=============================== Jackbeat - Audio Sequencer =============================== Introduction ============ Jackbeat is an audio sequencer running on Linux and Mac OS X, for musicians and sound artists: * Drummachine interface with animations for easy and playful editing * Built for both composition and live setups with high interactivity needs * Extremely easy to use but yet powerful by connecting with other applications and plugins using JACK and OSC * Loads and saves .jab files, Jackbeat's xml+tar open file format * Supports native audio devices, PulseAudio and JACK Requirements ============ Required dependencies ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ * PortAudio (http://www.portaudio.com/) * Linux only: libasound (http://www.alsa-project.org) * GTK+-2.0 (gtk.org) * libsndfile (www.mega-nerd.com/libsndfile) * libxml2 (http://xmlsoft.org) * libsamplerate (http://www.mega-nerd.com/SRC) * liblo (http://liblo.sourceforge.net) Optional dependencies ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ * JACK, the Jack Audio Connection Kit (http://jackaudio.org) : a running server as well as the API header files. Mac OS X users should see http://www.jackosx.com * PulseAudio (http://www.pulseaudio.org) Installation ============ Jackbeat uses autoconf and automake, so you should just need to type:: ./configure make make install This should be straightforward on Linux. For Mac OS X please check: http://jackbeat.samalyse.org/wiki/MacInstallation For Windows please see: http://jackbeat.samalyse.org/browser/trunk/mingw/README Developer/maintainer mode ========================= If you want to compile Jackbeat and run it without installation, you need to:: ./configure --enable-devmode make # run jackbeat from the current directory: src/jackbeat Usage ===== Jackbeat is pretty simple to use. Browse through the main menu, it is meant to be quite obvious. The Sequence and Track buttons at the bottom of the window open the corresponding properties panel where you'll find convenient functions. To begin, just a load a few samples using the track panel properties or the edit menu. Then by toggling some of the buttons on the drummachine and clicking Play you shall hear some music. Well... hopefully ;) Notes about export parameters ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ When you export the current sequence as a WAV file, you are given a choice about how to handle samples that continue playing passed the end of the sequence: - loop: mix at the beginning. This is optimal for playing the exported WAV file as a loop in some external software. - truncate: don't play at all. This will sound like the initial sequence playback, before it has looped at least once. - keep: continue playing samples until they terminate. Beware that the exported file may thus be (much) longer than the sequence. The double function ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Available in the Edit menu, Double increases the beats number by a factor of 2, and duplicates the beats data. This feature allows you to increase your workspace size, while keeping the output unchanged. About track masking ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Track masks allow you to insert silences into a track interactively. Use Shift-Click (or press N) to toggle the mask for a given beat. The corresponding track will then get muted during the duration of that beat. Keyboard shortcuts ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You can learn about most of the keyboard shortcuts by looking at the main menu. There also are a few pattern editing shortcuts: - B or <return>: toggle beat - N: toggle mask - <up>/<down>/<right>/<left>/<home>/<end> : move Feedback and Support ==================== Please give me some feedback. Tell me if Jackbeat inspires you. For user support, mailing list and bug reports please see: http://jackbeat.samalyse.org/wiki/UserSupport You may also send me links to your musical productions so that I can include them on the musical examples page at: http://jackbeat.samalyse.org/wiki/MusicExamples Contact ======= Home page : http://jackbeat.samalyse.org Olivier Guilyardi <olivier {at} samalyse {dot} com>