Qtractor - autofocus plugins GUI on track select

[arentel]

Hi, I've been using Qtractor for some months, it's great but I would really use this to improve my workflow:

My session for a live set up has several tracks, each one with one different midi plugin, like Helm (or several instances of Helm with a different patch for each track). I need to always see the GUI editor of the plugin I'm playing.

I want to somehow link the plugin GUI window with the selection of the track it belongs to. So when I select track A (with, say, Helm plugin and patch CM supersaw), that Helm GUI window autofocus on top of any other windows, and when I switch to track B (with Helm plugin and patch SF piano) this Helm window gets on top and autofocused.

I use a midi controller (nanoKORG2) to navigate through tracks, so I maybe I could use the same CC of prev/next track (58 and 59) to map it to the focus of track's plugins GUIs, if that was "mappable"?? I can't find anything like this in the shortcuts list.

I've read about the tool devilspie on this forum, but I don't want to tile the windows, as I have too many plugin windows to fit in my laptop.

Any clue? Thanks!

[bluebell]

I recommend a feature request on https://github.com/rncbc/qtractor/issues

[rncbc]

wow, this can really be tricky!

let me ask you this:

when, for instance, one track has several, possibly more than one instrument plugin (yes, you can do that in qtractor, no sweat), what mess do you think will go up the rack-and-round-the-screen when you select that very track if and when this feature goes live?

[arentel]

Thanks for the replies.

when, for instance, one track has several, possibly more than one instrument plugin (yes, you can do that in qtractor, no sweat), what mess do you think will go up the rack-and-round-the-screen when you select that very track if and when this feature goes live?

I understand, it could be too many windows... even if the autofocus worked only for the ones that were previously and manually open? I'd still prefer that behaviour rather than having to use the computer keyboard to find the active track's windows.

What about attaching a midi command/shortcut to the "open this plugin window" (= double clicking on the plugin's name on the mixer) action, whether the track is selected or not? That way the user could at least map some controllers to show/hide some plugins, I think it could be useful for the effects on the Master strips also.

Thank you!

[rncbc]

what about adding a discrete plugin property/option, marking it to raise the editor (GUI) window auto-magically as top-level, when its track is made current ?

maybe...

[arentel]

what about adding a discrete plugin property/option, marking it to raise the editor (GUI) window auto-magically as top-level, when its track is made current ?

Sure, that makes sense too Shall I add it as feature request on github?

Thank you

[TAERSH]

...more than one instrument plugin (yes, you can do that in qtractor, no sweat)...

Several Instruments?

No!

Several plugins yes. Lets say I have Calf Fluidsynth in track 1. As soon as I'm adding e.g. another synth like ZynAddSubFx there will be no sound from the Calf Fluidsynth anymore. Only sounds from ZnyAddSubFx will be played.

Am I doing something wrong?

[rncbc]

no, you're not doing anything wrong.

the "several instruments" is in fact possible for instrument plugins that present you an audio in-out pass-through, so that their audio output is fed to the input on the next in chain.

I know that this is not the case for the large majority of MIDI instruments plugins out there, but guess what? all the Vee-Ones do this and, to another account, this is in fact the way you can assemble multi-layering, multi-timbral, keyboard-splitting and whatever your imagination may think of.

cheers

[TAERSH]

Ok, I see. Thanks.

Now I just need to know what's the Vee-Ones?

[rncbc]

Now I just need to know what's the Vee-Ones?

viewtopic.php?f=24&t=21992

seeya

[TAERSH]

Thanks.

Already got all of them installed into my OS. They are from 0.9.4 until 0.9.10.
So far I had used drumkv1 for some works mainly.
I downloaded the 0.9.17 AppImages first to find out if the new versions would work on my OS.
All are working out of the box.

So, I downloaded the source codes also, as I want to have the binaries built into my OS.
Hopefully compiling is as easy as compiling Qtractor...

[rncbc]

Shall I add it as feature request on github?

yes, by all means!

thanks in advance
cheers

[rncbc]

there's something already to try out:
https://github.com/rncbc/qtractor/issue ... -707032540
hth.
cheers

[arentel]

Hi, just wanted to let you know, I could try your tweak in a live rehearsal yesterday and it worked perfectly! Now I can switch between tracks and keep the active plugins' GUI windows always on top. Thank you!