QTACTOR
How to set up a pro-level music studio
Michael Reed digs deeper into what’s possible in the realm of a Linux-based music studio, and discovers that the sky’s the limit.
Part Two!
Did you miss part one? Get hold of it on page 64
OUR EXPERT
Michael Reed first began recording music by joining two tape recorders together and then swapping the cassettes over to add extra layers. His Amiga A1200 provided the drums.
QUICK TIP
If you’re using a microphone to record audio, start with low volumes for both your monitoring speakers and input levels. It’s easy to create a high-pitched feedback loop that’s both unpleasant and capable of potentially damaging speakers. Many home studio musicians use headphones when tracking (recording).
Last issue, we set up the DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) Qtractor, and we took a look at the basics of working with music in Linux. This time, we’re going to get further into working with MIDI in Qtractor by looking at more of its processing and editing facilities. We’ll also have a go at adding digital audio files to projects by both importing them and recording them from scratch.
Once we’ve added the audio files into our Qtractor project, we’ll get the scissors out and start cutting up the audio to make it fit into the composition. We’ll assume that you have installed the JACK and Qtractor packages on your system. Look for them in the package manager if not.
MIDI editing
We’re going to look at some of the more advanced MIDI editing tools that Qtractor offers. You’ll need to have MIDI data present in a composition before you can begin editing it. If you haven’t got anything ready yet, consider downloading a MIDI file from the internet. Searching the web for MIDI files should prove fruitful. Drag and drop the .mid file onto the main Qtractor window so that you’ve got some juicy clips full of notes to play around with.
Double-click a MIDI clip to open up the editor window. Here, you can highlight a group of notes by dragging over them with the mouse. Ctrl+A selects all of the notes in the clip. If you have no notes selected, the MIDI tools will have no effect.
Quantize (locking the timing of MIDI notes on to the grid) is one of the most important MIDI editing tools for most musicians, particularly when working on electronic-style music. It’s located in the Tools menu, which can be accessed by either right-clicking selected notes, or from the menu bar of the MIDI editor window.
When you select the Quantize menu option, you’re presented with a dialog that enables you specify the quantize details. It is here that you specify which note attributes you want to affect, by selecting the appropriate check box. For example, you may want to lock the start of the notes to the grid, but not affect the length of the notes in order to preserve some natural feel to the part, and the same goes for note velocities. The quantize feature of Qtractor also makes it possible for you to lock notes to a key or to apply a swing feel by pushing notes before or after the beat.