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Inability to directly send Qtractor Master or Bus outs to Master or Bus ins without using middleman like standalone Carla Rack.

I'm sure this is an old problem and there must be some solution to it I could find online, but since this forum is so active, I'll ask anyway.

Before I explain my own situation, the following youtuber explains my problem in a much more articulate way, but their solution is more a workaround.

Qtractor Bus Routing Issues (Solution)

I'm having similar problem, directly routing Master out to Master in or Bus 1 out to even Master in, sometimes when i used external middleman tool like carla rack, i'll get some kind of feedback loop but i'm sure that's more to do with me being an amateur.

I have provided an image for the workaround setup using carla standalone rack with simplified routing.

But it tedious to do a large project master and slave tracks and buses with multiple say calf stereo analyzer for each separate bus connection.

As for my set up, i'm currently on Arch (thanks to archinstall) and even though I'm currently on Xfce i also have same issue with KDE and Gnome on the same arch installation.

I think think mine is pipewire. I'm not knowledgeable about how it differs from pulse or jack as in I get mostly the same result whether I use QjackCtl or Carla patchbay or my preferred Helvum.

Thanks in advance.

Here are some general details:

[rounak@rounakarchlinux ~]$ pipewire --version pipewire Compiled with libpipewire 1.2.5 Linked with libpipewire 1.2.5 [rounak@rounakarchlinux ~]$ [rounak@rounakarchlinux ~]$ systemctl --user status pipewire ● pipewire.service - PipeWire Multimedia Service Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/user/pipewire.service; disabled; preset: > Active: active (running) since Tue 2024-10-22 02:58:51 IST; 20h ago Invocation: 614b5513cc8645c894219d7376eee102 TriggeredBy: ● pipewire.socket Main PID: 26320 (pipewire) Tasks: 2 (limit: 9272) Memory: 22.8M (peak: 66.2M swap: 1008K swap peak: 1008K) CPU: 13min 30.824s CGroup: /user.slice/user-1000.slice/user@1000.service/session.slice/pipewi> └─26320 /usr/bin/pipewire

Oct 22 20:01:36 rounakarchlinux pipewire[26320]: pw.node: (alsa_output.pci-0000> Oct 22 20:01:36 rounakarchlinux pipewire[26320]: pw.node: (alsa_output.pci-0000> Oct 22 20:01:38 rounakarchlinux pipewire[26320]: pw.node: (alsa_output.pci-0000> Oct 22 20:01:38 rounakarchlinux pipewire[26320]: pw.node: (alsa_output.pci-0000> Oct 22 20:01:38 rounakarchlinux pipewire[26320]: pw.node: (Qtractor-156) xrun s> Oct 22 20:01:40 rounakarchlinux pipewire[26320]: pw.node: (alsa_output.pci-0000> Oct 22 20:01:40 rounakarchlinux pipewire[26320]: pw.node: (alsa_output.pci-0000> Oct 22 20:01:40 rounakarchlinux pipewire[26320]: pw.node: (Qtractor-156) xrun s> Oct 22 20:14:29 rounakarchlinux pipewire[26320]: pw.node: (alsa_output.pci-0000> Oct 22 20:14:29 rounakarchlinux pipewire[26320]: pw.node: (alsa_output.pci-0000> lines 1-22/22 (END)

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Inserts and bus inputs and outputs in Qtractor are intended to communicate with external applications.
So yes, you will always need an external application.
They are not suitable for what you intend to do.

For internal signal sends use AuxSends.
Right click on the plugin box: Inserts/Audio/Add Aux Send

They are much easier to handle.
The latest version of Qtractor 1.3 makes them much more flexible.
In fact any tutorial you find about sends will confuse you, because it will refer to old limitations that no longer exist and propose inadequate workarounds.

Can I ask some Questions about Aux Send? i know i should try it myself but i would love to learn some basic details from someone who actually knows how they work.

What I'm looking for right now for Qtractor is a feature similar to master/slave or track grouping function in Reaper.

Is the AuxSend method appropriate for that?

I did just now find this section of Qtractor Manual/Documentation thanks to you It's working pretty much perfect now. THANK YOU SO MUCH!

I found an updated tutorial by same yt channel using inserts instead, I should probably read the manual. I only read the snippet about bouncing cuz i I couldn't figure out bouncing MIDI to audio directly. The Bouncing the Project section of this manual talking about connecting master in to master outs so i assumed that was the way.

It's honestly my bad. I used to use Reaper 3 years ago (before that, LMMS) before I quit making music for personal reasons. Now that i'm finally getting back to it and that too on a linux setup, i'm still needing time to re-learn these bus things also because most of my music production years prior were in LMMS where i never really did actual mixing let alone use it's FX Mixer.

BUT USING AUX SENDS IS WORKING PERFECTLY SO THANK YOU SO MUCH SIR. This was the only real thing bugging me about Qtractor and making me ponder about switching something like Waveform but I don't think that's open-source and it's definitely not native to linux., but I love Qtractor otherwise and now that I have figured out using Aux Sends thanks to you, IT'S ALL PERFECT NOW.

I sound like a kid, but I really am happy. I love this software. Thanks for your help!

I don't know Reaper. I always found it hostile and confusing, and it's not free software, so it's never been an option for me.

LMMS has major shortcomings for me, and I find it confusing for mixing and sending signals.
It has a strong point, very flexible automations, but it doesn't make up for it (it's a feature I use sporadically and only in some projects).

Ardour isn't confusing, but it is cumbersome, it makes easy things difficult and it has limitations in midi.

Qtractor fits perfectly with my way of thinking, feeling and creating.

So I don't know what you mean by master and slave groups.
If you describe what you want to do, I could try to help you on how to do it in Qtractor.

Glad you found the updated tutorial using Inserts as that's the method I'm currently using. I see it as being much better than using Aux Sends because the signal doesn't get split up and is therefore, easier to understand and work with. There are a bunch of threads on this forum discussing the differences between the approaches as it relates to pre vs. post fader placement as well as many strong opinions on how reliable the workflow may be. A bit of a rabbit hole.

Mostly reverb parallel processing seems like common practice in EDM and Pop and I've tried Aux send a little bit and I personally find it so far at least easier to set up.

@G3N-es

Qtractor is hard for me as someone who quit music production for three years and am now only revisiting as it has a very small youtube tutorial community which is my go-to way to learn things. But I do like the interface. Just Qtractor + Linux routing is hurting my head a bit.

I mean say create a Drum bus to send all percussion tracks for final processing and general percussion volume control, for fader mixing,

sending all vocals to one vocal track/bus for final fader mixing.

In Reaper you can just drag and drop and create intuitive groups. Reaper is very powerful. But yes, I'm using the trial version so I don't use it as my main DAW out of guilt really but I do keep it for learning and occasional use. It's very intuitive and powerful once you learn the basic layout and workings. This is a great tutorial series by Adam Steel

In the provided images, after creating drum beats in LMMS and exporting their stems, I dragged and dropped them in Reaper and created Track Groups via just drag and drop to what you see in the image.

Here's a post I wrote explaining how I mix down a multi channel drum instrument. In that post, I mention going back to the Carla-in-the-middle tactic but since writing it, I've discovered something was wrong with the actual .qtr file I was working with at the time. Basically, the Insert mixdown strategy has been stable and reliable on my side of things.

If needed, I can give you a .qtz file you can use as a jumping off point. Just let me know.

I'd like to try to make Aux sends work since they make more sense to me with my limited experience using Reaper. I just never learned about that feature in Qtractor until now. Also according to this documentation, aux sends are meant for internal whereas inserts are meant for external?

But maybe i'll need your method once I have a lot of percussion.
And also having background in Windows with LMMS, i prefer a more in-software contained production set up. I'm thinking of just sticking to synthv1 which is the most stable i assume due to being native to linux and using free one shot samples i can find online plus carla and lsp audio effect bundle. My history is in EDM but I'm trying to transition to Trap production which in some ways is even more minimal.

I also recently made a beat in LMMS which i then imported to Reaper and synced with vocals and synths. It's not the worst workflow honestly.

I'm giving you a tutorial that explains how to apply the concept of group, auxiliary bus and master in Qtractor.
https://www.rncbc.org/drupal/node/2654

this method is similar to my experience in Cakewalk by Bandland

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