Traverso - The Free Professional Audio Tools for Linux V x.x.x



Traverso Contextual  ACTIONS - QUICK REFERENCE GUIDE, FOR THE IMPATIENT ;-)
===========================================================

    ********************************************************************
             IF YOU HAVE NEVER USED Traverso, READ AT LEAST THIS PART!

    Traverso is not hard to use, but you need to open your mind. Traverso
    uses keyboard plus mouse actions, we call this concept "jmb". In short,
    every time you see in this guide something like <K>, it means
    "press 'K' key on the keyboard" (only press it, don't hold it!),
    pretty much as if you would've clicked a mousebutton). Similarly, [K]
    means hold it,<<K>> means double-press the key and <KK> means
    press two keys at the same time. Examples : <J> - press the J 
    [J] - hold the J, <<J>> - double-press the J, 
    <HJ> - press H and J at the same time.

    Now, imagine that you are playing a very sophisticated video-game,
    and enjoy the power of Traverso :-)
    *********************************************************************



    TRY THIS :
    ==========

    <PM> - Open the project manager, where you can import audio,
    		  create songs, and so on.

    <CTRL S> - ( It is not hold CTRL and press S!! It really means, press CTRL
    		  and S at the same time ) - Save current project.

    <SPACE> - Play/Stop. If you have armed any track ( by <A> in the
    		  track panel), it will record the input over that track too.

    [Z] - ( Hold Z and move the mouse ) - Magic Zoom Tool (the best of
    		  all known audio applications, including those from
    		  Windoze and Mac(rap).

    <L_SHIFT> - "touch" the track. By "touching" a track, you set it
    		  as the active one, and also you set the working
    		  position (from where play will start, for example).

    [TAB] - The shuttle tool. Hold TAB and move the mouse left/right

    <<ESC>> - Exits Traverso


    *********************************************************************
	READ THE FULL Traverso Contextual  MAP SECTION IN THIS GUIDE BELOW FOR MORE
	ADVANCED ACTIONS
    *********************************************************************



***
NOTE: some parts of this help-file haven't been updated in a while, as traverso
no has a much better PDF-manual.
***



WELCOME TO Traverso! 
==================

Hello! By now you have already started Traverso, found the layout very cool,
but couldn't do much by clicking around, so you decided to resort to the
Help Reference the program gave you. You also were about to give up using
the program (and click on the little X button that your favorite window manager
gives you to stop programs).

Don't worry!
This quick help guide (which in the future will probably turn into a
Quick Reference Guide) is here to rescue you, explaining what Traverso
is and how it works.  Before you try to play around the project, we
suggest you to read the parts about the Traverso Contextual  Concept, and the Sections
of the Interface. Everything afterwords can be used as reference, and
are a small insight of what is to come.  (Hey! Its still under
development)




WHAT IS Traverso ?
================

Traverso is A Free Professional Audio Tools for GNU/Linux.  It aims to
be the most pratical and one of the most powerful audio tools for
GNU/Linux.  Traverso *does not want to imitate Protools (tm)*, and this
is because Protools is not the "gold at the end of the rainbow" of
digital audio.



Jog Mouse Board (Traverso Contextual ) CONCEPT
=============================

Traverso user interface is built based on the Jog Mouse Board Concept.
Although Protools is such a powerful suite, its interface is designed
around traditional interface concept (mouse, icons, buttons, menus,
and so on), which forces you do to toggle many flags on and off, move
the mouse back and forth in the screen and generally, you end up with
a sharp wrist pain. We think that using only a 1-button device when
you have a 101-keys one right in front of you, is kind of a waste.

Althought the traditional kind of interface is interesting for
Graphics, Word, Vector and other types of editing programs, experience
shows that for audio, unfortunately, there are too many different
types of editing for only type of action.  Bottom line is that the
traditional interface, for audio editing, is quite clumsy, and ends up
slowing everything down.  This is extremely undesirable in the
professional environment, where the studio hour can be expensive.  It
also makes the editing process burocratic and boring for the engeneer!

Traverso Contextual  (Jog Mouse Board) is a concept and a engine that offer a new way
to edit audio.  The user simply does not have to click lots of icons
and menus anymore to perform an action.  He has to perform a Traverso Contextual 
action that consists, in most cases, of a key-press while pointing or
moving the mouse. The idea of Traverso Contextual  is to speed up the audio production
and avoid wrist problems.

Using the Traverso Contextual  Concept as the guiding principal of the project, Traverso
is designed for practibility, flexibility, reliability and editing
speed.  The three project guides are derived from the Traverso Contextual  Concept:




THE INTERFACE
=============

The interface has to be simple and direct, because the more visual
information you have in the screen, the longer your action will take, even
if you just want to open a file.  So Traverso Interface is as clean as
possible.

The mouse as a clicking device is almost abolished.  Everything can be
done with the Keyboard, speeding up the recording, editing, and mixing
processes.  Traverso supposes that if you are a professional, you'll be
using the same software most of your time, so no problem if you have
to learn a more complex combination of keys (compared to a simple
icon, or a pop-up menu), because they get automated in few days.
Tests show that a regular person learns the main group of actions
(combination of keys and mouse movements) in less than a week.




EDITION
=======

Performing a CD project usually involves the same steps.  Traverso
edition concepts are based in the professional experience.  For
example, you'll almost always have to correct DC before applying
filters.  Applying DC correction is a static, one-step,
twice-forbidden, action.  It makes no sense to have a filter history
of DC correction. But makes sense to have independent filter histories
for EQ and Chorus, for example, just because it does not matter which
comes first.

Another important point in Traverso edition concepts is that you can put
every filter you want in the audio, test it, and if you like it, you
render it.  So all the possible filters resides "virtually" in the
audio, until you render it.  This makes Traverso to be considered an
audio tool of "real time" effects, since you can turn "auto render"
on, in fast machines.




PROJECT ASSISTMENT
==================

Traverso soon will also include Project Management. Generally multitrack
audio tools only allow you to work with one song at a time. Traverso
will allow you to manage the songs, their titles, how long they are,
which project they belong to, at what phase in the production process
they are in, and even burn a CD in the order you ask it to.

This is possible because we take advante of the many great GNU\Linux
applications that take care of specific actions such as those. Thus
Traverso only has to manage files, and issue the correct commands,
simplifying, as much as possible, the task of actually recording and
mixing your own CD.





SECTIONS OF THE INTERFACE
=========================

This is where we begin explaining what is what in the Traverso
Interface.  If you look at the Traverso window you'll notice that there
are 6 distinct areas.

1. LCD DISPLAY - This area is at the very top.  Its is greenish-gray
and (duh!) it looks like an LCD Display.  This area tells you which
Traverso Contextual  Actions are being understood by the Traverso Contextual  Engine (or in plain
english, which Action is being executed).

2. INFO AREA - Next to the LCD DISPLAY, we have the INFO AREA. It
tells you which Song is currently active and the Project you're
currently working on.  It also gives you information about the used
rate and bitdepth and last of all it tells you what the Horizontal
Zoom (HZ) ratio is.

3. BUS MONITOR AREA - This is the area next to the INFO AREA. It
presents the LEVEL METERS of your sound card(s) buses who are
available on the system.  Whenever something is being played, watch
the meters. The BUS MONITOR can be detached and made into a separate
window.

4. SONG AREA.  This is kind of obvious. Here is where Songs are
displayed.  If you want to switch between songs , type 1, 2, 3, or n,
say, and then type 'S'.

5. TRACK PANEL AREA (TPA) - This is the greenish area on the left side
of the interface.  It displays many things. The Track number and name
is at the top, followed by the GAIN (G) and PAN (P) METERS. On the top
of each box are SOLO, MUTE and RECORD LEDS. They tell you at which
state the track is on. On the bottom there is a IN:0 OUT:0. This tells
you that the input card number is. This will be explained later.

6. MULTI TRACK AREA (MTA) - This is the dark-gray area, where
everything actually happens.  The line that follows the mouse is the
FLOAT CURSOR.  Also, the WORK CURSOR is the red-dashed line that
appears when you touch a clip (Using the LEFT_SHIFT key). Also notice
that whenever you record, a CLIP appears. Each take has a logo which
tells you if it is a stereo or mono take, followed by two numbers. The
first one is the sample-rate followed by its resolution. Next is the
source of the take. SRC is an imported audio file, while CAP is
captured audio. Lastly comes the name of the CLIP which depends
greatly on which source it came from. Needless to say, in the future
you will be able to rename takes, as well as tracks. Don't forget that
this will also change in the future.


Traverso Contextual  ACTIONS MAP for V 0.20.1
==============================================

As you might know, Traverso is based on Traverso Contextual  engine, that lets you make
everything by using the keyboard and the mouse at the same time,
without a single click.  For convention, we created a "action
representation standard" , that makes it easier to understand the
Traverso operation.

Where you find :

<K>		- press the "K" key once and fast ( a simple keypress )
<KK>		- double press two keys, fast and together
[K]		- hold the "K" key
[KK]		- hold two keys together
<<K>>		- double press one key (fast, like a double click)
<<KL>>		- double press two keys, fast and together
>K>K   		- press one key and then other key fast and sequentially
n..<K>		- type one or a collection of numbers and finally press the key once and fast

Following actions can be placed behind the actions mentioned above, for example
[K] and UD becomes: [K]UD which means hold the "K" key and move mouse UP/DOWN:

UDLR		- move the mouse UP/DOWN/LEFT/RIGHT
UD		- move the mouse UP/DOWN
LR		- move the mouse LEFT/RIGHT

Following actions tells as where the mouse has to be to perform a specific action. For
example ^T and [K] becomes: ^T[K] which means point to a Track and hold the "K" key.
This can be extended to ^T[K]UD which means: point to a Track, hold the "K" key and
move the mouse UP/DOWN:

^X		- point (just point!) to something (generalization for didatic purposes)
^C              - Point to a clip
^T 		- Point to a track (can be the track panel or track area)
^TP 		- Point to a track panel
^TA 		- point to a track area


There are much more kinds of actions you can perform, but they are for
advanced users.  You probably will need <K> , [K] and <<K>> most of
time.

Now lets play a little with Traverso !


BASIC COMMANDS
=================

Help : <H>
	Just Press H ( Oops.. you might already know it, otherwise you
	wont be reading this ... :-)



Open/Import Audio (Project Manager) : <PM>
	Press P and M together . It means ProjectManager (duh). This action will
	change in future releases.



Play/Stop : <SPACE>
	Just Press Space bar, as most of audio editors do.



Touch : <LEFT_SHIFT>
	This is a simple way to "click" on the tracks, so specify a
	new point of operation (the WORK CURSOR will be set at your
	last touched position). When you import audio, for example,
	the new audio will be placed from the last "touched" point,
	into the latest "touched" track. You may also touch a whole
	Track: ^# + <LEFT_SHIFT>.



nTouch : n..<LEFT_SHIFT>
	This way you can activate tracks using the keyboard ONLY.
	It's based on a engine called 'Number Collector'.  So press
	the Track number (n..) you want to be touched and confirm this
	with <LEFT_SHIFT>.  For example:

	2<LEFT_SHIFT> will touch track 2.
	12345<LEFT_SHIFT> will touch track 12345 ;-)



Go to begin : <HOME> or <W>
        This will take your WORK CURSOR right to the begining of your
        touched track.



================================================================================
All other actions are grouped within their context to maintain readebility.
So all actions which apply to a CLIP are grouped together, etc. etc.
================================================================================



========================================
	GENERAL ACTIONS
========================================


About : <AB>
	Some information will be displayed on the LCD about Traverso.

Cancel : <ESC>
        You will find no cancel button using Traverso, because you can
	cancel every window by <ESC>. In some dialog windows, this is
	not implemented yet. If that is the case, just use the close
	button at the top of your window.



Editing Modes : <F1> <F2>
	This is the first implementation of Editing modes. Currently,
	there are 2 modes available.

          Normal Mode : <F1>
	       This is the general sound editing and recording mode. It
	       is in this mode where all of the actions above occur, and
	       by far the most stable mode.


	  Track Curves : <F2>
	       This mode will allow the editing of Filters. Filters can
	       be added and edited by changing their "Curves". Currently
	       there are not many working filters implemented yet. But
	       hey!, its only version 0.20.1!




Global Properties Dialog : <GP>
        This will take you to a dialog which lets you change a couple
        of Traverso's behaviours. This is also still a work in process,
        althought all of the options in the dialog are already
        functional.



LOCK/UNLOCK EVERYTHING  :  <LE>
	When LOCKED, no keyboard actions will be handled. You have to
	first UNLOCK before you can go on working with Traverso



Quit Traverso : <<ESC>>
        Double-press ESC to exit Traverso.



Record : <SPACE>
	This start a recording in the "ARMED" track(s) at the actual
	position (last 'touched' position == Work Cursor).  To stop
	recording press again <SPACE>.



Render Song : <<ENTER>>
        Double press ENTER . Rendering is the process of applying all
        of the filters and editings into one sound document. In the
        future you will be able to render all songs with just one
        command. When you RENDER SONG, a dialog will open to ask you
        the ouput file name.  If you specify a .praf, the whole
        project will be rendered to a Praf file (Traverso's Native
        Format).  If you specify a .wav file, the whole project will
        be rendered to a Wav file.



Save Song : <CTRL S>
	Save the current active Song.



Song Properties : <SP>
	Shows a Dialog with the properties of the Song. It gives you
	the ability to change all kind of settings.



Use Song : n..<S>
	Type in a number and press "S". Now the selected Song will
	show up in the Song Area if it exist.



TOGGLE SNAP ON/OFF : <SN>
	Switches the "SNAP" feature on or off.
	
UNDO : <F5>

REDO : <F6>



========================================
	NAVIGATION
========================================


SCROLL : <U>, <D>, <L>, <R>
	Use the arrows to scroll the TracksArea Up/Down/Left/Right



SHUTTLE : ^TA<TAB>LR
        The shuttle is an action that simulates the Jog-Shuttle ring controller found
        in many VCR's. The more you roll it to left, the faster the scroll is done to the
        left. The more you roll it to the right, the faster you scroll it to the right.



TOUCH AND CENTER : <L_SHIFT L_CTRL>
	"TOUCH" the Track under the mouse pointer. This sets the Track active AND the
	work cursor will be centered!



VERTICAL SCROLL : [UARR DARR]UD
	Trivial isn't it ;-)



WORK ON NEXT EDGE : >W>E
	Moves the working cursor to the nearest next edge.



WORK ON PREVIOUS EDGE : >W>Q
	Moves the working cursor to the nearest previous edge.




========================================
	TRACK ACTIONS
========================================


Add Track : <<T>>
	Add a Track to the current active Song



Delete Track : <T DELETE>
	Delete active Track from current active Song


Gain of Track: [G]UD
        Don't Forget to Touch the track first! Watch the GAIN METER on
        the TPA!



Mute/Unmute a Track : ^TP<U>
	This action will MUTE a track. Notice that the MUTE LED will
	light up. The whole track will be MUTED, so before you go on
	complaining that Traverso suddenly stopped playing your track,
	be sure to check if the MUTE flag is not on.



Pan of Track:  [P]LR
	Don't Forget to Touch the track first! Watch the PAN METER on
        the TPA!




Set/Unset a Track recordable ("ARMED"): ^T<A>
	This action will SET THE TRACK RECORDABLE. It records on the
	bus(es) you see in the TPA. You can change the buses with
	^T[BV] = select BUS IN or ^T[BN] = select BUS OUT



Solo/Unsolo a Track : ^TP<O>
	This will set SOLO. Notice that the SOLO LED will light
	up. You HAVE to point to the TPA for it to work!



Select BUS In  : ^T[BN]
Select BUS Out : ^T[BV]
	This allows you to select which BUS is used to play or
	record. When using [BN] or [BV] a menu shows up with
	the available (valid) buses on your system. Point the
	mouse to the BUS you want to use, and release the keys.
	Then that BUS will be used for the "TOUCHED" Track.



========================================
	CLIP ACTIONS
========================================


Copy Clip : ^C[C]LRUD
	Same procedure as 'Move', but this action will make a copy of
	the CLIP.



Drag Clip : ^C[D]LRUD
	Point the mouse to the CLIP you want to drag, Hold "D" , and
	move the mouse. After finding a good new place for the clip,
	release "D" to drop the clip at this position. Watch out! You
	can delete CLIPS by dragging them outside the MULTITRACK AREA!



Delete a Clip : <<XC>> 
        This is cool . Double-press both X and C at the same time to
        delete a selected CLIP .  This is a "hard" action, made like
        this exactly to prevent acidental deletes.  To delete a track
        in this fashing, it has to be SELECTED! You can also delete a
        CLIP by dragging it outside the Multitrack Area.



Fade In : ^C[FG]LR



Fade Out : ^C[GH]LR



Fade Both : ^C[FH]LR



Gain (this is the Clip Gain, not Track Gain!!) : ^C[G]UD


Reset Gain : ^C<<G>>



Reset Fade In : ^C<<FG>>



Reset Fade Out : ^C<<GH>>



Reset Both Fades : ^C<<FH>>



Modify/Move Clip edges : You have 4 ways to do that. All them uses [E] (Edge)
	^C[E]LR : point to the CLIP, near the Edge you want to move , hold [E] and
	move the mouse left/right
	^C[ER]LR : point to the CLIP you want to move the right Edge , hold [ER] and
	move the mouse left/right
	^C[EW]LR : point to the CLIP you want to move the left Edge , hold [EW] and
	move the mouse left/right
	^C[WR]LR : point to the CLIP you want to move the both left and right edge ,
	hold [WR] and move the mouse left/right



Mute/Unmute a Clip : ^C<U>
	This action will MUTE a clip. Notice that the muted clip will
	change colors! MUTE will only mute that specific take.



Select a Clip : ^C<S>
	********** THIS IS NOT WORKING. Sorry, but while working on the
	0.20.0 release we discovered some problems with this action. It is
	being worked on, the Traverso Contextual  Engine will have Contextive Actions in
	release 0.30.0 which will solve this problem.
	Until then use ^C<SD> (add CLIP to selection) to select
	a clip. Notive that you have to deselect it manually if you want to
	select another clip. Our apologies for this shortcoming!*********

        Point to the clip you want to select and press <S>. Notice
        that you can select Clips that are not on the touched track!
        Selecting is NOT the same thing as touching BTW.



Select/De-Select multiple Clips : ^C<SD> ^C<AS>
	Same as select: just point to a clip and hit one of the jmb-cuts to add or
	remove a clip from the selection.



Select ALL Clips : <<SD>>


DeSelect ALL Clips : <<SA>>


Select->Invert selection : <SX>



Split Clip : ^C<X>
	This ^! means that you have to point a specific element in the
	interface. In this case, the clip you want to split. Point to
	then split it with <X>



========================================
	PLAYBACK/RECORD (GO)
========================================


Go / Stop : <SPACE>



CAPTURE FROM BOTH CHANNELS : <JL>



CAPTURE ONLY FROM LEFT CHANNEL : <KJ>



CAPTURE ONLY FROM RIGHT CHANNEL : <KL>




========================================
	ZOOM ACTIONS
========================================


Horizontal Zoom : [Z]LR
	This is cool! You hold the Z and move the mouse left and
	right.  The zooming will happen based on you mouse moves. Try
	it!  You can also try <Z> for zoom in and <ZX> for zoom out.


Vertical Zoom : [Z]UD
	Hold the Z and move the mouse up and down.
	The zooming will happen based on you mouse moves.
	You can also try <ZA> and <Z ALT>.



Horizontal Zoom In : <Z>
	Zoom in horizontally



Horizontal Zoom Out : <ZX>
	Zoom out horizontally



Vertical Zoom In : <ZA>
	Zoom in vertically



Vertical Zoom Out : <Z L_ALT>
	Zoom out vertically




========================================
	BUSMONITOR ACTIONS
========================================


DOCK/UNDOCK BUSMONITOR : <B>



SHOW ONLY IN BUSES : <BV>



SHOW ONLY OUT BUSES : <BN>



SHOW BOTH IN/OUT BUSES : <VN>



========================================
	CURVES AND FILTER CONTROLLERS
========================================


============================================================================
FOLLOWING ACTION ARE WORKING, but you may experience some (small) problems
with certain actions, as it is not much tested and a work in progress....
============================================================================


Add Node : <N>
	This will add a node to the filter curve. By adding node you can
	edit how the filter controller is applied to your track. Simply
	point to the track, and press "N".



Move Node : [ND]
	You can edit your added nodes by pointing to it and moving it
	around with the "ND" key. Currently there is no way to remove
	nodes.



Node Setup : <<N>>
	Currently not working.



Add Filter Controller : ^T[FG]
	This action will add a Filter to your selected track. Select from
	the list that is presented. Not all filter have been implemented
	yet.



Remove Filter Controller : <<FD>>
	This action will remove the current active filter controller. The
	active filter controller is the "RED" one ;-)



Select Filter Controller : [F]LR
	This will select the filter controller for editing when you have
	more than one Filter Controller.


Setup a Filter : <<F>>
     These options are currently not enabled, although their key
     sequence is working.




========================================
	REGIONS
========================================


Create a Region : [R]LR



Delete Region : ^R<<R>> (Not working right now :-( )



GO (REGIONS) : <SPACE R>



GO (LOOP REGIONS) : <<SPACE R>>




========================================
	CROP
========================================


In Crop : ^C[X]LR




================================================================================
================================================================================



ACTIONS STILL IN EXPERIMENTAL FASE
================================

The following actions are still in experimental fase.
Which means that:
1. They are very buggy.
2. They could be disabled in future versions
3. They could be reinplemented  at any moment.
4. They could damage your sound-wave.
5. They might not work!

So try them out with ***** CAUTION! *****


NO ITEMS...


ACTIONS TYPES FOR ADVANCED USERS
================================

These actions are being implemented, so no important feature are based
on those kind of actions yet

Actions types
>K>L		, press K and then L very fast (dont hold the K
                  key, be a piano player !)
>KL>N		, press K and L together and then M very fast
                  (dont hold the fist two keys, be a piano player !)
<[K]>		, press K and then HOLD it (a double press,
                  but the second press remains hold)
<[KL]>		, press K and L together  and then HOLD them (a double
                     press, but the second press remains hold)

well you got it.. you can also try

<<KK>>
>KL>MN>
>K[L]
>KL[M]
>K[LM]
>KL[MN]