[ANN] Qtractor 0.7.3 - A Tackier Gluon is out!

[rncbc]

Hello there and again,

This time getting ready for the NYE. Prepare to party, the countdown has begun... but first, let there be just one cheesier announcement ;o)

• Qtractor 0.7.3 (a tackier gluon) is released!

Everyone is strongly invited to upgrade. No excuses.



Qtractor is an audio/MIDI multi-track sequencer application written in C++ with the Qt framework. Target platform is Linux, where the Jack Audio Connection Kit (JACK) for audio and the Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (ALSA) for MIDI are the main infrastructures to evolve as a fairly-featured Linux desktop audio workstation GUI, specially dedicated to the personal home-studio.

Change-log (since last cheesy release):

- Slight increase on the number of decimal digits for the plugin parameters while on the generic plugin properties dialog. Also applied to automation curve node value editing.
- Unlimited slack is now in effect on editing over and beyond the current session or clip contents length, on both the main tracks and MIDI clip editor (piano-roll) views.
- Ctrl+click and dragging the left or right edges of a clip will now make it spill over and replicate as many clip clones as it fits in the left or right horizontal extent.
- Added View/Note Type and Value Type command menus to the MIDI clip editor (aka. piano-roll) which opens the possibility for discrete shortcuts to switching views eg. Note Velocity and Controller views (after a kind request by yubatake, thanks).
- Fixed the conversion and/or override of MIDI clip offsets when moving and copy/pasting across tempo/time-signature changes.
- Fixed MIDI file track/channel duration estimator, which was giving quite wrong and way too short reads.
- Fixed a drag-and-drop bug over the main tracks view, when new tracks were being inserted at the top and not to the bottom as is normally indicated by the floating visual placeholder.
- Fixed LV2UI_Resize handle from extension_data(LV2_UI__resize), now passing LV2UI_Handle in first argument to ui_resize(), as found correct and needed for resizable/scaleable LV2 UI's, most specially to ssj71's so called Infamous Plugins, thanks.


Website:
http://qtractor.sourceforge.net

Project page:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/qtractor

Downloads:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/qtractor/files

- source tarball:

• qtractor-0.7.3.tar.gz

- source package (openSUSE Tumbleweed):

• qtractor-0.7.3-21.rncbc.suse.src.rpm

- binary packages (openSUSE Tumbleweed):

• qtractor-0.7.3-21.rncbc.suse.i586.rpm
  qtractor-0.7.3-21.rncbc.suse.x86_84.rpm

Wiki (on going, help wanted!):
http://sourceforge.net/p/qtractor/wiki/

Weblog (on going, upstream support):
http://www.rncbc.org

License:
Qtractor is free, open-source Linux Audio software, distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL) version 2 or later.


See also:
http://www.rncbc.org/drupal/node/989


Enjoy && Happy New Year.
--
rncbc aka. Rui Nuno Capela

[motosega]

this is the first version of qtractor i've used in anger, and i must say i'm verry impressed!

i work with hardware synths and sequencers, so i don't have spare cash for a decent computer

i runs incredibly well on my old amd 1.8ghz single core laptop with only 512bm ram.(kxstudio on lubuntu)
i could run 4 stereo audio tracks with effects at 2.9ms latency! and no xruns! i didn't actualy try more tracks/effects yet. but i only have about 40% dsp load
ardour has xruns all over the place.....
since i'm just using qtractor for mixdown this is very promising, i could happily run at a much bigger latency. and freeze tracks to free up dsp power.

i'm finding qtractor pretty intuitive so far. by the time i got arround to reading the manual, i was already into the edge-cases that wern't covered.

i managed to map my midi controller, (korg nanokontrol v1) but qtractors mixer takes a realy long time to respond to fader movements(3-4 secconds)
it works fine in ardour, and looking at the midi messages in jack dosent show anything strange like midi feedback loops etc.

where should i report bugs in qtractor?

the other thing i had a problem with was slaving qtractor to an external midi clock (i could slave my squencer to qtractor no problem).

[rncbc]

i managed to map my midi controller, (korg nanokontrol v1) but qtractors mixer takes a realy long time to respond to fader movements(3-4 secconds)
it works fine in ardour, and looking at the midi messages in jack dosent show anything strange like midi feedback loops etc.

maybe the delay you're being experiencing it's just about the "catch-up" feature of MIDI Controllers that is in effect as default. next time you try modify the MIDI controller assignment and set the "Hook" option ON--that way the assigned subject (eg. fader) will hook and sync immediately to physical MIDI controller value, thus not waiting to catch-up with current value.

if though the delay persists,and if it's something that only occurs when playback is rolling, then try turning View/Options.../MIDI/Playback/"Enable MIDI queue time drift correction" OFF.

where should i report bugs in qtractor?

you choose:

• - Qtractor forum on rncbc.org
  - Qtractor tickets on sf.net
  - Qtractor issues on github.com

the other thing i had a problem with was slaving qtractor to an external midi clock (i could slave my squencer to qtractor no problem).

as of current implementation, MIDI Clock input, when enabled, only serves to read and set current session tempo (BPM)--it doesn't affect transport state whatsoever, as for that you can or may use MIDI SPP (song-position, start, stop), MMC (hard-wired) or channel MIDI Controllers set as menu command shortcuts (cf. Help/Shortcuts...).

hth.
cheers

[motosega]

ok, i'll report issues on github.

i'll finish talking about the midi faders issue here though.

maybe the delay you're being experiencing it's just about the "catch-up" feature of MIDI Controllers that is in effect as default. next time you try modify the MIDI controller assignment and set the "Hook" option ON--that way the assigned subject (ag. fader) will hook and sync immediately to physical MIDI controller value, thus not waiting to catch-up with current value.

it seems that the 'hook' option is only available in the shortcuts menu but not in the 'controllers' window.
am i missing something?

shortcuts work fine though, i'm only getting this issue with the faders on the mixer.

ewan.

[rncbc]

maybe the delay you're being experiencing it's just about the "catch-up" feature of MIDI Controllers that is in effect as default. next time you try modify the MIDI controller assignment and set the "Hook" option ON--that way the assigned subject (ag. fader) will hook and sync immediately to physical MIDI controller value, thus not waiting to catch-up with current value.

it seems that the 'hook' option is only available in the shortcuts menu but not in the 'controllers' window.
am i missing something?

shortcuts work fine though, i'm only getting this issue with the faders on the mixer.

aha... the View/Controllers... generic, parametric, kinda esoteric, whatever... well, tbh. earlier i was referring to the discrete MIDI Controller assignment you get by just invoking the right-click/context-menu while hovering a mixer fader/slider widget, which are quite equivalent to the main menu command shortcuts you've found at Help/Shortcuts...

i'm afraid then that the generic MIDI controllers (as designated on View/Controllers...) cannot, won't have any option as to override the "catch-up" feature. please check if it's the case or else, try the mentioned "drift" correction option out of the equation.

hth.
cheers

[motosega]

ahh! i didn't realize i could do mapping like that!

i remapped using the context menu, an now all is good.

what is view/ controllers for then?

[rncbc]

ahh! i didn't realize i could do mapping like that!

i remapped using the context menu, an now all is good.

what is view/ controllers for then?

the View/Controllers... are generic track controllers that are globally mapped; they are more suited for MIDI control-surfaces like your run-of-the-mill multi-track mixer consoles; settings here are global at application level and not part of the session though; once set, the MIDI controllers that are set up this way, stay always applicable in order and to all and any tracks that are in session in any one time, even though you may add and remove tracks on the fly; think of it as a global, permanent studio MIDI control mapping.

the other "MIDI Controller..." settings, the ones from context-menu, are discrete MIDI controller assignments and their scope applies only to the session where they're defined.

[UPDATE:] also, persuaded by your finding today's git head master branch (qtractor v0.7.3.11+) have this in its commit-log:

Added brand new and global option to disable the so called
catch-up default behavior (cf. View/Controllers.../Sync).

which finally makes it equivalent to the "Hook" attribute of the discrete MIDI Controllers... assignments (as from context-menu).

hth.
cheers