#15 Quick bouncing of MIDI plugin tracks

[Daniel MacDonald]

Qtractor presently requires any MIDI tracks using softsynths to first be mixed down to audio tracks. This must be setup manually and the the actual bouncing occurs in RT so I'd hope there is scope to make the process much faster and easier and to that end I'd like to suggest a potential solution to this.

A new drop-down could be added to the input/output section (or maybe the MIDI/ Instrument section instead?) of the 'Add (MIDI) track' window that would let the user select a pre-existing audio track for that MIDI tracks softsynth to get mixed down to when the user selects that track for bouncing. I should imagine it would prob to necessary to mandate that each audio track could only have one MIDI track assigned to it for bounce purposes.

If this was in place then it could be possible for the user to select one or more MIDI softsynth enabled tracks and update their mixdowns in a keypress or single click.

[Rui Nuno Capela]

this will be possible, probably only when jack-midi support gets implemented. if that ever happens though ;)

currently, the audio (jack) and midi (alsa) engines are separated and fundamentally asynchronous--for instance, midi events are queued ahead of time (scheduled).while audio is streamed in real-time.

although exclusively for instrument plugins this request can be technically possible, i'm afraid it isn't currently possible without a complete rewrite of the most critical core of the software.

i think i've posed this too many times before: qtractor is a sequencer. it is NOT a DAW. well, it's a sequencer with some DAW capabailities, there is:) alas faster-than-realtime bouncing (aka. freezing, exporting, w/e) of midi tracks into audio ones (or files) are NOT one of those capabilities. i'm sorry.

remember that qtractor was and still is primarily designed for driving outboard midi equipment. in fact those are the kind of instruments i still love and cherish. the instrument plugins craze come waaay later in the development process, even though qtractor is yet the current linux host supporting the most of plugin types available. let alone plugin interopability.

so, no cigar, for the time being.

cheers

[Daniel MacDonald]

Oh well!

Thanks for explaining why this isn't possible yet Rui. That's one very good reason for and benefit of JACK MIDI right there then!

As I said on the LM forums to safeplaces, the lack of this functionality will be partly made up for with the implementation of tickets 7+8. Is there a chance those may get Rui'd before the next dot release?

Thanks RNCBC!

[Rui Nuno Capela]

Starting from v0.6.7, audio track export (Track/Export Tracks/Audio...) has been deeply refactored to finally include MIDI track/instrument plugins rendering (aka. freeze) on selected audio output buses on mix-down.