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rncbc / qtractor

Qtractor - An Audio/MIDI multi-track sequencer

Home Page:https://qtractor.org

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Stripped-down version of Qtractor without timeline edition

zigmhount opened this issue · comments

commented

Hi,

I'm experimenting with MIDI looping, mostly using Seq192 these days, and I'm forwarding the MIDI output from Seq192 to Qtractor busses, and then to tracks where I can apply synths and effects on mixer channels. I'm running this on a pretty old laptop.
I've tried the same with Ardour and Carla, and Qtractor seems to be the best balance, both lightweight (compared to Ardour) and "centralized" synth and plugin management (compared to Carla's patchbay and cumbersome CC mapping). However, I don't need the timeline editor, so I'm wondering what it would take to strip down Qtractor to leave e.g. only the following, which could make it even lighter and simplify the UI:

  • Bus and track management
  • Connection patchbay
  • Mixer
  • Jack transport (mostly for synth and effects sync)
  • (and always-on track monitoring)

My C++ skills are very limited, but if I were to fork this repo, what do you would have to be done to achieve what I'm suggesting? Would the performance and/or memory usage be significantly impacted? Does my suggestion even make sense? :)
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts about this.

commented

may ask what's the point?

the timeline is all about a conveyor to pre-recorded material or to record new one: yes it's mainly a glorified "sequencer" job. no less.

if you don't need any of that (playback pre-recorded material or recording new one), then just don't: it won't hurt by any means in resource-usage anyhow... maybe quite the same result if the timeline "feature" would be stripped off in any conceivable fork...

so I'd ask again: what exactly are you willing to achieve that isn't already there for the taking?
cheers

commented

Thanks for the quick answer!
I'm simply considering performance (I'm on a dual-core 12+ years old laptop) and screen estate (with a 1280*768 screen resolution).

My current setup looks like this inside RaySession:

  • my MIDI controllers send MIDI to 'Seq192 in'
  • Seq192 records and plays midi loops, sending midi out to its 16 midi outputs
  • I connect Seq192's midi output to Qtractor's MIDI bus inputs
  • I patch the busses to tracks, and set up the synths and effects in Qtractor's mixer view.

I'm using all this in a kind of live-looping setup, where I record and loop on the fly MIDI sequences in Seq192 - but I never record anything into Qtractor's timeline, whether MIDI or audio (the sequencer role is covered by Seq192), so I'm only using it to generate and mix audio. In the end I need only to see Seq192 and Qtractor's mixer on screen. Does it make sense?

then just don't: it won't hurt by any means in resource-usage anyhow

I guess that's the simple answer to my question :)