Hi
There are bugs which are resilient. One is never sure whether squashing
one doesn't let a plethora of lurking others get loose, like one's
skeleton in the closet falling apart. Paraphrasing Linus' Law, after
ESR: given enough eardrums all bugs are shallow. Thanks to all the brave
souls who keep harnessing the toy to the bone, some of those nasties
could be whipped off. At least for the time being ;)
Trivially speaking, this dot-release marks the 4th anniversary of
Qtractor as an active/personal project and, putting numerology to the
side, it is being released on this April, 4th (04/04). But then, I do
confess, this was just reckoned as an accidental after-thought, as
everything in numerology, I guess :)
Although only one developer is still responsible for 99% of the code
(that's me!:), there's some outsourcing (kind of) shaping and already
pending in its early stages: MIDI event list editing; Windows native VST
plugin support, much in the lines of FST/WINE, as in Ardour, perhaps; a
new logo and/or splash-screen design is also under this way. Keep in
mind that all translations will be asked only after the end of the
current alpha phase, whenever it would be an end to it :P
Most importantly, there's serious help being needed on drafting the user
manual. The current one available is getting outrageously outdated, ever
since the 0.2 situation. It's already getting tough to play catch up.
And everyone knows about developer(s) not feeling like doing
documentation in the first place. Move on. The more participation the
better.
In general, if you ever feel like, please pick up your favorite line on
the ever still TODO list and do step in. You'll be more than welcome:
eardrums, which usually come in pairs, just like eyeballs do, are pretty
wanted!
So dress up your blacky leather and vinyl, put up the spiky collars and
whip it, whip it good B)
Here we go:
Qtractor 0.4.1 (funky dominatrix) unleashed!
Release highlights:
* MIDI editor snap grid. (NEW)
* Multi-clip selection normalize and quantize (NEW)
* Audio export & sample-rate conversion (FIXED)
* MIDI & audio playback sync (FIXED)
* SSE optimization enabled (FIXED)
* and a few more fixes and same lurking bugs ;)
Same old intro/description:
Qtractor is an audio/MIDI multi-track sequencer application, written in
C++ on top of Qt Software's Qt4 framework, having JACK and ALSA as its
main infrastructures and Linux as native and exclusive platform.
Specially suited to the lone-wolf composer, arranger and (re)creative
music-maker personal home-studio, it still hopes to evolve as a fairly
featured desktop audio/MIDI workstation or at least, a prototypical part
of it ;)
Website:
http://qtractor.sourceforge.net
Project page:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/qtractor
Downloads:
- source tarball
http://downloads.sourceforge.net/qtractor/qtractor-0.4.1.tar.gz
- user manual (outdated)
http://downloads.sourceforge.net/qtractor/qtractor-0.3.0-user-manual.pdf
Weblog (upstream support):
http://www.rncbc.org
License:
Qtractor is free, open-source software, distributed under the terms of
the GNU General Public License (GPL) version 2 or later.
Features:
- Multi-track audio and MIDI sequencing and recording.
- Developed on pure Qt4 C++ application framework (no Qt3 nor KDE
dependencies).
- Uses JACK for audio and ALSA sequencer for MIDI as multimedia
infrastructures.
- Traditional multi-track tape recorder control paradigm.
- Audio file formats support: OGG (via libvorbis), MP3 (via libmad,
playback only), WAV, FLAC, AIFF and many, many more (via linsndfile).
- Standard MIDI files support (SMF format 0 and 1).
- Non-destructive, non-linear editing.
- Unlimited number of tracks per session/project.
- Unlimited number of overlapping clips per track.
- XML encoded session/project description file.
- Point-and-click, multi-select, drag-and-drop interaction (drag, move,
drop, cut, copy, paste, delete, split)
- Unlimited undo/redo.
- Built-in mixer and monitor controls.
- Built-in connection patchbay control and persistence (a-la QjackCtl).
- LADSPA, DSSI and native VST plug-ins support.
- Unlimited number of plug-ins per track or bus.
- Plug-in presets, programs and chunk/configurations support.
- Audio/MIDI clip fade-in/out (linear, quadratic, cubic).
- Audio/MIDI clip gain/volume, normalize and export.
- Audio clip time-stretching (WSOLA-like or via librubberband),
pitch-shifting (also via librubberband) and seamless sample-rate
conversion (via libsamplerate).
- Audio/MIDI track export (mix-down, merge).
- Audio/MIDI metronome bar/beat clicks.
- Unlimited tempo/time-signature map.
- MIDI clip editor (matrix/piano roll).
- MIDI instrument definitions (a-la Cakewalk(tm))
- JACK transport sync master.
- MMC control surface enabled.
- MIDI Song Position cueuing support.
- Configurable keyboard shortcuts.
Change-log:
- MIDI editor command item execution order has been fixed, correcting
the redo/undo adjustment of overlapping note events (probably fixing bug
#2723861).
- MIDI clip editor (aka. piano-roll/matrix editor) sees one of its most
wanted features introduced: visual snap grid, now accessible through
View/Snap/Grid option toggle.
- Actual non-zero session length gets back to status bar of main
application window.
- One potential buffer-overflow/memory-corruption crash bug has been
fixed, long due on most audio (down) sample-rate conversions and
affecting audio export in particular.
- MIDI track/channel patch information, ie. bank-select and
program-change events, are now being properly set on MIDI track/clip export.
- SSE optimization is back in town after being mysteriously disabled
since its dawn :/
- Looping and punch-recording now actively mutual exclusive states:
setting either one unsets the other off and vice-versa. Also,
punch-in/out is now made an undoable command.
- Moving tracks, any track, up or down, were leaving MIDI playback and
meter monitoring completely out-of-sync, now fixed.
- Automatic crash-dump reports, debugger stack-traces (gdb),
back-traces, whatever, are being introduced as a brand new configure
option (--enable-stacktrace) and default enabled on debug build targets
(--enable-debug).
- Audio/MIDI drift correction is now progressive, taking a least
significant differential approach, on every read-ahead cycle and
swallowed on loop turn-arounds, as before.
- Improved Edit/Clip/Normalize and Quantize commands, now affecting the
whole extended multi-clip selection.
- Playback is now being temporarily suspended while either transport
rewind or fast-forward rolling is engaged.
- A bad and shame-on-me bug was fixed: this was hideously affecting any
track/clip playback synchronization, most noticeable after toggling
solo/mute track states while playback is rolling and skipping the
play-head backward over more than one clip under the same track.
- A floating-rectangle flip that showed while dragging new files beyond
the left of main track view is now gone.
- MIDI note event truncation on both track and clip export has been fixed.
Cheers && Enjoy!
--
rncbc aka Rui Nuno Capela
rncbc(a)rncbc.org
On Thursday 02 April 2009 17:45:51 torbenh(a)gmx.de wrote:
> On Wed, Apr 01, 2009 at 04:21:44PM +0300, David Baron wrote:
> > >Made the kernel, booted fine. Once I got into the graphics kde4. The
> > > text- mode bootup was completely kerlbooey!
> > >
> > >So what might I place in my lilo.conf to get this straightened out
> > > (using an older matrox mila g200 at 1200x1065)? Currently has vga=6.
> >
> > This stuff was in the logs. Very interesting. How to get this stuff to
> > Ingo? Apr 1 13:35:03 d_baron kernel: [drm] Initialized card for AGP DMA.
> > Apr 1 13:35:04 d_baron kernel: platform mga_warp.0: firmware: requesting
> > matrox/g200_warp.fw
> > * * * [snip]
> > Apr 1 13:35:04 d_baron kernel: [drm:mga_warp_install_microcode] ERROR
> > mga: Failed to load microcode "matrox/g200_warp.fw"
> > Apr 1 13:35:04 d_baron kernel: [drm:mga_do_init_dma] ERROR failed to
> > install WARP ucode!: -2
>
> do you have the firmware installed ?
OK, saw those two error message in the plain kernel as well.
Found a debian firmware-linux package that lists matrox g200 so see if that
helps!
Thanks for the clue.
I've been trying to do some sound morphs between two different hits of a snare drum, one rimshot and the other a plain hit.
I tried using SMSTools, and even some windows programs under wine, but the results always seem to sound more like hitting a bucket full of water than a combination of the two drums.
I tried csdrummer, but only get a horrible scratchy noise from it.
I looked at Loris...the python-based example that comes with it seems horrifically complicated.
Maybe someone with a knowledge of Csound/Loris could be kind enough to help with a simple script? Or a step-by-step how to achieve this with Cecilia?
Are there any other programs I could try?
Hi,
at the moment swami is the only tool running on linux natively that deals with
manipulating SF2 files.
My personal SF2 collection has grown over time and it is a pain to find out
the best presets in each file (I mostly use GM collections of sounds).
I have read about a lib that implements functions to work on SF2 files, but I
have not found any doc about it. Where can I find the lib and doc for it? If
there was a CLI tool that uses the lib then I think by using scripts handling
the SF2 files could be easier. Something that does most if not all things
that swami does, only that it is run via CLI and a command line.
Looking at SF2 WAV samples I noticed that in most cases they are not
normalized which results in the old problem of different presets having
different volume throughout a SF2 file.
This is where I would like something that does normalizing the sample(s) of
the preset. I know that normalizing tools are out there, it's more a question
of putting pieces together.
The second problem which is even worse to deal with is looping sounds. I know
that it is unlikely this could be done automagically, but an option in tools
such as swami to find zero levels of a sample could already help. Maybe this
is something for the next release of swami? Or maybe you have other
suggestions on handling SF2 files?
Kind regards,
Crypto.
I just found out that wikifonia.org has all the lead sheets I could
ever wish for. Most seem to have both melody and chords entered, but
when I open the musicxml files in mscore (or convert to .ly with
musicxml2ly) I only get the melody part.
My end goal is two midi files. One for the melody and one for the
chords, to help me with RH and LH piano practice respectively. The
first I now how to get, but how do I get the other?
alex
--
http://pipedreams.polite.se/about/
Hi All,
Piano Booster version 0.6.2 has just been released. The most
interesting and innovative thing in this release are timing markers
which drawn in real-time as you play on the piano keyboard. They
appear as white crosses that are drawn over each note and they show
if you are playing ahead or behind the beat. See this screen shot:
http://pianobooster.sourceforge.net/images/timingmarkers.jpeg
Piano Booster is a new way to learn the piano and is the best way
to play along with a musical accompaniment. It suitable for both
the beginner and an advanced player.
If you have not seen PianoBooster before then look at the screen shot.
http://pianobooster.sourceforge.net/images/LinuxScreenShot.png
Watch the video of PianoBooster in action on You Tube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGbfm8Tv-20
== Features - new to this release ==
* Change the start bar to start playing from any bar in the music.
* Repeat bars allows you to practice just a few difficult bars
continuously.
* Timing markers are white crosses that are drawn over each note
and show if you are playing ahead or behind the beat.
* Adjust the volume of the current part or the volume your piano
part.
* Latency fix has been added for sound generators that do not work
in real-time.
* Mute or un-mute the current part that you are following.
* A Mac universal binary now available.
== Features - in all versions ==
* Piano Booster follows your playing when playing along to a
musical accompaniment. (If you stop then so does the music).
* Play a single hand and Piano Booster will play the other hand
in time with you (and will also play the violins, the bass,
the drums etc. in time with you).
* Change the speed of playback to match your playing ability.
* Transpose +/- 12 semitones without stopping the play back.
* Change the Key Signature of the piece.
* Plays any standard midi or kar file.
* Play along to any instrument in the midi file.
* See the accuracy of you playing.
== PianoBooster Web Site ==
PianoBooster is a GPL v3 program available for both Linux and
Windows and now a universal binary for the Mac. Piano Booster is
hosted on sourceforge and can be downloaded from this page.
http://pianobooster.sourceforge.net/
L o u i s J a m e s B a r m a n
Hi,
I am stuck in a problem with MIDI merging.
I am currently using two external MIDI devices that connect to my notebook via
an external USB MIDI adaptor (a nice Edirol UM2).
One of these devices transmits data in running status, which means it omits
the status byte of NOTE ON messages if many NOTE ON messages are transmitted
and there is no change of the channel.
The second device transmits data in the ordinary uncompressed mode and never
leaves out the status byte.
Now I need to route these external MIDI devices to a MIDI application.
The devices show up in my notebook as physical ports UM2-1 and UM2-2 and what
I do is to simply connect these ports to the IN port of the MIDI application.
And now there is a problem: as I have connected the two devices to the IN port
the application (or the driver of the MIDI port) has to do MIDI merging. But
something is wrong with the merging, if the running status device's data
bytes have to be merged with the second device's data stream.
The application detects that there is the status byte missing in the complete
data stream that it is receiving and it does not "resync" even if the running
state device transmits a status byte because the channel has changed. So the
application indicates an error message stating there is a missing status byte
and that it only got data bytes.
1.) Which part is actually responsible for the MIDI merging of two or more
output devices into one input device? Is it the driver of the port or is it
the application, that is in the end receiving the MIDI data stream?
2.) Is it illegal to connect two output devices to one input port?
3.) If I should need some kind of virtual MIDI multiplexing/demultiplexing
driver: which one should I chose? I have debian and would like to install
from repository.
Thanks for any hint and kind regards,
Crypto.
Enjoy..
There is one advantage the edirols have over other devices.. but really only
applies to hardware synths.. it has completely configurable real time sysex..
On Fri Apr 3 7:24 , Darren Landrum sent:
>Great, guys! Thank you very much. I think this might seal my decision.
>
>-- Darren
>
>
>sonofzev(a)iinet.net.au wrote:
>> Yes I have one.. and have had a PCR 30.. I can confirm it works very very well..
>>
>> If you don't have a windohs box then you need to program it from the keyboard..
>> but I actually prefer to use it that way anyway... sysex dumps to store the
>> memory are also fairly easy...
>>
>> On Thu Apr 2 12:01 , Ronald Stewart sent:
>>
>>> I have customers who have reported it works great right out of the box.
>>>
>>> Thanks
>>>
>>> Ronald Stewart
>>> www.indamixx.com
>>>
>>> On Wed, Apr 1, 2009 at 6:33 PM, Darren Landrum
>>> darren.landrum(a)sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>>>> I was looking at different master controller keyboards, and this one
>>>> really got my attention. It does MIDI over USB, and has its own
>>>> software, so I'm wondering if anyone might have an inkling how well this
>>>> controller would work under Linux. I think it has a straight MIDI out,
>>>> if all else fails, but I need to make sure of that.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks for the help.
>>>>
>>>> -- Darren
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Linux-audio-user mailing list
>>>> Linux-audio-user(a)lists.linuxaudio.org
>>>> http://lists.linuxaudio.org/mailman/listinfo/linux-audio-user
>>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Linux-audio-user mailing list
>>> Linux-audio-user(a)lists.linuxaudio.org
>>> http://lists.linuxaudio.org/mailman/listinfo/linux-audio-user
>>> )
>>
>>
>>
>
>)
Yes I have one.. and have had a PCR 30.. I can confirm it works very very well..
If you don't have a windohs box then you need to program it from the keyboard..
but I actually prefer to use it that way anyway... sysex dumps to store the
memory are also fairly easy...
On Thu Apr 2 12:01 , Ronald Stewart sent:
>I have customers who have reported it works great right out of the box.
>
>Thanks
>
>Ronald Stewart
>www.indamixx.com
>
>On Wed, Apr 1, 2009 at 6:33 PM, Darren Landrum
>darren.landrum(a)sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>> I was looking at different master controller keyboards, and this one
>> really got my attention. It does MIDI over USB, and has its own
>> software, so I'm wondering if anyone might have an inkling how well this
>> controller would work under Linux. I think it has a straight MIDI out,
>> if all else fails, but I need to make sure of that.
>>
>> Thanks for the help.
>>
>> -- Darren
>> _______________________________________________
>> Linux-audio-user mailing list
>> Linux-audio-user(a)lists.linuxaudio.org
>> http://lists.linuxaudio.org/mailman/listinfo/linux-audio-user
>>
>_______________________________________________
>Linux-audio-user mailing list
>Linux-audio-user(a)lists.linuxaudio.org
>http://lists.linuxaudio.org/mailman/listinfo/linux-audio-user
>)
