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Qtractor - Initial impressions
Bom dia, Senhor Capela,
Please bear with me as I'm new to all things audio on Linux, yet already I feel that your excellent offerings shine above most.
I have read the 0.3.0 manual but realise it is in (dire? ;) need of updating and as yet I have insufficient knowledge to offer any help - a typical beginners Catch 22!
One or two points I am floundering with:-
Left mouse button clicks - perhaps it is a bad habit of mine, but to change focus or clear a right click menu, I often just click in a blank area - however, if I do this in Qtractor, the blue left marker immediately jumps to the mouse position - is there a way of locking markers that I have not discovered yet?
Secondly, I have quite a large external MIDI setup (via an ESI 8x8 interface) and I am wondering why Qtractor does not pick up all these connections 'automagically' from JACK's persistent patchbay settings by default - perhaps so far I have missed something here?
A related issue is how to direct tracks to specific MIDI outputs (not just channels) from within Qtractor.
Thanks once again for all the great work you have done - quite an achievement for one person!
Very best wishes,
D
Re: Qtractor - Initial impressions
Thanks for stopping by.
Re. Left mouse button clicks...
- there's no way to lock the blue markers (aka edit-head/tail) but if you ever find yourself in the middle of a mistaken mouse operation, like click-n-dragging anything, you can escape that with uh,... the Escape key. What else? No need for extra clicking or undoing what's not done :)
Re. large external MIDI setup (via an ESI 8x8 interface)...
- qtractor will save all connections that are made from and to its own buses, so that it will get restored next time you load the session. Have in mind that all MIDI in Qtractor is of the so-called ALSA Sequencer interface type and infrastruture, not JACK-MIDI though. However I don't quite follow you on that not pick[ing] up all these connections 'automagically' from JACK's persistent patchbay settings by default. Maybe you can explain in more detail on what you really expected Qtractor to do?
Re. how to direct tracks to specific MIDI outputs...
- that's easy: create a new MIDI output bus (View/Buses...) by selecting an existing MIDI bus, changing its name and mode (Output) and press "Create" button. Repeat as many MIDI outputs you want. Now on each MIDI track properties dialog (Track/Track Properties...) assign it to the target Output bus name. Voilá.
Cheers
Re: Qtractor - Initial impressions
Oh dear, my response of yesterday seems to have disappeared...
Thanks for the hand-holding, Senhor - apart from the curious 'left mouse-click ergonomics' (which I'll come back to, no doubt, once I've given Qtractor a fair trial!), I am really beginning to appreciate how smoothly you have implemented the key features of a DAW.
The only reason I bothered setting up all my hardware connections in JACK was so all other programs I call up would hopefully 'read from the same hymn-sheet' (as our western cousins so tritely put it!). Perhaps I have somehow misunderstood the underlying rationale?
Whatever, I see Qtractor taking a very central place in my slowly awakening Linux Audio studio.
I'm off to check out your donation setup, praying it doesn't mean getting involved with that money-laundering, private-data-selling Citigroup subsidiary, Pay-fiend ;-)
Re: Qtractor donations
I'm off to check out your donation setup...
I'm afraid all your praying won't help :) To date, all donations have been channeled trough the sourceforge.net project site, and yep, PayPal is the only option available. Now, you could donate with some immaterial contribution instead, like catching up with the documentation, for instance? ;)
Cheers.
Re: Qtractor donations
I do wish more people could get a solid fact-based understanding of what Payfiend is really all about - it's certainly no-one's 'Pal', that's for sure! What's wrong with direct bank transfers or, shudder, gasp...a cheque? Why do we all have to be forced into using plastic money - is it because the whole scam is a complete illusion? Looks like it! Rant over.
"Now, you could donate with some immaterial contribution instead, like catching up with the documentation, for instance? ;)"
Ah yes, the perennial beginner's Catch22 ;-) How can we document the unknown?
For example, how does your truly excellent (I love the ergonomics of Qtractor, apart from those blue selection markers, anyway ;) program handle Sysex? Is importing ready-stored .syx files the only option or is it possible to 'record' sysex within a track? The latter would certainly be more convenient from a user's POV but so far I've not discovered 'HowTo'. Perhaps it's something to do with using amidi -s and -r?
Give me a month or three... ;-)
Re: Qtractor SysEx handling
SysEx messages are explicitly handled at the MIDI output bus setup level. See that on View/Buses... just select the target MIDI bus. You can follow this quick hands-on tutorial, if you please. There, you can load .syx files, .mid files and you can write your own sysex stuff by hand, all in glorious hexadecimal notation :)
Please note that all this is about SysEx setup, usually sent out to external equipment upon starting or (re)connecting a session.
Recording SysEx messages, OTOH, is also supported last time I've checked. However, in that case, you'll end up with the blobs interleaved in your MIDI track and stored in plain SMF files (.mid). All SysEx events captured this way will get sent out whenever playback gets into them.
Ah, one other thing for you to keep in mind, is that SysEx messages are not MIDI channel aware, so the only way to record those things is through one MIDI track armed for Omni input mode or default assigned to MIDI channel 1 (one).
HTH
Cheers.
Re: Qtractor SysEx handling
Many thanks, Senhor, for your lucid explanation and the link to a useful tutorial.
OMNI input - of course! ;-)
Gracias
metronome
hi,
thanks for this great piece of software. The only problem is the metronome...There's no sound when you click on the metronome icon!!
I did all the connections in jack, and now I can see the metronome ticking in the mixer, but still no sound!
I spend the whole afternoon trying to understand what one must do to activate and hear the metronome, and I am quite surprised that such a "simple" feature is so hard to use.... It would be so simpler to just click on the icon to hear the metronome... (just like Ardour and others do).
Anyway, thank you very much and keep going!
re: metronome
You probably don't have the metronome setup done right. Adding to the confusion, qtractor has two metronome types or modes: audio or MIDI.
The audio metronome is setup on View/Options.../Audio; you have to supply two audio sample files (maybe any format you can find, wav, ogg, mp3, flac, aiff, etc.), one is for bar accent and the other for beats. Qtractor doesn't come with any by default, you have to choose your own metronome sounds :) Audio metronome sound is streamed to the default Master output bus unless you choose to have dedicated audio outputs for which you'll have to manually connect yourself.
The MIDI metronome is the one which is setup as default (View/Options.../MIDI) and that's probably what you see ticking in the mixer. However, to hear any sound you should route the default MIDI Master output to some synth or sampler, preferably a GM enabled one as the metronome notes are sent over the MIDI channel 10 (GM Drums & Percussion). You can also have it rendered through a DSSI, native VST or LV2 plugin inserted on the Master MIDI output bus. A plugin which loads a GM soundfont will please the effect just fine. I suggest fluidsynth-dssi, for example.
Cheers
MIDI
these were all great tips. I think you solved the problem. if anyone needs more help on how to work there DAW or just make hip hop beatsthan visit my blog. None the less good work, keep making music!!
guess I didn't add the proper
guess I didn't add the proper link to the blog
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