1.. This is part of the Zrythm Manual.
2   Copyright (C) 2019-2020 Alexandros Theodotou <alex at zrythm dot org>
3   See the file index.rst for copying conditions.
4
5.. sectionauthor:: Alexandros Theodotou <alex@zrythm.org>
6
7.. _preferences:
8
9Preferences
10===========
11
12Zrythm has a Preferences dialog containing all
13of the global settings that can be accessed by
14clicking the gear icon or with :kbd:`Control-Shift-p`
15
16Each section in the preferences dialog is explained
17in the following sections.
18
19General
20-------
21
22General settings.
23
24.. image:: /_static/img/preferences-general.png
25   :align: center
26
27.. _preferences-engine:
28
29Engine
30~~~~~~
31
32Audio engine settings.
33
34Audio backend
35  The audio backend to use. The available backends are
36  JACK, RtAudio and SDL2. We recommend using :term:`JACK` when
37  possible, otherwise RtAudio.
38MIDI backend
39  The MIDI backend to use. The available backends are
40  JACK MIDI, RtMidi and WindowsMME (Windows only). We
41  recommend using JACK MIDI when possible, otherwise
42  RtMidi.
43MIDI controllers
44  A list of controllers to auto-connect to.
45Audio inputs
46  A list of audio inputs to auto-connect to.
47
48Paths (Global)
49~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
50
51Global paths.
52
53Zrythm path
54  The :term:`Zrythm user path`.
55
56Plugins
57-------
58
59:term:`Plugin` settings.
60
61.. image:: /_static/img/preferences-plugins.png
62   :align: center
63
64UIs
65~~~
66
67Plugin UIs.
68
69Generic UIs
70  Show generic plugin UIs generated by Zrythm instead of
71  custom ones.
72Open UI on instantiation
73  Open plugin UIs when they are instantiated.
74Keep window on top
75  Always show plugin UIs on top of the main window.
76Bridge unsupported UIs
77  Bridge unsupported UIs in another process instead of
78  creating generic ones.
79
80  .. warning:: This may lead to performance loss for some
81    plugins.
82Refresh rate
83  Refresh rate in Hz. If set to 0, the screen's refresh rate
84  will be used.
85
86.. _vst-paths:
87
88Paths
89~~~~~
90
91VST plugins
92  The search paths to scan for :term:`VST2` plugins
93  in.
94
95  .. note:: This option is only available on Windows. On
96    GNU/Linux and MacOS the paths are fixed. See
97    :ref:`scanning-plugins` for details.
98
99SFZ instruments
100  The search paths to scan for :term:`SFZ`
101  instruments in.
102SF2 instruments
103  The search paths to scan for :term:`SF2`
104  instruments in.
105
106DSP
107---
108
109:term:`DSP` settings.
110
111.. image:: /_static/img/preferences-dsp.png
112   :align: center
113
114Pan
115~~~
116
117:term:`Panning` options for :term:`Mono` signals (not used at the moment).
118
119Pan algorithm
120  The panning algorithm to use when applying pan on mono
121  signals.
122  See the graph below
123  for the different curves as you move the pan
124  from left to right. We recommend leaving it as the
125  default (Sine).
126  See https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~music/icm-online/readings/panlaws/index.html
127  for more information.
128
129  .. figure:: /_static/img/pan_algorithms.png
130     :figwidth: image
131     :align: center
132
133     Pan algorithms (:blue:`sine`,
134     :red:`square root`, :green:`linear`).
135
136Pan law
137  The :term:`Pan law` to use when applying pan on
138  mono signals.
139
140Editing
141-------
142
143Editing options.
144
145.. image:: /_static/img/preferences-editing.png
146   :align: center
147
148Audio
149~~~~~
150
151Audio editing.
152
153Fade algorithm
154  Default fade algorithm to use for fade in/outs.
155
156Automation
157~~~~~~~~~~
158
159Automation editing.
160
161Curve algorithm
162  Default curve algorithm to use for automation
163  curves.
164
165Undo
166~~~~
167
168Undo options.
169
170Undo stack length
171  Maximum undo history stack length. Set to -1 for
172  unlimited.
173
174  .. note:: We recommend leaving it at 128.
175
176
177Projects
178--------
179
180Project settings.
181
182.. image:: /_static/img/preferences-projects.png
183   :align: center
184
185General (Project)
186~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
187
188General project settings.
189
190Autosave interval
191  Interval to auto-save projects, in minutes.
192  Auto-saving will be disabled if this is set to 0.
193
194  .. note:: This refers to automatic back-ups. The main project
195    will not be overwritten unless you explicitly save it.
196
197UI
198--
199
200User interface options.
201
202.. image:: /_static/img/preferences-ui.png
203   :align: center
204
205General (UI)
206~~~~~~~~~~~~
207
208General user interface options.
209
210User interface language
211  The language to use for the user interface.
212
213  .. hint:: For a list of supported languages and their
214    translation status, or to translate Zrythm into
215    your language, see
216    `Weblate <https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/zrythm/>`_.
217
218.. note:: Some of these settings require a restart of Zrythm
219  to take effect.
220