Creating a Virtual Instrument with Qt

[JonB]

@Annabelle
My understanding, from your earlier posts, is that you are blind and are using text-to-speech technologies --- screen/page readers --- to do your development work.

I would think that you would welcome the fact that Qt now offers to incorporate that kind of technology for your end-users into applications you develop with Qt. That is what the new Qt text-to-speech facility I mentioned provides.

[Annabelle]

So for example, in the Mixer Window, how would I create an accessible example of a microphone array?

[JKSH]

@Annabelle said in Creating a Virtual Instrument with Qt:

So for example, in the Mixer Window, how would I create an accessible example of a microphone array?

First, describe how you want to let your users interact with the microphone array.

[Annabelle]

@JKSH said in Creating a Virtual Instrument with Qt:

@Annabelle said in Creating a Virtual Instrument with Qt:

So for example, in the Mixer Window, how would I create an accessible example of a microphone array?

First, describe how you want to let your users interact with the microphone array.

Basically what happens is, the customer chooses a set of microphones (Close, Mid, Surround, Stage, Room, Overhead, Main Mix, Decka Tree), whichever microphones and mixes are presented in each instrument, by navigating to the Microphones menu and right-clicking or pressing the Applications Key, then left-clicking or pressing enter on the microphones they want to select. The instrument then loads the chosen samples, while the other mixes and microphones are either muted or unloaded from memory.

[Annabelle]

If anyone is interested, when I complete the manual, I can send it along, so you can get an idea of what the interface will look like. The manual will include keyboard commands, and basic descriptions of the components of the user interface. Will this help in figuring out how to program the different components?

[mrjj]

@Annabelle
Hi
Yes it's a very good idea to write manual first.
It gives a overview of the components needed and what functions they must have.

[Annabelle]

@mrjj said in Creating a Virtual Instrument with Qt:

@Annabelle
Hi
Yes it's a very good idea to write manual first.
It gives a overview of the components needed and what functions they must have.

After completing the manual, how would I post it for anyone to read? Is there a way to post attachments on this forum?

[mrjj]

@Annabelle
Yes there is but it only likes images and .c files.
Maybe we can cheat and rename it doc to say .cpp
and people can just rename it back.

[Annabelle]

I could try that, but I still wonder how I would post it? Is there a button on the message page that is designed for posting attachments?

[mrjj]

@Annabelle
Hi
it only allows images and not doc or pdf.
So to post here you would have to use some other site and post the link here so people can download and watch.

[Annabelle]

Would I be able to post it with something like Yousendit?

[mrjj]

@Annabelle
Only if it gives a link and not want email.
https://wetransfer.com/ can do it but you have to click on a blue button to make it show
the option. not sure how well that works with screen reader.

Alternatively, you can use free dropbox and put file there and right click to get link.

[Annabelle]

Someone on the forum said there's a new Qt Application, or maybe it's a Template. QTextToSpeech. I think that's what it's called. When I looked at the documentation
for this application, it didn't say anything about whether screenreaders could speak things like "Buttons", "Checkboxes", "Combo Boxes", etc. It said something about making a text-to-speech application. I'm confused
on which way to go with this, whether to use "QAccessibleInterface" or "QTextToSpeech". If there's a possibility, you can check out Strum Acoustic and Strum Electric, virtual instruments made by Applied Acoustics
of Canada. http://www.applied-acoustics.com. It's programmed in C++, and it responds really well to screenreaders like JAWS. I wonder what template is
used in that one? Is it QAccessible? QTextToSpeech? I'm confused on that one! I want to use the C++ Programming Language for all my programs that I will
make. But I want to make them accessible to people of all abilities, whether sighted, blind, visually challenged, etc.

[mrjj]

Hi
QTextToSpeech is a technology that can speak written text.
Like reading out loud emails. However, it contains no extra function for
discovery of user interfaces and reading out loud its layout and buttons text with more.

QAccessibleInterface is a way for a Qt program to make more information available
to screen readers. Its not a reader in it self but helps make Qt programs better for that.

So QAccessibleInterface could make information available to QTextToSpeech so it could read the buttons and help navigate the application. But normally QAccessibleInterface is used to help existing screen readers with information.

[Annabelle]

@Guest said in Creating a Virtual Instrument with Qt:

@Annabelle Hi A. I'm presuming you visited http://doc.qt.io/qt-5/qtmultimedia-index.html
It may not be exactly what you want, I have a feeling you might be interested in the JUCE libs. I tried integrating it into Qt and got it working on a very basic level. https://juce.com/ But don't take my word for it, I'm a gnoblar.

How did you get JUCE to work in Qt? Is there a specific code I should try for the JUCE libraries to work for the virtual instrument I'm wanting to create?

[Annabelle]

@mrjj said in Creating a Virtual Instrument with Qt:

Hi
QTextToSpeech is a technology that can speak written text.
Like reading out loud emails. However, it contains no extra function for
discovery of user interfaces and reading out loud its layout and buttons text with more.

QAccessibleInterface is a way for a Qt program to make more information available
to screen readers. Its not a reader in it self but helps make Qt programs better for that.

So QAccessibleInterface could make information available to QTextToSpeech so it could read the buttons and help navigate the application. But normally QAccessibleInterface is used to help existing screen readers with information.

So I'm guessing that the first part of my code should have lines that say:

#include QAccessibleInterface.h
#include QAccessibleActionInterface.h
#include QAccessibleValueInterface.h

[mrjj]

Hi
yes
but it seems to miss < and >
like
#include <QAccessibleInterface.h>
not sure it read them :)

[JKSH]

The best way to include a Qt class is to just write the class name inside angular brackets.

#include <QAccessibleInterface>
#include <QAccessibleActionInterface>
#include <QAccessibleValueInterface>

[Annabelle]

I remember a while back, a guest posted on this topic, telling me that they got the JUCE libraries to work with Qt. How did they do that, I wonder? Also, would those libraries respond to the accessible classes like QAccessibleInterface, QAccessibleActionInterface, QAccessibleValueInterface, etc.?

[JKSH]

@Annabelle said in Creating a Virtual Instrument with Qt:

I remember a while back, a guest posted on this topic, telling me that they got the JUCE libraries to work with Qt. How did they do that, I wonder?

Qt and JUCE are both C++ libraries. In theory, you can combine any number of C++ libraries within a C++ project.

Having said that, JUCE and Qt seem to serve quite similar use-cases, so there is little point in combining these two. I don't have experience with JUCE, but from a quick read through their documentation I get the impression that Qt has more features overall while JUCE is stronger when it comes to audio applications.

You asked if JUCE would respond to QAccessibleInterface etc. I'm not sure; you'll need to ask someone who has used both libraries.