Qure Data

Visual programming for audio that opens your Pure Data patches: a C++23 engine that never locks the audio thread, a patch editor drawn on the GPU, and GUI nodes you write in QML.

Download Nightly Source on GitHub

The drum machine example: a QML step grid with four coloured rows, four drum pads, knobs for tempo and volume, and the patch that plays them

What it does

Saves patches as .qd files in Pd’s own format and opens Pd’s .pd files – subpatches, abstractions with $0 and arguments, arrays, GUI objects – with about 175 objects of Pd vanilla, from osc~ and vline~ to expr.
Edits are compiled into a plan and swapped in between two audio blocks: changing a patch never blocks or clicks the sound. Subpatch inlets and outlets cost nothing at run time, and signal buffers are reused.
Boxes and cords are drawn by shaders in a few batched draw calls, so even huge patches pan and zoom smoothly. Pd’s keys work: Ctrl+1 for an object, autopatching, drag from an outlet to connect.
Every GUI node – slider, toggle, keyboard, scope – is one QML file. A project can bring its own nodes in a nodes/ folder next to the patch, without compiling anything.
Real-time visuals like Jitter or GEM: shaders written as one GLSL function and edited while the patch runs, whole QML scenes as layers, video feedback, and sound as textures – all on the GPU.
Audio through PipeWire, PulseAudio, JACK or ALSA on Linux, Core Audio on macOS and WASAPI on Windows.

The wavetable synth example: a keyboard, a wave editor drawn with the mouse, the array it writes, and an ADSR envelope with draggable handles — Draw a waveform and drag an envelope – two QML nodes of the wavetable synth.

The euclidean ambient example: three euclidean rhythm rings, an XY pad and a level plot over the patch that plays FM bells into a delay — Euclidean rhythm rings drive FM bells into a feedback delay.

Visuals

The gfx.* objects turn a patch into real-time graphics, like Max’s Jitter or Pd’s GEM. An effect is one GLSL function, recompiled every time you save it; a whole QML scene is one box.

The VJ mixer example: kaleidoscoped plasma crossfaded with an animated QML title, through a CRT shader — The VJ mixer: a QML title over a kaleidoscope, through the project’s CRT shader.

The audio visuals example: a synth's waveform drawn as glowing lines with feedback trails, behind coloured rings that pulse with its level — Audio visuals: a synth’s waveform as a texture, with feedback trails.

The VJ mixer patch: two channels of shaders and a QML scene, a crossfader, feedback, hue and a CRT shader into a window, joined by purple texture cords

Debian and Ubuntu

The APT repository brings Qure Data with its own Qt, for Ubuntu 22.04, Debian 12 and newer.

sudo curl -fsSLo /usr/share/keyrings/qure-data-archive-keyring.asc https://iam-peter.github.io/qure-data/key.asc
echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/qure-data-archive-keyring.asc] https://iam-peter.github.io/qure-data/apt stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/qure-data.list
sudo apt update && sudo apt install qure-data

The repository is signed with the key 9810 7265 8504 FEAB 1F08 D916 3958 AB85 EBE5 91B0.

Other systems

Each release has an AppImage for any Linux, a zip for Windows and a disk image for macOS. The macOS app isn't signed: open it with a right click and Open the first time, and allow it to use the microphone when macOS asks.