KXStudio : News

> DPF-Plugins v1.1 released
On 2017-06-17 by falkTX

With some minor things finally done and all reported bugs squashed, it's time to tag a new release of DPF-Plugins.

The initial 1.0 version was not really advertised/publicized before, as there were still a few things I wanted done first - but they were already usable as-is.
The base framework used by these plugins (DPF) will get some deep changes soon, so better to have this release out now.

I will not write a changelog here, it was just many small changes here and there for all the plugins since v1.0.
Just think of this release as the initial one. :P

The source code plus Linux, macOS and Windows binaries can be downloaded at https://github.com/DISTRHO/DPF-Plugins/releases/tag/v1.1.
The plugins are released as LADSPA, DSSI, LV2, VST2 and JACK standalone.

As this is the first time I show off the plugins like this, let's go through them a little bit...
The order shown is more or less the order in which they were made.
Note that most plugins here were made/ported as a learning exercise, so not everything is new.
Many thanks to António Saraiva for the design of some of these interfaces!

Mini-Series

This is a collection of small but useful plugins, based on the good old LOSER-Dev Plugins.
This collection currently includes 3 Band EQ, 3 Band Splitter and Ping Pong Pan.

MVerb

Studio quality, open-source reverb.
Its release was intended to provide a practical demonstration of Dattorro’s figure-of-eight reverb structure and provide the open source community with a high quality reverb.
This is a DPF'ied build of the original MVerb plugin, allowing a proper Linux version with UI.

Nekobi

Simple single-oscillator synth based on the Roland TB-303.
This is a DPF'ied build of the nekobee project, allowing LV2 and VST builds of the plugin, plus a nicer UI with a simple cat animation. ;)

Kars

Simple karplus-strong plucked string synth.
This is a DPF'ied build of the karplong DSSI example synth, written by Chris Cannam.
It implements the basic Karplus-Strong plucked-string synthesis algorithm (Kevin Karplus & Alex Strong, "Digital Synthesis of Plucked-String and Drum Timbres", Computer Music Journal 1983).

ndc-Plugs

DPF'ied ports of some plugins from Niall Moody.
See http://www.niallmoody.com/ndcplugs/plugins.htm for the original author's page.
This collection currently includes Amplitude Imposer, Cycle Shifter and Soul Force plugins.

ProM

projectM is an awesome music visualizer.
This plugin makes it work as an audio plugin (LV2 and VST).

glBars

This is an OpenGL bars visualization plugin (as seen in XMMS and XBMC/Kodi).
Adapted from the jack_glbars project by Nedko Arnaudov.

> KXStudio 14.04.5 release and future plans
On 2017-06-11 by falkTX

Hello there, it's time for another KXStudio ISO release! KXStudio 14.04.5 is here!

Lots have changed in the applications and plugins for Linux Audio (even in KXStudio itself), so it was about time to see those ISO images updated.
Behind the scenes, from what the user can see, it might appear as nothing has truly changed. After all, this is an updated image still based on Ubuntu 14.04, like those from 2 years ago.
But we had a really big amount of releases for our beloved software, enough to deserve this small ISO update.
There is no list of changes this time, sorry. The main thing worth mentioning is that base system is exactly the same, with only applications and plugins updated.
You know the saying - if ain't broken, don't fix it!

Before you ask.. no, there won't be a 16.04 based ISO release.
When 2016 started KDE5 was not in a good enough shape, and it would need a lot of work (and time) to port all the changes made for KDE4 into KDE5.
KDE5 is a lot better now than it used to be, but we missed the opportunity there.

The current plan is to slowly migrate everything we have into KDE5 (meta-packages, scripts, tweaks, artwork, etc) and do a new ISO release in May 2018.
(Yes, this means using Ubuntu 18.04 as base)
The choice of KDE Plasma as desktop environment is not set in stone, other (lighter) desktops have appeared recently that will be considered.
In the end it depends if it will be stable and good enough for audio production.

You can download the new ISOs on the KXStudio website, at http://kxstudio.linuxaudio.org/Downloads#LiveDVD.

And that's it for now.
We hope you enjoy KXStudio, being it the ISO "distribution" release or the repositories.

> Carla 2.0 beta5 is here!
On 2017-01-05 by falkTX

Hello again everyone, we're glad to bring you the 5th beta of the upcoming Carla 2.0 release.
It has been more than 1 year since the last Carla release, this release fixes things that got broken in the mean time and continues the work towards Carla's 2.0 base features.
There's quite a lot of changes under the hood, mostly bugfixes and minor but useful additions.
With that being said, here are some of the highlights:

Carla-Control is back! Carla-Control is an application to remotely control a Carla instance via network, using OSC messages. It stopped working shortly after Carla's move to 2.x development, but now it's back, and working a lot better. Currently works on Linux and Mac OS.

Logs tab This was also something that was brought back in this release. It was initially removed from the 2.x series because it did not work so well. Now the code has been fixed up and brought to life. You can disable it in the settings if you prefer your messages to go to the console as usual. Sadly this does not work on Windows just yet, only for Linux and Mac OS. But for Windows a Debug/Carla.exe file is included in this build (after you extract the exe as zip file), which can be used to see the console window.

MIDI Sequencer is dead, long live MIDI Pattern! The internal MIDI Sequencer plugin was renamed to MIDI Pattern, and received some needed attention. Some menu actions and parameters were added, to make it more intuitive to use. It's now exported as part of the Carla-LV2 plugins package, and available for Linux and Mac OS.

More stuff

• Add carla-jack-single/multi startup tools
• Add 16 channel and 2+1 (sidechain) variant to Carla-Patchbay plugins
• Add new custom menu when right-clicking empty rack & patchbay areas
• Add command-line option for help and version arguments
• Add command-line option to run Carla without UI (requires project file)
• Add X11 UI to Carla-LV2
• Remove MVerb internal plugin (conflicting license)
• Remove Nekofilter internal plugin (use fil4.lv2 instead)
• Implement plugin bridges for Mac OS and Windows
• Implement Carla-LV2 MIDI out
• Implement initial latency code, used for aligned dry/wet sound for now
• Implement support for VST shell plugins under Linux
• Implement sorting of LV2 scale points
• Allow to scan and load 32bit AUs under Mac OS
• Allow using the same midi-cc in multiple parameters for the same plugin
• Allow Carla-VST to be built with Qt5 (Linux only)
• Bypass MIDI events on carla-rack plugin when rack is empty
• Find plugin binary when saved filename doesn't exist
• Force usage of custom theme under Mac OS
• New option to wherever put UIs on top of carla (Linux only)
• Make canvas draggable with mouse middle-click
• Make it possible to force-refresh scan of LV2 and AU plugins
• Plugin settings (force stereo, send CC, etc) are now saved in the project file
• Renaming plugins under JACK driver mode now keeps the patchbays connections
• Update modgui code for latest mod-ui, supports control outputs now
• Lots and lots of bug fixes.

There will still be 1 more beta release before going for a release candidate, so expect more cool stuff soon!

Special Notes

• Carla as plugin is still not available under Windows, to be done for the next beta.

Downloads

To download Carla binaries or source code, jump into 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 into the Carla's Github project page for those.

> Changes in KXStudio repositories
On 2016-05-06 by falkTX

Hey everyone, just a small heads up about the KXStudio repositories.

If you use Debian Testing or the new Ubuntu 16.04 you probably saw some warnings regarding weak SHA1 keys when checking for updates.
We're aware of this issue and a fix is coming soon, but it will require some changes in the repositories.

First, we'll get rid of the 'lucid' builds and rebuild all of them in the 'trusty' series.
For those of you that were using Debian 6 or something older than Ubuntu 14.04, the repositories will stop working for you later this month.

Second, the gcc5 specific packages will be migrated from 'wily' series to 'xenial'.
This means you'll no longer be able to use the KXStudio repositories if you're running Ubuntu 15.10.
If that's the case for you, please update to 16.04 as soon as possible. Note that 15.10 will be officially end-of-life in 2 months.

And finally, the gcc5 packages will begin using Qt5 instead of Qt4 for some applications.
This will include Carla, Qtractor and the v1 series plugins.
Hopefully this won't break anything, but if it does please let us know.

That's it for now. Have a nice weekend!

> KXStudio Website has moved
On 2015-07-25 by falkTX

Hey all,

As you might have noticed sourceforge has been out of service for a while now.
That, coupled together with the previous adware/spyware fiasco led to me look for alternatives.

So you can now find the KXStudio website at http://kxstudio.linuxaudio.org/.

The KXStudio repositories have already been updated to NOT use sourceforge anymore.
New releases will be hosted at github, possibly mirrored in google drive and linuxaudio.org.
I've made some changes to make the website and repositories more easy to move in case something like this happens to github too.

Sorry for any inconvenience.