Qtractor For Linux

Qtractor is an open source project that provides user with a complex audio and MIDI multi-track sequencer application specifically engineered to run only on the Linux platform. It is written in the C++ programming language and uses a graphical user interface created with the Qt GUI toolkit.

The application makes use of the following open source sound servers, ALSA (Advanced Linux Sound Architecture) for MIDI and JACK (Jack Audio Connection Kit) for audio. It has been designed from the ground up to be deployed on a dedicated personal home audio studio.

Several popular audio file formats are supported by Qtractor, including OGG Vorbis, MP3, FLAC, WAV, and AIFF, thanks to the libsndfile, libmad and libvorbis libraries. It supports standard MIDI files in 0 or 1 formats.

The application features a traditional multi-track tape recorder control paradigm, non-linear and non-destructive audio editing, supports an unlimited number of tracks per session or project, as well as an unlimited number of overlapping clips and audio effects per bus or track.

It also comes with multi-select, point-and-click, and drag & drop interaction, unlimited undo & redo functionality, unlimited time-signature and tempo maps, audio clip time-stretching, and support for XML-encoded description files for both projects and sessions.

Built-in audio monitor and mixer controls, as well as connection patch-bay persistence and control is implemented in the application, which supports LADSPA, native VSTi, DSSI and LV2 plugins. It includes loop-recording functionality and configurable keyboard shortcuts.

Another interesting feature is the ability to define MIDI instruments in the style of the Cakewalk application. Also, it supports SysEx setups, JACK sessions, NSM (Non Session Management), MIDI song position cueing, as well as import of XML (*.midnam) files.

Summing up, Qtractor is an feature-rich audio/MIDI multi-track sequencer application. It’s best used for MIDI and audio recording and sequencing under any Linux-based operating system. We strongly recommend to use it on your personal digital audio workstation computer.