[Qtractor-devel] Project AKAI APC 40 for Qtractor

[Florent T. <fl...@po...>]

Hello here,

First, let me present myself, my name is Florent TETART, I'm french (so 
be indulgent for my english !!)  and I am one of the creator of  the 
free software for libraries PMB (https://www.sigb.net). I am a software 
developer since about 20 years, especially in the web technologies (php, 
javascript), but always interested in exploring new subjects during my 
leisure time !

My boy friend composed 20 years ago a rock-opera and during the Covid 
confinement he decided to review his work and produce a new version. I 
knew the very basic concepts  of MIDI, DAW and audio processing  so to 
help him I decided to install his personal home digital studio under 
GNU/Linux and I discovered Qtractor (after trying Rosegarden and a few 
others) witch is a great software, clear and efficient (thank you :-) ).

I started to look for midi control surfaces and after hours of 
researches on the web to understand how it work and the different 
possibilities, I found a second hand APC 40 from AKAI designed for 
Ableton with the project of developing a midi to midi or keyboard 
shortcut router in python to use it extensively with Qtractor and Qjackctl.

I started the job a few days ago, and the basics should work without any 
troubles :

-managing the mixer console

-using knobs to adjust the pannig

-Handling play / stop / record

-using pad touches for driving fastforward, rewind, metronome 
start/stop, moving selection through tracks by sending specific midi 
signals defined via the help/shortcut window

I would like to go further and I need your advises  and explanations of 
what is possible or not.

-I didn't found how I could move the start and end of a loop or puch (is 
there shortcuts for that ?)

-I'd like to use the tempo knob to change the tempo in Qtractor but I 
didn't found any shortcut (keyboard or midi)

-The controller have 8 knobs that I would like to :

     *associate to the control of plugins on the current selected track 
(ex : reverb or delay level)

     *using them when the shit touch of the APC 40 is on to move the 
playhead, start / end of loop / punch or horizontal/vertical scrolls and 
zoom in/out of the work zone (may be possible with keyboard shortcuts 
for scrolling or zoom ?) ...

     *using them with other touches to control automation level on tracks

-And the cherry on the cake : I'd like to use the pad grid of the APC 40 
to light on pads in function of the current clips visible on the screen 
(why not !) and select directly one clip when pressing the corresponding 
pad...

Is there any way of doing that ? Could we use dbus messages for 
controlling Qtractor or getting app datas (list of tracks, list of clips 
of a track, list of plugins in a track, position of the play head, ...), 
or is there an hidden API :-) ?

I am also listening to your ideas for using this controller in the best 
useful manner as I'm not a great practitioner of the software as I don't 
compose myself !

Of course, I will publish this work as a free software.

Regards,

Florent