Qtractor - An Audio/MIDI multi-track sequencer
----------------------------------------------

Qtractor is an audio/MIDI multi-track sequencer application written
in C++ with the Qt4 framework [1]. Target platform is Linux, where the
Jack Audio Connection Kit (JACK) for audio [2] and the Advanced Linux
Sound Architecture (ALSA) for MIDI [3] are the main infrastructures
to evolve as a fairly-featured Linux desktop audio workstation GUI,
specially dedicated to the personal home-studio.

Website:

  http://qtractor.sourceforge.net

Project page:

  http://sourceforge.net/projects/qtractor 

Weblog:

  http://www.rncbc.org

Qtractor is free, open-source software, distributed under the terms of
the GNU General Public License (GPL) [15] version 2 or later.


Features
--------

- Multi-track audio and MIDI sequencing and recording.
- Developed on pure Qt4 C++ application framework [1]
  (no Qt3 nor KDE dependencies).
- Uses JACK [2] for audio and ALSA [3] sequencer for MIDI
  as multimedia infrastructures.
- Traditional multi-track tape recorder control paradigm.
- Audio file formats support: OGG (via libvorbis [6]),
  MP3 (via libmad [7], playback only), WAV, FLAC, AIFF
  and many, many more (via libsndfile [4]).
- Standard MIDI files support (format 0 and 1).
- Non-destructive, non-linear editing.
- Unlimited number of tracks per session/project.
- Unlimited number of overlapping clips per track.
- XML encoded session/project description files (SDI).
- Point-and-click, multi-select, drag-and-drop interaction
  (drag, move, drop, cut, copy, paste, paste-repeat, delete, split, merge).
- Unlimited undo/redo.
- Built-in mixer and monitor controls.
- Built-in connection patchbay control and persistence
  (a-la QjackCtl [13]).
- LADSPA [5], DSSI [11] and native VSTi [12] plug-ins support.
- Unlimited number of plug-ins per track or bus.
- Plug-in presets, programs and chunk/configurations support.
- Unlimited audio effect send/return inserts per track or bus.
- Audio/MIDI clip fade-in/out (linear, quadratic, cubic).
- Audio/MIDI clip gain/volume, normalize, export.
- Audio clip time-stretching (WSOLA-like or via librubberband [9]),
  pitch-shifting (via librubberband [9]) and seamless sample-rate
  conversion (via libsamplerate [8]).
- Audio/MIDI track export (mix-down, merge).
- Audio/MIDI metronome bar/beat clicks.
- Unlimited tempo/time-signature map.
- MIDI clip editor (matrix/piano roll).
- MIDI instrument definitions (a-la Cakewalk(tm) [15]).
- MIDI controller mapping (mixer).
- MIDI system exclusive (SysEx) setups.
- JACK transport sync master.
- MMC control surface enabled.
- MIDI Song Position cueing support.
- Configurable keyboard shortcuts.


Requirements
------------

The software requirements for build and runtime are listed as follows:

  Mandatory:

  [1] Qt4 (core, gui, xml), C++ class library and tools for
        crossplatform development and internationalization
        http://www.qtsoftware.com/qt/

  [2] JACK Audio Connection Kit
        http://jackaudio.org/

  [3] ALSA, Advanced Linux Sound Architecture
        http://www.alsa-project.org/

  [4] libsndfile, C library for reading and writing
        files containing sampled sound
        http://www.mega-nerd.com/libsndfile/

  [5] LADSPA, Linux Audio Developer's Simple Plugin API
        http://www.ladspa.org/

  Optional (opted-in at build time):

  [6] libvorbis (enc, file), Ogg Vorbis audio compression
        http://xiph.org/vorbis/

  [7] libmad, High-quality MPEG audio decoder
        http://www.underbit.com/products/mad/

  [8] libsamplerate, The secret rabbit code, C library
        for audio sample rate conversion
        http://www.mega-nerd.com/SRC/

  [9] librubberband, Rubber Band Audio Time Stretcher,
        an audio time-stretching and pitch-shifting library
        http://breakfastquay.com/rubberband/

  [10] liblo, Lightweight OSC implementation
        (needed for DSSI GUI support)
        http://liblo.sourceforge.net/

  [11] DSSI, An API for soft synth plugins with custom user interfaces
        http://dssi.sourceforge.net/

  [12] VST SDK, Steinberg's Virtual Studio Technology (see README.VST)
        http://www.steinberg.net/


Installation
------------

The installation procedure follows the standard for source distributions.
Unpack the tarball and in the extracted source directory:

    ./configure [--prefix=/usr/local]
    make

and optionally as root:

    make install

This procedure will end installing the following couple of files:

    ${prefix}/bin/qtractor
    ${prefix}/share/pixmaps/qtractor.png
    ${prefix}/share/applications/qtractor.desktop

Just launch ${prefix}/bin/qtractor and you're off (hopefully).

Note that the default installation path ${prefix} is /usr/local.

If you're checking out from CVS, you'll have to prepare the configure
script just before you proceed with the above instructions:

   make -f Makefile.cvs


Configuration
-------------

Qtractor holds its settings and configuration state per user, in a file
located as $HOME/.config/rncbc.org/Qtractor.conf . Normally, there's no
need to edit this file, as it is recreated and rewritten everytime
qtractor is run.


Bugs
----

Plenty still, after all this is alpha software ;)


Support
-------

Qtractor is open source free software. For bug reports, feature requests,
discussion forums, mailling lists, or any other matter related to the
development of this piece of software, please use the Sourceforge
project page (http://sourceforge.net/projects/qtractor).

You can also find timely and closer contact information on my personal
web site (http://www.rncbc.org).


Acknowledgments
---------------

Qtractor user manual has been co-authored by James Laco Hines and
Stephen Doonan.

Qtractor logo/icon is an original work of Andy Fitzsimon, borrowed
from the public domain openclipart.org gallery.


References
----------

[1] Qt4 (core, gui, xml), C++ class library and tools
     for crossplatform development and internationalization
     http://www.qtsoftware.com/qt/

[2] JACK Audio Connection Kit
     http://jackaudio.org/

[3] ALSA, Advanced Linux Sound Architecture
     http://www.alsa-project.org/

[4] libsndfile, C library for reading and writing
     files containing sampled sound
     http://www.mega-nerd.com/libsndfile/

[5] LADSPA, Linux Audio Developer's Simple Plugin API
     http://www.ladspa.org/

[6] libvorbis (enc, file), Ogg Vorbis audio compression
     http://xiph.org/vorbis/

[7] libmad, High-quality MPEG audio decoder
     http://www.underbit.com/products/mad/

[8] libsamplerate, The secret rabbit code, C library
     for audio sample rate conversion
     http://www.mega-nerd.com/SRC/

[9] librubberband, Rubber Band Audio Time Stretcher,
     an audio time-stretching and pitch-shifting library
     http://breakfastquay.com/rubberband/

[10] liblo, Lightweight OSC implementation
     (needed for DSSI GUI support)
     http://liblo.sourceforge.net/

[11] DSSI, an API for soft synth plugins with custom user interfaces
     http://dssi.sourceforge.net/

[12] VST SDK, Steinberg's Virtual Studio Technology (see README.VST)
     http://www.steinberg.net/

[13] QjackCtl - JACK Qt GUI Interface
     http://qjackctl.sourceforge.net

[14] GNU General Public License
     http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html

[15] Cakewalk (by Roland), powerful and easy-to-use tools
     for Windows-based music and sound production
     http://www.cakewalk.com/


Enjoy.

rncbc aka Rui Nuno Capela
rncbc at rncbc dot org
http://www.rncbc.org
