KXStudio : News

> Carla 2.5.4 released
On 2023-03-13 by falkTX

Hello again everyone, a new Carla release is here, v2.5.4 which brings a couple of fixes to the v2.5 series.

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 crash/regression when using LV2 plugins without worker extension
• Fix compat with PyQt >= PyQt 5.15.8
• Fix macOS build
• Simplify JACK event handling, now using a single queue on the main thread

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".
Bug reports and feature requests are welcome! Jump on over to the Carla's Github project page for those.

> Cardinal 23.02 released
On 2023-02-28 by falkTX

Hello again everyone, it is time for another Cardinal release.
Cardinal is a free and open-source virtual modular synthesizer plugin.
It is based on the popular VCV Rack but with a focus on being a fully self-contained plugin version.

The main change for this release is the introduction of a "Mini" variant.
This is a special variant with a very small, hand-picked module selection and limited IO (2 audio ports plus 5 CV).
There are 2 main reasons for this variant to exist:

• make it easier for users new to the modular world to get a working setup, by only having some of the best possible modules available to choose from
• hand-pick modules that are simple enough to work reliably in a remote setup

For now the list of selected modules is quite small, intentionally. We will add a few more as the need appears.
All included modules support polyphony, reducing confusion for new users not yet used to mono vs poly approach in Rack/Cardinal.

The 2nd reason (only having simple modules) is needed in order to support DSP/UI separation.
Having this in place means we can run the DSP on a different machine than the UI.
This is particularly interesting for running Cardinal on embed systems, being controlled remotely via web browser or native desktop application.
Already doable with LV2 from 23.02 onwards, used for MOD Audio builds (as seen in the screenshot).
Later on this will be made possible on standalone too.

There are a few module updates too, and some important bug fixes too, see the changelog below.

Changelog

• Add Mini variant (very few hand-picked modules, with separate DSP/UI under LV2)
• Add wasm-noopt build, needed for some web browsers
• Add CardinalMIDI variant for AU (same as CardinalFX but has different tag)
• Allow to build without SSE optimizations (using `NOSIMD=true`)
• Check /usr and /usr/local directories for existing Carla tools on macOS
• Do not reset Host MIDI pitch when receiving an all-notes-off event
• Fix display of Host CV in non-main variants
• Fix LV2 not reacting to buffer-size changes
• Fix VST3 "SDK" versioning to be more officially compatible
• Remove the `NOPLUGINS` build option
• Several performance optimizations

Module changes

• Update Grande Modular to 2.7.2
• Update Surge XT to 2.1.3

Downloads

The source code plus Linux, macOS and Windows binaries can be downloaded at https://github.com/DISTRHO/Cardinal/releases/tag/23.02.
Cardinal is released as LV2, VST2, VST3 and CLAP plugin, plus AudioUnit and JACK/Standalone for certain systems.

> Carla 2.5.3 released
On 2023-01-16 by falkTX

Hello everyone, it is release day again, sorta..
This time we have a single update for Carla.

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.

Same as last time for v2.5.2, this update backports fixes from the main development branch into the stable 2.5 series.
The more substantial stuff will come for 2.6.0, still a few months away.

Changelog

• Always set time frame information for JUCE hosted plugins
• Fix canvaspreview out-of-bounds panning for patchbay
• Fix receiving LV2 atoms bigger than 32kB
• Fix peak metering reading values out of bounds
• Fix missing </li> code in about information string
• Support the more verbose LV2 MIDI CC definitions
• Use SDL driver by default on Haiku

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".
Bug reports and feature requests are welcome! Jump on over to the Carla's Github project page for those.

> Cardinal 22.12 released
On 2022-12-20 by falkTX

Greetings everyone, we have yet another release of Cardinal, this with some great module additions.
Cardinal is a free and open-source virtual modular synthesizer plugin.
It is based on the popular VCV Rack but with a focus on being a fully self-contained plugin version.

The main changes for this release are new modules (Sapphire, Stoermelder Pack-one and Surge-XT) and web-assembly related fixes.
Highly requested and specially interesting for users are the brand new Surge-XT modules, see Omri Cohen's video for a cool overview of what they can do.
As usual there are a few module updates too.

Changelog

• Add portable standalone Windows binaries
• Add JTB Waves example/demo patch
• Fix SSE not being enabled in pffft for 32bit builds
• Improve docs for building Windows binaries
• Stop using LTO for macos-universal builds

Module changes

• Add Sapphire
• Add Stoermelder Pack-one
• Add Surge-XT
• Update BaconPlugs
• Update Befaco
• Update MindMeld
• Update PathSet

Web-assembly related changes

• Add Web-assembly build instructions
• Enable brotli compression on release files
• Enable emscripten --use-preload-cache flag, improves browser cache
• Fix keyboard input having wrong keys
• Fix mouse lock on chrome-based browsers
• Fix versioning

Special Notes

• Building now requires a compiler compatible with C++17
• Windows builds now require 0x0600/Vista, needed for Surge

Downloads

The source code plus Linux, macOS and Windows binaries can be downloaded at https://github.com/DISTRHO/Cardinal/releases/tag/22.12.
Cardinal is released as LV2, VST2, VST3 and CLAP plugin, plus AudioUnit and JACK/Standalone for certain systems.

> Cardinal 22.11 released
On 2022-11-27 by falkTX

Hi everyone, we have another Cardinal release, 22.11, with a very welcome change and important bugfixes.
Cardinal is a free and open-source virtual modular synthesizer plugin.
It is based on the popular VCV Rack but with a focus on being a fully self-contained plugin version.

Contributed by Francesco Cameli we now have modules processing order based on cable connections rather than when they were first added to the Rack.
With this, there is now a guarantee that no single sample feedback is introduced between cable connections, unless feedback connections are in place or modules have internal buffering.

As an example, Francesco provided a simple patch that plays a sine wave through a sequence of 54 modules to measure the difference of the starting signal with the end one.
As it can be seen below, with the old implementation there was definitely a delay introduced by the connections.
(since the audio engine steps through the modules in the order in which they were created, ignoring which modules should come first according to the cable connections)

Other important changes are fixes to VST3 multi-IO, CLAP having a multi-IO variant, and macOS Intel builds working much better.

Main Changelog

• Add classic subtractive polysynth example/demo patch
• Automatically reset modules processing order according to cable connections
• Enable CLAP "main" variant (multi-IO audio now implemented, CV ports still TODO)
• Fix CLAP audio port types (now set as stereo, fixes loading under Anklang)
• Fix memory alignment issues for macOS Intel platform
• Fix out of bounds read on host audio 2 meters
• Fix VST3 non-main ports not receiving audio
• Make macOS native standalone behaving like Linux and Windows regarding buffer-size changes
• Mark LV2 CV ports as optional
• Only use simde, drop sse2neon (following VCV Rack's approach to ARM binaries)

Module changes

• Add RebelTech
• Update Meander
• Fix crashes when loading patches with Macro Oscillator 2
• Fix out of bounds read in DrumKit modules

Downloads

The source code plus Linux, macOS and Windows binaries can be downloaded at https://github.com/DISTRHO/Cardinal/releases/tag/22.11.
Cardinal is released as LV2, VST2, VST3 and CLAP plugin, plus AudioUnit and JACK standalone for certain systems.