1 <?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
2 <!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.1.2//EN"
3 "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.1.2/docbookx.dtd" [
4 <!ENTITY legal SYSTEM "legal.xml">
7 <article lang="en" id="index">
9 <title>terminatorX - Manual</title>
12 <firstname>Alexander</firstname>
14 <surname>König</surname>
28 <holder role="mailto:alex@lisas.de">Alexander König</holder>
31 <releaseinfo>Version 3.81</releaseinfo>
33 <legalnotice id="legalnotice">
34 <para>Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this
35 document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL),
36 Version 1.1 or any later version published by the Free Software
37 Foundation with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no
38 Back-Cover Texts. You can find a copy of the GFDL at this <ulink
39 type="help" url="ghelp:fdl">link</ulink> or in the file COPYING-DOCS
40 distributed with this manual.</para>
42 <para>Many of the names used by companies to distinguish their products
43 and services are claimed as trademarks. Where those names appear in any
44 ScrollKeeper documentation, and the members of the ScrollKeeper Project
45 are made aware of those trademarks, then the names are in capital
46 letters or initial capital letters.</para>
48 <para>DOCUMENT AND MODIFIED VERSIONS OF THE DOCUMENT ARE PROVIDED UNDER
49 THE TERMS OF THE GNU FREE DOCUMENTATION LICENSE WITH THE FURTHER
50 UNDERSTANDING THAT: <orderedlist><listitem><para>DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED ON
51 AN "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED
52 OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, WARRANTIES THAT THE DOCUMENT
53 OR MODIFIED VERSION OF THE DOCUMENT IS FREE OF DEFECTS MERCHANTABLE, FIT
54 FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR NON-INFRINGING. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE
55 QUALITY, ACCURACY, AND PERFORMANCE OF THE DOCUMENT OR MODIFIED VERSION
56 OF THE DOCUMENT IS WITH YOU. SHOULD ANY DOCUMENT OR MODIFIED VERSION
57 PROVE DEFECTIVE IN ANY RESPECT, YOU (NOT THE INITIAL WRITER, AUTHOR OR
58 ANY CONTRIBUTOR) ASSUME THE COST OF ANY NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR
59 CORRECTION. THIS DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY CONSTITUTES AN ESSENTIAL PART OF
60 THIS LICENSE. NO USE OF ANY DOCUMENT OR MODIFIED VERSION OF THE DOCUMENT
61 IS AUTHORIZED HEREUNDER EXCEPT UNDER THIS DISCLAIMER; AND</para></listitem><listitem><para>UNDER
62 NO CIRCUMSTANCES AND UNDER NO LEGAL THEORY, WHETHER IN TORT (INCLUDING
63 NEGLIGENCE), CONTRACT, OR OTHERWISE, SHALL THE AUTHOR, INITIAL WRITER,
64 ANY CONTRIBUTOR, OR ANY DISTRIBUTOR OF THE DOCUMENT OR MODIFIED VERSION
65 OF THE DOCUMENT, OR ANY SUPPLIER OF ANY OF SUCH PARTIES, BE LIABLE TO
66 ANY PERSON FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR
67 CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OF ANY CHARACTER INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION,
68 DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF GOODWILL, WORK STOPPAGE, COMPUTER FAILURE OR
69 MALFUNCTION, OR ANY AND ALL OTHER DAMAGES OR LOSSES ARISING OUT OF OR
70 RELATING TO USE OF THE DOCUMENT AND MODIFIED VERSIONS OF THE DOCUMENT,
71 EVEN IF SUCH PARTY SHALL HAVE BEEN INFORMED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
72 DAMAGES.</para></listitem></orderedlist></para>
76 <sect1 id="INTRODUCTION">
77 <title>Introduction</title>
80 <title>What it is</title>
82 <para>terminatorX is a realtime audio synthesizer that allows you to
83 "scratch" on digitally sampled audio data (*.wav, *.au, *.ogg,
84 *.mp3, etc.) the way hiphop-DJs scratch on vinyl records. It features
85 multiple turntables, realtime effects (buit-in as well as <ulink
86 url="http://www.ladspa.org">LADSPA</ulink> plugin effects), a sequencer
87 and MIDI interface - all accessible through an easy-to-use gtk+ GUI.</para>
89 <para>This is software may have <ulink
90 url="http://terminatorX.cx/bugs.html">bugs</ulink> please help fixing
91 them. See <xref linkend="CONTACT" />. Please read this manual and visit
92 the <ulink url="http://www.terminatorX.cx">homepage</ulink>.</para>
95 <sect2 id="QUICKSTART">
96 <title>Quickstart</title>
98 <para>Try the following steps:</para>
100 <orderedlist continuation="restarts" inheritnum="ignore">
102 <para>If you don't have <application moreinfo="none">LADSPA</application>
103 (Linux Audio Developer's Simple Plugin API) installed, go and
104 get it from the <ulink url="http://www.ladspa.org">LADSPA-homepage</ulink>
105 and install the SDK. terminatorX requires <filename moreinfo="none">ladspa.h</filename>.</para>
109 <para>Install terminatorX (see <filename moreinfo="none">INSTALL</filename>
114 <para>If you want to use the <ulink
115 url="http://jackit.sourceforge.net">JACK</ulink> backend run jackd
116 before starting terminatorX.</para>
120 <para>Run terminatorX</para>
124 <para>Setup Audio Output via <emphasis>Options/Preferences</emphasis>.</para>
128 <para>Load an audiofile into the available turntable (you can add
129 more turntables if you want) (Hint: Click on the button that holds
130 "NONE" to load an audiofile, or drop one over the audiofile
131 display from your GNOME filemanager.</para>
135 <para>Load a LADSPA plugin of your choice by clicking the
136 turntable's <emphasis>FX</emphasis> button and enable it.</para>
140 <para>Click on the "Audio Engine"-button to start playback.</para>
144 <para>Click on the "Mouse-Grab"-button to enter grab mode.
145 The turntable with the red border has the input focus.</para>
149 <para>Press <keycap moreinfo="none">SPACE</keycap> or left mouse
150 button to scratch.</para>
154 <para>Release <keycap moreinfo="none">SPACE</keycap> or left mouse
155 button to let the scratch-file run at the turntable's default
160 <para>Press <keycap moreinfo="none">ESCAPE</keycap> to quit grab
166 <sect2 id="FEATURES">
167 <title>Features</title>
169 <para>The following list summarizes terminatorX' main features:</para>
173 <para>Scratching</para>
177 <para>Multiple turntables</para>
181 <para>Built-in Sequencer</para>
185 <para>MIDI Interface</para>
189 <para>Pitch / Volume settings for each turntable</para>
193 <para>Effects (Lowpass/Echo) configurable for each turntable</para>
197 <para>Syncing tables to one master turntable</para>
201 <para>Broad audiofile-type support</para>
205 <para>Record to disk</para>
209 <para>Save and Load turntable sets (.tX - files)</para>
213 <para>Support for LADSPA plugins.</para>
217 <para>Support for the <emphasis>JACK Audio Connection Kit</emphasis></para>
221 <para>and more</para>
226 <sect2 id="REQUIREMENTS">
227 <title>Requirements</title>
229 <para>To run terminatorX a system should meet the following
234 <para>Software</para>
238 <para>required</para>
242 <para>Linux, FreeBSD or the like</para>
246 <para>glibc2 (pthreads).</para>
250 <para>XFree86 (with DGA DirectMouse support). Note that
251 XFree86 Release 4.0 has a bug resulting in broken
252 DirectMouse support. This has been fixed by the XFree86-Team
253 with Release 4.0.1 available from your distribution or the
254 <ulink url="http://www.xfree86.org">XFree86 homepage</ulink>.</para>
258 <para>The Gimp Toolkit: gtk+ (>= 2.0). If your
259 distribution doesn't provide a current version of gtk+
260 get it from the <ulink url="http://www.gtk.org">gtk+
261 homepage</ulink>.</para>
265 <para>LADSPA - the Linux Audio Developer's Simple Plugin
266 API. Get it from the <ulink url="http://www.ladpsa.org">LADSPA
267 homepage</ulink></para>
271 <para>a compiler (gcc)</para>
277 <para>optional (but highly recommended)</para>
281 <para><ulink url="http://plugin.org.uk/releases/lrdf/">liblrdf</ulink>
282 for easier handling of LADSPA plugins</para>
286 <para><ulink url="http://www.mars.org/home/rob/proj/mpeg/">mad</ulink>
287 for loading mp3 files.</para>
291 <para><ulink url="http://www.xiph.org/ogg/vorbis/">libvorbis</ulink>
292 for loading ogg files.</para>
296 <para><ulink url="http://jackit.sourceforge.net">libjack</ulink>
297 for JACK support.</para>
301 <para><ulink url="http://xmlsoft.org/">libxml2</ulink> to
302 read terminatorX set and rc files</para>
306 <para><ulink url="http://www.gzip.org/zlib/">zlib</ulink> to
307 create compressed XML set files to save diskspaces</para>
311 <para><ulink url="http://www.68k.org/~michael/audiofile/">libaudiofile</ulink>
312 for loading misc other audio files.</para>
317 url="http://www-ti.informatik.uni-tuebingen.de/~hippm/mpg123.html">mpg123</ulink>
318 for mp3 pre-listening (and fallback loading if mad is not
323 <para><ulink url="http://www.xiph.org/ogg/vorbis/">ogg123</ulink>
324 for ogg pre-listening (and fallback loading if libvorbis is
325 not installed).</para>
330 url="http://home.sprynet.com/~cbagwell/sox.html">sox</ulink>
331 for misc files pre-listening (and fallback loading of misc
340 <para>Hardware</para>
344 <para>An <ulink url="http://www.alsa-project.org">ALSA</ulink>
345 or OSS compatible soundcard capable of stereo output.</para>
349 <para>A good clean mouse and pad, a good X-Pointer setup.</para>
355 <para>A note on performance: terminatorX is known to run satisfyingly on
356 pentium-class systems (or above of course). Increasing the number of
357 turntables or plugins will of course require more performant systems.</para>
360 <sect2 id="INSTALLATION">
361 <title>Installation</title>
363 <para>For GNU-standards' sake this information is now located in the
364 <filename moreinfo="none">INSTALL</filename> file that came with this
365 distribution of terminatorX.</para>
369 <sect1 id="OPERATION">
370 <title>Operation</title>
372 <para>TerminatorX' user interface is split up into the main controls
373 (master, sequencer, engine controls and menu buttons) and the individual
374 turntable's controls. Each turntable has it's own interface split
375 up into a control and a audio panel (see <xref linkend="TURNTABLECONTROLS" />).</para>
380 <para>To clean-up the user interface a bit further some functions have
381 been moved into a more standard menu bar for the main window (with
382 release 3.80). The following sub-menus are available:</para>
384 <sect3 id="FILEMENU">
385 <title><emphasis>File</emphasis> Menu</title>
387 <para>The <emphasis>File</emphasis> menu features these functions:</para>
391 <para><emphasis>New</emphasis></para>
393 <para>Erases all existing turntables and sequencer events and
394 creates a new and untouched turntable.</para>
398 <para><emphasis>Open</emphasis></para>
400 <para>Allows restoring of a previously saved terminatorX set file.</para>
404 <para><emphasis>Save</emphasis></para>
406 <para>Saves the current turntables and events in a terminatorX set
411 <para><emphasis>Save As</emphasis></para>
413 <para>Like <emphasis>Save</emphasis> but prompts for a new file
418 <para><emphasis>Quit</emphasis></para>
423 <sect3 id="TURNTABLESMENU">
424 <title><emphasis>Turntables</emphasis> Menu</title>
426 <para>The <emphasis>Turntables</emphasis> menu features these
431 <para><emphasis>Add Turntable</emphasis></para>
433 <para>Adds a new turntable to the current set of turntables.</para>
437 <para><emphasis>Record Audio to Disk</emphasis></para>
439 <para>On activation of this option, terminatorX will prompt for a
440 file name for the RIFF/Wave file to create. Once activated
441 terminatorX will start recording audio to disk the next time the
442 audio engine is started - either by pressing the Power or the Play
443 button. Recording will stop when the audio engine is stopped
444 again. The created RIFF/Wave file will be a 16Bit/Stereo wave-file
445 with the sampling rate selected for the current audio backend.</para>
450 <sect3 id="SEQUENCERMENU">
451 <title><emphasis>Sequencer</emphasis> Menu</title>
453 <para>The <emphasis>Sequencer</emphasis> (see the <xref
454 linkend="SEQUENCER" /> section for general information on the
455 sequencer) menu features these functions:</para>
459 <para><emphasis>Delete All</emphasis> submenus</para>
461 <para>These submenus allow you to delete sequencer events of a
462 specific parameter or all events for a complete turntable. After
463 selecting the the parameter/turntable of your choice a dialog will
464 pop-up that allows you to delete all events from either:</para>
468 <para>the beginning of the song upto the current song position</para>
472 <para>the current song position upto the end of the song</para>
476 <para>the beginning to the end of the song (all events)</para>
482 <para><emphasis>Delete All Events</emphasis></para>
484 <para>Works the same as the <emphasis>Delete All</emphasis>
485 submenus but selects <emphasis>all</emphasis> events for
486 <emphasis>all</emphasis> turntables.</para>
490 <para><emphasis>Confirm Recorded Events</emphasis></para>
492 <para>Usually terminatorX will add all recorded events of a take
493 to the song event list as soon as you hit the
494 <emphasis>Stop</emphasis> button for the sequencer. If you enable
495 <emphasis>Confirm Recorded Events</emphasis> terminatorX will ask
496 you whether the recorded events should really be fed into the song
497 list. This makes it much easier to record a certain part over and
498 over again until you get it right.</para>
503 <sect3 id="OPTIONSMENU">
504 <title><emphasis>Options</emphasis> Menu</title>
506 <para>The <emphasis>Options</emphasis> menu features these functions:</para>
510 <para><emphasis>Fullscreen</emphasis></para>
512 <para>Maximizes the terminatorX main windows to use the complete
513 screen. Note that this requires a NETWM compliant window manager
514 to work. By toggling this option again terminatorX' window can
515 be resized back to the previous state again. The setting will be
516 stored in the <filename>~/.terminatorXrc</filename> file.</para>
520 <para><emphasis>Preferences</emphasis></para>
522 <para>Will pop up the Preferences dialog. For more details on
523 configuration itself see <xref linkend="CONFIGURATION" />.</para>
528 <sect3 id="HELPMENU">
529 <title><emphasis>Help</emphasis> Menu</title>
531 <para>The <emphasis>Help</emphasis> menu features these functions:</para>
535 <para><emphasis>Contents</emphasis></para>
537 <para>Starts a <emphasis>gnome-help</emphasis> (aka
538 <emphasis>yelp</emphasis>) process to display the very manual you
539 are reading right now.</para>
543 <para><emphasis>About</emphasis></para>
545 <para>Selecting this menu item will cause a small dialog to pop up
546 that contains some information on the compile time settings for
547 the terminatorX binary as well as the license.</para>
551 <para><emphasis>Visit terminatorX.cx</emphasis></para>
553 <para>Will try to spawn a browser process to load the URL
554 "http://terminatorX.cx" - for easy update checking or just
555 unecessary bloat.</para>
561 <sect2 id="MAINCONTROLS">
562 <title>Main Controls</title>
564 <para>The controls of the master GUI are located in the top and the
565 right bar of the terminatorX main window.</para>
569 <para><emphasis>Audio Engine Power / Mouse Grab</emphasis></para>
571 <para>With the Audio Engine Button you can en- and disable the audio
572 playback engine without activating the sequencer. Unlike earlier
573 versions you will not automatically enter mouse-grab mode so you can
574 modify volume/pitch/echo settings etc. while you actually hear what
577 <para>Some functions are not available when the audio engine is on,
578 their controls will be marked insensitive when you enable the
579 engine. To actually enter grab mode you'll have to click on the
580 "Mouse Grab" button. See <xref linkend="GRABMODE" /> to find
581 out how to control the software then.</para>
585 <para><emphasis>Sequencer Play / Record / Stop</emphasis></para>
587 <para>Please read the <xref linkend="SEQUENCER" /> section to find
588 out more about the sequencer.</para>
592 <para><emphasis>Master Volume / Pitch</emphasis></para>
594 <para>The volume and pitch settings of the individual turntables are
595 relative to these master settings. This information will be stored
596 within the .tX set files.</para>
601 <sect2 id="TURNTABLECONTROLS">
602 <title>Turntable Controls</title>
604 <para>The turntable GUI contains multiple controls and the real time
605 displays for each turntable. To save some space on your desktop and to
606 give terminatorX the traditional audio-application look, terminatorX
607 features "knob"-widgets. These widgets work pretty
608 straight-forward: click somewhere within the widget and keep the left
609 mouse-button pressed. Now move the mouse up and down or left and right
610 to increase/decrease the control's value. All those widget are
611 coupled with a text entry field since 3.70, which allows you to enter
612 values directly.</para>
614 <para>A turntable is visualized by two panels: the control and the audio
615 panel. These are no longer combined for better layout management.</para>
617 <para>Sometimes you might find a certain audio or control panel
618 unnecessary - simply eating up space. Since release 3.73 it is possible
619 to minimize audio and control panels to the <emphasis>panel bar</emphasis>
620 with the tiny button with a blue bar icon in the upper right edge of
621 each panel. This bar works just like GNOME's window list or
622 KDE's kicker: When a panel is minimized a button in the bar will
623 appear, representing the minimized window. On clicking this button the
624 button will be removed and the minimized panel is displayed again. When
625 no panels are minimized the panel bar automatically disappears to save
626 display space.</para>
629 <title>Turntable Audio Panel</title>
631 <para>The complete audio-file loaded into a turntable is displayed in
632 the green-on-black audio-widget. When playing terminatorX will
633 indicate the current position within the sample with a red cursor (a
634 blue/green cursor indicates the turntable is muted).</para>
636 <para>Additionally there are some controls above the audio-display:</para>
640 <para><emphasis>Turntable Label</emphasis></para>
642 <para>This label indicates the turntables name. The name can be
643 set via the control panel</para>
647 <para><emphasis>File Button</emphasis></para>
649 <para>This button holds the name of the audio-file currently
650 loaded. When there's no sample loaded the button will read
651 "NONE" to indicate the current status. Click on this
652 button to get a menu from which you can load/reload a sound file
653 or run an external soundfile editor. Alternatively you can
654 drag'n'drop files over the audio-display to load them.</para>
657 <title>The File Button Menu</title>
660 <para><emphasis>Load File</emphasis></para>
662 <para>Choose this menu entry to select a soundfile from the
663 file-selection dialog that will pop-up.</para>
667 <para><emphasis>Reload File</emphasis></para>
669 <para>Choose this menu entry to re-read the audio-file.</para>
673 <para><emphasis>Edit File</emphasis></para>
675 <para>This menu entry will run the external audiofile-editor
676 (that can be specified via the options-dialog) with the
677 current audio-file as a parameter. Choose reload after editing
678 and saving the file.</para>
684 <para><emphasis>Mouse Mapping</emphasis></para>
686 <para>terminatorX allows mapping misc parameters to the mouse axis
687 of your choice. These mappings will be activated in grab mode, so
688 if you move your mouse in X or Y direction in grab mode the
689 parameters you selected from this menu will be affected (for this
690 turntable). Since Version 3.70 this mappings are no longer
691 hardcoded to built-in controls but available for all parameters
692 that qualify as "mappable". Note that this includes
693 plugins' controls as well.</para>
697 <para><emphasis>MIDI Mapping</emphasis></para>
699 <para>This button is available only if terminatorX was built with
700 ALSA MIDI support and the sequencer input port was created
701 successfully on startup. For more information on terminatorX'
702 MIDI interface see <xref linkend="MIDI" /> section.</para>
708 <title>Turntable Controls</title>
710 <para>These controls are now grouped within functional panels. The
711 number of panels depends on the number of plugins loaded. terminatorX
712 allows hiding the controls not required via the yellow triangle
713 button. To un-hide just click the button again. The first panels are
714 the standard controls for a turntable, then follows the dynamic
715 FX-section and below that follow the pitch and volume controls.</para>
718 <title>Main Panel</title>
722 <para><emphasis>Name Field</emphasis></para>
724 <para>The main panel features a text entry field that allows
725 setting a name for the related turntable. The Labels for the
726 controls and the audio-display will update accordingly.</para>
730 <para><emphasis>Delete Button</emphasis></para>
732 <para>Pressing this button remove the turntable from the current
733 setup. Note that all sequencer events recorded for this
734 turntable will be erased, too.</para>
738 <para><emphasis>Pitch Adj. Button</emphasis></para>
740 <para>Using two (or more) loops and terminatorX'
741 synchronization facility usually requires adjusting the pitch of
742 the loops so that the turntables play in sync. For precisely cut
743 loops this usually means making them run equally fast or one
744 running twice as fast as the other etc. Manually finding the
745 necessary pitch values usually consumes a significant amount of
746 time so the feature <emphasis>Pitch Adjust</emphasis> helps
747 speeding up this process.</para>
749 <para>Clicking this button will cause the <emphasis>Compute
750 Pitch</emphasis> dialog to pop up. With this dialog it is
751 possible to specify how many loops of this turntable should be
752 played as fast as a certain amount of loops of the master
753 turntable. After pressing the <emphasis>Ok</emphasis> button
754 terminatorX will adjust the turntable's ptich accordingly in
755 order to match the given playback speed requirements.</para>
757 <para>Note that this feature is proabably useless when loading
758 complete songs into terminatorX - it's intended for use with
759 precisely cut loops.</para>
765 <title>Trigger Panel</title>
767 <para>The trigger panel holds all controls related to triggering the
768 turntable. For more details on synchronization see <xref
769 linkend="SYNCHRONIZATION" />.</para>
773 <para><emphasis>Trigger! Button</emphasis></para>
775 <para>Pressing this button triggers the turntable now. With the
776 audio engine enabled this will cause the turntable to start
777 playing back audio from the beginning of the sample.</para>
781 <para><emphasis>Stop Button</emphasis></para>
783 <para>Guess what, this stops this turntable's
784 audio-playback.</para>
788 <para><emphasis>Master Button</emphasis></para>
790 <para>Enabling this button makes this turntable the
791 <emphasis>sync-master</emphasis>. Note that only
792 <emphasis>one</emphasis> turntable at a time can be the
797 <para><emphasis>Client Button</emphasis></para>
799 <para>This button marks the turntable as <emphasis>sync-client</emphasis>,
800 so it will be triggered with the master automatically.</para>
804 <para><emphasis>Sync-Cycles Selection</emphasis></para>
806 <para>The sync cycles determine how often a sync-client should
807 be triggered. With a setting of zero the sync-client will be
808 (re-)triggered with <emphasis>every</emphasis> trigger of the
809 sync-master. A setting of 1 will (re-)trigger the client every
810 <emphasis>second</emphasis> master-trigger and so on.</para>
814 <para>Below the effect queue a turntable shows some more controls:
815 <itemizedlist><listitem><para><emphasis>Pitch Control</emphasis></para><para>The
816 pitch control allows setting the default playback speed for that
817 turntable (the "motor" speed). Negative values will result
818 in the sample being played backwards.</para></listitem><listitem><para><emphasis>PAN
819 Control</emphasis></para><para>This parameter allows setting the
820 position of the turntable's main signal within the stereo
821 panorama.</para></listitem><listitem><para><emphasis>VU Meter</emphasis></para><para>The
822 displayed signal shows the turntable's current signal not
823 including the echo-signal which is mixed separately.</para></listitem></itemizedlist></para>
827 <sect3 id="PARAMETERMENU">
828 <title>Parameter Menu</title>
830 <para>TerminatorX can record events for nearly all parameters of a
831 turntable. All of these so-called "sequencable" parameters
832 have an extra pop-up menu since Version 3.81. Simply right-click on
833 the knob, button, slider of the parameter you want to setup, and a
834 menu with the following options will appear:<itemizedlist><listitem><para><emphasis>MIDI
835 Learn</emphasis></para><para>This options provides an easy method to
836 select the MIDI control to modify the parameter you select. If you
837 choose this menu entry, a tiny dialog box will pop up that reads
838 <emphasis>"Waiting for MIDI Event..."</emphasis>. The first
839 MIDI event terminatorX receives will now be mapped to control this
840 parameter.</para></listitem><listitem><para><emphasis>Remove MIDI
841 Binding</emphasis></para><para>If a MIDI event has been bound to a
842 parameter it can be removed by selecting this menu entry.</para></listitem><listitem><para><emphasis>Set
843 Upper MIDI Bound</emphasis></para><para>Sometimes it is preferable to
844 modify a certain parameter only within a specific value range - this
845 can be achieved with this option - by setting an upper and a lower
846 bound for the MIDI control of this parameter. When you select this
847 menu entry, the current setting of this parameter will be used as the
848 upper bound for the parameter's MIDI mapping.</para></listitem><listitem><para><emphasis>Reset
849 Upper MIDI Bound</emphasis></para><para>If an upper MIDI bound was set
850 for this parameter it can be removed by selecting this menu entry.</para></listitem><listitem><para><emphasis>Set
851 Lower MIDI Bound</emphasis></para><para>Works just like setting the
852 uper MIDI bound: when you select this menu entry, the current setting
853 of this parameter will be used as the lower bound for the
854 parameter's MIDI mapping.</para></listitem><listitem><para><emphasis>Reset
855 Lower MIDI Bound</emphasis></para><para>If a lower MIDI bound was set
856 for this parameter it can be removed by selecting this menu entry.</para></listitem><listitem><para><emphasis>Delete
857 Sequencer Events</emphasis></para><para>Just like the <xref
858 linkend="SEQUENCERMENU" /> this entry allows you to delete events
859 recorded for this specific parameter.</para></listitem></itemizedlist></para>
863 <title>The Effect Queue</title>
865 <para>With release 3.70 the effects are no longer hardcoded into the
866 turntable. The effects are now arranged within an per-turntable
867 effect-queue. The effect sequence is configurable by the user. To move
868 an effect to higher position within the queue, press the
869 <emphasis>blue upward arrow button</emphasis>. This will cause the
870 effect to be rendered <emphasis>before</emphasis> the following
871 effects. The <emphasis>blue downward arrow button</emphasis> will move
872 the effect down by one position. It will then be rendered
873 <emphasis>after</emphasis> the preceding effects.</para>
875 <para>There are two types of effects: the traditional built-in effects
876 (Lowpass and Echo) and LADSPA plugins. The built-in effects are always
877 available and cannot be removed (but disabled). There can be only one
878 instance of a built-in effect. The LADSPA plugins on the other hand
879 may be instantiated multiple times and can be removed from the effect
880 queue. Press the <emphasis>blue cross button</emphasis> to achieve
884 <title>An example for a terminatorX effect queue</title>
886 <graphic fileref="figures/signalflow.png" format="PNG" />
889 <para>Now since release 3.71 the built-in echo effect is treated
890 differently from other effects. Where all other effects feed their
891 signal back into the effect queue the echo effect doesn't touch
892 the input signal. It's echo-signal is mixed separately from the
893 turntable's main signal to allow a different panning value for the
894 echo-signal. This mode of operation does have some side-effects:
895 imagine a lowpass filter with a position after the echo effect in the
896 effect queue. This will result in the turntable's main signal
897 being lowpass-filtered but it will leave the echo-signal
898 lowpass-unfiltered.</para>
900 <para>Some may call this behaviour a bug - whereas I would consider it
901 a feature ;). Anyway if the above description didn't clear things
902 up maybe the displayed figure does. It shows a schematic effect queue
903 with the built-in effects and two LADSPA effects enabled. Now with
904 this setup you will not hear anything from the second LADSPA effect in
905 the echo-signal.</para>
907 <para>For more information on a LADSPA plugin, press it's
908 panel's label and a small info box will pop up.</para>
912 <para><emphasis>FX Button</emphasis></para>
914 <para>Press this button to load a LADSPA plugin into the effect
915 queue of the turntable. A menu holding the available
916 (terminatorX-"compatible") LADSPA-plugins will pop up. The
917 plugins are grouped within submenus according to the modules the
918 plugins are contained in. Simply select the plugin you want to
919 load from this menu and a panel for it will pop up at the end of
920 the effect queue.</para>
922 <para>Note that due to the wide parameter ranges some LADSPA
923 plugins have they sometimes might be hard to control with the knob
924 widget. In these cases you might want to use the text field to
925 enter values. For more details on Plugins see <xref
926 linkend="LADSPAPLUGINS" />.</para>
932 <title>Lowpass Panel</title>
934 <para>terminatorX features a built-in resonating lowpass filter that
935 can be configured with this panel.</para>
939 <para><emphasis>Enable Button</emphasis></para>
941 <para>Activating this button will enable the lowpass filter for
942 this turntable.</para>
946 <para><emphasis>Input Gain Control</emphasis></para>
948 <para>With this parameter you can amplify the signal that goes
949 into the lowpass filter if required.</para>
953 <para><emphasis>Frequency Control</emphasis></para>
955 <para>Use this parameter to set the cutoff frequency for the
956 lowpass filter. Minimum: 0=0Hz, Maximum: 1=22KHz.</para>
960 <para><emphasis>Resonance</emphasis></para>
962 <para>Use this parameter to set the resonance-value. Minimum: 0=no
963 resonance, Maximum: 1=max resonance.</para>
969 <title>Echo Panel</title>
971 <para>Additionally terminatorX features a built-in echo effect. It can
972 be configured with this panel.</para>
976 <para><emphasis>Enable Button</emphasis></para>
978 <para>Activating this button will enable the echo effect for this
983 <para><emphasis>Duration Control</emphasis></para>
985 <para>Use this parameter to set the length of the echo. The
986 duration parameter scales to the actual sample length: so if you
987 set it to 0.5 you will hear the echo when the red playback cursor
988 is half way through the sample. This is true for samples that are
989 shorter than terminatorX' maximum echo buffer size only.</para>
993 <para><emphasis>Feedback Control</emphasis></para>
995 <para>Set the echo's feedback amount with this parameter.</para>
999 <para><emphasis>Volume Control</emphasis></para>
1001 <para>This parameter can additionally amplify the echo signal.
1002 Unlike the feedback parameter above this parameter has no
1003 influence on the signal fed back into the echo-buffer, it effects
1004 merely the playback volume of the echo signal.</para>
1008 <para><emphasis>Pan Control</emphasis></para>
1010 <para>The echo effect differs from other effects as it's
1011 output signal will be mixed separately. The main goal here is to
1012 allow positioning the echo signal at a position in the stereo
1013 panorama that differs from the main panning position of the
1014 turntable to achieve a somewhat spacial effect. The easy example
1015 is: turntable's panning left, echo's panning right. As
1016 both pan parameters are sequenceable you can create nice motion
1017 effects from this starting point.</para>
1023 <sect2 id="SYNCHRONIZATION">
1024 <title>Synchronization</title>
1026 <para>Let's start off with an example: Say you have two drum loops
1027 and one bassline loaded in three turntables. Of course you want these
1028 samples to be triggered at the same time but you don't want to
1029 invest time to cut them to the exact length. Therefore you decide which
1030 of the drum loops to make the sync master. You'll have to do this
1031 before you enable the audio engine (for now). Only one turntable can be
1032 the sync master. Now you can make the other two sync clients which will
1033 cause them to be (re-)triggered whenever the master is (re-)triggered.
1034 The number you can select to the right of the <emphasis>client button</emphasis>
1035 sets the trigger delay for the button: if it's set to zero the
1036 turntable will be triggered with every master trigger, if it's set
1037 to 1 it'll be triggered every 2nd master trigger and so on.</para>
1039 <para>A nice side effect of this feature is: you can now scratch the
1040 second (sync client) drum loop and no matter whether you're
1041 scratching is good or not the beat will be triggered correctly again ;)</para>
1044 <sect2 id="GRABMODE">
1045 <title>Grab Mode Operation</title>
1047 <para>After pressing the <emphasis>Mouse Grab button</emphasis>
1048 terminatorX enters "grab mode". This mode actually blocks the
1049 mouse (as its input is now used to control the real time parameters) and
1050 therefore you'll have to know some mouse/keyboard shortcuts to
1051 control the software without the GUI.</para>
1053 <para>Press <keycap moreinfo="none">ESCAPE</keycap> to quit grab mode.</para>
1055 <para>Select the turntable with input focus: The first turntable to hold
1056 the input focus will be the first turntable. You can now use <keycap
1057 moreinfo="none">TAB</keycap> or right mouse button to switch to the next
1058 turntable. Alternatively you can use <keycap moreinfo="none">F1</keycap>
1059 to <keycap moreinfo="none">F12</keycap> to select turntable 1 to 12.</para>
1061 <para>Now the turntable that has the focus is the one you will
1062 manipulate with your mouse and keyboard inputs: Note that you can
1063 actually map different functions to the mouse x/y axis - so what
1064 actually happens when you move your mouse depends on what you select via
1065 the <emphasis>Mouse Mapping</emphasis> for each turntable.</para>
1068 <title>Keyboard Controls in Grab Mode</title>
1075 <entry>Function</entry>
1081 <entry><keycap moreinfo="none">TAB</keycap></entry>
1083 <entry>select next turntable</entry>
1087 <entry><keycap moreinfo="none">F1</keycap> to <keycap
1088 moreinfo="none">F12</keycap></entry>
1090 <entry>select turntable 1 to 12</entry>
1094 <entry><keycap moreinfo="none">RETURN</keycap></entry>
1096 <entry>triggers the turntable</entry>
1100 <entry><keycap moreinfo="none">BACKSPACE</keycap></entry>
1102 <entry>stops the turntable</entry>
1106 <entry><keycap moreinfo="none">S</keycap></entry>
1108 <entry>toggles "Sync Client"</entry>
1112 <entry><keycap moreinfo="none">SPACE</keycap></entry>
1114 <entry>while pressed turntable speed is mapped to mouse speed
1115 (scratching!)</entry>
1119 <entry><keycap moreinfo="none">ALT</keycap></entry>
1121 <entry>mute on/off</entry>
1125 <entry><keycap moreinfo="none">CTRL</keycap></entry>
1127 <entry>mute on/off (inverted)</entry>
1131 <entry><keycap moreinfo="none">F</keycap></entry>
1133 <entry>("fast") warp mode (while scratching)</entry>
1137 <entry><keycap moreinfo="none">W</keycap></entry>
1139 <entry>same as above but the audio will be muted while warping</entry>
1146 <title>Mouse Button Controls in Grab Mode</title>
1151 <entry>Mouse Button</entry>
1153 <entry>Function</entry>
1159 <entry><emphasis>Left button</emphasis></entry>
1161 <entry>same as <keycap moreinfo="none">SPACE</keycap>:
1162 scratching (triggers the turntable when stopped)</entry>
1166 <entry><emphasis>Right button</emphasis></entry>
1168 <entry>select next turntable</entry>
1172 <entry><emphasis>Middle button</emphasis></entry>
1174 <entry>mute on/off</entry>
1180 <para>Scratching works as before: press <keycap moreinfo="none">SPACE</keycap>
1181 or left mouse button to actually scratch: now your mouse controls the
1182 turntables speed. Release it to let that turntable spin at default speed
1186 <sect2 id="DRAGNDROP">
1187 <title>Drag And Drop</title>
1189 <para>Since V3.55 terminatorX provides multiple DND-Drop-Targets for use
1190 with GNOME / gmc (gmc is the GNU Midnight Commander), Nautilus or the
1191 Enlightenment File Manager (efm). You can load an audiofile into an
1192 existing turntable by dragging it from a gmc (or efm or whatever)-window
1193 and drop it over a. the <emphasis>file button</emphasis> (audio-display)
1194 or b. (the easier target ;) over the audio-display (the green on black
1195 widget that displays the audiodata).</para>
1197 <para>To add a file to the set (== to load the file into a *new*
1198 turntable) simply drop the audiofile over the "New Turntable"
1199 Button. To load a complete terminatorX-set simply drop the set file
1200 (*.tX) over the "Load Set" button.</para>
1203 <sect2 id="SEQUENCER">
1204 <title>The Sequencer</title>
1206 <para>Release 3.60 introduced the sequencer. It can record and play back
1207 events for the following parameters:</para>
1211 <para>master volume & pitch</para>
1215 <para>scratching</para>
1219 <para>(turntable) volume & pitch</para>
1223 <para>triggers</para>
1227 <para>loop (on/off)</para>
1231 <para>sync client settings</para>
1239 <para><emphasis>all</emphasis> parameters for the effects. This
1240 includes built-in effects (lowpass and echo) as well as LADSPA
1245 <para>To record events simply press the <emphasis>Record</emphasis>
1246 button of the sequencer, then press the <emphasis>Play</emphasis>
1247 button. All actions (for sequenceable parameters - see above) you now
1248 take will be recorded into the song list. Press <emphasis>Stop</emphasis>
1249 and <emphasis>Play</emphasis> again to see/hear how terminatorX plays
1250 back the events recorded before. You can now record events again for
1251 e.g. another turntable or record other parameters for the same turntable
1252 - whatever you want to do. Recording events for parameters for which
1253 events have been recorded before will result in dubbing: if you touch a
1254 parameter while recording, events previously recorded will be erased
1255 from the moment you touch the parameter until you stop recording.</para>
1257 <para>When recording long sequences/songs you can use the
1258 sequencer-scale to start recording/playback from any song-position you
1259 want. To record a single parameter value at a certain position simply
1260 move the sequencer-scale to that position, press <emphasis>Record,</emphasis>
1261 set the parameter and press <emphasis>Stop</emphasis> again.</para>
1263 <para>To selectively delete events from the sequencer use see <xref
1264 linkend="SEQUENCERMENU" /> and <xref linkend="PARAMETERMENU" />.</para>
1267 <sect2 id="LADSPAPLUGINS">
1268 <title>Plugins (LADSPA)</title>
1270 <para>Since release 3.70 terminatorX supports LADSPA-plugins. LADSPA is
1271 the "Linux Audio Developer's Simple Plugin API" which was
1272 designed by developers on the Linux-Audio-Developer-Mailinglist and is
1273 maintained by Richard W.E. Furse. For more information on LADSPA, other
1274 LADSPA-hosts and LADSPA-plugins checkout the <ulink
1275 url="http://www.ladspa.org">LADSPA homepage</ulink>.</para>
1277 <para>Not every plugin is supported by terminatorX though. As the
1278 plugins are inserted into the per-turntable effect-queue, they have to
1279 be mono plugins (as is that queue) for now. This is why terminatorX will
1280 load plugins with <emphasis>one</emphasis> audio-in port and
1281 <emphasis>one</emphasis> audio-out port only.</para>
1283 <para>The decision on whether a plugin is terminatorX-suitable is made
1284 on terminatorX startup, so only plugins that fit into the effect queue
1285 will be offered in the plugin-menu that pops up when the
1286 <emphasis>FX</emphasis> button is clicked. Depending on whether the
1287 terminatorX binary you're using was built with or without liblrdf (<xref
1288 linkend="LIBLRDF" />) support the plugin menu will either contain
1289 sub-menus with plugin categories (with liblrdf) or just a single menu
1290 with the <emphasis>Unclassified</emphasis> category.</para>
1292 <para>On startup terminatorX will print some information on the
1293 LADSPA-plugins analysis process to the standard output. Watch the
1294 terminal you run terminatorX from for that info if you have problems
1295 loading a plugin.</para>
1297 <para>As specified in the LADSPA-standard LADSPA-plugins can be located
1298 in multiple directories across the filesystem. To enable LADSPA-hosts to
1299 find those plugins you have to set the environment variable
1300 <envar>LADSPA_PATH</envar> accordingly. Let's say you store your
1301 plugins in <filename moreinfo="none">/usr/lib/ladspa</filename> and
1302 <filename moreinfo="none">/home/yourlogin/plugins</filename> then you
1303 would have to set:</para>
1305 <para><envar>LADSPA_PATH</envar>=<filename moreinfo="none">/usr/lib/ladspa:/home/yourlogin/plugins</filename></para>
1307 <para>As a fallback terminatorX will look in the standard directories
1308 <filename moreinfo="none">/usr/lib/ladspa</filename> and <filename
1309 moreinfo="none">/usr/local/lib/ladspa</filename> if the environment
1310 variable is not set. Note that this is just a convenience-function, in
1311 order for other LADSPA-hosts to work properly, be sure to set your
1312 <envar>LADSPA_PATH</envar> correctly. It is a good idea to do that from
1313 somewhere in your system configuration (either in your rc-scripts or
1314 <filename moreinfo="none">/etc/profile</filename> or wherever you
1317 <sect3 id="LIBLRDF">
1318 <title>liblrdf support</title>
1320 <para>Release 3.80 introduces support for Steve Harris' great
1321 <ulink url="http://plugin.org.uk/releases/lrdf/">liblrdf</ulink>
1322 library which introduces an RDF based scheme to categorize LADSPA
1323 plugins. This approach allows storing additional meta-data for LADSPA
1324 plugins in separate RDF files. In order to make use of these RDF files
1325 a terminatorX binary (compiled with liblrdf support of course)
1326 requires the main <filename>ladspa.rdfs</filename> file and additional
1327 RDF files containing meta information about the LADSPA plugins
1328 installed. Steve Harris' wonderful plugin library comes with such
1329 an additional description file for example.</para>
1331 <para>By default terminatorX will search the directories
1332 <filename>/usr/share/ladspa/rdf</filename> and <filename>/usr/local/share/ladspa/rdf</filename>
1333 for RDF files. In case the files were installed to other locations it
1334 is possible to configure the LADSPA RDF path in the
1335 <emphasis>Misc</emphasis> tab of the <emphasis>Preferences</emphasis>
1338 <para>If the RDF are read successfully on startup, the LADSPA menu
1339 that pops up when clicking a turntable's <emphasis>FX</emphasis>
1340 button will feature multiple sub-menus with LADSPA plugin categories
1341 (eg <emphasis>Amplitude/Amplifier</emphasis>) in which you will find
1342 the according plugins. Plugins not categorized by the RDF files reside
1343 in the <emphasis>Unclassified</emphasis> menu.</para>
1348 <title>MIDI Interface</title>
1350 <para>Aside of controlling terminatorX with a regular mouse and keyboard
1351 it is possible to control parameters through MIDI events (since 3.80).
1352 The MIDI interface is based upon the ALSA sequencer API. On startup
1353 terminatorX creates a MIDI input port called "terminatorX". You
1354 can now use for example the <ulink
1355 url="http://pkl.net/%7Enode/alsa-patch-bay.html">alsa-patch-pay</ulink>
1356 to connect an output port of your choice (either a hardware MIDI input
1357 device or a software generating midi events) to the terminatorX input
1358 port. If the "<emphasis>Restore MIDI Connections</emphasis>"
1359 option is activated terminatorX will try to re-connect to the MIDI ports
1360 it was connected to with the last run. However this approach is purely
1361 address-based and might fail miserably with software ports, in this case
1362 just disable the configuration options re-wire manually.</para>
1364 <para>There are two ways to map MIDI events to a parameter:<itemizedlist><listitem><para>Via
1365 the <emphasis>Configure MIDI Bindings</emphasis> dialog as described
1366 below</para></listitem><listitem><para>Via the the a parameter's
1367 menu (see <xref linkend="PARAMETERMENU" />) </para></listitem></itemizedlist></para>
1369 <para>Once the connection is set up terminatorX receives MIDI events
1370 through the input port. To configure what MIDI events will have which
1371 effect on a terminatorX turntable you can bind MIDI events to parameters
1372 of your choice by clicking the <emphasis>MIDI</emphasis> button of the
1373 turntable's audio panel. As a result the <emphasis>Configure MIDI
1374 Bindings</emphasis> dialog will pop up which features a field labelled
1375 <emphasis>Selected MIDI Event</emphasis> that will frequently update to
1376 display the contents of the last MIDI event received by terminatorX. So
1377 in order to map a MIDI controller to a specific turntable parameter
1378 select the parameter of your choice from the parameter list, cause your
1379 MIDI event sending device to emit the event you want to map the
1380 parameter on and click the <emphasis>Bind</emphasis> button.</para>
1382 <para>Immediately after binding the event you should see that the
1383 <emphasis>Event</emphasis> column entry of the selected parameter is
1384 updated to match the selected event. From now on all events matching the
1385 selected event will cause the turntable parameter to be updated. The GUI
1386 for that parameter will be refreshed accordingly. Note that it is
1387 possible to map the same event to multiple parameters.</para>
1389 <para>The MIDI mappings are stored within terminatorX set files so you
1390 wont have to reconfigure your bindings every time you start up
1391 terminatorX. If you are unhappy with a chosen binding you can select the
1392 parameter and click the <emphasis>Remove Binding</emphasis> button to
1393 get rid of the parameter's MIDI mapping.</para>
1395 <para>If you want to use your joystick to control terminatorX - I wrote
1396 a tiny tool to create MIDI events from joystick motion called
1397 <emphasis>aseqjoy</emphasis>. It's available from the <ulink
1398 url="http://terminatorX.cx/aseqjoy.html">terminatorX website</ulink>,
1402 <sect2 id="JACKSUPPORT">
1403 <title>JACK Support</title>
1405 <para>TerminatorX Version 3.81 brings support for the
1406 <emphasis>JACK Audio Connection Kit</emphasis>. Instead of writing audio
1407 data directly to some audio device terminatorX can send data to the JACK
1408 Daemon for further processing.</para>
1410 <para>To use the JACK backend you have to ensure that the JACK Daemon is
1411 up and running before you start terminatorX. The JACK backend is only
1412 available if terminatorX was capable of connecting to the JACK Daemon on
1413 startup. By default the two output ports of terminatorX will be
1414 connected to physical ports if available. You can then re-wire the ports
1415 whatever way you want. They will not be deactivated - when
1416 terminatorX' audio engine is turned off , the audio backend emits
1417 continuous silence.</para>
1421 <sect1 id="CONFIGURATION">
1422 <title>Configuration</title>
1424 <para>The main terminatorX configuration parameters can be set up via the
1425 <emphasis>Preferences</emphasis> dialog, which can be activated from the
1426 terminatorX menu. The new <emphasis>Preferences</emphasis> dialog features
1427 multiple tabs for several aspects of configuration.</para>
1429 <para>A word on the settings in general: your settings are stored in an
1430 XML file ( <filename moreinfo="none">~/.terminatorXrc).</filename> So if
1431 you think you completely messed up your settings you will have to exit
1432 terminatorX - delete this file - and then re-run terminatorX with the
1433 default settings. Note: is this file is now an XML file you can edit with
1434 an editor of your choice.</para>
1436 <sect2 id="AUDIOTAB">
1437 <title><emphasis>Audio</emphasis> Tab</title>
1439 <para>This tab allows to select which audio backend terminatorX should
1440 use. Currently there are three options: the OSS (Open Sound System)
1441 backend, the ALSA (Advanced Linux Sound Architecture) backend and the
1442 JACK (JACK Audio Connection Kit) backend. Some of these options might
1443 not be available, if your terminatorX binary wasn't compiled to
1444 support a certain backend.</para>
1446 <para>The OSS and ALSA backends have dedicated configuration tabs, JACK
1447 requires no further configuration - for more details on JACK support see
1448 <xref linkend="JACKSUPPORT" />.</para>
1452 <title><emphasis>Audio: OSS</emphasis> Tab</title>
1454 <para>Select the audio device you are going to use from the available
1455 options (or simply enter one yourself). terminatorX renders audio
1456 block-wise. In order to achieve close-to-realtime performance it is
1457 necessary to keep this blocks as small as possible. The main parameters
1458 that determine how close-to-realtime terminatorX will perform are
1459 <emphasis>No. of Buffers</emphasis> and <emphasis>Buffersize</emphasis>.
1460 The <emphasis>No. of Buffers</emphasis> parameter determines how many
1461 buffers the audio driver should use in most cases <emphasis>2</emphasis>
1462 should be the best setting and in rare cases <emphasis>3</emphasis>
1463 might give better results.</para>
1465 <para>The value for the <emphasis>Buffersize</emphasis> setting will be
1466 evaluated as 2^buffersize by OSS. So if you set the value to
1467 <emphasis>8</emphasis> the actual buffer size will be 2^8=256 Bytes. The
1468 smaller the buffers' size the better terminatorX will perform. The
1469 default setting of <emphasis>9</emphasis> should be acceptable in most
1470 conditions, but if you here "clicks", or "drops" in
1471 audio output that are not related to your sample-material you will have
1472 to increase the buffer size. On the other hand if you believe
1473 terminatorX does not react fast enough you have to decrease this
1476 <para>Additionally you can select the sampling rate you want terminatorX
1477 to operate on - note that recording to disk will use the same sample
1481 <sect2 id="ALSATAB">
1482 <title><emphasis>Audio: ALSA</emphasis> Tab</title>
1484 <para>Using ALSA for audio output allows specifing the buffer sizes in
1485 microseconds. ALSA uses a ring-buffer to process audio. The
1486 <emphasis>Buffer Time</emphasis> option lets you set the size for the
1487 complete ring buffer, while the <emphasis>Period Time</emphasis>
1488 determines how many audio samples will be transferred to the audio
1489 device per cycle. I'm not really sure on what kind of settings to
1490 recommend, however I had best results when setting the
1491 <emphasis>Period Time</emphasis> to 3rd or half of the
1492 <emphasis>Buffer Time</emphasis>.</para>
1494 <para>It's advisable to set the <emphasis>Buffer Time</emphasis> to
1495 at least the double of the <emphasis>Period Time</emphasis>, but for a
1496 more detailed description check out the ALSA documentation.</para>
1499 <sect2 id="INPUTTAB">
1500 <title><emphasis>Input</emphasis> Tab</title>
1502 <para>Between rendering and outputting these blocks terminatorX checks
1503 for mouse motion. The problem with mice is: they don't report when
1504 they have stopped. This is why terminatorX assumes your mouse has
1505 stopped if there is no motion reported for certain amount of
1506 render/output-cycles. This value is configurable via the
1507 <emphasis>Stop-sense-cycles</emphasis> option. If you decrease your
1508 buffersize of course you shorten the cycle time as well, therefore if
1509 you here strange stop/run behaviour of the audio output while scratching
1510 after you decreased the buffer size you might have to increase the
1511 stop-sense value too.</para>
1513 <para>XInput Device: <emphasis>WARNING:</emphasis> Use this option
1514 *only* if you want to use an input device other than your default-mouse
1515 for scratching. Selecting your default pointer will cause terminatorX to
1516 crash. See the "Using a turntable" section on the terminatorX
1517 homepage for details.</para>
1520 <sect2 id="USERINTERFACETAB">
1521 <title><emphasis>User Interface</emphasis> Tab</title>
1523 <para>With <emphasis>Update Idle</emphasis> / <emphasis>Update Delay</emphasis>
1524 you can configure GUI responsiveness: Higher <emphasis>Update Idle</emphasis>
1525 will cause the wave display (position display) and flash-widgets to
1526 update less often. Higher <emphasis>Update Delay</emphasis> values will
1527 cause the parameter widgets to update less often.</para>
1531 <title><emphasis>Audio Colors</emphasis> and <emphasis>VU Colors</emphasis>
1534 <para>Since Version 3.81 it is possible to configure the colors
1535 terminatorX' audio widgets. Simply click on the color you want to
1536 modify and select the tone you prefer.</para>
1539 <sect2 id="MISCTAB">
1540 <title><emphasis>Misc</emphasis> Tab</title>
1542 <para>You can now enter the soundfile editor of your choice in the
1543 "Sound file editor" field. This editor will be started when
1544 clicking the <emphasis>Edit</emphasis>-button in the main panel of the
1545 vtt-gui. If you enter for example "myeditor" terminatorX will
1546 run "myeditor sample_in_vtt.wav".</para>
1548 <para>The <emphasis>LADSPA RDF Path</emphasis> defines where liblrdf
1549 will look for the RDF files for LADPSA Plugins.</para>
1551 <para>If <emphasis>Compress set files</emphasis> is activated
1552 terminatorX will use zlib to compress set files. This is very usefull
1553 for sets that have many events recorded.</para>
1555 <para>See <xref linkend="MIDI" /> for more details on
1556 <emphasis>Restore MIDI Connections</emphasis>. If you disable the
1557 <emphasis>Ask for "Quit" Confirmation</emphasis> option
1558 terminatorX will no longer ask if you really want to quit.</para>
1562 <sect1 id="CONTACT">
1563 <title>Contact / Download</title>
1565 <para>Find out more about terminatorX at it's <ulink
1566 url="http://www.terminatorX.cx">homepage</ulink>.</para>
1568 <para>Send me comments, bug-reports, patches or scratches (see scratches
1569 section on the terminatorX homepage) at: <email>alex@lisas.de</email></para>