===============================
Jackbeat - Audio Sequencer
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Introduction
============

Jackbeat is an audio sequencer running on Linux and Mac OS X, for musicians 
and sound artists:

* Drummachine interface with animations for easy and playful editing
* Built for both composition and live setups with high interactivity needs
* Extremely easy to use but yet powerful by connecting with other 
  applications and plugins using JACK and OSC
* Loads and saves .jab files, Jackbeat's xml+tar open file format
* Supports native audio devices, PulseAudio and JACK

Requirements
============

Required dependencies
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

* PortAudio (http://www.portaudio.com/)

* Linux only: libasound (http://www.alsa-project.org)

* GTK+-2.0 (gtk.org)

* libsndfile (www.mega-nerd.com/libsndfile)

* libxml2 (http://xmlsoft.org)

* libsamplerate (http://www.mega-nerd.com/SRC)

* liblo (http://liblo.sourceforge.net)

Optional dependencies
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

* JACK, the Jack Audio Connection Kit (http://jackaudio.org) : a running server
  as well as the API header files. Mac OS X users should see 
  http://www.jackosx.com

* PulseAudio (http://www.pulseaudio.org)

Installation
============

Jackbeat uses autoconf and automake, so you should just need to type:: 

    ./configure
    make 
    make install

This should be straightforward on Linux. 

For Mac OS X please check:
http://jackbeat.samalyse.org/wiki/MacInstallation

For Windows please see:
http://jackbeat.samalyse.org/browser/trunk/mingw/README

Developer/maintainer mode
=========================

If you want to compile Jackbeat and run it without installation, you
need to::

    ./configure --enable-devmode
    make
    # run jackbeat from the current directory:
    src/jackbeat

Usage
=====

Jackbeat is pretty simple to use. Browse through the main menu, it is meant to
be quite obvious. The Sequence and Track buttons at the bottom of the window
open the corresponding properties panel where you'll find convenient functions.

To begin, just a load a few samples using the track panel properties or the edit menu. 
Then by toggling some of the buttons on the drummachine and clicking Play you shall 
hear some music. Well... hopefully ;)

Notes about export parameters
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When you export the current sequence as a WAV file, you are given a choice
about how to handle samples that continue playing passed the end of the sequence:

  - loop: mix at the beginning. This is optimal for playing the exported
    WAV file as a loop in some external software.
  - truncate: don't play at all. This will sound like the initial sequence
    playback, before it has looped at least once.
  - keep: continue playing samples until they terminate. Beware that the
    exported file may thus be (much) longer than the sequence.

The double function
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Available in the Edit menu, Double increases the beats number by a factor of 2, 
and duplicates the beats data. This feature allows you to increase your workspace 
size, while keeping the output unchanged.

About track masking
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Track masks allow you to insert silences into a track interactively.
  
Use Shift-Click (or press N) to toggle the mask for a given beat. The corresponding track 
will then get muted during the duration of that beat. 

Keyboard shortcuts
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You can learn about most of the keyboard shortcuts by looking at the main menu.

There also are a few pattern editing shortcuts:

- B or <return>: toggle beat
- N: toggle mask
- <up>/<down>/<right>/<left>/<home>/<end> : move

Feedback and Support
====================

Please give me some feedback. Tell me if Jackbeat inspires you. 

For user support, mailing list and bug reports please see:
http://jackbeat.samalyse.org/wiki/UserSupport

You may also send me links to your musical productions so that I can include 
them on the musical examples page at: 
http://jackbeat.samalyse.org/wiki/MusicExamples

Contact
=======

Home page : http://jackbeat.samalyse.org

Olivier Guilyardi <olivier {at} samalyse {dot} com>

 
