Tracktion-on-Linux - jotting some notes down

Support & discussion regarding DAWs and MIDI sequencers.

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Luc
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Re: Tracktion-on-Linux - jotting some notes down

Post by Luc »

ubuntuuser wrote:Bridged and wine-dependent plugins are frequently unstable or unusable
Not true in Bitwig. Some bridged and wine-dependent plugins won't work, but those are rare. Those that work never crash. Tracktion is unstable.
braintree12
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Re: Tracktion-on-Linux - jotting some notes down

Post by braintree12 »

I can't get Tracktion to send MIDI clock out to my midi-to-cv converter, which means I can't trigger a Eurorack sequencer. Ardour has MIDI clock out (which has to be connected to my soundcard's MIDI out in Patchage) that I can use to start, stop and reset the sequencer. Tracktion has an option "Send MIDI machine control to device," in the clip menu, but this doesn't transmit clock pulses. Unless I'm missing something, that's a plus for Ardour and a minus for T7.
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Re: Tracktion-on-Linux - jotting some notes down

Post by braintree12 »

Tracktion's new version of T7 is called Waveform -- I received a free upgrade since I had just purchased T7.
They added a mixer, which is nice. Unfortunately stuff broke that was working in T7 and now no longer works in either version, such as clip effects and automation tracks. The plugins are worse. The new sampler "Collective" can't be edited, and ZynAddSubFX (which I had working well in T7) is now less responsive to mouse commands. Even some of the DAW Essentials effects aren't working as well. I've submitted a support ticket for all this.
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Re: Tracktion-on-Linux - jotting some notes down

Post by braintree12 »

I installed 8.0.25 of Waveform and the problems I was having with automation and clip effects were resolved -- not sure what was happening there. Support says they are working on the mouse issue for controlling plugins. In the meantime, I installed Waveform back on the dreaded Windows 64 so I can play around with it and better understand what's a bug and what's a feature, as I continue to explore the Linux version.
Also, I am seeing an option in Waveform for "midi clock out" -- I will be testing that in the Linux version to see how it works with Eurorack midi-to-cv hardware.
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Re: Tracktion-on-Linux - jotting some notes down

Post by braintree12 »

Version 8.0.26 of Waveform has fixed the "jumpy mouse issue" when controlling plugins. The new synth Collective is working better now, too. Especially once I learned to put the presets in the .config folder.
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Re: Tracktion-on-Linux - jotting some notes down

Post by braintree12 »

Above I said that Tracktion 7 wasn't sending MIDI Clock Out that I could use to sync and record a Eurorack sequencer. I don't know if I just missed it in Settings, but in any case, the successor to Tracktion 7, the DAW now called Waveform, has MIDI Clock Out and it works fine for what I want it to do. It keeps the hardware sequencer in sync with the DAW and resets the sequence to the first note when stopped and restarted at the MIDI loop beginning. FWIW I use the Vermona qMI as a MIDI-to-cv interface. I've had the best results with that using both Waveform and Ardour.
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Re: Tracktion-on-Linux - jotting some notes down

Post by braintree12 »

A quick update to note that Waveform version 9 has been released and continues to work very well for the basic functions I need it for (recording, looping MIDI, mixing, sending MIDI out to an external modular synth rack, and recording the audio) on my PC running Ubuntu Studio 16.04.
I haven't tested the 3rd party plugin functionality in this version yet. To be honest I've been happy with Collective (Tracktion's ROMpler), Helm (which works perfectly), and all the DAW Essentials effects plugins (also from Tracktion).
A welcome addition is a sampler called Multi Sampler, which allows drag and drop importing of files and easy editing, recording, slicing, and layering of samples.
It's also easy to use JACK to connect various Linux-based instruments to Waveform. I can run LV2 plugins in Carla, or LMMS in standalone mode, and record the output into Waveform's JUCE inputs, and set up tracks to stream and/or record these inputs in seconds.
I still haven't tried Bitwig-on-Linux. I like the simplicity of Tracktion's editing window, and haven't been lured away. When Ardour gets midi looping working better, as they have announced their intention to do in version 6, I'll happily return to doing more work there.
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Re: Tracktion-on-Linux - jotting some notes down

Post by braintree12 »

In this thread -- https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopi ... 1#p7061911 --
lilith93 noted a bug with the Carla plugin window on Waveform 9. I won't repeat that discussion here, except to note that I'm happy to see Carla is working in Waveform now. As discussed in my notes above, I hadn't been able to use it to open LV2 (or VST) plugins a few months ago. After reading lilith93's posts I gave it another try and was happy to discover I could play the Calf Monosynth in Waveform by way of the Carla plugin host (rack only -- the patchbay crashes Waveform), including opening the GUI. Everything renders down as it should. Loomer Aspect (vst plugin) also works as a Carla-hosted plugin -- in Waveform itself, however, Aspect crashes the DAW.
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Re: Tracktion-on-Linux - jotting some notes down

Post by braintree12 »

A couple of updates to this thread:
The Carla issue with the disappearing top border discussed above was resolved here -- viewtopic.php?f=47&t=18439 -- with some assistance from Tracktion support and falkTX. Essentially it requires having two versions of Carla in the vst folder (one using Qt4 for Tracktion and one using Qt5, for, say, Ardour) and not opening them at the same time. Details in that thread.
Tracktion has released some new softsynths. I purchased RetroMod Fat, modeled after some classic Moog hardware. It's essentially a ROMpler with a fairly huge sample library but can be programmed like a softsynth and controlled with MIDI and Waveform 9's new-ish track modulators such as LFOs. The sound is pretty rich.
Initially I couldn't get the plugin to open in Ubuntu Studio 16.04. Again, Tracktion support was helpful and eventually figured out I was missing a libcurl.so link, which was crashing the plugin. They recommended a fix, and they say an update is coming soon to fix this problem.
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Re: Tracktion-on-Linux - jotting some notes down

Post by braintree12 »

Prior to version 9.3.4 of Tracktion Waveform, [Cmd]+drag was used to timestretch clips. This was inconsistent with the documentation, which specifies the [Alt] key. Version 9.3.4 [still in beta] changes the timestretch key to [Alt], creating a conflict with Unity and XFCE (and possibly other desktops), which use [Alt]+drag to resize windows. The upshot is, timestretch is disabled. Both Unity (https://askubuntu.com/a/937834) and XFCE* have methods for disabling [Alt]+drag to resize windows. Rather than recommending that Linux users do that, Tracktion should possibly consider going back to [Cmd]+drag (which worked fine) and changing their documentation.

*In XFCE you look for "Window Manager Tweaks" in Settings, find the "Accessibility" tab, and where it says "key used to grab and move windows" there is a dropdown where you can switch "Alt" to "None."
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