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> The KXStudio repositories are (slowly) coming back
On 2019-09-24 by falkTX

Greetings from Portugal.
After some time setting up in a new country, thinking and planning, I (falkTX) decided a few things in regards to the KXStudio project.

First of all, if you have not noticed, the KXStudio ISO images were taken down.
They were using Ubuntu 14.04 as base, that while still works in many cases, starts to show its age.
The fact that I can no longer run it myself (due to a new GPU that is unsupported in its older OS stack) forced me to finally move to something new.

Wherever new ISOs will come back again is undecided at this point.
They are not a priority at all right now, so if I get to make them again it is not going to be this year or the beginning of the next.
I still like KDE/Plasma the best in terms of desktop experience, so that would remain.
Plasma and KDE ecosystem is changing too fast, it does not make it easy for what I want in KXStudio.
Perhaps when Qt6 is out, KDE/Plasma5 will slow down a bit, we'll see...

Anyway, the bigger news is that the KXStudio repositories are coming back!
(for those that do not know, KXStudio has repositories that sit on top of any Debian or Ubuntu system and provides updates and new packages related to audio/music production)

To be honest, they are already back right now :), but not in a state that matches what they used to be before.
I am in the process of bringing over all the relevant packages slowly. A few packages per day so in a few weeks we should be good again. :)

Anyway, a new repository setup was really needed.
Previously, the repositories were mixing packages built in 3 different Ubuntu versions and there was a separate gcc5 variant of the repos with a few packages that use the new libstdc++ ABI introduced in gcc5.1.
This was a pain to manage, so better to rethink it.
I kept things somewhat updated over the years, and did not change/break the repositories in a meaningful way because 14.04 was still supported and what I used daily anyway.
Now that enough time has passed and 14.04 is officially EOL, perfect chance to rework the repositories for the future!

Here is the current situation:

  • The new repositories require at least Ubuntu 18.04 or Debian 10 (or equivalent)
  • There is a single deb file to be installed in order to activate the repositories.

    (hopefully no more libstdc++ ABI breakages again, please...?)
  • The old repositories are considered legacy and will no longer be updated.

    Packages included on them will still remain available for some time.
  • You will not be automatically updated to the new repositories, it has to be done manually

    This is to prevent breakage of existing systems, mostly for keeping "old" packages installable.
    Once you update to the new repositories, you will not be able to "apt-get install" packages that were present in the old repositories but are not yet in the new ones.
    This is intentional. There are quite a few packages that I will not be supporting anymore, and thus won't end up in the repos.
    When you move to the new repos, you will be able to remove the KXStudio specific version of packages and then install whatever version someone else provides.
    I will not be uploading packages to the new repositories that I do not intend to keep updated.
  • armhf and arm64 are now supported targets, taking Raspberry Pi 3 as the minimum specs

    With this, the repos will support 32 and 64bit Intel-based architecture, plus 32 and 64bit ARM.
  • Audio plugins (including standalone synths and FX) are the focus of the repos.

    General applications and tools will not be supported anymore.
    This is mainly to reduce the burden of maintaining the repos, as applications often have very complex dependencies compared to plugins (some are actually quite difficult to build).
    I will be packaging a few that I personally use, or that have stalled in feature development.
  • All available application and plugin packages are listed here and here respectively.

    There are direct deb files to download from those pages, for those that want something specific in the repos but do not want to enable the full thing.
    These 2 pages are automatically generated, and fetch their contents directly from the repositories.
  • There is a page dedicated to questions about the repositories here.

    I will be updating this page as more questions appear.

Speaking of updates, the website needs some touches here and there...
Already started with a few, like removing the home carousel and all use of JavaScript, plus updating the pages related to the repositories obviously. :)
It is a moving target as pretty much all websites, so don't be surprised to see changes, though they won't be that substantial..

That is all for now, thank you.

PS: You might be wondering why I am writing this text in first person, contrary to other past posts.
This is mainly because, well, KXStudio was and still is a one-person project (with the occasional help here and there for small things).
I am making an effort to not write "marketing speech"-like anymore, just that.

> Carla 2.0.0 is finally here!
On 2019-04-15 by falkTX

After many years, Carla version 2.0.0 is finally 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.

Version 2.0 took this long because I was never truly happy with its current state, often pushing new features but not fully finishing them.
So the "solution" was to put everything that is not considered stable yet behind an experimental flag in the settings.
This way we can have our stable Carla faster, while upcoming features get developed and tagged as experimental during testing.

Preparations for version 2.1 are well under way, a beta for it will be out soon.
But that is a topic for another day.

Changes since 2.0-RC4

  • Fix missing argument in note-on/off osc example
  • Fix word-wrap in add-plugin dialog
  • Fix Windows README.txt line endings
  • Build windows binaries with -mstackrealign
  • Don't show side panel in carla-control
  • Show "Label/URI" instead of just "Label"
  • Keep application signals alive (so Ctrl+C works even while engine is closed)
  • Update copyright year

Downloads

To download Carla binaries or source code, jump on over to the KXStudio downloads section.
Carla v2.0.0 is available pre-packaged in the KXStudio repositories and UbuntuStudio backports, plus on ArchLinux and Ubuntu since 19.04. 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.

Videos

There is no manual or quick-start guide for Carla yet, apologies for that.
But there are some videos of presentations I did regarding Carla's features and workflows, those should give you an introduction of its features and what you can do with it:

@ Sonoj 2017

@ LAC 2018

> Changes in KXStudio repos, regarding Carla and JACK2
On 2019-03-22 by falkTX

This is a small notice to everyone using Carla and JACK2 with the KXStudio repos.

First, in preparation for Carla 2.0 release, the (really) old carla package is now the new v2.0 series, while carla-git now contains the development/latest version.
If you are not interested in testing Carla's new stuff and prefer something known to be more stable, install the carla package after the latest updates.

Second, a change in JACK2 code has made it so a restart of the server is required after the update.
(but for a good reason, as JACK2 is finally getting meta-data support; this update fixes client UUIDs)
If you use jackdbus (likely with KXStudio stuff), you will need to actually kill it.
If that does not work, good old restart is your friend. :)

One important thing to note is that the lmms package now conflicts with the carla-git one.
This is because some code has changed in latest Carla that makes v2.0 vs development/latest ABI-incompatible.
In simpler terms, LMMS can only either be compiled against the stable or development version of Carla.
The obvious choice is to use the stable version, so after the updates if you notice LMMS is missing, just install it again.
(If you have carla-git installed, carla will be installed/switched automatically)

I tried to make the transition of these updates as smooth as possible, but note that you likely need to install updates twice to complete the process.

In other news, we got a new domain!^-^)/
Also Carla v2.0 release date has been set - 15th of April.
Unless a major issue is found, expect a release announcement on that day.
See you soon then! ;)

> Carla 2.0 RC4 is here!
On 2019-03-02 by falkTX

Hello again everyone!
This is a quick fix for the Carla Plugin Host (soon-to-be) stable series.

Changelog

  • carla-vst: Add Ardour workaround for its 'Analysis' window
  • carla-vst: Fix typo leading to buffer size of 1 during plugin activation
  • Fix for some stupid plugins messing up with global signals (restore original signals after creating plugin)
  • Fix dry/wet for VST plugins (by creating extra buffer for inline processing)
  • Fix crash in RtAudio when ALSA soundcard is listed but not available
  • Fix crash on JACK buffer size changes in patchbay mode
  • Fix crash when directly loading vst shell plugins (carla-single or drag&drop dll file)
  • Fix loading multiple exported LV2 plugins (always copy full carla-plugin binary when exporting)
  • Fix missing transport information when Carla is not jack transport master
  • Fix opening a few VST2 UIs (we give up trying to follow VST spec, always assume UI opens nicely)
  • Fix plugin bridges not working under Fedora (RT threads were able to be setup, but not started)
  • Automatically terminate wine bridges if main carla dies
  • Calculate VST2 ppqPos in a more reliable way
  • Do not set up RtAudio in "hog device" mode
  • Do not build external plugins in debug or strict build
  • Handle more sources of VST2 automation via audioMasterAutomate
  • Handle worst-case scenario of carla-plugin buffer size being too low

I am not confident enough to call it the stable version just yet, as some of these release changes actually introduced new code.
But the target date for the stable release is now set - middle of April.
There are no more release-blocker bugs for Carla v2,0 anymore, so it is just a matter of time now.

Downloads

To download Carla binaries or source code, jump on over to the KXStudio downloads section.
If you're using the KXStudio repositories, you can simply install "carla-git" (plus "carla-lv2" and "carla-vst" if you're so inclined).
Bug reports and feature requests are welcome! Jump on over to the Carla's Github project page for those.

> DPF-Plugins v1.2 released
On 2019-03-02 by falkTX

Hello everyone, a new release of DPF-Plugins is here.
This is mostly a bugfix release, with a few little new things.
This is what changed compared to the last release:

  • Fix glBars and ProM plugins not being built and installed
  • Kars: Added release and volume parameters
  • Kars: Remove its useless UI
  • Nekobi: Add enum values for waveform parameter
  • Remove modguis, they are maintained in a separate repo

DPF changes

DPF (the small framework behind these plugins) saw some important changes.
They are not all relevant to DPF-Plugins directly, but worth mentioning:

  • Fix samplerate property in lv2 UIs
  • Fix (implement) parent window for about dialogs for MacOS and Windows
  • Add get/set scaling to Window
  • Add option to automatically scale plugin UIs
  • Allow plugin UIs to be user-resizable, test with info and meters example
  • Implement basic effGetParameterProperties in VST2 plugins (boolean, integer and log flags)
  • Implement midi out
  • Implement enumerator style of parameters
  • Implement LV2-trigger-type parameters
  • Implement Shift-click to reset sliders
  • Report supported LV2 options in generated ttl
  • Render VST2 parameter-text integer, boolean and enum parameters
  • Rework calculation of VST2 transport/time info
  • Set _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE for our X11 windows

Other things worth noting is that 2 new exciting things are currently under development: Cairo graphics support and AU plugin wrapper.
Eventually these will be part of core DPF, but for now they are being discussed and worked on with other developers.

Downloads

The source code plus Linux, macOS and Windows binaries can be downloaded at https://github.com/DISTRHO/DPF-Plugins/releases/tag/v1.2.
The plugins are released as LADSPA, DSSI, LV2, VST2 and JACK standalone.

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