1.1. What it is

terminatorX is a realtime audio synthesizer that allows you to "scratch" on digitally sampled audio data (*.wav, *.au, *.ogg, *.mp3, etc.) the way hiphop-DJs scratch on vinyl records. It features multiple turntables, realtime effects (buit-in as well as LADSPA plugin effects), a sequencer and MIDI interface - all accessible through an easy-to-use gtk+ GUI.

This is software may have bugs please help fixing them. See Section 4. Please read this manual and visit the homepage.

1.2. Quickstart

Try the following steps:

1. If you don't have LADSPA (Linux Audio Developer's Simple Plugin API) installed, go and get it from the LADSPA-homepage and install the SDK. terminatorX requires ladspa.h.

2. Install terminatorX (see INSTALL file)

3. If you want to use the JACK backend run jackd before starting terminatorX.

4. Run terminatorX

5. Setup Audio Output via Options/Preferences.

6. Load an audiofile into the available turntable (you can add more turntables if you want) (Hint: Click on the button that holds "NONE" to load an audiofile, or drop one over the audiofile display from your GNOME filemanager.

7. Load a LADSPA plugin of your choice by clicking the turntable's FX button and enable it.

8. Click on the "Audio Engine"-button to start playback.

9. Click on the "Mouse-Grab"-button to enter grab mode. The turntable with the red border has the input focus.

10. Press SPACE or left mouse button to scratch.

11. Release SPACE or left mouse button to let the scratch-file run at the turntable's default speed.

12. Press ESCAPE to quit grab mode.

1.3. Features

The following list summarizes terminatorX' main features:

• Scratching

• Multiple turntables

• Built-in Sequencer

• MIDI Interface

• Pitch / Volume settings for each turntable

• Effects (Lowpass/Echo) configurable for each turntable

• Syncing tables to one master turntable

• Broad audiofile-type support

• Record to disk

• Save and Load turntable sets (.tX - files)

• Support for LADSPA plugins.

• Support for the JACK Audio Connection Kit

• and more

1.4. Requirements

To run terminatorX a system should meet the following requirements:

• Software

  • required

    • Linux, FreeBSD or the like

    • glibc2 (pthreads).

    • XFree86 (with DGA DirectMouse support). Note that XFree86 Release 4.0 has a bug resulting in broken DirectMouse support. This has been fixed by the XFree86-Team with Release 4.0.1 available from your distribution or the XFree86 homepage.

    • The Gimp Toolkit: gtk+ (>= 2.0). If your distribution doesn't provide a current version of gtk+ get it from the gtk+ homepage.

    • LADSPA - the Linux Audio Developer's Simple Plugin API. Get it from the LADSPA homepage

    • a compiler (gcc)

  • optional (but highly recommended)

    • liblrdf for easier handling of LADSPA plugins

    • mad for loading mp3 files.

    • libvorbis for loading ogg files.

    • libjack for JACK support.

    • libxml2 to read terminatorX set and rc files

    • zlib to create compressed XML set files to save diskspaces

    • libaudiofile for loading misc other audio files.

    • libcap for capabilties support.

    • mpg123 for mp3 pre-listening (and fallback loading if mad is not installed).

    • ogg123 for ogg pre-listening (and fallback loading if libvorbis is not installed).

    • sox for misc files pre-listening (and fallback loading of misc files).

• Hardware

  • An ALSA or OSS compatible soundcard capable of stereo output.

  • A good clean mouse and pad, a good X-Pointer setup.

A note on performance: terminatorX is known to run satisfyingly on pentium-class systems (or above of course). Increasing the number of turntables or plugins will of course require more performant systems.

1.5. Installation

For GNU-standards' sake this information is now located in the INSTALL file that came with this distribution of terminatorX.