Home KXStudio > News
RSS

KXStudio : News

> A DISTRHO-Ports update
On 2020-07-16 by falkTX

Hello again, another release for the Quarterly Release Pact is here.
This one is a "small" update of the DISTRHO-Ports project.
It is a more packager-focused release rather than user-focused, because the (super old) build system was finally updated.
This alone warrants a new release by itself, as it finally becomes possible for the project to be packaged in regular linux distributions.

There are a few new plugins and fixes with this release, bigger changes are coming at a later date.
I want to update the DISTRHO-Ports website and have "nightly builds" of the plugin binaries, but this will take time.
For now, at least we have the plugins building and working on modern distributions.

Here is a resume of the full changes since last release in 2018:

  • Add HiReSam plugin port
  • Add ReFine plugin port
  • Add Temper plugin port
  • Fix build for ARM NEON target
  • Fix LV2 UI notifications happening in non-GUI thread
  • Fix LV2 meta-data to pass lv2lint errors
  • Update JUCE (current plugins frozen in a known good but slightly old version, with cherry-picked fixes)
  • Switch build system from premake3 to meson

There are no pre-compiled binaries for this release, though the plugins are fully up-to-date in the KXStudio repositories.
You can find this 2020-07-14 release at github.com/DISTRHO/DISTRHO-Ports/releases.

> WineASIO v1.0.0 released
On 2020-07-15 by falkTX

Hello everyone, a perhaps unexpected release is here.
This is a release of WineASIO, as a way to announce maintainer change as well as making it up to date with current Wine.

The previous maintainer, Joakim Hernberg, publicly said that he was looking for someone to take lead on the project.
When I was doing packaging of WineASIO to the KXStudio repositories, there were a couple of fixes needed... and eventually just decided to maintain it since I was in a way already doing that.
With the green-light for taking over the project, I did a couple of changes that seemed (to me) relevant and useful.
The Cadence-specific WineASIO settings were also split off to become a standalone tool, and it is now the ASIO "control panel" for the WineASIO driver.

screenshot

I do not plan to make new development for WineASIO, only maintain it to keep it alive and working.
The new "control panel" was an exception due to it being, in my opinion, a user experience fix.
(understanding the Windows registry can be hard, so the "panel" allows us to skip on having to deal with that)

This is what changed compared to the previous official release:

  • Add custom GUI for WineASIO settings, made in PyQt5 (taken from Cadence project code)
  • Add packaging script
  • Fix code to work with latest Wine
  • Fix control panel startup
  • Rework Makefile, common rules for 32 and 64bit builds

There are no pre-compiled binaries for WineASIO, though it is available as a package in the KXStudio repositories.
You can find this v1.0.0 release at github.com/wineasio/wineasio.

> Carla 2.1.1 has been released
On 2020-06-11 by falkTX

This is a bugfix for Carla version v2.1 series, fixing many bug reports and stuff I found along the way.

Carla is an audio plugin host, with support for many audio drivers and plugin formats.
It has some nice features like automation of parameters via MIDI CC (and send output back as MIDI too) and full OSC control.

Changelog

  • Fix carla-control not handling CLI argument for custom address
  • Fix carla-plugin not handling all callbacks
  • Fix carla-plugin LV2 UI not showing up if host supports touch feature
  • Fix for some plugin formats having 0 audio ports
  • Fix occasional crashes due to canvas shadow (Qt bug, shadow is disabled by now)
  • Fix canvas ports text width calculation with new Qt
  • Fix wrong assertion with size 1 MIDI messages
  • Fix errors in the icons
  • Fix incorrect base conversion for MIDI CC assignments
  • Fix rpath specification in pkg-config files
  • Fix build with Qt 5.15
  • Discovery: Force language to be "C" (English) so we can parse errors
  • Discovery: assume midi inputs = 1 if VST plugin is synth
  • Make canvas ports and groups ignore middle mouse clicks
  • Improve performance of canvas "inline display" rendering
  • Other miscellaneous bug fixes

Downloads

To download Carla binaries or source code, jump on over to the KXStudio downloads section.
Carla v2.1 is available pre-packaged in the KXStudio repositories, ArchLinux and Ubuntu since 20.04. On those you can simply install the carla package.
Bug reports and feature requests are welcome! Jump on over to the Carla's Github project page for those.

> KXStudio Monthly Report (May 2020)
On 2020-05-31 by falkTX

Hello all, another monthly report about the KXStudio project is here.
It has been a few months since one of these, which I apologise for.
It was wrong of me to assume I will have news every single month, some are just a bit slow on news due to external circumstances.

Anyway, a lot of work is going into Carla, lots of bug-fixes.
A good collection of them are piling up, which makes a v2.1.1 release worthy, so expect that in the next few days.

One of the new features in Carla is Linux VST3 support, already available if you use carla-git.
There is also a category filter in the add-plugin dialog now, and better handling of high-dpi mode.
That is basically it in regards to frontend/GUI changes, everything else is on the backend/audio-host side.
All of this will be in Carla v2.2, with a tentative release date of July 15.

Other developments happening behind the scenes are a DISTRHO-Ports update (setting old JUCE aside and using new juce6 branch for Linux VST3 plugins), plus updating its build system to meson.
The WineASIO project was finally given to me officially, so expect a release soon for that too.
There is also a big DPF rework going on, and a new project for cross-platform LV2 plugin binaries.
Those will be announced at a later point in time, once ready.

Regarding package updates in the repositories, there have been a few since the last monthly report. Those are:

  • element added
  • impro-visor added
  • ladish fixed to work on systems without python2
  • amsynth updated to 1.10.0
  • avldrums.lv2 updated to 0.4.1
  • bsequencer updated to 1.4.2
  • bshapr updated to 0.9
  • bslizr updated to 1.2.6
  • carla-git updated
  • fluajho updated to 1.5
  • geonkick updated to 2.1.1
  • lsp-plugins updated to 1.1.22
  • mod-host updated to latest git
  • patroneo updated to 1.5
  • vico updated to 1.1
  • x42-plugins updated to 20200411

Not so much work got done in regards to the website and documentation.
Perhaps for next time.

That is all for now, stay safe out there.

> Carla 2.1 is here!
On 2020-04-16 by falkTX

Exactly one year after 2.0, Carla version 2.1 is here!

Carla is an audio plugin host, with support for many audio drivers and plugin formats.
It has some nice features like automation of parameters via MIDI CC (and send output back as MIDI too) and full OSC control.

This is a small but significant update that builds up on top of what was released in 2.0.
Please see the 2.1-RC1 announcement for details on what is is new in 2.1.

Unlike last time, there are no official plans for version 2.2 just yet, my focus will now be going into the DPF and JACK projects instead.
The master branch of Carla's code repository is now for 2.1, while the previous 2.0 master got renamed "hotfix-2.0.0".
No new features will be added to 2.1 series, only bugfixes.

Changes since 2.1-RC2

  • Add a simple cv2audio plugin
  • Brown color for CV ports, to make them more easily recognizable
  • Fix crash loading LV2 plugin with CV and latency ports
  • Fix mingw/gcc-9 build

Changes between 2.1-RC2 and 2.1-RC1

  • Fix crash on stack unwind for a few operations
  • Fix duplicate data (name, label, uid) used in VST synth/fx Shell plugin
  • Fix JACK metadata usage for multiple carla instances and plugin renames
  • Fix MIDI CC assignment showing wrong selected value (base 16 vs 10)
  • Fixup carla-control (was broken in RC1)
  • Optimize and reduce memory usage of UI bridges
  • Overall fix of postponed RT events
  • Give focus to bridged UIs when first shown
  • Ignore any LV2 patch:writable that is not an lv2:Parameter
  • Rename experimental "prevent bad things" option and give it a tool-tip
  • Support the new LV2 UI requestParameterValue API
  • Support the new LV2 UI background/foreground color API
  • Many other miscellaneous bug fixes, see the git log for details

Downloads

To download Carla binaries or source code, jump on over to the KXStudio downloads section.
Carla v2.1 is available pre-packaged in the KXStudio repositories, ArchLinux and Ubuntu since 20.04. On those you can simply install the carla package.
Bug reports and feature requests are welcome! Jump on over to the Carla's Github project page for those.

← PreviousNext →