KXStudio News

> Carla 2.0 beta3 is here!
On 2014-10-25 by falkTX

Hello again everyone, we're glad to bring to you the 3rd beta of the upcoming Carla 2.0 release.
There have been quite a few nice features implemented since beta2; here are the highlights.

Highlights

Internal Patchbay

This new engine processing mode is similar to what JACK does for all clients and what other modular applications do.
Every plugin gets its own canvas group and ports allowing you to interconnect plugin audio and MIDI.
You can use this mode to build complex plugin routing scenarios, perhaps involving several layers of rack and patchbays.

Note that this is currently not available for non-JACK drivers; but for those you can use the internal carla-patchbay plugin.
There's no support for LV2 Control-Voltage ports as of yet, this will be implemented in the next beta together with MIDI-OSC.

Carla as VST plugin (Linux only)

With the first beta of Carla 2.0 we introduced Carla as a plugin, which worked as both internal and LV2.
Now Carla is available as a VST plugin too, allowing you to load it all DAWs released for Linux.
There are 4 variants: Rack-Synth, Rack-FX, Patchbay-Synth and Patchbay-FX.

Carla LMMS Plugin

Carla has an LMMS plugin too, as Carla-Patchbay and Carla-Rack instruments.
So finally you can use native softsynths within LMMS!
The carla-lmms plugin code is already in LMMS and will be part of its 1.1 release.

If you're using the KXStudio repositories and feel like giving it a try simply install carla-git and lmms.

AU Plugins (MacOS only)

AU plugins are working in Carla now.
Carla's plugin compatibility increases once more.

New and updated skins

There's a new OpenAV-style plugin slot skin.
Calf and ZynFX have been updated.
More to come soon.

Old non-skin mode

You can now use the old non-skin mode from Carla 1.x series.
This saves space if you load lots of plugins at once.

More stuff

New time panel added, but it's very incomplete.
LV2 plugin discovery is now automatic, but without plugin checks or testing.
LV2 plugins are fully working on MacOS and Windows, including their native UIs (Cocoa and HWND respectively).

There will still be 1 or 2 more beta releases before going for a release candidate, so expect more cool stuff soon!

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" instead (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.

> DISTRHO: New plugins and minor fixing
On 2014-08-27 by falkTX

In this release we bring 4 new Linux plugin ports:
- EasySSP
- LUFS Meter
- Luftikus
- Stereo Source Separator
(Go to http://distrho.sourceforge.net/ports to see the current list of Linux ports.)

The DPF-based plugins also had some minor fixes:
- 3BandEQ/Splitter had its sliders inverted, now fixed
- ProM now has pre-compiled linux binaries; UI can be resized by using - and + keys
- MVerb knobs order has been fixed
- Allow to open UI in LV2 hosts that don't support options feature (Ingen)
- Workaround for some VST hosts that don't set sample rate during init (Ardour3 and energyXT)

> The 2nd beta of Carla 2.0 is here!
On 2014-08-15 by falkTX

The Carla Plugin Host 2.0 beta2 release is finally here!
This release was slightly delayed in order to ensure plugin bridges were working properly.
If you haven't heard about the Carla 2.x series do so here.

In short, this release makes plugin bridges actually work and it's the first to support MacOS (>= 10.6).
The backend is now completely toolkit agnostic, only depending on the native window system (like X11 on Linux).
This release is much more stable when compared to the previous beta - it will no longer eat your cat! ;)
It should already be good enough for regular usage, if you can ignore some incomplete UI things.

Known issues / Release notes: (all to be fixed in the next beta)

All DPF and JUCE-based internal plugins were removed to reduce code size and complexity, they will be re-introduced later
AU plugin support is available on MacOS, but the discovery mechanism fails to find them
Linux release has support for bridging Window plugins using Wine (32bit and 64bit).
Linux 32bit release will not load 64bit plugins even if ran on a 64bit system
MacOS Carla-Rack LV2 plugin fails to show UI
MacOS and Windows do not support native widgets in LV2 yet (Cocoa and HWND, respectively)
MacOS release is 64bit only but it can load 32bit plugins
Windows 64bit build doesn't provide GIG and SFZ support, use the 32bit build if you need those
Windows builds do not support bridges (ie, 32bit plugins on a 64bit Carla) or Carla as plugin

The next beta will change a few things, specially UI-wise.
The discovery mechanism needs to be reworked for AU support and faster LV2 access.
Adding plugins and browsing presets will probably change too.
LMMS and VST plugin versions of Carla-Rack are also planned, but no promises for these.
We'll be posting more news as things are developed.

> DISTRHO New release pack (2014-07-16)
On 2014-07-16 by falkTX

DISTRHO has a new release!

In this release we cleaned up all the plugins, added new ones and removed those that we not considered good enough.
Standalones are no longer available. Highlife was removed as a requested by its authors.

The plugins we added to Ports are:

Dexed
KlangFalter
MVerb
Nekobi
Obxd
PitchedDelay

Additionally we made a new plugin - ProM - a music visualizer as audio plugin based on projectm.

See the plugins and ports sections on DISTRHO's website for screenshots and downloads.
The complete source code is available at https://github.com/DISTRHO/.

> Introducing JackAss
On 2014-05-16 by falkTX

JackAss is a VST plugin that provides JACK-MIDI support for VST hosts.
Simply load the plugin in your favourite host to get a JACK-MIDI port.
Each new plugin instance creates a new MIDI port.

Here's JackAss loaded in FL Studio:

And an example setup in Carla for it:

JackAss sends the notes from the host to its JACK-MIDI port.
It also exposes 50 parameters, which send a MIDI CC message when changed.
You can use this to easily control external applications that accept JACK-MIDI input and possibly CC for automation (like Carla).

Additionally there's a JackAssFX plugin, which only exposes parameters to send as MIDI CC, in case you don't need MIDI/notes.

JackAss currently has builds for Linux, MacOS and Windows, all 32bit and 64bit. Just follow this link.
As a bonus, you also get special Wine builds - load it in a Windows application running in Linux via Wine and you get a real, native JACK-MIDI port from it!

You can find JackAss source code and bug tracker in Github: https://github.com/falkTX/JackAss/.

PS: Why JackAss? Because it outputs to JACK. ;)

KXStudio : News