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1. Server Path jackd v Driver alsa Parameters Realtime Priority default gt Interface default v gt No Memory Lock Frames Period 1024 v Dither None v Unlock Memory Sample Rate 48000 v Audio Duplex v Soft Mode IR ace Periods Buffer 2 Input Device hw 0 VE mo Monitor gt Word Length Output Device default v hw 0 0 __ Force 16bit Wait usec Input Channels default gt hw Pla __ H W Monitor Channels Output Channels default gt hw 1 0 __ HAW Meter Port Maximum 256 v Input Latency default hw 2 Ignore H W i E E hw 2 0 _ Verbose messages 500 ba Output Latency default MIDI Driver none v Start Delay secs 2 Latency 42 1 default Cancel 7 Click the Start button to activate Now your USB interface whether it is a single USB microphone or a 4 channel Audio to USB conversion box is managing your input sources Plug your XLR microphone into your USB interface set the interface s input source as your XLR jack and then create a new track in Qtractor and begin the recording 1 Go to the View menu and select Windows gt Connections to verify that the Capture devices on your System are routed to the Master In of Qtractor and the Master Out channels are routed to the Playback channels of your System 34 Recording from USB Audio Audio MIDI All v All v Readable Clients Output Ports v Writable Clients Input P
2. Range and Rectangle Selection and Section 14 2 4 Using Range Markers Once your desired loop range is selected 1 Click on the Transport menu and select Set Loop 2 Move the transport into the loop range or start playing immediately when the transport reaches the end of the loop range it will return to the in point of the loop and seamlessly continue playing until stopped 14 2 8 Simple Fades Fading in or out of an audio clip is common enough that there is a quick shortcut to achieve the effect on any clip Notice in the top corner of any clip in the workspace there is a semi transparent square node Clicking and dragging this node further into the clip will create a fade in if done at the beginning of a clip or a fade out if done at the end of a clip The fade is given a slight curve to give it a more natural feel 56 Merging Clips Most of the time these simple fades achieve the effect you need but should you desire finer control over your fades see Chapter 18 Automation 14 2 9 Merging Clips After a long day of editing your workspace might start to look fragmented with pieces of audio clips appearing in their tracks with long stretches of empty space This is not necessarily a bad thing but it does sometimes allow for accidental moves of precisely timed sound cues and it also may reflect a number of disparate files on your harddrive even though you consider the track one instance of music By mer
3. Ocarina 97 Appendix C General MIDI Instrumentation 81 Lead 1 Square 82 Lead 2 sawtooth 83 Lead 3 calliope 84 Lead 4 chiff 85 Lead 5 charang 86 Lead 6 vox 87 Lead 7 fifths 88 Lead 8 lead bass 89 Pad 1 new age 90 Pad 2 warm 91 Pad 3 polysynth 92 Pad 4 choir 93 Pad 5 bowed 94 Pad 6 metal 95 Pad 7 halo 96 Pad 8 sweep 97 FX 1 rain 98 FX 2 soundtrack 99 FX 3 crystal 100 FX 4 atmosphere 101 FX 5 brightness 102FX 6 goblins 103 FX 7 echoes 104FX 8 sci fi 105Sitar 106 Banjo 107 Shamisen 108 Koto 109Kalimba 110Bag pipe 98 111 Fiddle 112Shanai 113 Tinkle Bell 114Agogo 115 Steel Drums 116Woodblock 117 Taiko Drum 118Melodic Tom 119 Synth Drum 120 Reverse Cymbal 121 Guitar Fret Noise 122 Breath Noise 123Seashore 124Bird Tweet 125 Telephone Ring 126 Helicopter 127 Applause 128 Gunshot 99 100 Index A amsynth 49 automation 21 79 modes 80 recording a live mix 81 B bouncing 23 83 C calf 64 clips merging 57 moving 53 splitting 53 compressors 67 E editing 53 tools 53 effects 19 67 compressor 67 equalizers 72 limiter 71 noise removal 77 normalizers 71 reverb 77 equalizers 72 export 83 exporting 23 F fades 56 G GUI 27 gverb 78 importing audio 31 installation from source 6 qtractor 5 soft synths 47 vst sdk 6
4. 2 In Qtractor go to the Track menu and select Import Tracks gt MIDI Alternately you may click on the MIDI tab of the Files panel on the right of the Qtractor window and right click or use Ctr1 F to import the MIDI file to your files panel and not automatically add its tracks to your session If you do this then you ll need to manually drag the MIDI file into the workspace in order for the data to appear as tracks 3 The MIDI tracks will appear in your Qtractor session in this example s case it is even pre programmed for General MIDI instrumentation Imported tracks will often have embedded General MIDI instrument assignments General MIDI was an effort to standardize a set of 128 instruments to provide similar results in playback across all systems 1 http www smbolton com whysynth html 2 http kunstderfuge com midi asp file bach sankey prelude and fugue bwv 894 c sankey mid 37 Chapter 11 Managing MIDI Tracks If you have a soft synth bank compliant with General MIDI then you can press the Play button in the top toolbar of Qtractor and you will get a good approximation of how the original author of the file wanted the tracks heard You can also use the list of Generic MIDI instruments found in the appendices of this book to guide you in the instrumentation of an imported file making the sound of the tracks truly your own 1 To assign instruments to a track right click on the track title and select Track Propert
5. J jamin 64 K keyframing 21 L limiter 71 loops 55 M midi editor 40 importing data 17 37 overview 51 usb controller 16 38 mixdown 23 mixer 57 59 N noise removal 77 normalization 71 P playback looping 56 plug ins 63 synths 48 preferences 45 punch in 56 Q quick start 15 R range markers 55 realtime kernel 9 troubleshooting 11 11 recording audio 31 reverb 77 S selection tool range rectangle 54 sends returns 64 sequencers hydrogen 52 overview 52 sessions 29 set_rlimits 11 stereo 60 synths amsynth 49 qsynth 49 101 Index software 47 system requirements hardware 3 software dependencies 5 T track order 57 troubleshooting 10 W waveforms 53 102 Are you a Linux user looking to get into audio or music production Or are you a musician looking to switch to Linux Or maybe you have a band and want to learn more about recording and audio engineering If so then Qtractor is for you A free and open source Digital Audio Workstation from the developer of the ubiquitous QJackCtl program Qtractor is ideal for professionals and hobbyists alike This volume contains a Quick Start Guide to get you making music right away plus a detailed user manual that covers every aspect of Qtractor s interface and toolset audio editing tips explanations of synths effects and signal processo
6. 110 15 20 5 25 30 I 35 10 40 5h EQ bypass 00199 Crossover 02396 tr centre 15 Low 25 199 Mid 199 2396 High 2396 20000 Boost AR Tr ven A a T pr K M A 8 T K In ame 08 180 332 12 2 6 0 0 3 90 0 145 200 200 20 05 999 100 200 20 0 20 04 999 lee Input 0 0 25 35 30 25 20 s 10 5 9 I 30 Limit 0 0 dB Release 50 12 ms 40 ann u une is REICHERT ie 35 do 25 20 15 10 0 so 25 20 155 10 0 5530 25 20 15 10 3 0 i so f 0 00 0 00 0 00 Solo Bypass Solo Bypass Solo Bypass Limiter bypass Bypass This obviously allows for a far greater degree of fine tuning As for what Jamin defines as a low mid or hi frequency even these are adjustable with the middle horizontal Crossover sliders Your familiar Attack Release Threshold Ratio Knee and Makeup Gain controls are found at the bottom of the window in the form of vertical sliders As with the stand alone version of Calf Jamin is used as an Aux Send Return unlike Calf it has no plugin option 70 Limiters Because Jamin also features a full featured 30 band EQ it might be best treated as the compressor EQ filter for the Qtractor s Master Out something that Jamin obviously intends since it is advertised as a mastering application As with the stand alone version of Calf compressor you can and should save your presets in Jamin by clicking on the File menu and selecting Save As 17 2 Limiters Directly related
7. Solo the bounce track and listen to the recording for quality assurance and then you are ready to export that track as a self contained distributable file To export a single track to disk 1 Select the track or tracks you wish to export If you bounced everything into one track then it will just be that track which you can solo using the Solo button on the track controls If you are exporting a project consisting of only in project audio then leave them all activated and continue 2 Choose Track gt Export Tracks gt Audio 3 Inthe Export Audio dialogue choose a location and filename for your file Choose the range of what will be exported you can export the entire session or manually set a Punch In Out range or specify the range in timecode frames or bars beats ticks If you have multiple output sources choose the appropriate source probably your Master Output 4 Click the OK button to begin the export 24 Part 2 Advanced Qtractor How to navigate and use the many features of Qtractor for audio production Chapter 8 The Qtractor Interface Chapter 9 Starting a new session Chapter 10 Managing Audio Tracks Chapter 11 Managing MIDI Tracks Chapter 12 Qtractor Options and Preferences Chapter 13 Soft Synths Chapter 14 Working in Qtractor Chapter 15 Mixing Chapter 16 Plugins Chapter 17 Effect Processors and Filters Chapter 18 Automation Chapter 19 Delivery Chap
8. The space between the two blue markers is now the active range Click the Edit menu and use the options in the Select submenu to select areas based on the currently active track the range spanning all tracks and so on You can also use this range to define a loopable area or to delete or copy and paste its contents 14 2 5 Paste Repeat or Looping In electronic music especially there s a common need to record one or two measures and then loop those measures to create standardized basslines or drumbeats The right way to achieve that would be to use a drum machine or a sequencer which would literally play the same data either pure MIDI data or audio samples for as many measures as the composer programs However the effect can be emulated in Qtractor with a Paste Repeat which allows you to copy an audio or MIDI clip and then paste it back to back for as many repetitions as you want To perform a Paste Repeat 55 Chapter 14 Working in Qtractor 1 Check your snapping settings in the View menu usually when looping clips the user wants precision snapping to the first clip s edge 2 Click to select the clip you want to copy or use a range selection to extract a portion of the clip and use Edit gt to Copy the clip 3 Click Edit and choose Paste Repeat 4 Inthe Paste Repeat window enter the number of iterations you want to paste or the duration in timecode frames or beats you need to fill with repetitions C
9. Vibraphone 13 Marimba 14 Xylophone 15 Tubular Bells 16 Dulcimer 17 Drawbar Organ 18 Percussive Organ 19 Rock Organ 20 Church Organ 95 Appendix C General MIDI Instrumentation 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 Reed Organ Accordion Harmonica Tango Accordion Acoustic Guitar nylon Acoustic Guitar steel Electric Guitar jazz Electric Guitar clean Electric Guitar muted Overdriven Guitar Distortion Guitar Guitar harmonics Acoustic Bass Electric Bass finger Electric Bass pick Fretless Bass Slap Bass 1 Slap Bass 2 Synth Bass 1 Synth Bass 2 Violin Viola Cello Contrabass Tremolo Strings Pizzicato Strings Orchestral Harp Timpani String Ensemble 1 String Ensemble 2 96 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 Synth Strings 1 Synth Strings 2 Choir Aahs Voice Oohs Synth Voice Orchestra Hit Trumpet Trombone Tuba Muted Trumpet French Horn Brass Section Synth Brass 1 Synth Brass 2 Soprano Sax Alto Sax Tenor Sax Baritone Sax Oboe English Horn Bassoon Clarinet Piccolo Flute Recorder Pan Flute Blown Bottle Shakuhachi Whistle
10. instance a setting of Beat 2 would cause a pen tool click to produce an eighth note while Beat would produce a quarter note and so on Regardless of the default note length a note block can be extended by clicking and dragging the border of the note to increase or decrease its length The resolution of changes to the length of a note is also determined by the Snap Beat menu 4 Notes Type setting indicates that the notes you draw in the grid represent the length of the note The Key Press setting indicates that the notes you draw in the grid represents a MIDI event without a defined duration such as triggering an external MIDI sequence to begin playing 5 The Value menu lets you control note velocity program changes pitch bending and other extra MIDI data 6 The main editor grid represents the notes being played Use the pen tool to draw notes into the grid according to the keyboard on the left of the window Whether you are drawing in notes or only key presses can be controlled by the Notes Type menu 7 The value grid controls extra MIDI data such as velocity program changes pitch bends and so on The data represented here will change according to the Value menu setting The MIDI Editor can be invoked either for raw entry or to modify existing MIDI data that you ve either imported or played into Qtractor 11 3 1 Additional MIDI Editor Features In addition to input and editing tools the MIDI Editor features functions to
11. 2 are both using MIDI Channel 1 then a note played on Track 2 will also trigger the instrument assigned to Track 1 11 2 Creating MIDI data with a MIDI controller A MIDI controller is a piece of hardware to help you play the software based synthesizers in your computer Typically a MIDI controller is a piano keyboard with a few octaves and no built in sounds of its own It usually plugs into the USB port of your computer and once configured will pass on any key press to Qtractor allowing you to play a software synth in realtime as well as record the keypresses themselves MIDI and USB are two technologies that fortunately have been kept universal enough that you almost don t need to question whether any given USB MIDI controller will work with your system There are perfectly capable USB MIDI controllers being offered from vendors like Akai Roland Edirol 38 Creating MIDI data with a MIDI controller Digidesign M Audio and many others If you require realistic weighted keys with high resolution touch sensitivity then look at the upper price range of controllers and go to a music store to audition them If all your require are a few octaves of piano keys so that you can get a tune into the computer quickly and easily then the basic controllers will be enough To use your USB controller to input MIDI data 1 Plug in the USB MIDI controller to your computer 2 Launch QJackCil and start it 3 Launch Qtractor and click on the
12. 47 Chapter 13 Soft Synths General Audio MIDI Display Plugins Paths SSI v vie usr lib64 dssi instruments Dedicated audio outputs Experimental Y Dummy VST plugin scan RECOMMENDED Cancel A In the Plugins tab define any non standard paths to DSSI LADSPA LV2 or VST plugins on your system by selecting the type of plugin from the dropdown menu on the left and then adding the path with the Add button on the right When finished click the OK button to save your change 13 2 Using Soft Synths as Plugins Using soft synths as DSSI or LV2 plugins is probably the easiest model as it does not require any additional routing of sounds through JACK The synth is integrated into Qtractor s interface the sound is directed to the appropriate track and the fact that you are using a separate application is almost entirely abstracted away from you From Chapter 11 Managing MIDI Tracks you already know how to create a MIDI track and assign a synthesizer plugin to that track Most soft synths however have some level of control over the sounds they produce which you can access by editing the properties of the synthesizer 1 Open the View menu gt Windows and select Mixer 2 The Mixer window shows all available tracks on the far left are the Master Inputs and on the far right are the Master Outputs in the middle are the tracks in your project s workspace In the top plugin list of your track right click on the soft
13. Harris LADSPA set The GVerb plugin is particularly powerful e Roomsize controls the size of the space being used to simulate reverb e Reverb time controls decay of the reverb the longer the reverb time the longer the echo is heard Damping the greater the damping the shorter and weaker the reverb effect will be Input bandwidth the strength of the signal that reaches the reverb effect unit for processing Dry signal level the volume of the unprocessed source sound Early reflection level strength of the initial reverberated wave a weaker early reflection level has the effect of hearing just the tail of a reverb while a greater level brings more immediate sound Tail level the level of the reverberated sound increasing this will great a stronger signal which will therefore continue even past the Reverb time setting which can then also be controlled by the Damping setting 17 7 Echos Delays Distortion and More The range of effect units available for processing sound is nearly endless With echos tape delays distortion filters amps decimators chorus effects ring modulators and much more Linux has no shortage of special effects Explore Calf and Steve Harris LADSPA plugins to discover a wide variety of new possible sounds 78 Chapter 18 Automation If you had to mix all of the tracks in a project at the same time in realtime you d not only need a lot of practice but probably two more arms and an
14. Master in 20 A capture_2 v Mi system playback 1 playback_2 Connect X Disconnect gt Disconnect All 5 Refresh Now choose the sound source s destination in the right column You are routing the sound from the microphone into Qtractor so choose the Qtractor category and select the corresponding input port such as Master in_1 Click the Connect button if they are not already connected Repeat this process for the right channel and then close the window In the track label on the left of the Qtractor window click the R button to arm the track for recording Click the Record button in the top menu bar to activate Recording mode Click the Play button in the top menu bar to begin Insert an existing audio file into the track if you re using pre recorded material from a live performance a sound booth session or a sample or loop collection then there is no need to set up a recording source such as a microphone or line in You ll simply add files to your Qtractor session and drag them into your workspace To add sounds files to your session go to the Clip menu and select Import Choose the file you wish to import and it will be added into your empty track Notice that it is also added in the Files panel on the right of the Qtractor window so to add files without adding them to a track you can right click in the Files panel and choose Add Files Play MIDI into the track similar to recording audio directly into Qt
15. Optimizations Chapier 1 Introduction to Qtractor Qtractor is a full featured Digital Audio Workstation DAW a multi track audio and MIDI recorder editor and mixer Qtractor is free open source software licensed under the GPL being developed by reknowned programmer Rui Nuno Capela The functionality of Qtractor is contained within a graphical desktop environment that will be familiar to users of other popular multi track recording editing applications on any computer operating system and follows the same design principles with many of the same or similar elements In addition to recording digital audio and MIDI Qtractor provides an environment for multi track clip oriented composing techniques common in modern music making and aims to be intuitive and easy to use yet powerful enough for the serious recording enthusiast Qtractor is not what is known as a tracker type of audio MIDI application although it has the potential to function in that way if needed When used merely as an audio and or MIDI recorder a MIDI recorder was historically called a sequencer or arranger Qtractor is non destructive which means that the underlying files that contain the audio or MIDI data are not altered when those files are apparently cut into pieces duplicated pulled or pasted into a different order in time or manipulated in any number of ways within the main Window GUI interface of Qtractor However when used as an audio or MI
16. Setting the threshold to 12dB means that everything below 12dB will remain unchanged while anything above 12dB will be constrained to some degree depending on the ratio setting of course Make the Knee more gradual and natural by adjusting the knee to 18dB this gives a softer curve to the compression Sometimes this is intentionally not increased and a sharper knee is desired it s a trick sometimes used in compressing drums to create hits that pop The Makeup Gain knob currently set to 0 allows you to boost the output sound to account for the inherent loss in volume when using a compressor that constrains levels The Attack and Release knobs control how quickly the compression effect takes to take full effect and how quickly the effect is released In otherwords at a Oms attack a soundwave will be constrained the very moment it pushes toward the threshold setting The result of this is often a very harsh and noticeable effect usually undesirable except again for some stylistic choice sometimes made on drum kits or special effects Setting the attack to 500ms 5 second for instance renders a softer more gradual effect that better allows a soundwave to retain its natural shape and curve but still suppressing it under the threshold s level Once you ve designed good compression settings save it as a preset by clicking on the Preset menu and choosing Store preset selection You will need the preset saved perhaps in you
17. and save a new session Saving a session before actually doing any work in it seems counter intuitive but it s important to save first so that any and all files created or required for your work can be contained in a pre determined location To create a new session in Qtractor 1 Launch Qtractor for a fresh new session otherwise go to the File menu and select New or use Ctr1 N to start a fresh session Go to the File menu again and select Save As or Save if you ve already been working in the opened session or just hit Ctr1 S In the Session dialogue box name the session and provide a description as needed Click the directory button on the right to enter a file chooser dialogue In the Session Directory dialogue create a new folder in the directory of your choice for example you might make a myGreat Song folder for your session in your music directory Click the OK button once you ve created a directory for your session files Click the OK button in the Session dialogue box to proceed A Save Session window will appear which is a prompt for you to save the session file itself into the destination you ve just created for it Navigate to your new folder in this example myGreatSong in the music directory Name your session file by default it will already be named the same as the name of your session itself but if you are versioning the file or have different notation you d like to use you can give it a customized name as
18. be availble from your repository or from their respective websites If you have not installed them yet install them now and then re launch Qtractor so that it will detect them as available filters Effects occur upon the sound itself so they can be applied to Audio tracks as well as MIDI tracks To place an effect on a track 1 Select the track you want to pipe through an effect and select it by clicking the track label on the left of the Qtractor workspace 2 Click on the Track menu and select Track Properties 3 Inthe Track dialogue click on the Plugins tab 4 Click the Add button on the right of the window 5 Inthe Plugins dialogue choose the type of plugin you want to use with the filter button in the top right corner more than likely you will be using a LADSPA plugin 6 Avery common effect of course is reverb Filter the choices from all the LADSPA plugins by typing verb into the search bar along the top You may see one or two results such as GVerb and Plate Reverb so choose one of these Place a tick in the checkbox in the lower left corner of the screen labeled Activate and click OK 7 Should you need to modify the reverb filter right click on the plugin in the Track window and choose Properties This will open the control panel for the effect where you can change the attributes of the effect 19 20 Chapier 6 Automation in Qtractor Nearly every aspect of any track can be automated in Qtracto
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20. but nearly each one would create with creating a new track To create an empty track in your Qtractor workspace click on the Track menu and select Add Track In the Track dialogue name your track in the Name field For Type choose between Audio or MIDI depending on what kind of data you wish to use in the track If you have a specific set of inputs and outputs that you wish to use for the track you can set that here or you can leave it on the default and manipulate it later as needed Likewise if you know the MIDI bank or patch selections you can set it here or leave it as default values and configure it later Click OK to create the track Now that you have an empty track you should put some sound into it You can do this in three ways e Record audio directly into the track to record directly into Qtractor you must define your input device in your central patchbay ie QJackCtl To do this choose View menu gt Windows gt Connections In the left column choose the source of sound a device that from Qtractor s perspective is outputting sound hence the output label Your microphone exists as part of your computer system so choose the System category and click a capture device there 15 Chapter 4 Getting Sound Into Qtractor O Audio MIDI All v All v Readable Clients Output Ports v Writable Clients Input Ports v gt Otractor v Otractor v system EN Master in_1 A capture 1 a
21. good example Hydrogen is a self contained drum machine for Linux which allows the user to create custom patch sets and which does all of its own Sequencing Therefore if you were to use Hydrogen as a stand alone drum machine you wouldn t sequence your drum tracks in Qtractor s MIDI editor but in Hydrogen s sequencer Since Hydrogen is JACK aware sending a START signal to Hydrogen to start the sequence playing and a STOP signal when the song is finished is all that Qtractor will do the clock and syncronization of the drum beats with the rest of the sequence is handled by JACK just as it would have been on hardware synthesizers via a MIDI clock 52 Chapter 14 Working in Qtractor Editing audio in Qtractor is done directly in the workspace with a small set of powerful tools There are three types of audio within the Qtractor workspace Audio files the representation of the actual audio file on your harddrive which is being referenced by Qtractor because you imported it into your project It may or may not be actually used in the project yet but it you have linked to it and so it will appear in the Files panel Track the representation of a mixable channel in Qtractor s workspace It may or may not have audio in it but it is a bus which can hold audio effects or technically MIDI data but that hardly applies in a chapter on audio editing Clip a piece or the whole of an audio file as it appears in your Qtractor project
22. have this problem since many musicians are making music with no hardware synthesizer whatever MIDI is generated by the sequencer Qtractor in this case and is passed to each software synthesizer over virtual MIDI ports A virtual MIDI THRU port is nevertheless available so in the event that you do require MIDI data in a passthrough configuration you can use the MIDI THRU port in QJackCil via the Connections window in Qtractor The concept of MIDI channels are also equally relevant even without hardware If you set up QSynth to generate a bassline for your piece on MIDI channel 1 and WhySynth to play the melody then you must not set WhySynth to use Channel 1 or else all notes being triggered on QSynth will also be triggered on WhySynth because they are being triggered by the same MIDI Channel With 128 channels to use you are free to use 128 soft synths but unless you are seeking unison each should have a distinct MIDI Channel In You can set the MIDI Channel in the Track Properties of each of your Qtractor tracks 13 4 1 Using Multiple Sequencers If a synthesizer has a built in sequencer then the only MIDI signals that need to be sent to that device are START and STOP This is common in external drum machines which inherently manage their own sequencing so that you can create drumbeats and loops on them using a fairly familiar interface familiar as long as you ve used drum machines anyway On the software side Hydrogen is a
23. it does Since Calf can be used as either a stand alone application or as Qtractor plug ins they are flexible in how you choose to implement them 17 4 3 Steve Harris LADSPA Multiband EQ Simpler than Jamin or Calf is the Steve Harris LADSPA plugin Multiband EQ It features 15 sliders for broad rangers of frequencies default v 9 Y Params Active 50Hz gain low shelving 1250Hz gain 700 70 100Hz gain 1750Hz gain 27 1 70 156Hz gain 2500Hz gain 11 9 85 0 220Hz gain 3500Hz gain 0 0 75 311Hz gain 5000Hz gain 0 0 Q 50 161 440Hz gain 10000Hz gain 5 2 gt 142 622Hz gain 20000Hz gain 0 0 re 239 880Hz gain 176 Direct Access w There is less customization available but well rounded curves can still be achieved by staggering the sliders a common practise on hardware equalizers 17 4 4 Steve Harris LADSPA DJ EQ A basic 3 band equalizer the Steve Harris JD EQ LADSPA plugin allows you to easily control the three general areas of sound frequency bass mids and treble 76 Noise Removal 17 5 Noise Removal Noise removal is something of a myth borne of automatic filters bundled with recording applications It is not possible in spite of what the advertisements say to isolate noise on a track and eliminate it without also removing that same frequency from what you deem to be signal The manual elimination of noise is easiest w
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25. make it easy to modify your composition such as Quantization Transposition Timeshifting and more 42 Customizing the MIDI Editor View To access these features use the Tools menu in the MIDI Editor window If no notes are selected then the Tools will be unavailable select a note or block of notes with the arrow tool to make them available Quantize allows you to automatically structure notes in stricter uniformity with your time signature This is especially helpful if you ve played the notes in and were not perfectly on the beat You can quantize notes such that the notes occur on the beat or one 16ths of the beat or 8ths or so on such that the duration of notes are extended to be on the beat or divisions thereof such that notes play with some degree of swing and even such that the notes played match a specific scale from Minor to Major to the extremely obscure Transpose moves the block of selected notes up or down some number of steps Normalize adjusts note velocity by either a percentage or an absolute value A percentage value will adjust the velocity of the notes equally by the percent given in relation to the original velocity while an absolute value adjusts velociy of each note to that value regardless of original velocity Randomize provides random changes to the Note Time Duration or velocity Value Adjust how extreme the changes will be with percent values Resize allows you to control the d
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27. other tools like a Compressor or Equalizer are favoured rs Tracks levels don t exist in a vacuum the levels are cumulative so if you have two tracks with near maximum levels that produce very loud sounds at the same time the Master Out level will peak even if each track was safe independently There is no authoratative way of achieving a balanced mix some professional sound mixers prefer an additive mix in which they start all levels at a reasonable and safe level and then accentuate important parts by adding volume to tracks Others prefer a subtractive method by starting everything at the highest safe or unsafe level and then bringing volumes down so that everything falls into place Predictably still others prefer a combination of these methods 15 1 2 Stereo Separation By default tracks are set to play sounds from the center point of the stereo space meaning that to the listener the sound will feel as if it s situated directly in front of them or evenly between their left and right ear To diversify the sound sometimes in order to emulate a live setup or to suggest that a sound is just next to the listener or to broaden the scope and impact of the piece you can pan sound between the left and right speakers 60 Stereo Separation EU METE oe B Decimator B Flanger monitor monitor monitor ms A LM LS R Y US hol Il When panning a track less is often more and an even spre
28. practice the bulk of LV2 plugins you ll find are audio effects units reverbs tape delays EQ and so on One of the easiest soft synths is WhySynth it features enough presets to provide instant gratification and enough control over the raw sound to become a permanent fixture in your studio You can install WhySynth from your distribution s repository or directly from smbolton com whysynth html If you ve just installed soft synths now then you should relaunch Qtractor so that it will detect the newly available plugins 11 1 Importing MIDI Data Since MIDI data consists of nothing more than digital signals to activate and deactivate sounds at certain times MIDI files are small and easily distributed online A simple internet search for MIDI files will result in thousands of MIDI files for nearly any song you can name Taken alone the MIDI file is useless Imported into Qtractor and assigned instruments the files come to life like a player piano The MIDI file you import into Qtractor could be from the internet or it could be a MIDI files you yourself created on any given MIDI input application or even from data dump from a MIDI capable hardware synth In this example we will use one from the internet 1 Download a MIDI file such as kunstderfuge com midi asp file bach sankey prelude and fugue bwv 894 c sankey mid and save it to your hard drive Preferably in your Qtractor s session directory to keep your project self contained
29. synth currently associated with the track and choose Properties from the contextual menu 3 In the window that appears notice the three buttons in the top right corner 48 Using Stand Alone Synths Params toggles the view of available attributes you can modify such as oscillators resonance envelopes and so on Edit toggles whether the plugin is editable An active plugin is on and will play sounds when receiving MIDI signals If a plugin is not active it will not produce or affect if it s an effect unit plugin sound If you do not see editable parameters in the synthesizer window click the Params button 4 Change the parameters you wish to change using the controls the soft synth provides If you create a patch that you want to save type a name into the Preset Name field in the upper left corner and click the Save button and your settings will be added as a Preset in the Preset dropdown menu Whether you use DSSI LV2 or VST plugins the process for using a soft synth or effect is the same All parameters provided by the soft synth s interface can also be automated such that attributes like LFO or resonance can be programmed to change over time during playback For more information on automation see Chapter 18 Automation 13 3 Using Stand Alone Synths The other kind of software synth you might use in your Qtractor workflow are stand alone synthesizers such as Qsynth and amSynth Installing these stand alone
30. synths from your distribution s repository or from the projects websites Launch QJackCtl first and then launch the software synths the same as you would any other application on your system Keep in mind that if your distribution requires you to set your own realtime permissions you will want to add the stand alone software synths to your RT list Once you ve launched your software synth it will become a source for sound and a destination for MIDI signals in the Qtractor Verify that your settings are correct 1 Select the View menu in Qtractor gt Windows gt Connections 2 Inthe Audio tab appear all possible sources of sound If you have launched QSynth or amSynth for example they would be listed in the left column Also listed will be Qtractor itself since it also produces sound and your computer s sound input labeled as System gt capture In the right column are the sound destinations available At the very least you should see Qtractor s Master In and your computer speakers labeled as System gt playback By default the sound from Qtractor Master Out is patched to System playback so that you can hear from your speakers everything that Qtractor s mixer manages 49 Chapter 13 Soft Synths This is where the logic of audio engineering as well as the workings of your own studio setup should be considered The sound produced from your stand alone synth can logically be patched into either e Qtractor Master
31. to dynamic compressors are limiters which are basically compressors set to an infinite compression ratio There are limiters available in the Steve Harris LADSPA set The Hard Limiter for example enforces the threshold by literally clipping off the offending portion of the sound wave Its upper dB limit is OdB and the harshness of the clipping can be set with the Wet Level the more wet the more clipping and Residue level which essentially control the attack and release times of the effect Limiters compared to compressors are by nature fairly harsh However slightly clipping the upper tips of offending soundwaves can create the illusion of loudness without actually crossing over into true distortion levels It may also be used as a protective filter on the Master Out just to ensure that levels absolutely do not rise above OdB 17 3 Normalization The idea of normalization basically refers to dynamic range compression since its job is to take irregular sound and make it more normal However the term is imprecise and so it can mean many things In Qtractor tracks that are too soft can have gain applied manually applying gain can be dangerous since you do not know how much gain you can safely apply without sending peaks over the OdB mark To have Qtractor calculate a safe clip wide gain level 1 Select the clip that is too soft 2 Click the Clip menu and select Normalize The clip has a safe gain level nondestructively applie
32. which can make it difficult to share one MIDI loop between projects But Qtractor saves all MIDI tracks as independent files meaning you can easily re use them 3 Arm your track for recording by clicking the R button in the track control 4 Click the Record button in the top menu bar to prepare the track for recording Click the Play button to start the transport recording 5 Every key press you make on your USB controller will be recorded in realtime Depending on the feature set of your controller velocity pitch and other data may also be recorded 11 3 Creating MIDI data with the matrix editor If you have no USB MIDI controller you can still create MIDI data using Qtractor s MIDI Editor sometimes called a matrix editor or piano roll in other music programs This enables you to mark on a grid when a note should be triggered how long it should be sustained and at what velocity it should be played Broadly speaking the steps are 1 Create a destination track 2 Create a MIDI clip 3 Enter the data in the MIDI editor To create a new track select Add Track from the Track menu or click the New Track button in the top toolbar 1 To assign instruments to a track right click on the track title and select Track Properties from the contextual menu 40 8 Creating MIDI data with the matrix editor In the Track dialogue box click on the Plugins tab In the Plugins tab click the Add button on the right to see a li
33. workspace and a new track will be created automatically 10 2 Recording Audio Recording audio into Qtractor requires a microphone and at least one audio input channel Many laptops and webcams have built in microphones so in theory you could use this as an input source but for best quality purchase an external microphone and use it as your audio capture device In For simultaneous multitrack recording rarely will the soundcard that was bundled with your computer be sufficient Almost all soundcards embedded on motherboards are set to mixdown the input signals to a stereo mix lf you wish to record three separate musicians at the same time each to a separate track in Qtractor you will require a soundcard with separate dedicated inputs The way that Linux displays available sound inputs and outputs can be dauting at first until you understand the logic behind it A Linux system displays sounds devices the same way it displays hard drives and available network interfaces the first device regardless of actual inputs or outputs available via that device is labeled hwo0 the next hw1 the next hw2 and so on It is safe to assume that hwO would be the built in sound card on the system being embedded in the motherboard would certainly qualify it as the first available sound device So hwO represents 31 Chapter 10 Managing Audio Tracks in almost every case your built in sound card Hw1 might represent for instance a webcam t
34. 1 Additional MIDI Editor Features nenn 42 11 3 2 Customizing the MIDI Editor View unnsnsnnnnnsnnnnnenennnnnnnnnnnnnennnen 43 12 Qtractor Options and Preferences 45 13 Soft Synths 47 13 1 Installing Soft SyAths ste ss ee aient init en entente tu s 47 13 2 Using Soft Synths as Plugins oooocccccnncccoconccaconcnnconnnnnnnnnnncnnnnn cono nnnan cra nan nn nn nn 48 13 3 Using Stand Alone Synths iii 49 13 4 A Bit about MIDI iii 51 13 4 1 Using Multiple Sequencers coccoccccoconoccccnncnccnnnonnnncnnnnncnnnnonnan cnn nan cn nn nn 52 14 Working in Qtractor 53 14 1 Not Editing WaVvetorms siennes fitness td ORES 53 14 2 Audio Clip TOS nenne bata nn nu HSE 53 14 2 1 Moving Clips and Controlling Snapping ooocccinccnccncconocaninnnncnnnnnnanacancnnos 53 Qtractor 14 2 2 Truncating Splitting and Extending Clips 0ooooonocccinnnnccccconccacinnnnccnnnnnnnn 53 14 2 3 Range and Rectangle Selection nn 54 14 2 4 Using Range Markers ss 55 14 2 5 Paste Repeat or LOOPING ss 55 14 2 6 P nch lV OUE u ee anna area na dar 56 14 2 7 LO0P1Ng Playback sense el 56 14 2 8 Simple Fades a cece eects ee aaa a aa eaaa a EA A anaE A 56 14 2 9Merging CIPS wait E Pe a ee eet eae nn 57 14 3 TRACKS BOIS nn nenne ee 57 14 3 1 Track Order Height and Properties occcooonncccccoconnccnononnccnnnnnnccnonanonnnns 57 15 Mixing 59 TSAS MM A eat 59 19 1 Setting Levels ui ri 60 15 1 2 Stereo Se
35. 2 Label the track ie Bounce w Open the Connections window View gt Windows gt Connections 4 Inthe Connections window connect the Master Out of Qtractor to the Master In of Qtractor such that the output of all sound managed by Qtractor is being directed to the input of Qtractor for recording GQ warning Be sure to disable any capture device such as microphones or unused line ins You ll be recording all the live sound going into Qtractor so you don t want accidental line noise hums or room tone 5 Set the in and out points for your recording by clicking once on the top timeline at the point you want the recording to stop a blue transport line will be anchored where you click Scroll back to the beginning of your project and click again in the top timeline to mark the in point with an opening blue transport bar 23 Chapter 7 Bouncing the Project Click the Punch In Out button in the top menu bar to limit playback between your markers C If you do not set in and out points you will need to stop the recording manually 6 Arm your Bounce track for recording Click the Record button in the top menu bar 7 Make sure that your transport playhead is at the beginning of your track When ready press the Play button in the top menu bar Bouncing a track is a realtime process Do not use your computer while you re bouncing a track When you ve bounced your song to its own track save the project
36. Audio clips are always contained in an audio track You can edit and effect the latter two the first the audio file itself is merely referenced in Qtractor and cannot be directly manipulated by any of Qtractor s tools In fact it should be noted that Qtractor like most other digital audio workstations is not a waveform editor for cosmetic corrections such as removing pops or blown out plosives or removing lip smacks or dampening roomtone you should use a waveform editor such as Audacity 14 1 Not Editing Waveforms Cleaning your source sound is frequently one of the first tasks you ll do so ideally your sound will be sanitized before ever reaching Qtractor However in the event that you have imported audio and started working and then you decide that something needs some detail work you can export just the clip that requires cleaning from Qtractor clean it and then re import it To export a clip of a sound file for cleaning outside of Qtractor 1 Right click on the clip in its track and select Clip gt Export from the contextual menu 2 Edit the exported clip in a waveform editor such as Audacity and save export your changes 3 Import the modified clip back into Qtractor and move it into place over the previous clip 14 2 Audio Clip Tools Outside of cleaning the sound of an audio clip there are plenty of modifications you can do to the audio clips you record or import into Qtractor such as splitting punching in loopin
37. DI recorder for example or when editing previously recorded MIDI data in the dedicated MIDI editor Qtractor s actions can be destructive in the sense that newly recorded data or altered MIDI data replaces previously recorded data on the same track 1 1 System Requirements Qtractor s target platform is Linux using the ALSA Advanced Linux Sound Architecture and JACK the Jack Audio Connection Kit as the supporting infrastructure for recognizing sources of digital audio and MIDI Musical Instrument Digital Interface data communicating with those sources and routing the data to and from various locations and programs applications including Qtractor both inside and outside the computer and involving both software and hardware interfaces Suggestions of technical requirements for Qtractor are PC running a distribution of the GNU Linux operating system with a Kernel of 2 6 38 4 or higher for best realtime performance older kernels require realtime patches from your distribution or from kernel org CPU capable of running reasonably modern software the better your CPU the better performance you will see in realtime audio effects and synthesis A reasonable amount of RAM an open Qtractor project requires RAM the more you have the more complex your projects can be and the faster they will respond A sound card the basic sound card that shipped with your computer is perfectly acceptable although if you require simultaneous recordin
38. In so that the sound produced by the synthesizer can be recorded back into an empty audio track in Qtractor O If you re not sure what kind of setup you have then choose this method System playback if you have an external mixer or recording device that will be recording the audio being produced by the MIDI driven synths To patch the sound from the synth to its destination click the left channel of the synth output and then the left destination channel and click the Connect button Repeat this for the right channel if stereo is required This takes care of routing the sound now you must route the MIDI signals controlling the synthesizer As with the routing of sound there is no right way to route the MIDI signal you must be somewhat familiar with the equipment and workflow you are implementing and decide for yourself how you want it to all work together 1 In the MIDI tab appear all possible sources of MIDI signals At the very least your stand alone soft synth will be listed in the left column If you have a USB MIDI controller it will also be listed Qtractor itself and a MIDI Through channel are also listed In the right column are the sound destinations available At the very least you should see Qtractor s Master and the MIDI Through channels and the soft synth you are running As with audio routing there are many ways to design your production process e The MIDI signal from Qtractor should be patched into the
39. MMC is eligible for relicensing ADDENDUM How to use this License for your documents To use this License in a document you have written include a copy of the License in the document and put the following copyright and license notices just after the title page Copyright YEAR YOUR NAME Permission is granted to copy distribute and or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License Version 1 3 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation with no Invariant Sections no Front Cover Texts and no Back Cover Texts A copy of the license is included in the section entitled GNU Free Documentation License If you have Invariant Sections Front Cover Texts and Back Cover Texts replace the with Texts line with this with the Invariant Sections being LIST THEIR TITLES with the Front Cover Texts being LIST and with the Back Cover Texts being LIST If you have Invariant Sections without Cover Texts or some other combination of the three merge those two alternatives to suit the situation If your document contains nontrivial examples of program code we recommend releasing these examples in parallel under your choice of free software license such as the GNU General Public License to permit their use in free software 91 92 Appendix B Various and Sundry Some software is not required for Qtractor to run but are useful to have and can be run along with Qtractor Opt
40. NTS The combined work need only contain one copy of this License and multiple identical Invariant Sections may be replaced with a single copy If there are multiple Invariant Sections with the same name but different contents make the title of each such section unique by adding at the end of it in parentheses the name of the original author or publisher of that section if known or else a unique number Make the same adjustment to the section titles in the list of Invariant Sections in the license notice of the combined work In the combination you must combine any sections Entitled History in the various original documents forming one section Entitled History likewise combine any sections Entitled Acknowledgements and any sections Entitled Dedications You must delete all sections Entitled Endorsements 6 COLLECTIONS OF DOCUMENTS You may make a collection consisting of the Document and other documents released under this License and replace the individual copies of this License in the various documents with a single copy that is included in the collection provided that you follow the rules of this License for verbatim copying of each of the documents in all other respects You may extract a single document from such a collection and distribute it individually under this License provided you insert a copy of this License into the extracted document and follow this License in all other respects regarding v
41. Ogg Vorbis encoder and decoder by Xiph libmad high quality MPEG audio decoder available from your repository or from underbit com products mac 1 http www trolltech org products qt http www mega nerd com libsndfile 3 http www ladspa org i http xiph org vorbis 3 http www underbit com products mad Chapter 2 Installation libsameplerate the secret rabbit code a C library for audio sample rate conversion available from your distribution s repository or from mega nerd com libsndfile librubberband the Rubber Band Audio Time Stretcher an audio time stretching and pitch shifting library available from your repository or breakfastquay com rubberband liblo Lightweight OSC implementation needed for DSS GUI support available from your repository or liblo sourceforge ne DSSI an API for soft synth plugins with custom user interfaces dssi sourceforge ne VST SDK Steinberg s Virtual Studio Technology this SDK permits the use of Linux native plugins with Qtractor To install VST SDK 1 Establish a developer account at steinberg net en company 3rd party_developer htm confirm the registration and log in 2 Download VST 2 4 3 Unzip the source directory and copy the files to the appropriate directory usually usr local include su c cp vstsdk2 4 pluginterfaces vst2 x aeffect usr local include 2 2 1 Download the Qtractor Code Stable releases of Qtractor can be downl
42. Otractor Quick Start Guide and User Manual UPDATED FOR VERSION 0 5 x by Seth Kenlon amp Klaatu NU Free Docs License Qtractor User Manual Seth Kenlon Klaatu la Terible Qtractor Qtractor User Manual Edition 0 5 x Author Seth Kenlon seth straightedgelinux com Author Klaatu la Terible klaatu hackerpublicradio org Copyright 2012 Seth Kenlon Permission is granted to copy distribute and or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License Version 1 3 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation with no Invariant Sections no Front Cover Texts and no Back Cover Texts A copy of the license is included in the section entitled Appendix A GNU Free Documentation License A Guide for audio producers both new and experienced Dedication GNU Linux users often cite the community as one of the greatest appeals of using their OS There must be a lot of truth to that because this book would not exist without the collaboration hours of troubleshooting and tech support from everyone in the freenode channels opensourcemusicians and oggcastplanet And obviously without Qtractor this manual would not exist so the greatest thanks goes to Rui Nuno Capela for the application that has enabled and inspired me and many other musicians all over the world to get those pesky tunes that pop into our heads down into actual sound waves that other people can hear too 0 In
43. View menu and select Connections from the Windows category 4 Inthe Connections window click on the MIDI tab Listed on the ReadableClients Output Ports column find your USB controller device Open its category to see the available outputs C If you do not see your USB controller listed in the left column check to ensure that your controller is powered on some require external power others are powered by the USB port and check the cable connection If you still cannot see the device in the left column make sure your computer sees the controller by checking dmesg tail If your computer registers the device but you are not seeing it in Connections try restarting both QJackCil and Qtractor 5 Connect the output of your MIDI device to Qtractor in the Writable Clients Input Ports column Qtractor is now configured to receive MIDI events from your USB controller To play your composition or parts of your composition into Qtractor you will need an empty track To begin with create an empty track by selecting Add Track from the Track menu or by clicking the New Track button in the top toolbar 1 To assign instruments to a track right click on the track title and select Track Properties from the contextual menu 2 Inthe Track dialogue box click on the Plugins tab 3 Inthe Plugins tab click the Add button on the right to see a list of available sotware plugins 4 Inthe Plugins dialogue select the type of plugin you wish t
44. Z in parentheses following text that translates XYZ in another language Here XYZ stands for a specific section name mentioned below such as Acknowledgements Dedications Endorsements or History To Preserve the Title of such a section when you modify the Document means that it remains a section Entitled XYZ according to this definition The Document may include Warranty Disclaimers next to the notice which states that this License applies to the Document These Warranty Disclaimers are considered to be included by reference in this License but only as regards disclaiming warranties any other implication that these Warranty Disclaimers may have is void and has no effect on the meaning of this License 2 VERBATIM COPYING You may copy and distribute the Document in any medium either commercially or noncommercially provided that this License the copyright notices and the license notice saying this License applies to the Document are reproduced in all copies and that you add no other conditions whatsoever to those of this License You may not use technical measures to obstruct or control the reading or further copying of the copies you make or distribute However you may accept compensation in exchange for copies If you distribute a large enough number of copies you must also follow the conditions in section 3 You may also lend copies under the same conditions stated above and you may publicly displa
45. ad is usually best In other words do not arbitrarily assign tracks in stereo space just to give a spread to your sound consider where the sound would realistically come from if the listener were watching a live performance AM Avoid moving sounds to the extreme stereo positions since in real life sounds are rarely only heard in one ear and not the other the sound of extreme stereo separation was common in early stereo mixes from the 1960s in which the drums might only be heard in the right ear and a guitar only in the left the effect was revolutionary at the time but largely considered utterly unnatural now A gentle spread of sound is most natural with sounds at the extreme edges of the stereo space being used for atmosphere emphasis or effect 61 62 Chapter 16 Plugins In the Mixer window effects processor can be added to any track the Master In Out or individual tracks in the project 1 Right click the plugin window in the track into which you wish to add the effect or synth 2 Select Add Plugin from the contextual menu Mixer Qtractor CERN ACT Bae MSX BEE erb B Ringmod n SAM pitchsh x Add Plugin monitor monitor monit or Inserts gt mos R M S Rooms dB 00 0 dB tla 7 dE 3 From the Plugins window choose the LADSPA LV2 DSSI or VST plugin you want to plug into the track Click OK to continue A plugin may also be a MIDI soft synth that you wish to associ
46. ass Limiter bypass Bypass The practical theory behind EQ is simple enough identify the frequency you wish to emphasize or supress and then raise or lower its intensity in the equalizer If you are unfamiliar with equalizers you may have a difficult time at first being able to identify where in the spectrum of frequencies the sound lies Put simply the lower bass bands are on the left and the higher treble are on the right with the mids human voice and similarly pitched instruments are in the middle For more precision there is an old engineering trick that you can use in Jamin to identify where something you are hearing actually appears in the spectrum 1 Send a track to Jamin as an Aux Send Return 2 Open the HDEQ view of Jamin and use the yellow curve nodes to create the sharpest curve possible at its maximum value HDEQ 30 band EQ Spectrum Compressor curves 73 Chapter 17 Effect Processors and Filters 3 Using the middle node drag the peak across the spectrum listening to the sounds it emphasizes Because of the drastic curve the change will be obvious 4 Once you find the sound you are searching for lessen the volume of the curve and make it more gradual Less is more in EQ rarely is there a time when huge increases or decreases of the existing frequencies are required If you find yourself wanting to maximize the intensity of a frequency band then quite possibly you need to re record to achieve the actual
47. at version for the Document 11 RELICENSING Massive Multiauthor Collaboration Site or MMC Site means any World Wide Web server that publishes copyrightable works and also provides prominent facilities for anybody to edit those works A public wiki that anybody can edit is an example of such a server A Massive Multiauthor Collaboration or MMC contained in the site means any set of copyrightable works thus published on the MMC site CC BY SA means the Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 3 0 license published by Creative Commons Corporation a not for profit corporation with a principal place of business in San Francisco California as well as future copyleft versions of that license published by that same organization Incorporate means to publish or republish a Document in whole or in part as part of another Document An MMC is eligible for relicensing if it is licensed under this License and if all works that were first published under this License somewhere other than this MMC and subsequently incorporated 2 http www gnu org copyleft 90 ADDENDUM How to use this License for your documents in whole or in part into the MMC 1 had no cover texts or invariant sections and 2 were thus incorporated prior to November 1 2008 The operator of an MMC Site may republish an MMC contained in the site under CC BY SA on the same site at any time before August 1 2009 provided the
48. ate with a track of MIDI data The order of processors is important applying a reverb effect first and then a distortion filter will render a track with distorted reverb Applying the distortion filter first and then the reverb will render a track with reverberating distortion To move an effect up or down the order of processing ie to place a reverb effect before a distortion filter right click the effect you want to move and select Move Up or Move Down from the contextual menu Once a plugin has been inserted into a track control its settings in the pop up window that appears for the plugin After your initial adjustments are made you can access a plugin s controls at any time by right clicking on the name of the effect unit in the track and selecting Properties from the contextual menu A green light to the left of the plugin name indicates that the plugin is active You can temporarily deactivate by pass the effect by right clicking the effect in the track and toggling off the Activate menu item If you wish to by pass all effect units in a track choose Deactivate All 63 Chapter 16 Plugins If you want to remove an effect or plugin from a track entirely right click on the effect in the track and choose Remove or Remove All to remove all plugins from that track 16 1 Send and Returns What we call a plug in in a DAW would be most akin in a hardware based studio to a built in reverb effect or gain adjustment on s
49. d What this does not do is compress the dynamic range of that clip If you want to normalize a clip with dynamic range compression then use either a compressor such as Calf or Dyson or process the clip externally of Qtractor A good external normalization application is normalize named normalize audio in Debian a command line application for GNU Linux that is available in most repositories and pre installed on Slackware The syntax is simple normalize a 6db 1 3db nameOfFile wav Inthe above command a is amplitude and 1 is limiter so the command sets the average amplitude of the sound clip to 6dB and ensures that peaks do not exceed 3dB Obviously these settings would need adjusting depending on what the sound file contained but it s a marvelously efficient command for quick normalization 71 Chapter 17 Effect Processors and Filters Nr Track Name mm a y ja outtakes_linux_is_a_cult Low CH outtakes_linux_is_a_cult uttakes_linux_is_ us ED EI ED In addition to normalizing a clip to itself normalize can normalize a group of files in relation to one another set thresholds and much more 17 4 EQ Sound waves being oscillations of pressure are measured by the cyclic standard of hertz The human ear generally can hear from 20Hz to 16 000Hz or 16kHz with the human voice usually appearing around the 100Hz to 400Hz range A good equalizer can increase or decrease the energy of these frequenc
50. d scrolls with the playhead when you are playing the track 44 Chapter 12 Qtractor Options and Preferences Qtractor s preferences can be accessed via the View menu via the Options selection The options are divided into tabs General contains options for overall preferences such as file formats of project files behaviour of windows and confirmation requests and the transport Audio determines how Qtractor stores newly recorded audio ie microphone or line inputs as well as re routed sound within its own mixer and whether an audible metronome is used MIDI controls how MIDI data is stored captured and what defaults it uses for quantization playback and metronome Display controls whether your timeline uses timecode frames or beats some default colours and fonts and where log files are stored Plugins the paths to folders containing your plugins An empty list is OK since Qtractor defaults to the typical locations such as usr lib and so on but if you have customized your system heavily then you may need to specify the locations of your synths effects and plugins here 45 46 Chapter 13 Soft Synths Strictly speaking soft synths are not a part of Qtractor However it is common to use soft synths within Qtractor Acquiring free software synthesizers online is a simple matter of locating them online at sourceforge net cerma stanford edu your distribution s repository or the project s hom
51. dio and set the Input Output to Master Click the OK button to proceed Arm the new track for recording by clicking the R button in the track listing on the left of the Qtractor window This sets the destination for the recorded sound Click the Record button in the top toolbar Click the Play button in the top toolbar 10 2 3 Recording from USB Audio If your microphone has a quarter inch or XLR jack and you choose not to use a plug adapter then you will need an external sound interface External interfaces are available from M Audio Fostex Zoom Studio and others they serve as an intermediate converter from your input device and the USB port of your computer Similarly a USB microphone plugs directly into the USB port of your computer If you input sound through USB then obviously you are utilizing a different interface than your computer s built in sound card This must be set via QJackCtl for appropriate sound routing to occur 1 2 In QJackCil stop the sound server by clicking the Stop button If you have not already plugged in your USB audio interface or USB microphone then do so Make sure it s on Click the Setup button In the Settings tab locate the Input Device setting and click the gt button to see your choices 33 Chapter 10 Managing Audio Tracks 4 Setup JACK Audio Connection Kit Settings Options Display Misc Preset Name default v Li Save Delete Server
52. e for any work from that copyright holder and you cure the violation prior to 30 days after your receipt of the notice Termination of your rights under this section does not terminate the licenses of parties who have received copies or rights from you under this License If your rights have been terminated and not permanently reinstated receipt of a copy of some or all of the same material does not give you any rights to use it 10 FUTURE REVISIONS OF THIS LICENSE The Free Software Foundation may publish new revised versions of the GNU Free Documentation License from time to time Such new versions will be similar in spirit to the present version but may differ in detail to address new problems or concerns See Copyleft Each version of the License is given a distinguishing version number If the Document specifies that a particular numbered version of this License or any later version applies to it you have the option of following the terms and conditions either of that specified version or of any later version that has been published not as a draft by the Free Software Foundation If the Document does not specify a version number of this License you may choose any version ever published not as a draft by the Free Software Foundation If the Document specifies that a proxy can decide which future versions of this License can be used that proxy s public statement of acceptance of a version permanently authorizes you to choose th
53. e the latter option you must take reasonably prudent steps when you begin distribution of Opaque copies in quantity to ensure that this Transparent copy will remain thus accessible at the stated location until at least one year after the last time you distribute an Opaque copy directly or through your agents or retailers of that edition to the public It is requested but not required that you contact the authors of the Document well before redistributing any large number of copies to give them a chance to provide you with an updated version of the Document 4 MODIFICATIONS You may copy and distribute a Modified Version of the Document under the conditions of sections 2 and 3 above provided that you release the Modified Version under precisely this License with the Modified Version filling the role of the Document thus licensing distribution and modification of the Modified Version to whoever possesses a copy of it In addition you must do these things in the Modified Version A Use in the Title Page and on the covers if any a title distinct from that of the Document and from those of previous versions which should if there were any be listed in the History section of the Document You may use the same title as a previous version if the original publisher of that version gives permission B List on the Title Page as authors one or more persons or entities responsible for authorship of the modifications in the Modified Versio
54. e when drums are mixed the loudest hits and crashes tend to rise to the surface while all the subtleties like little touches of ornamentation and the decays of drum and cymbal hits are lost A compressor will even out the range between those softer sounds and the harder sounds so you still get the hard hitting beats but get to keep the personality There are at least three good compressors for GNU Linux 17 1 1 CALF The Calf plugin suite contains a compressor which you can use either as a plugin from within Qtractor or as a stand alone app as an Aux Send Return Its features are typical of an all purpose general use compressor and running its full GUI with calfjackhost might help you understand the theory behind compression if you are new to it 67 Chapter 17 Effect Processors and Filters Preset Bypass Detection Stereo Link A weighting RMS v Average E Compression OdB Peak Output Attack Release Threshold Ratio Makeup Gain Knee Jul PL H ner nen en al H 2 H 2 a 2 3 H NA NS AF NAF NAF 17 7019 ms 250 ms 2 5 6 dB 9 0 dB If you are new to compressors try this experiment 1 Open the CALF compressor by launching calfjackhost Click on the Add plugin menu and choose Compressor 2 To launch the user interface click the Compressor button in the lower left Change the settings to Ratio to 1 e Makeup gain to 0dB Threshold to 43 2 Knee to 0dB 68 CALF Notice that th
55. egardless of subject matter or whether it is published as a printed book We recommend this License principally for works whose purpose is instruction or reference 1 APPLICABILITY AND DEFINITIONS This License applies to any manual or other work in any medium that contains a notice placed by the copyright holder saying it can be distributed under the terms of this License Such a notice grants a world wide royalty free license unlimited in duration to use that work under the conditions stated herein The Document below refers to any such manual or work Any member of the public is a licensee and is addressed as you You accept the license if you copy modify or distribute the work in a way requiring permission under copyright law A Modified Version of the Document means any work containing the Document or a portion of it either copied verbatim or with modifications and or translated into another language A Secondary Section is a named appendix or a front matter section of the Document that deals exclusively with the relationship of the publishers or authors of the Document to the Document s overall subject or to related matters and contains nothing that could fall directly within that overall subject Thus if the Document is in part a textbook of mathematics a Secondary Section may not explain any mathematics The relationship could be a matter of historical connection with the subject or with related matters
56. em using either the sudo or su command to become temporarily the root user and finish the installation by entering make install The executable binary code in otherwords the Qtractor application itself and associated desktop and icon files are copied to common standard system locations Chapier 3 Post Installation Optimizations There are some considerations after you have installed Qtractor which may help you optimize your system for its best possible audio performance Previous to the Linux Kernel 2 6 38 4 a realtime kernel was a must have component in audio production Since 2 6 38 new options have developed to provide a seamless audio production experience depending largely on what your needs are from your system If you are not sure whether you ll need realtime it is safe to assume that you will need either A 2 6 38 4 or greater kernel regardless of your expected workload A realtime kernel if a 2 6 38 4 or better kernel is not conveniently available from your distribution An optimized realtime kernel if you anticipate live recording and multitracking 3 1 Real Time Kernel To discover what kernel your computer is currently running look in KInfoCenter in KDE4 or System Information in Gnomes Kinfocenter a gt amp EL D e Summary Hardware Information Summary Information Modules v OS Version Linux 3 2 0 2 Memory K p 4 6 1 4 6 1 ee KDE SC Version gt Network Infor Hostna
57. epages directly Software synths for GNU Linux come in a few varieties Independent synth applications that launch separately from Qtractor but that plug into JACK so that the synths can be used as sound sources within Qtractor One such example is Qsynth written by the same programmer as QJackCtl and Qtractor DSSI Plugins which are launched and controlled entirely from within Qtractor LV2 Plugins which are launched and controlled entirely from within Qtractor VST Plugins the format from Steinberg does in fact support Linux technically but the number of Linux native VST synths are few 13 1 Installing Soft Synths Installing any soft synth whether it is a plugin or stand alone application is done through your distribution s package manager yum apt slackbuilds pacman emerge ports and so on or from the installers on the project s website Once the synth is installed you may launch it and try it out if it s a stand alone application then it can be launched like any other application on your system If it s a plugin for Qtractor then launch Qtractor and create a new MIDI track choosing your new soft synth as the MIDI Instrument as described in Chapter 11 Managing MIDI Tracks To verify that Qtractor knows where all of your soft synth plugins are located open the View menu and select Options and choose the Plugins tab in the Options window 1 http sourceforge net z http ccrma stanford edu planetccrma software
58. erbatim copying of that document 7 AGGREGATION WITH INDEPENDENT WORKS A compilation of the Document or its derivatives with other separate and independent documents or works in or on a volume of a storage or distribution medium is called an aggregate if the copyright resulting from the compilation is not used to limit the legal rights of the compilation s users beyond what the individual works permit When the Document is included in an aggregate this License does not apply to the other works in the aggregate which are not themselves derivative works of the Document If the Cover Text requirement of section 3 is applicable to these copies of the Document then if the Document is less than one half of the entire aggregate the Document s Cover Texts may be placed on covers that bracket the Document within the aggregate or the electronic equivalent of covers if the Document is in electronic form Otherwise they must appear on printed covers that bracket the whole aggregate 8 TRANSLATION Translation is considered a kind of modification so you may distribute translations of the Document under the terms of section 4 Replacing Invariant Sections with translations requires special permission from their copyright holders but you may include translations of some or all Invariant Sections in addition to the original versions of these Invariant Sections You may include a translation of this License and all the license notices in the Doc
59. ff the top menu bar use Cont ro1 m to toggle it on or off Statusbar turns off the status bar at the bottom of the window Toolbars defines what icon toolbar is visible at the top of the window choose from File file opening and saving icons Edit cut paste undo View preview modes snapping quantization Transport fast forward rewind and Scale key signature and scale information 43 Chapter 11 Managing MIDI Tracks Windows toggles on or off event information a panel which will provide detailed information on each MIDI event in the MIDI Editor grid Tool Tips toggles whether tool tips are visible Note Duration defines whether the note s duration is reflected in the length of the velocity bars at the bottom of the grid Note Color assigns differing colours to each note if this is not active all notes appear as one colour Value Color assigns the colours of the corresponding notes to the velocity bars helpful when you have many overlapping notes but want to adjust their velocities Zoom zoom in or out on the grid Snap define what division of the beat your notes snap to or turn snapping off entirely Scale change the key signature or type of scale being used Refresh for the MIDI Editor to redraw in the event of latent images Preview Notes turn on or off whether you hear the notes of the scale as you input or move notes along the grid Follow Playhead define whether the MIDI Editor gri
60. g and more 14 2 1 Moving Clips and Controlling Snapping You mouse cursor has four selection modes Its default mode is Clip select which allows you to click and drag clips within and between tracks The precision with which you can move clips back and forward in time is determined by snapping To deactivate or change snapping click the View menu and select Snapping to choose the resolution you want to use when moving clips you can move clips by beats quarter notes sixteenth notes and so on or none to deactivate snapping 14 2 2 Truncating Splitting and Extending Clips Also in clip mode you can split audio clips nondestructively To split a clip 1 Position the playhead in the timecode bar at the top of the Qtractor workspace to the position at which you d like to split your audio clip 53 Chapter 14 Working in Qtractor 2 Click the clip you want to split so that it is selected 3 Click the Clip menu and choose Split The clip has now been split at the position of the playhead Since Qtractor never affects the original audio file it is referencing any split you make to an audio clip is reversible The easiest way to undo a clip aside from using Edit gt Undo is to extend the clip To extend a clip click on the edge of the clip with your selection arrow and click and pull the edge to reveal more of the audio file within the track QA Extending or truncating clips by dragging the clip s edge is also affected by
61. g of multiple tracks a card or audio interface with distinct inputs will be required Ample harddrive space for samples and audio files used in your projects Chapter 1 Introduction to Qtractor Attitude Not required but if you plan on being a rock star then you should try to develop an rebellious attitude and resolutely reject mainstream software 1 2 Get Involved The Qtractor project welcomes all collaboration and review from the Linux audio developer and user community in particular and the public in general See atractor sourceforge net for contact information The docbook sources for this user manual are available via git from gitorious org slackermedia 1 http qtractor sourceforge net http gitorious org slackermedia 4 Chapier 2 Installation Installing Qtractor can be done in two ways from your distribution s software repository or by building from source code For most users installing from your distribution s repositories is the right choice as it offers the easiest install and ensures timely and reliable updates 2 1 Easy Install To install software from your distribution s repository open the software installer for your distribution often called Add Remove Software or sometimes a Software Store Search for Qtractor and mark it for installation and proceed there is no need to intall additional packages since the installer will automatically install any software required for Qtractor t
62. ging clips you can change a number of clips into one consolidated file on your harddrive 1 Select the clips within a track that you want to merge into one 2 Click the Clip menu and select Merge 3 In the Merge Export window enter a new name for the merged file and save it to a logical location on your harddrive 4 The merged audio clip immediately replaces the old files in your project 14 3 Track Edits As audio clips contain the sound and MIDI files you are using in your Qtractor project so do Tracks contain the clips themselves Tracks allow you to mix the audio clips in relation to one another apply effects to whole groups of clips without ever affecting the waveform files themselves ie non destructively and even automate everything from volume to panning to the functions of effect units and synths A special window is dedicated to managing tracks the Mixer window set up like a traditional mixing desk with a user friendly interface to allow for Aux Sends Returns Sub mixing and more You can also manage many aspects of your tracks through the track list on the left of the Qtractor interface but since the Mixing desk interface is so ubiquitous and useful it s common to have it open on a separate monitor or virtual desktop for quick reference To open the Mixer window click on the View menu select Windows and choose Mixer C Most track functions can be done through both the main Qtractor interface as well as th
63. hat you keep plugged into your desktop and Hw2 could represent perhaps a USB microphone or a USB interface that you ve plugged in You can usually determine which device is which by looking at the vendor name associated with the Hw labels if have two devices plugged into my system and one is labeled Blue and the other H4 then would know from these terms that one is my Blue USB microphone and the other my Zoom Studio H4n With regards to outputs these can sometimes be confusing due to the many possible ways you may wish to output your sound Typically the stereo mix of you system sound is available as the first two output devices If you have more than just two speakers and you wish to split your sound to each then utilize the outputs labeled appropriately Front Center and so on If the sound input and output labels confuse you take a few minutes to learn them by playing sound on your computer and plugging speakers into each output on your computer For the inputs plug a microphone into your different inputs and see where they are received and how they are labeled It won t take long before you understand the logic behind the labels and you ll be able to use Qtractor all the more fluidly 10 2 1 Analogue vs USB Inputs There are many kinds of microphones each intended for certain kinds of sounds and situations but on a purely technical level without the question of aesthetics and microphone design there are only about three scena
64. ier 8 The Qtractor Interface Qtractor s interface will be familiar to anyone familiar with Digital Audio Workstation software Die Eder Pak Clip Yew Transport Help OBO ne jme x TER 2284 ZeCURW Aa gt TELLE u _ CAC CT E ari mes ex 7 Neme 26208 Aami Abh mei 27 ombre bedum F LERES AA TET ir 43601_freqman__obpect 21914 _hallech__nech lt i b 29292__martion_footetd o i COS lt gt La OQ w gt 44707 _selwel_ det mat mpact printerke p1080 on paper MOD 00 01 43 155 48000 M 4 1 Files a list of audio and midi files you ve imported into your Qtractor project 2 Workspace a view of the audio or MIDI data contained in each track in your project 3 Tracks a list of tracks and some track specific controls and information 4 Track controls titles bus information recording and playback toggles and automation controls for each track in the workspace 5 Transport controls rewind forward play pause record 6 Timeline your music workspace s timeline in bars measures and timecode 7 Transport the playhead 8 Timecode and BPM counter for SMPTE timecode and the tempo or beats per minute setting 9 Overview the entire project in one thumbnail view 10 Zoom zoom in and zoom out horizontally and vertically buttons 27 28 Chapier 9 Starting a new session The first step in so many pro applications is one that is most overlooked by new users create
65. ies from the contextual menu 2 Inthe Track dialogue box click on the Plugins tab 3 Inthe Plugins tab click the Add button on the right to see a list of available sotware plugins 4 Inthe Plugins dialogue select the type of plugin you wish to use with the top right button Software synths on Linux are usually of the DSSI variety from the list of DSSI synths select the one you want to play and click the Activate checkbox in the lower left corner 5 Click the OK button in the bottom right corner of the window to proceed 6 Back in the Track dialogue select the Track tab again In the MIDI Instrument panel choose an instrument from the top dropdown menu using WhySynth as an example you would select WhySynth_20100922 DSSI plugin 7 Choose a Bank and Program If you re not familiar with WhySynth you can select any of its three Banks and any of the Programs contained in them You should be able to instantly audition the sounds on a USB controller 8 When you ve selected the sound you d like to use click the OK button Repeat these steps for each track to wish you want to assign an instrument incrementing the MIDI channel you use for each new instrument you assign Press the play button in the top menu bar to hear the MIDI file play O Note that you must increment the MIDI channel used or keypresses on your MIDI controller will be using the same MIDI channel to trigger different sounds In otherwords if Track 1 and Track
66. inished your song you obviously want to export the piece so that people can listen to it without having to have your Qtractor source files This process is sometimes called bouncing a track or exporting a mixdown or simply exporting the song Since it s possible to have multiple sources contributing to your final product external hardware synths feeding sound into Qtrator while soft synths play over pre recorded audio files to the beat of a Hydrogen drum machine on another virtual desktop for example it would make no since to treat the exporting process in the same way as a wave form editor such as Audacity would Qtractor s bounce process is literally to play all the sound sources in sync whilst recording what is playing back into Qtractor itself O Different people deal with bouncing and exporting in different ways depending on their preference their creative needs and the capabilities of their computers For instance you could bounce each MIDI track individually to an audio track and then export all audio tracks into one self contained track Or you can simply set Qtractor to record and then play everything back into one audio track which you then export There is no right or wrong way to do it Either do it all in one go at the end or do it step by step Usually the raw power of your computer will be the deciding factor To perform the final export of your completed work 1 Create a new Audio track Track gt Add Track
67. ional installs include QJackCtl a user friendly control panel for JACK which can help you fine tune latency settings and wire your virtual instruments to your virtual mixer The JACK subsystem will be installed automatically by your distribution check to ensure that QJackCtl is installed Being written by the same programmer many control panels available in QJackCtl are also available from within QJackCil but unless you very familiar with jackd you will probably find JACK easier to use with QJackCtl Qsynth eg user friendly controller for the Fluidsynth soft synth and a good example for its familiarity of how soft synths can be used external of the Qtractor interface and yet still send sound to Qtractor Fluidsynth DSSI _the Fluidsynth soft synth in plugin form so that soundfonts can be used from within the Qtractor interface WhySynth _aDss plugin that ships with a number of high quality pre sets providing quick satisfaction as well as plenty of oscillators and dials to allow you to create your own patches Steve Harris LADSPA Plugins the famous must have set of audio plugins The LADSPA versions have been around for years the newer LV2 versions are also available and LV2 support is starting to become standard so feel free to try the newer ones instead CALF audio plugin pack provides a compressor chorus reverb flanger delay and lots more as either DSSI LADSPA or LV2 plugins They are easy to use and feature a
68. is causes the green line to align perfectly with the gray line that runs diagonally through the compressor screen This achieves essentially a pass through effect You have set a limit for every possible level of sound equal to itself and since no possible level of sound will ever be greater than itself nothing will be constrained Now change the ratio to approximately 2 a 2 1 ratio Notice the green line now deviates from the gray normal line you may think of the green line as a sort of ceiling Measuring soundwaves by the numbers along the X axis you can see that 24dB in the input ie the gray line it will be constrained down to OdB along the green line Accordingly a soundwave that reaches 12dB will be constrained to 24db For one last demonstration turn the Ratio knob all the way to right so it reads inf and the Threshold knob all the way to the right so it reads OdB This places a hard ceiling at the current threshold setting This means that any sound louder than the threshold will be constrained to that level no matter what Set too severly this can cause a clipped sound but the concept of leveling is ubiquitous in production as a safeguard to ensure that the levels do not go over OdB When exactly compression kicks in is controlled by the Threshold value Try adjusting the threshold knob and notice that the bend or knee in the green line changes Turn the Ratio knob back to 2 and set the Threshold to 12dB
69. ith Jamin HDEQ first scan your sound for the frequency containing most of the noise as described in Section 17 4 1 Jamin and then invert the resonance curve to eliminate the noise you ve found Automated noise removal filters do the same process analyze a sample of user defined noise and then EQ the offending frequencies out 17 6 Reverb Reverb is an old ever popular recording effect that simulates the phenomenon of a sound wave bouncing off of surfaces causing the soundwave to bounce back in a new direction our ears hear the original sound wave as the source and the reverberated sound wave as an echo e Common examples are large cathedrals famous for very saturated and immediate echoes and canyons with the stereotypical distant and delayed echo Hello hello hello You might also notice less drastic examples in for instance small empty closets or you might try speaking into a coffee tin the reverberation is immediate and subtle but it s still clear that there are soundwaves bouncing back at you Reverb effect units simulate this phenomenon and allow the uesr to control different aspects of how the reverberation is generated 17 6 1 Calf As with the other Calf plugins the Calf reverb can be used as a stand alone application via calfjackhost or as a plugin from within Qtractor It features a good number of the most important reverb controls Decay Time controls the length that the echo tail i
70. kCtl while you configure your system further Make sure you have a realtime capable ie 2 6 38 4 or greater or an RT optimized kernel of any variety kernel installed and that applications have permission to utilize the realtime mode On distributions using PAM look in etc security limits conf and ensure that there is a user group being granted realtime or rtprio in PAM terminology privileges If rtprio is being granted to a group then you should make sure that you are in that group For instance if the group audio is being granted realtime privileges then execute cat etc group grep audio and look to see that your userinput is listed as a member of the audio group If not execute usermod a G audio youruserinput as root to add your user to the audio group A If limits conf does not exist then your system does not use PAM If no group is given realtime priority create a group and add yourself to the group This must be done with root privileges groupadd realtime usermod a G realtime yourUserName Then add realtime priority permissions to the group and accordingly any user in that group realtime hard ee 20 realtime soft rtprle 10 JACK does not indicate realtime mode in the Status window on a system not using the PAM security model a Click the Setup button to open preferences Activate Realtime in the left column and then restart QJackCtl while you configure your system further b To enable realtime prio
71. lick the OK button to confirm 5 Click in the timeline to complete the paste and anchor the newly pasted clips in their track 14 2 6 Punch In Out If one or two measures of a track doesn t quite measure up to your standards you might want to re record just those measures without having to record the entire track over This process is called punching in 1 To perform a punch in and punch out use the Range select tool or the range markers to define a region of your timeline as the active area as described in Section 14 2 3 Range and Rectangle Selection and Section 14 2 4 Using Range Markers 2 Once your range is set click the Punch In Out button in the main toolbar or use the Transport menu and select Punch Set 3 Arm the recording destination track by clicking the R button in the track list 4 Click the Record button in the main toolbar and then the Play button Qtractor will play back your piece and you can play along but nothing you play will actually be recorded except within the punch range Recording will automatically stop once the transport leaves the punch range 5 To stop playback click the Stop button in the main toolbar or use the Spacebar Punching in and out is a common task used in both MIDI and Audio recording 14 2 7 Looping Playback To play a section of your composition in a loop often done so the musician can practise for a punch in or improvise select a range as in Section 14 2 3
72. me slacksixsix gt Graphical Inf a S y Processor Pentium R Du m2 Processor Number 0 Processor Max Speed 2000 Or simply open a terminal uname p If your computer is running a kernel previous to 2 6 38 4 then you should either update your kernel or install a realtime version of your kernel To upgrade the Linux kernel use your distribution s repository searching for the terms realtime or rt If your distribution does not have repositories or realtime kernels then you can of course download the source code and compile the kernel yourself The same guiding principles apply as long as you are building 2 6 38 4 or above then a simple make oldconfig will render a modestly pre emptive Chapter 3 Post Installation Optimizations kernel suitable for near realtime use For extreme low latency apply realtime patches available from kernel org pub linux kernel projects rt 3 2 QJackCtl In order for Qtractor to run JACK must be running in the background JACK is a kind of patchbay for Linux technically a sound server enabling you to route sound in and out of Qtractor and other sound applications Some distributions may configure Qtractor such that JACK starts automatically when Qtractor is launched others may not If you launch Qtractor from your application menu and receive JACK errors in the message log at the bottom of the Qtractor window then quit Qtractor and start JACK manually The easiest way to
73. menu gt Select Mode gt Rectangle 2 Click within an audio clip and drag your selection You may select portions or the whole of clips on as many tracks as you wish Or you may confine your selection to one With both tools your selected areas can be cut copied pasted deleted or even lifted out from their clips and moved elsewhere the splits will be made automatically for you To lift a selection from a clip or a set of clips click and drag the selection To copy and paste click on the Edit menu and select Copy or Cut or the usual keyboard shortcuts of Ctrl C or Ctr1 X When you are ready to paste click the Edit menu again and select Paste or use Ctr1 V and click in the time line where you want to paste the clips C If you have multiple clips copied then they will be pasted relative to how they were copied so if you paste a clip originally from tracks 1 and 2 into track 3 then the pasted clips will fall into tracks 3 and 4 14 2 4 Using Range Markers An alternate way to select a range in your workspace is with the marker transports which appear in the timeline above the workspace alongside the play transport 1 To bring the markers to your cursor click in the timeline above the Qtractor workspace Both the In and Out markers will appear at your cursor s position 2 The position of the markers is the out point for what will become your selection Move your cursor left and click again to set the in point 3
74. n together with at least five of the principal authors of the Document all of its principal authors if it has fewer than five unless they release you from this requirement C State on the Title page the name of the publisher of the Modified Version as the publisher D Preserve all the copyright notices of the Document E Add an appropriate copyright notice for your modifications adjacent to the other copyright notices F Include immediately after the copyright notices a license notice giving the public permission to use the Modified Version under the terms of this License in the form shown in the Addendum below G Preserve in that license notice the full lists of Invariant Sections and required Cover Texts given in the Document s license notice 87 Appendix A GNU Free Documentation License H Include an unaltered copy of this License Preserve the section Entitled History Preserve its Title and add to it an item stating at least the title year new authors and publisher of the Modified Version as given on the Title Page If there is no section Entitled History in the Document create one stating the title year authors and publisher of the Document as given on its Title Page then add an item describing the Modified Version as stated in the previous sentence J Preserve the network location if any given in the Document for public access to a Transparent copy of the Document and likewise the network
75. o run 2 2 Expert Install If you absolutely require the latest features in a just released or not yet released version of Qtractor or you simply prefer to build your programs manually you may build Qtractor from source code In order to build from source you must have a build environment and the essential dependencies that Qtractor requires Depending on your distribution the names of the installable build tools will vary but the software components themselves are g the GNU C Compiler gcc the GNU C Compiler not strictly required in this case but good to have in a build environment and in some distributions this may bring in other useful dependencies Autoconf Automake the GNU Makefile generator Qt4 core gui xml C class library and tools for cross platform development and internationalization available from your distribution s software repository be sure to install all development components or directly from trolltech org products gt libsndfile C library for reading and writing files containing sampled sound available from your distribution be sure to install all development components or directly from mega nerd com libsnafile LADSPA Linux Audio Developer s Simple Plugin API available from you distribution s repository be sure to install all development components or from ladspa org Additional support libraries may be installed to enhance the abilities of Qtractor libvorbis the
76. o use with the top right button Software synths on Linux are usually of the DSSI variety from the list of DSSI synths select the one you want to play and click the Activate checkbox in the lower left corner 5 Click the OK button in the bottom right corner of the window to proceed 6 Back in the Track dialogue select the Track tab again In the MIDI Instrument panel choose an instrument from the top dropdown menu using WhySynth as an example you would select WhySynth_20100922 DSSI plugin 39 Chapter 11 Managing MIDI Tracks 7 Choose a Bank and Program If you re not familiar with WhySynth you can select any of its three Banks and any of the Programs contained in them You should be able to instantly audition the sounds on a USB controller 8 When you ve selected the sound you d like to use click the OK button Now that you ve create an empty track and assigned it a soft synth you can record MIDI data 1 Create an empty clip in your destination track by choosing New from the Clip menu or by clicking the New Clip button in the top toolbar 2 Inthe Session window type in a name for your MIDI clip choose the Directory into which you want to save the clip and provide a description for yourself as needed Click the OK button when finished Unlike pre recorded loops or sounds which already exist on your harddrive a new MIDI clip doesn t yet have ahome Some music programs bundle your MIDI data into your project file
77. oaded directly from gtractor sourceforge net qtractor index html Downloads http www mega nerd com libsndfile d http breakfastquay com rubberband 8 http liblo sourceforge net http dssi sourceforge net 19 http www steinberg net en company 3rd_party_developer html 1i http qtractor sourceforge net qtractor index html Downloads 6 Compiling and Installing Qtractor If you intend to develop Qtractor then you will want to run bleeding edge code This is not recommended for a production system and should be used only for development purposes Check out the source code from its CVS repository via anonymous pserver access 1 At the command line checkout the code via SVN svn co https qtractor svn sourceforge net svnroot qtractor trunk qtractor svn 2 Prepare the configure script on the newly created qtractor source tree directory cd gtractor svi make f Makefile svn 3 Build and install 2 2 2 Compiling and Installing Qtractor After downloading Qtractor decompress and extract the archive Ber acer kee gZ Change directory into the resulting qtractor directory Once inside the qtractor directory the usual building commands apply configure amp amp make To see all configuration options before entering the command sequence above type configure help After typing the configure and make commands and waiting until the program has finished being compiled become an administrator of your syst
78. of how MIDI talks to the devices it controls MIDI was originally developed for hardware with the only software involved being MIDI sequencers which were as frequently embedded systems as they were traditional software applications like the modern DAW s we are used to today MIDI signals are divided into channels each channel is a discreet signal that can be directed to a specific device or a number of devices If you generate a MIDI signal on MIDI Channel 1 and send that signal to a group of synthesizers then any synthesizer programmed to play a note on either MIDI Channel 1 or MIDI Channel Omni will play Any synthesizer programmed to respond to MIDI Channel 2 through 128 will not play Most musicians had more than one synthesizer so the problem became how to get MIDI data from one controlling device the sequencer either a dedicated piece of hardware or a software running on a Personal Computer to more than one synth The answer was to daisy chain the synthesizers together so that each synth could receive MIDI data pertinent to it as well as MIDI data for the next synthesizer in the chain Therefore any MIDI capable synth could have MIDI IN used to receive playable MIDI data 51 Chapter 13 Soft Synths e MIDI THRU to receive MIDI data to pass along to the next synth in line MIDI OUT to send MIDI signals from MIDI THRU or its own internal sequencer to other devices Modern digital audio workstations don t necessarily
79. ome of the more general purpose mixing desks on the market Mostly however there are no plug ins in a traditional studio setup everything is outboard and the mixer plugs into the effect unit the effect unit processes the sound and then the affected sound is send back into the board to be integrated into the mix This model is still useful in the software world since not all sound applications are available as plugins or you prefer to run them as separate applications To be able to utilize Sends and Returns you should have some external JACK aware sound application installed In other words the application should run outside of Qtractor but be programmed to utilize JACK when available A few examples of such applications would be Jamin a sound mastering application e CALF an audio plugin set that is available as a stand alone application as well as a plugin e amSynth a soft synth e QSynth a fluidsynth frontend e Schismtracker a MIDI tracker Hydrogen a stand alone drum machine For this example launch the CALF JACK Host plugin client Click the Add plugin and select Reverb and turn the Wet Amount nearly all the way up so that it will be easy to hear that the sound is being effected in this test Bring in or generate sound into a track in Qtractor To create a Send and Return on that track 1 Locate the track you wish to affect in the Mixer window in Qtractor 2 Right click the plugin inset and choose Insert
80. orts w v Qtractor v Qtractor Master out_1 R Masterfin_1 Master out_2 LU Master in_2 v system v system playback_1 If playback_2 A Connect X Disconnect gt Disconnect All Refresh Go to the Track menu and choose Add Track or use Ctr1 Shift N In the Track dialogue box give the track a name set the Type to Audio and set the Input Output to Master Click the OK button to proceed Arm the new track for recording by clicking the R button in the track listing on the left of the Qtractor window This sets the destination for the recorded sound Click the Record button in the top toolbar Click the Play button in the top toolbar 35 36 Chapter 11 Managing MIDI Tracks MIDI is a versatile format for triggering sounds it can be used to trigger hardware synths external of your computer software synths that are applications on your computer samples loops automation functions and more There are basically three ways to get MIDI data into your Qtractor session Import MIDI data from an existing file Enter MIDI data into a matrix editor sometimes called a piano roll or grid view e Play in MIDI data via a USB MIDI keyboard controller Before beginning with MIDI you should make sure that you have some software synthesizers installed on your system A popular format for soft synths on Linux is DSSI which is akin to VST or AU on other platforms LV2 is also quite popular although in
81. other mouse or two Qtractor features automation of nearly any aspect of any plugin as well as basic track functions like volume and panning 1 Inthe track you wish to automate click the Automation button in the track list From the pop up menu select the attribute of that track that you wish to automate first 2 From the pop up menu select the attribute of that track that you wish to automate first An overlay is placed on the track Select Track 2 Monitor Mode wave Pan Lock O wave Volume Play Track 2 Record Record Track 2 Mute Clear O Track 2 Solo Lock All WhySynth 20100922 DSSI plugin gt Play All Y None Record All Clear All 3 Click the Edit menu to go into the Select Mode category and choose Automation selection tool Alternately click the Automation Selection Tool icon from the top menu bar 4 Armed with your automation selection tool click on the automation overlay on your track to create a node Adjust the volume of this node to be the initial volume of your track 5 Click again on the automation overlay to create a second node and move it to another volume level For the space between the two nodes the volume will climb from the starting node level to the ending node level 79 Chapter 18 Automation gt o gt CED em T ne EA mr If you need a less gradual change move the nodes closer together or use more nodes to shape different movements fo
82. ou may make realtime decisions for automation and every move will be recorded in realtime as a node in your track They can be manually changed later if needed if you have the Play option enabled when you release the slider or knob that you are automating the values will return to their existing level Without Play enabled any change you make will persist until you change it again 81 82 Chapter 19 Delivery At the end of the song writing process there is the final export This of course combines all of the sounds being generated from all of the different sources you may be using filtered through all of the effects and processors you have in place and places them all into a self contained file that your audience can play in their media player of choice Since everything in Qtractor is routed through its mixer to combine the sounds into one audio file is as simple as creating a new track and using it to record the Master Out 1 Go to the View menu and select Options to open Qtractor s preferences 2 Inthe Options window click on the Audio tab Select the kind of audio you d like to use for your recording It is generally prefered to export to a lossless format and use that file as the gold master from which compressed ogg vorbis mp4 mp3 and so on versions can be produced A high quality lossless free codec is FLAC 3 Click the OK button to accept your changes 4 Create a new track in your Qtractor p
83. paration c oooooccccccnconocononncancnncnnonononnnnncnnnnnnnnnnnnanrnnnnn cnn cnn nnanananan 60 16 Plugins 63 16 1 Send And Ret rns disorder tadalets 64 17 Effect Processors and Filters 67 17214 COMPTESSOLNS it A a a ee en ha 67 VASO A O denen Site 67 17 1 2 Steve Harris LADSPA Dyson Compressor eceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaea 70 ATM JAMIN ses ns en tar trente sa la 70 Ae ss LIMITES LE ee a E una 71 LAS NOKmaliZation isatis etes ies A o ai 71 1A PRO PP ES TE E E it Le sE 72 17 41 JAMIE she ee eig rta 72 er PAGE I EAEE TE RE TU DR PE ee oa 74 17 4 3 Steve Harris LADSPA Multiband EQ occconccccoccncconnccoconoconcncnonnconnncnanonons 76 17 4 4 Steve Harris LADSPA DJ EQ nuuenenensnsnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn esau eeaeeeeeeeeneneneees 76 17 5 N lse Bemoval n 2 en A Ne nee 77 17262 REVERD ya nn O 77 TADA EA ein In A RN a 77 17 6 2 Steve Harris LADSPA GVerb id es 78 17 7 Echos Delays Distortion and More u 44444440044nn anne nnnnnnnnn nenn nennen 78 18 Automation 79 18 1 Recording Automation sisi 81 19 Delivery 83 A GNU Free Documentation License 85 B Various and Sundry 93 C General MIDI Instrumentation 95 Index 101 Part 0 Installing Qtractor The different ways to install Qtractor and ensure your audio production environment is ready to make serious sounds Chapter 1 Introduction to Qtractor Chapter 2 Installation Chapter 3 Post Installation
84. port to send the clip out as an independent file Your project is now complete Create a new project file and start over with your next song and enjoy your time with Qtractor 84 Appendix A GNU Free Documentation License Version 1 3 3 November 2008 Copyright 2000 2001 2002 2007 2008 Free Software Foundation Inc Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this license document but changing it is not allowed 0 PREAMBLE The purpose of this License is to make a manual textbook or other functional and useful document free in the sense of freedom to assure everyone the effective freedom to copy and redistribute it with or without modifying it either commercially or noncommercially Secondarily this License preserves for the author and publisher a way to get credit for their work while not being considered responsible for modifications made by others This License is a kind of copyleft which means that derivative works of the document must themselves be free in the same sense It complements the GNU General Public License which is a copyleft license designed for free software We have designed this License in order to use it for manuals for free software because free software needs free documentation a free program should come with manuals providing the same freedoms that the software does But this License is not limited to software manuals it can be used for any textual work r
85. production in Qtractor is simple as long as all of the requirements are installed Review the Installation chapters to ensure you ve installed all the necessary components before beginning As long as you ve done that you ll find Qtractor a robust digital production environment with plenty of knobs and dials to tweak 1 Start the QJackCil application recommended or start jackd from a shell Once launched press the Start button to start JACK Launch Qtractor from your applications menu dock or launcher It s good practise to start every session by saving It might seem strange to save an as yet empty session but it s better to save an empty session that to start creating your masterpiece and have data files and MIDI files scattered all throughout your hard drive Saving first is a good way to instantiate an environment in which you can keep all of your files and sounds organized and consolodated To save click the File menu and select Save As In the Name field name your session For the Directory field click the Directory icon to create a new empty directory for your session files and click OK Save your session by clicking the OK button a Save Session dialogue will open so that you can now navigate to the directory you ve created and name your session file which will appear as a gtr file Click the Save button to confirm Now you re ready to start producing Obviously there are different means to creating music in Qtractor
86. r from the basics like volume and panning to the very minute like the LFO frequency of a soft synth or the levels of an effect To work on the automation of your tracks 1 Click the automation button in the track control of your track Sie Edit Track Clip View Transport Help Kahne nn p 120 44 Nr Track Name gt Track 3 Monitor gt Y Track 3 Pan _ Track 3 Volume Track 3 Record Track 3 Mute Q Track 3 Solo WhySynth 20100922 DSSI plugin gt O None 2 Choose from the popup menu the attribute you wish to automate 3 Notice that an overlay appears over your track representing the normal level of that attribute To enter automation mode click the Edit menu gt Select Mode gt Automation In this mode click the automation overlay to adjust levels 4 To differentiate different attributes that you re automating it can be helpful to modify the colour of the automation overlay To do this click the automation button in the track list and choose Mode gt Colour and pick a new shade for that automation overlay To add automation for another attribute click the automation button again and navigate to Select to choose the next attribute The new automation overlay appears in the default colour and you can now modify its levels 5 Leave automation mode by toggling off Edit menu gt Select Mode gt Automation 21 22 Chapter 7 Bouncing the Project Once you ve f
87. r Qtractor project folder for better organization since Qtractor obviously will not save or preserve your settings The Calf compressor is a capable and user friendly compressor unit available either as a stand alone unit or a plugin from within Qtractor so use it often 69 Chapter 17 Effect Processors and Filters 17 1 2 Steve Harris LADSPA Dyson Compressor The Dyson Compressor is included in the Steve Harris set of LADSPA plugins It is very basic with few adjustable settings but if quick and basic compression is all you need then it may just be what you need Use the Dyson compressor as you would any other LADSPA plugin in Qtractor Its interface offers four sliders for customization the peak limit ie threshold release time in seconds the fast compression ratio and the compression ratio both ratios are counted from 0 to 1 so some math is required with 1 1 ratio being equal to 0 17 1 3 Jamin The Jamin mastering application contains one of the most powerful compressors available Whereas the Calf compressor excels in its simplicity Jamin provides three separate compressors essentially for the Low Mid and Hi frequencies of your input File Edit Ports Help b e gt n 00 00 00 00 Disconnected 0 7 CPU 1xruns 512 frames 48000 Hz RT seres Q Input HDEO 30 band EQ Spectrum Compressor curves cr 0 0 TB Low Mid High gt gm ig N amp
88. r the mixer The automation is customizable via the Automation button in the track list in the Mode category e Hold places the automation nodes into absolute values until otherwise changed Linear represents the automation as even linear progression from one node to the next This is the default automation mode e Spline same as linear except with b splines instead of completely linear progress between nodes 80 Recording Automation Logarithmic same as spline except that the degree of the bezier curves change proportionately to the difference between nodes Color when you automate volume panning and an effect all on one track it can get confusing Use color to change the shade of the automation overlay so that you can distinguish one set of controls from another e Lock prevents accidental changes to automation especially useful when working on a different automation function on the same track 18 1 Recording Automation If you are a skilled live mixer and want to record your performance in realtime you can override existing automation decisions or record new ones in two different styles each available in the Automation menu Play with this enabled you may make realtime changes to existing automation and upon release of the slider or knob that you are automating the value returns to the pre existing value This may be combined with the Record option Record with this enabled y
89. rack selected click on the Track menu and select Track Properties In the Track dialogue click the Plugins tab In the Plugins tab click the Add button on the right to see a list of available sotware plugins In the Plugins dialogue select the type of plugin you wish to use with the top right button Software synths on Linux are usually of the DSSI variety from the list of DSSI synths select the one you want to play and click the Activate checkbox in the lower left corner Click the OK button in the bottom right corner of the window to proceed ct If you don t have any plugins installed you can install them from your distribution or directly from their project websites One of the best soft synths for immediate gratification is whySynth which bundles some nice ready to use patches You will need to restart Qtractor in order for your new soft synths to be available Back in the Track dialogue select the Track tab again In the MIDI Instrument panel choose an instrument from the top dropdown menu using WhySynth as an example you would select WhySynth_20100922 DSSI plugin Choose a Bank and Program If you re not familiar with WhySynth you can select any of its three Banks and any of the Programs contained in them You should be able to instantly audition the sounds on your USB controller When you ve selected the sound you d like to use click the OK button In the track label on the left of the Qtractor window click the R b
90. ractor you can connect a MIDI controller to your computer and record MIDI data into a track The MIDI data will be used to trigger a sound source the simplest and most direct method is to use the MIDI to trigger a software synthesizer but of course the MIDI signal could also be routed back out of the computer into a hardware synth as well Assuming you are using a USB based MIDI controller such as the Oxygen or Axiom series or AKAI LPK series and so on then you must first define the source of your MIDI signal Click the View menu gt Windows gt Connections to see your central patchbay ie QJackCtl In the left column choose the source of your MIDI signal a device that from Qtractor s perspective is outputting the signal hence the output label Your USB controller should be listed as a source so open its listing and click the MIDI channel listed there Now choose the MIDI signal s destination in the right column You are routing the sound from your hardware controller to Qtractor so choose the Qtractor category and select the corresponding input port such as 0 Master Click the Connect button if they are not already connected Close the window If you start playing now you ll be sending MIDI data without hearing any feedback whatsoever because you have not yet configured the MIDI signal to trigger sound So that you can hear what you re playing you must insert a plugin synthesizer into the track With your destination t
91. rios you will encounter e Microphones with an 8th inch also called a mini jack e Microphones with a quarter inch or XLR jack e Microphones with USB connectors The recording process is different depending on your input type 10 2 2 Recording from Line In If your microphone has an 8th inch jack then you can plug it directly into the line in of your computer No external sound interface is required Your built in sound card is JACK s default input so no changes are necessary If your microphone can easily and cleanly adapted to the standard 8th inch input with a cable or a simple plug adapter then you can use this method of recording as well To record from the line in of your computer into Qtractor 1 Go to the View menu and select Windows gt Connections to verify that the Capture devices on your System are routed to the Master In of Qtractor and the Master Out channels are routed to the Playback channels of your System 32 Recording from USB Audio O Audio amp MIDI All v All v Readable Clients Output Ports v Writable Clients Input Ports wv v Qtractor v Otractor Master out_1 amp Master in_1l g Master out_2 Ra Master in_2 v system v system A capture_1 playback 1 capture 2 playback 2 Connect X Disconnect gt Disconnect All Refresh Go to the Track menu and choose Add Track or use Ctr1 Shift N In the Track dialogue box give the track a name set the Type to Au
92. rity for your user applications install set_rlimits from your repository or directly from physics adelaide edu au jwoithe c As root open etc set_rlimits conf new in your favourite text editor Add two lines 3 http Awww physics adelaide edu au jwoithe 11 Chapter 3 Post Installation Optimizations audio usr local bin jackd nice 1 rtprio 80 memlock 100000 audio usr local bin qtractor nice 1 rtprio 80 memlock 100000 Save the file as etc set_rlimits conf Create a custom launcher so that when you start your realtime applications they are started in the syntax set_rlimits qtractor In KDE do this by right clicking on the K Menu and edit the launch commands for QJackCtl and Qtractor In Gnome edit as root the desktop file for the applications ie usr share applications qtractor desktop such that the Exec line executes set_rlimits qtractor 4 JACK does not start when Qtractor is launched a Your distribution may not have configured JACK to automatically start upon Qtractor s launch The easiest workaround for this is to launch QJackCtl manually first and then launch Qtractor Part 1 Quick Start Diving into Qtractor a quick start guide for the basic workflow Chapter 4 Getting Sound Into Qtractor Chapter 5 Effects and Filters Chapter 6 Automation in Qtractor Chapter 7 Bouncing the Project Chapier 4 Getting Sound Into Qtractor Getting started with basic music
93. roject by clicking the Track menu and selecting Add Track 5 Inthe Mixer window right click the plugin window and click the Inserts category choosing Add Insert In the Insert window click the Return button This opens a Connections window 6 Click the first left Master In jack in the left column to the first insert of your new track in the right column and click the Connect button Repeat this for the second right jacks Close the window when finished 7 You have now routed all of your mixer s outbound sound to the input of your new track Arm your new track for recording by clicking the R button either in the track list or the mixer window 8 Position the transport playhead at the beginning of the project or the beginning of the portion of your song you intend to export You may wish to set an in and out point so that the recording stops automatically or you may prefer to stop the recording manually 9 Press the Record button in the top menu bar 83 Chapter 19 Delivery Before recording double check your connections If you have left a microphone plugged in and actively sending input to your Master in for example you might find later that you ve recorded a layer of room tone behind all of your tracks 10 Press the Play button to begin playback and recording 11 When recording is finished select the track by clicking on the new audio clip in the Qtractor project Click the Clip menu and select Ex
94. rough the Mixer window 14 3 1 Track Order Height and Properties It s a good idea to keep related musical parts grouped together If your drums appear on track 1 and your bass on track 14 it s difficult to edit the two tracks in unison as one might reasonably attempt to do To keep a logical order to your track listing you can rearrange where each track appears in the Qtractor workspace To move a track up or down the track list either click and drag the number on the far left of the track label or use the Track menu and select Move to move the currently highlighted track either up down or straight to the top or bottom of the list 57 Chapter 14 Working in Qtractor In addition to changing track order you can change the height of tracks with the Height selection in the Track menu Other track properties such as track name the color of the clips the type audio or midi of track data and more can be modified through the Track menu especially the Track Properties selection 58 Chapter 15 Mixing in Qtractor like most digital audio workstation software is modeled after mixing on real world equipment With Qtractor as with hardware mixing equipment you are able to define inputs outputs auxiliary sends and returns effects and automation Generally mixing in Qtractor utilizes three different toolsets e Mixer used to control the stereo separation and levels of the track route sound and configure effec
95. rs It covers everything from the initial setup to the final mix File Edit Track Clip View Transport Help DEU er AB XR THE Ss PB RB oe 6 7 8 Music Book Shelf Category Audio Production Free Docs Computer Book Shelf Category Operating Systems GNU Linux L icense For more info visit qtractor sourceforge net Otractor Quick Start amp User Manual A great reference for beginners Quick Start guide so you can start making music in no time In depth explanation of important audio concepts Learn to use Linux media apps
96. s 3 In the Insert window click the Sends button in the lower left corner 4 Inthe Connections window that appears choose the Insert Out connection in the left column and then then reverb in of calf in the right column Click the Connect button to route the sound Repeat this for both left and right channels 5 Atthis point you are successfully sending the sound from your track to the CALF effect processor but if you were to play the track in Qtractor you wouldn t hear anything Of course the reason is because there is no Return yet Back in the Insert window click the Returns button 6 Inthe Connections window choose the reverb out connection in the left column and then then insert in of Qtractor in the right column Click the Connect button to route the sound Repeat this for both left and right channels 64 Send and Returns 7 Now your track is routed out to the CALF effect unit processed and sent back into Qtractor Click the Play button in Qtractor to hear the results Preset Decaytime HighFrqDamp DryAmount Wet Amount a 9 18559 5000 Hz 0 0 dB 0 7 dB Diffusion Pre Delay Bass Cut Treble Cut 50 Oms 300 Hz 5000 Hz Room size x Audio MOI Connections Otractor WW tractor v Al v Readable Clients Output Ports Writable Chents Input Ports v Eu unu_Insert out_1 N reverb_in_ unu_Insert out_2 a reverb_in_r gt M jamin gt HM Otractor gt Ml s
97. s heard before High Freq Damp the tail of the reverb is dampened to simulate that sound loses energy and fades out over time and distance The High Frequency Dampening knob determines the frequency at which the dampening begins Dry Amount determines how much of the original sound is heard along with the reverb Wet Amount determines how much of the reverb is heard Diffusion structures the spread of the reverb a highly diffused reverb effect spreads reverb widely across the stereo space where as a less diffuse reverb effect is more centrally located Pre Delay determines the distance between the source signal and the start of the reverb Bass Cut determines the frquency at which bass frequencies are truncated 77 Chapier 17 Effect Processors and Filters e Treble Cut determines the frequency at which bass frequencies are truncated Room Size sets the emulated space determining the shape and character of the reverberated sound In If you are using Calf as a stand alone effect unit remember that once you ve designed good reverb settings for your track you must save it as a preset You can save presets by clicking on the Preset menu and choosing Store preset selection You will need the preset saved perhaps in your Qtractor project folder for better organization since Qtractor obviously will not save or preserve your settings 17 6 2 Steve Harris LADSPA GVerb There are reverb units available in the Steve
98. soft synth s that you are running so that the data in your MIDI tracks will trigger the sounds of those synths If you are using an external USB MIDI controller you might want to route the signals generated from it into the Qtractor destination so that you can play MIDI into Qtractor MIDI tracks which in turn gets passed onto the soft synth which plays sound back into Qtractor and or into your computer speakers ct If you are not sure about what you want this is probably the method to use 50 A Bit about MIDI Alternately you could route the MIDI signals from your controller straight into the soft synth This would trigger the synth directly playing sounds which could be routed into Qtractor for live recording Que This method does not record any MIDI data 3 To patch the MIDI signal from the source to its destination click the MIDI source in the left column and then the destination in the right column and click the Connect button Repeat this for all MIDI signals that need routing If you re not sure what signals need routing then you probably need to route Qtractor to your synth If you are using a USB MIDI controller then you also need to route your controller to Qtractor All signals have been patched now so playing MIDI into Qtractor should cause your external synthesizer to sound 13 4 A Bit about MIDI If you have had limited experience with MIDI it s important to have a basic understanding
99. sound you were intending to capture The other view of the EQ in Jamin is the 30 band EQ tab which displays the same information as the HDEQ interface but uses sliders instead of graphical curves and nodes The same principles apply the sliders provide a quicker way to boost or cut frequencies when you know exactly what needs to be done and don t want to have to draw curves and move nodes around to achieve it 17 4 2 Calf The Calf plugin set provides a set of filters which perform EQ through customizable presets It is less precise than a 30 band equalizer but realistically is often all you ll need Calf offers four types of presets e Lowpass low pass filters allow low frequencies to pass and cuts off high frequencies Highpass high pass filters allow high frequencies to pass and cuts off low frequencies Band Pass band pass combines low pass and high pass filters configured such that a targeted frequency range is allowed to pass while frequencies above or below that range are rejected Band Reject band reject combines low pass and high pass filters with their intersection being a range of frequencies that will be rejected You have control over the characteristics of these presets via the Frequency Resonance and Inertia knobs 1 Open the CALF filter plugin by launching calfjackhost Click on the Add plugin menu and choose Filter 2 To launch the interface click the Filter button in the lower left corner When
100. st of available sotware plugins In the Plugins dialogue select the type of plugin you wish to use with the top right button Software synths on Linux are usually of the DSSI variety from the list of DSSI synths select the one you want to play and click the Activate checkbox in the lower left corner Click the OK button in the bottom right corner of the window to proceed Back in the Track dialogue select the Track tab again In the MIDI Instrument panel choose an instrument from the top dropdown menu using WhySynth as an example you would select WhySynth_20100922 DSSI plugin Choose a Bank and Program If you re not familiar with WhySynth you can select any of its three Banks and any of the Programs contained in them You should be able to instantly audition the sounds on a USB controller When you ve selected the sound you d like to use click the OK button Now that you ve create an empty track and assigned it a soft synth you can input MIDI data 1 Create an empty clip in your destination track by choosing New from the Clip menu or by clicking the New Clip button in the top toolbar In the Session window type in a name for your MIDI clip choose the Directory into which you want to save the clip and provide a description for yourself as needed Click the OK button when finished O Unlike pre recorded loops or sounds which already exist on your harddrive a new MIDI clip doesn t yet have a home Some music programs b
101. stalling Qtractor 1 1 Introduction to Qtractor 3 1 1 System Requirements ss 3 1 2 Get INVONWS 2 Re elude ne Nr aa nee 4 2 Installation 5 2 1 Easy lnstalln ae rar ak ai aed he 5 2 2 4Expert Install cocoa ab He 5 2 2 1 Download the Qtractor Code 0ooooooccccccccccccnnooncnccnnnnncnnnnnnancnnnnncnnnnnnnanccncancinns 6 2 2 2 Compiling and Installing Qtractor ooooonnnnnnnnonnnccinnnnncnnnnncnccnnnncnnnnnnnanccnnnncnnns 7 3 Post Installation Optimizations 9 3 1 Real Time Kernel ende realen 9 3 2 Quack Ctl Essen END GES a tue ies We a Coe 10 8 2 1 Troubleshooting ne HR een 10 1 Quick Start 13 4 Getting Sound Into Qtractor 15 5 Effects and Filters 19 6 Automation in Qtractor 21 7 Bouncing the Project 23 2 Advanced Qtractor 25 8 The Qtractor Interface 27 9 Starting a new session 29 10 Managing Audio Tracks 31 10 1 Importing Audio Files ss 31 10 2 Recording AUO s yeei eetere Aelia eas 31 10 2 1 Analogue vs USB Inputs 0ceceeeceee ee eeeteeeeeeeeeeeeaeaaeeneeeeeeeeeaeaaaaeeeeeees 32 10 22 Recording from Line IN unse een 32 10 2 3 Recording from USB Audio oooocciccccccccnonccnconcnnconcnnnnnncnncancnnnnnnnnannnnnnnncnnns 33 11 Managing MIDI Tracks 37 1141 Importing MID Data He eg 37 11 2 Creating MIDI data with a MIDI controller 24444444440nnnnnnnnnnenennnnnnnnnnnn 38 11 3 Creating MIDI data with the matrix editor 4snnnnnennnnnenennnnnnnnnnnnnen nn 40 11 3
102. start JACK is with QJackCtl Q JACK Control a control panel and global synchronized timecode display If this is not installed install it from your distribution s repository or from ajackctl sourceforge net If necessary launch QJackCtl and click the Start button Setup 3 Connect DGPatchbay 4 hb 08 D About O Messages Apr Status This should instate realtime privileges and begin a global synchronized timecode clock that will allow Qtractor to use all available inputs and outputs just like a mixing board would in the studio To view the status of JACK click the Status button and review the resulting report JACK should be reported as running in realtime mode Description Value Server state Started DSP Load 0 48 Sample Rate 48000 Hz Buffer Size 1024 frames Realtime Mode Yes Transport state Stopped XRUN count since last server startup 0 0 Maximum scheduling delay 0 715 msec Time of last reset 09 13 26 00 01 03 O Reset 5 Refresh 3 2 1 Troubleshooting If you are experiencing unexpected results with QJackCtl then here are some things to check 1 http www kernel org pub linux kernel projects rt http qjackctl sourceforge net 10 Troubleshooting JACK does not indicate realtime mode in the Status window on a system using the PAM security model 1 Click the Setup button to open preferences Activate Realtime in the left column and then quit QJac
103. t contains nothing but endorsements of your Modified Version by various parties for example statements of peer review or that the text has been approved by an organization as the authoritative definition of a standard You may add a passage of up to five words as a Front Cover Text and a passage of up to 25 words as a Back Cover Text to the end of the list of Cover Texts in the Modified Version Only one passage of Front Cover Text and one of Back Cover Text may be added by or through arrangements made by any one entity If the Document already includes a cover text for the same cover previously added by you or by arrangement made by the same entity you are acting on behalf of you may not add another but you may replace the old one on explicit permission from the previous publisher that added the old one The author s and publisher s of the Document do not by this License give permission to use their names for publicity for or to assert or imply endorsement of any Modified Version 5 COMBINING DOCUMENTS You may combine the Document with other documents released under this License under the terms defined in section 4 above for modified versions provided that you include in the combination all of the Invariant Sections of all of the original documents unmodified and list them all as Invariant Sections of your combined work in its license notice and that you preserve all their Warranty Disclaimers 88 6 COLLECTIONS OF DOCUME
104. the Snap setting so if you are having difficulty modifying the end or beginning of a clip check to make snapping is deactivated A second way to split clips is to use the Range or Rectangle selection tools 14 2 3 Range and Rectangle Selection The default selection tool is the Clip selection which allows you to click on clips and select them as a whole so that you can move them within the workspace The other two modes are Range and Rectangle The Range selection tool spans all tracks in your workspace and allows you to arbitrarily select any portion of clips regardless of where the clips begin or end In otherwords you can select a range in the very middle of a clip and all other clips above and below it because you are selecting a block of time rather than basing your selection on the nature of the clips in your workspace De Edit Jack Clip View Transport Help u Dm na ae x E REA SS 3e 0 AD a napa guaro v wD Beats v s 16 10 n 12 13 14 1 I pr p bei Lux To use the Range select mode 1 Click the Edit menu gt Select Mode gt Range 2 Click within an audio clip and drag your selection 54 Using Range Markers The Rectangle selection mode is similar to Range but is track specific Using the Rectangle selection tool permits you to draw the range of selection over one or more tracks and a selection will be made wherever a Clip is present To use the Rectangle select mode 1 Click the Edit
105. the interface for filters launches it may only display a list of the presets so be sure to expand the window until you can see the knobs and filter graph 74 Calf Preset Mode 12dB oct Bandpass v Frequency Resonance Inertia o q 2 H 3 H 2 H NE 3 NAF 1009 11 Hz 10 2 dB 20 ms Freq response 3 For the clearest example of how the Calf filters work select the 18dB Bandpass Set the Frequency knob to approximately 300 Hz Notice how the filter shape moves horizontally along the graph as you adjust the filter The green line indicates that sounds at 300 Hz will passthrough the filter while the frequencies lower and higher than 300 Hz will be filtered down gradually until they are excluded entirely 4 To control what frequencies are attenuated by the filter use the Resonance knob Setting it to 30dB for instance makes for a narrow filter while setting it to OdB makes it fairly broad 5 Try a lowpass filter on bass parts and a highpass on other instruments and make adjustments by ear 75 Chapter 17 Effect Processors and Filters Once you ve designed good EQ settings for your track save it as a preset by clicking on the Preset menu and choosing Store preset selection You will need the preset saved perhaps in your Qtractor project folder for better organization since Qtractor obviously will not save or preserve your settings The Calf filters are more specialized than the Jamin EQ but just as effective in what
106. ts and other outboard gear Effect Units and Filters plugins used to sweeten degrade fix or control sound e Automation makes Qtractor your live mixer so that levels effects and pans are adjusted during playback Just as with a hardware based studio you ll use a combination of techniques to achieve the mood sound and quality you want The central hub however is the Mixer window 15 1 Mixer The Mixer window can be accessed by click the View menu and selecting Mixer from the Windows category The Mixer opens in its own window making it a prime candidate for occupying a second screen if you have a multiple head setup O Matern cs El gt MECA MENT O Master Out Master Out Per D Oierb PRingmod a AM pitchsh mentor mentor mentor mentor mentor mentor montor mentor mentor wos R m s R Lad s R Lad s R nm s R lal s R s NANS ones 04 o gt 100 dE Zr 1 3 9 dE o gt 15 4 dE as gt 4 n lt lt gt lt lt gt 0 0 dE ZI 100 099 100 dE gt 14 14 7 di lt gt 10 153 dt lt gt 15 15 3 dt 0 2 0 On the extremities of the Mixer window are the Master In and Master Out controls These are independent of any one track and control everything coming into or going out of the mixing board You can adjust the master levels of the input and output and place any effect processors you want to apply globally such as a compressor to control peaks on an o
107. ttractive interfaces 1 http qjackctl sourceforge net http qsynth sourceforge net 3 http dssi sourceforge net download html http www smbolton com whysynth html 5 http plugin org uk https github com swh lv2 4 http calf sourceforge net 93 94 Appendix C General MIDI Instrumentation This is the standardized list of General MIDI channels and the corresponding instrumentation If you are composing using MIDI and want your piece to call a standard set of instruments so that it will sound the same across all systems this is the list to use Distributing MIDI files of renditions of popular songs was fairly common in the early days of the Internet when it was considered technologically advanced to have a MIDI song autoatically play in the background when someone visited one s homepage With General MIDI it could be ensured that the song sounded more or less the same no matter whose system it was Of course this is rather rarely done now It is far more common to use MIDI to trigger sounds and instruments in any format that works best for you then to record the music and re distribute the ogg or mp3 version Even so this is a good reference list since General MIDI was widely used at one point 1 Acoustic Grand Piano 2 Bright Acoustic Piano 3 Electric Grand Piano 4 Honky tonk Piano 5 Electric Piano 1 6 Electric Piano 2 7 Harpsichord 8 Clavinet 9 Celesta 10 Glockenspiel 11 Music Box 12
108. ument and any Warranty Disclaimers provided that you also include the original English version of this License and the original versions of those notices and disclaimers In case of a disagreement between the translation and the original version of this License or a notice or disclaimer the original version will prevail If a section in the Document is Entitled Acknowledgements Dedications or History the requirement section 4 to Preserve its Title section 1 will typically require changing the actual title 89 Appendix A GNU Free Documentation License 9 TERMINATION You may not copy modify sublicense or distribute the Document except as expressly provided under this License Any attempt otherwise to copy modify sublicense or distribute it is void and will automatically terminate your rights under this License However if you cease all violation of this License then your license from a particular copyright holder is reinstated a provisionally unless and until the copyright holder explicitly and finally terminates your license and b permanently if the copyright holder fails to notify you of the violation by some reasonable means prior to 60 days after the cessation Moreover your license from a particular copyright holder is reinstated permanently if the copyright holder notifies you of the violation by some reasonable means this is the first time you have received notice of violation of this Licens
109. undle your MIDI data into your project file which can make it difficult to share one MIDI loop between projects But Qtractor saves all MIDI tracks as independent files meaning you can easily re use them 3 Click on the clip to select it and choose Edit from the Clip menu to open the clip in the MIDI editor The MIDI Editor is very intuitive with simple but effective tools in the toolbar such as an arrow to select and move notes a pen tool to draw note into the grid and a disk icon to save your work Vertically the grid corresponds with notes on the chromatic keyboard Horizontally the grid corresponds with beats per measure 41 Chapter 11 Managing MIDI Tracks xe quickstart drome l en d Track 1 Qtracter 0 fle Edna Yew Tools Yanspect Help 2 y 0 19 Boo DO KX Q ED m Note On v m Note Velocity v O i as 2 4 5 LA I A cl i at 6 at m rt ps jun en oo o je Eu i a a f o Q Q lt C gt QQQ Track 2 1 fromme sxe Music et acterManual quickstart drone mid Tack 1 00 04 3 360 1 Properties of the MIDI Editor workspace Save and Track Properties 2 Arrow to move notes increase and decrease note length and selecting Pen Edit On to draw note into the grid Edit Draw dynamically draw multiple notes with a click and drag of the mouse 3 Snap Beat menu determines the resolution of drawing and editing notes In a 4 4 project for
110. uration of notes to any number of beats or divisions thereof or the Velocity to any value Rescale changes the selected notes by some percentage you may alter the time that the notes are triggered the duration for which they sound and the velocity at which they are played Timeshift alters the timing of the selected notes on a curve such that the acceleration from the beginning note to the ending note is either increased or decreased In order for Qtractor to know how to accelerate the timing of the notes you must define a range of time for the acceleration to occur Do this with the head and tail markers the blue markers in the timeline above the MIDI Editor gride Mark the out point tail of your range by clicking on the timeline and then set the in point head of the time range by clicking somewhere to the left of the original marker Once the range is defined select the notes you wish to timeshift with the arrow tool Open the Tools menu and select Timeshift Use the slider to either cause an acceleration in your selected notes over the course of the defined time range or a deceleration and then click OK to commit the change 11 3 2 Customizing the MIDI Editor View The View menu provides cutomization for how the MIDI Editor is laid and how the notes are presented to you The default layout is clean and pleasingly minimalist but take a look at some of the other options to see what works best for you Menubar turns o
111. utboard microphone or to prevent peaks on outgoing audio The middle portion of the Mixer window represents the tracks in your project both audio and MIDI distinguished by the Audio or Midi icon next to the name of the track 59 Chapter 15 Mixing These control the individual track allowing you to set the level of the track with the volume slider and gain control the stereo position with the pan pot control and mute solo or arm for the track for recording 15 1 1 Setting Levels When monitoring the levels of your tracks make sure that your sound does not enter the red zone on the volumeter In audio production any sound that goes above 0 dB hits its peak and will cause distortion It s not uncommon to flirt with O dB to truly maxmize the impact of important sounds but leaving sounds above OdB in your final mix is a surefire way to ruin your project Using the volume level slider adjust your track volumes into safe settings while listening to your project Then listen to your project again to refine the levels in relation to one another If the sound source is too low or too loud you can add or subtract gain at the input point with the Gain adjustment at the very bottom of the mixer window 50 60 Au dE he This adds or subtracts gain level at the point of the sound s entry meaning that you are changing the amount of sound reaching any effects processors Generally gain adjustment is avoided and
112. utton to arm the track for recording Click the Record button in the top menu bar to activate Recording mode Click the Play button in the top menu bar to begin Insert existing MIDI data into the track if you want to use pre made MIDI files then simply add the files to your Qtractor session 17 Chapter 4 Getting Sound Into Qtractor To add MIDI files to your session go to the Track menu and select Import Tracks gt MIDI Choose the file you wish to import and it will be added into a new track Notice that it is also added in the Files panel on the right of the Qtractor window so to add files without immediately adding them to your workspace right click in the MIDI tab of the Files panel and choose Add Files The MIDI file you import may or may not have generic MIDI instrument assignments Either way you can always adjust the MIDI instrument assigned to that track via the Track Properties dialogue as you would for a track into which you re recording MIDI Chapier 5 Effects and Filters You know how to create tracks and insert sound either in the form of audio files or MIDI data In addition to putting sound into tracks Qtractor can pipe tracks through filters and effects The most popular format for sound filters and effect units in Linux is LADSPA providing the free equivalent to VST RTAS or AU The two ubiquitous Linux plugin packs are the Steve Harris LADSPA Plugins and the CALF Plugins which should
113. well The extension for Qtractor session files is qtr Click the Save button and now your Qtractor session is saved in a self contained dedicated folder This helps your project maintain its integrity and increases its portability 29 30 Chapter 10 Managing Audio Tracks There are four typical scenarios for dealing with sound in Qtractor and indeed for most digital audio workstations Import existing audio files from your harddrive a recording device or a loop collection Record audio into Qtractor via your computer s built in microphone or an external microphone Import MIDI data e Create MIDI data All three of these methods of acquiring sound for your work can be and very often are combined to produce a richer audio production 10 1 Importing Audio Files The easiest way to get sound into Qtractor is to import an audio file from your harddrive Whether you are using sampled loops to construct a new musical piece or importing a performance transferred from a recording device importing audio in this way does not involve recording sound directly into Qtractor To bring audio into your project file right click in the Files pane and select Add Files or use Ctr1 F Choose what file or files you wish to import from the file chooser window that appears To place an audio file in a track drag and drop it from the Files panel into the workspace You can add it to an existing track or drop it directly into empty
114. y copies 86 3 COPYING IN QUANTITY 3 COPYING IN QUANTITY If you publish printed copies or copies in media that commonly have printed covers of the Document numbering more than 100 and the Document s license notice requires Cover Texts you must enclose the copies in covers that carry clearly and legibly all these Cover Texts Front Cover Texts on the front cover and Back Cover Texts on the back cover Both covers must also clearly and legibly identify you as the publisher of these copies The front cover must present the full title with all words of the title equally prominent and visible You may add other material on the covers in addition Copying with changes limited to the covers as long as they preserve the title of the Document and satisfy these conditions can be treated as verbatim copying in other respects If the required texts for either cover are too voluminous to fit legibly you should put the first ones listed as many as fit reasonably on the actual cover and continue the rest onto adjacent pages If you publish or distribute Opaque copies of the Document numbering more than 100 you must either include a machine readable Transparent copy along with each Opaque copy or state in or with each Opaque copy a computer network location from which the general network using public has access to download using public standard network protocols a complete Transparent copy of the Document free of added material If you us
115. y bands this is used by audio engineers to boost bass or possibly cut bass when it is overpowering or boost the midtones where the human voice dwells and so on There are a few good equalizers that can be used with Qtractor 17 4 1 Jamin The Jamin mastering application which you can use as an Aux Send Return has two views of EQ the graphical curve based HDEQ and a slider based 30 band EQ They are literally two different views of the same thing so it s typical to use both views depending on what kind of adjustment you need to make and which one makes that adjustment easiest 72 Jamin file Edit Ports Help le lt ES EL 00 00 00 00 Disconnected 34 1 CPU Oxruns 512 frames 48000 Hz RT so O 6 6 6 6 6 0 0 6 0 6 909 6 Input HDEQ 30 band EQ Spectrum Compressor curves Output YE 0 0 0 0 pS 5 ei s Has id 10 ris 20 ls 25 20 i 35 10 fa SO3Hz EQ 8db Spectrum 74db EQ bypass 00109 Crossover 00626 tr centre 15 Low 25 109 Mid 109 626 High 626 20000 Boost A R T r K M A R T r K M A R T r K M Amount 0 0 100 200 200 2 0 0 5 g0 0 143 257 20 0 23 0 7 o5 2 100 200 20 0 2 0 0 5 99 0 Limiter loo Input 0 0 25 DE Jr jet AL Be 30 Limit 0 0 dB Release 50 12 ms 95 40 2 A a is aa WET jas 25 20 15 1680 so 25 2 15 We ST 350 25 20 15 1 0 En 50 d i i 0 00 0 00 0 00 Solo Bypass Solo Bypass Solo Byp
116. ystem A Connect X Disconnect _d Disconnect Al 65 66 Chapter 17 Effect Processors and Filters There are many theories personal styles and preferences when it comes to mixing a project One producer might opt for no effects at all while another might use compressors limiters levellers EQ and more and those same producers will abandon their style depending on what band they are dealing with The best way to know what effects to use is to experiment discover what different filters do find out which ones you like or dislike and do whatever your ear tells you to do There are some staples in any audio engineer s toolkit and between the Steve Harris LADSPA collection CALF and Jamin you ll find everything you need to achieve the sound you want 17 1 Compressors As a sys admin has ssh and emacs an audio producer has Dynamic Range Compressors A compressor s job is to reduce loud sounds or to increase quiet sounds by reducing or compressing the signal s overall dynamic range It has a number of uses in music production A compressor on a track that is inconsistent in dynamics will produce a more consistent track that might be easier to mix into the rest of the piece and also provide a better listening experience for the audience it s difficult to follow the lyrics of a song for example when the voice track continually drops behind the other instruments Compressors are very common on drums as well sinc

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