and native VST. Why not?
Cheers.
OK, That's great, thanks. I
OK,
That's great, thanks. I have built it with everything but VST support, my distro does include DSSI-VST and FST both so I'm not sure if I need the Native VST support or not at this time. This brings me to another question...I certainly don't expect Qtractor to be the same as Ardour but in Ardour there are JACK insert connections available in every track which work great with inserted JACK Client plugins like linuxDSP plugins here: http://www.linuxdsp.co.uk/#
Perhaps I don't know my way around Qtractor well enough yet but I don't see that this is possible with Qtractor, am I mistaken? If this is the case would you consider adding this to future versions, it would certainly open it up to more plugins and additional VST Support with FST.
Anyway just some early impressions...this is a very impressive bit of software!
Don't give up the native VSTs
Adding Native VST should not even be at issue here. You should just do it. :)
Granted, there are not a lot of Native Linux VST plugins available ATM, but this site has some pretty nice ones (all might not work as expected yet):
http://www.anticore.org/jucetice/?page_id=7
http://www.anticore.org/jucetice/?page_id=8
What would be the point of depriving potential users from using these plugins? As I suspect you already know (from having read some of your posts on the Ardour forum a while back), Native VSTs are not the same thing as Windows VSTs using DSSI-VST or FST via WINE.
Good luck with your AV Linux distribution. While I have not tried it myself, I have read great things, and have followed your project with interest.
Lexridge
Re: native VSTs
@GMaq,
adding support to native VST/VSTi is pretty straight forward: you just need to put the VST SDK header files, which you should get yourself by accepting its license, in your build host's include search path or give it explicitly on
./configure --with-vst=/path/to/vst/include. Read the README.VST as in here.Cheers
Re: Don't give up the native VSTs
Hey ...
http://www.anticore.org/jucetice/?page_id=7
I never ran over this site ... looks promising. I think I should try these plugins ... thanks for that link.
I know its a litte bit off-topic, but as you seem to be a real END USER of linux audio... could you describe your working system? I mean: Which Distri do you use, which software, which plugins, what kind of Drum-Sampler? ...
END USER
@gizzmo
I assume your comment was directed at me.
While I'm not doing a lot of recording presently due to finishing up very large work related projects, I plan to get back into it later this month when things (I believe) will start quieting down a bit. I do tend to squeeze as much out of my machines as possible however.
I have a brand new sparkling AMD quad CPU w/4GB system on an Asus M3N78 Pro MB I've been trying to move to for about 6wks now. That system is running CentOS 5.3.
My present system is a dual core AMD w/2GB RAM, a Gigabyte MB and a Delta 1010LT with a homemade rack mount breakout panel. I use Hydrogen mainly with samples that I ripped from my old Ensoniq EPS, mainly because I love those old samples. ;) I will post a pic later this evening of my Rack. :)
This system has dual monitors, both widescreen (19" and a 24") running separate X sessions. The 24" monitor is used mostly exclusively for HDTV MythTV viewing, while using my 19" for simultaneous computing tasks. It works very well.
Lexridge
Re: END USER
@lexridge
Right, that comment was meant for you. Nearly the same hardware. I also got the 1010LT and therefore would like to see that rack *g*. Can you explain your software-setup in more details? Are you using vst instruments? Qtractor together with hydrogen? Any other software parts? QSynth? ... What I am currently missing is a full sequencer solution, like maybe Cubase or something like that... Therefore i am searching for the right linux tools which lead me into this direction.
[UPDATE]: And as you leaded us to the great site native linux plugins (http://www.anticore.org/jucetice/?page_id=7), i already tried out. There some good ones, aren't they? Let me ask you: How do you integrate them into qtractor? Can you use them as plugins? Or do you just connect them using a jack connection?
The Rack
Here are the photos I promised. Regarding my vsts, the only windows vsts I'm currently using are NI's B4 and GuitarRig. However, since I just discovered two native linux guitar rack processors, I may drop GR entirely. However, giving up the B4 would be difficult.
The Windows VSTs can work directly within Qtractor, or patched via jack using either FST or DSSI-VST. Either works well, but which ever you prefer. If I have a complex project, I generally load them directly into qtractor, as it gets confusing to manually reconnect all this stuff on a larger project (LASH might be of some help here eventually). Of course with Hydrogen, you have to use Jack, as I do not know any other way to patch it in.
Now for the pics. Please excuse my messy work area. I've not had much time to tiddy it up lately.
Photo 1 (EDIT: I mislabeled the amp, and it's actually 6x100 watts, not 5x100) It was custom built by a friend of mine a few years ago. It's also bridgeable to 2x300, but I see no reason to ever do that.
Photo 2
Photo 3
Photo 4
Lexridge
Re: The Rack
Hey.... thanks for you pictures ... really great vintage look ....
Re: track inserts
@GMaq,
Yes, track inserts are indeed planned. In fact, it's in the TODO list :- Audio effect send/return aux. inserts.
It will probably come in the form of internal/pseudo audio-plugins that just do nothing but expose some "send" and "return" audio ports to and from the outside. You then can connect the "sends" to your JACK client inputs and then their outputs to the respective "returns", ie. BAU as far as inserts go :)
Cheers
Good news again! I will look
Good news again!
I will look forward to the insert functionality whenever it gets here. As far as (Linux) VST I'm not daunted by having to build it and I have played around with JOST and others in the past, the problem that remains from a distribution viewpoint is that AFAIK regardless of whatever opinions I may have on plugins it is still not legal to (re)distribute the Steinberg SDK, this is why Ardour, DSSI-VST and FST have migrated to the clean engineered Vestige VST Header.
@lexridge
The plugin situation is very frustrating as everyone knows, LADSPA is too confining as a standard, LV2, although promising seems to not be gaining widespread acceptance, and LinuxVST has made very little progress and other than Jucetice offers a reheated plate of old GUI-less Windows VST's. The reasons are valid of course: too few developers with too little time and no financial incentives. That is why I believe Linux needs to at least make peace with the never ending, constantly growing supply of Windows VST Plugins and certainly JACK inserts will open the door for this. AV Linux supports or provides LADSPA, DSSI, LV2, linuxDSP, and Windows VST (with 2 different hosts) which represents thousands of plugin options, I really don't want to get involved with yet another plugin standard especially one that seems to be ignored or abandoned by many of the other Linux DAW's. I, like Mr. Capela have a development team of One so forgive my hesitation for the time being on NativeVST. I still really need to use and learn Qtractor myself before I put up packages or include it in AV Linux but your point is well taken, thanks for your comments.
-GLEN
Re: (Linux) native VST
@GMaq,
Please note that you aren't supposed to distribute any of Steinberg VST-SDK files. What I'm suggesting is that you may distribute the program product (binary package) that was actually built with VST support, but you should NOT include any of VST-SDK files in the distributed source package, if any.
Byee
Qtractor & Qsynth AV Linux packages
Hi,
If any AV Linux users are following this thread,
Further to our previous discussion here are Rubberband, Qtractor, and latest Qsynth packages for AV Linux 2.
For now in keeping with the rest of the distro these packages have no NativeVST Support but DSSI-VST Support is already provided.
Please follow the instructions on the link to install them: http://www.bandshed.net/News.html
Thanks for these great Linux Audio Applications!
Yeah, The pictures are great
Yeah, The pictures are great :)
Thanks lexridge!
what is this distro?
just curious, like what's the name of it, what's it based on, etc? i'm always looking for a new distro.
my fail. i'll just leave
ok. so you actually already said the name of the distro. and i googled it and got what it's based on. and its a dead thread. triple facepalm, sorry everyone
Sheri
I think I should try these plug-ins ... thanks for that link. I know its a litter bit off-topic, but as you seem to be a real END USER of Linux audio... could you describe your working system. Thank you.
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