Qtractor takes non-revenge on LV2

by Alexandre Prokoudine
Filed under: Audio,
Qtractor / DAW

If you read one of our recent interviews, you probably remeber Rui’s vitriol against LV2, a free API for audio/MIDI plug-ins. Well, guess what the newest release of his MIDI sequencer got.

Let us remind you the most interesting relevant bit from the interview:

This lv2_atom is a dang new incompatible MIDI data transport for hosts and plug-ins. Although internally similar to the old/current lv2_event infrastructure, it’s more like a brand new lv3 interface, if you ask me.

The recent mda-lv2 release uses this lv2_atom(ized) thing. That said, all the MIDI instrument plug-ins in that new mda-lv2 suite will be just useless in Qtractor. They won’t work and there will be no simple hack to work around that. So sorry. The audio effects ones will play nice though. I don’t have much time to spare on doing the overhaul that the new lv2_atom(izing) interface requires.

He also added:

I’ve been interested in LV2 to cover all DSSI and VSTi features… It hasn’t come close yet. But to be specific, MIDI bank / program addressable instrument presets (supported by both DSSI and VSTi) is a long whined one.

Two months later the newly released Qtractor 0.5.5 really focuses on updating to the new LV2 stack. This change will be most interesting to people who make a heavy use of LV2 synths. Here is why:

  • Qtractor now supports the very same Atom/MIDI extension that new plug-ins such as MDA require. So you will actually be able to hear MDA synths playing in the sequencer.
  • There have been no notion of MIDI banks/programs in LV2 until recently, and Qtractor now supports the newly added Programs/instrument extension.
  • The application also supports the Presets extension now, and that means, if you found an interesting sound while working in Qtractor, you’ll be able to save it as a preset and load from some other host (such as Ardour 3).

This can be illustrated with a screenshot featuring MDA JX10 synth that makes use of both Atom/MIDI and Presets.

Qtractor reads and loads LV2 presets now

MDA JX10 with generic UI. Note that unlike some other plug-ins, such as the newer Calf series, the MDA ones dont' have fancy UIs yet.

Two other newly supported extensions are Worker/Schedule and Time/position. Adding support for the latter also triggered time/position fixes for VST.

Since this version Qtractor also has an official user guide in PDF, so far only in English. As usual the application is available as source code and RPM packages for openSUSE.

BTW, Rui started working on an LV2 synth of his own, and on a simple sampler. Check out his blog. If that’s not “born again”, then what is? :)