KXStudio : News

> 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

Module 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.

> DPF-Plugins v1.6 released
On 2022-11-01 by falkTX

Hello everyone, a new release of DPF-Plugins is here.
DPF-Plugins is a collection of DPF-based plugins, including Kars, MVerb and Nekobi.
This release brings some fixes alongside finishing the VST3 versions and adds CLAP support.

General changelog:

• Add linux-riscv64 builds to release binaries
• Fix / stabilize VST3 support
• Initial CLAP support
• Set audio port configuration for all plugins
• Set VST3 categories in a few more plugins
• Update to latest DPF

Plugin specific changes:

• Kars: Fix playback after a sample rate change
• Nekobi: Fix deadlock when receiving a MIDI message bigger than 3 bytes
• Nekobi: Make waveform slider behave as a button
• ProM: Fix invalid context (GL compat instead of GL3) in some setups
• ProM: Force keyboard focus on click

Downloads

The source code plus Linux, macOS and Windows binaries can be downloaded at https://github.com/DISTRHO/DPF-Plugins/releases/tag/v1.6.
The plugins are released as LADSPA, DSSI, LV2, VST2, VST3, CLAP and JACK standalone.

> Cardinal 22.10 released
On 2022-10-15 by falkTX

Hello hello! We have yet another release, Cardinal 22.10, with mostly bugfixes this time.
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.

There are no 3rd-party module changes or updates this time around, the release is more or less the combination of changes from 22.09 until today.
Fixes are significant enough to warrant a new release, so here we are.

The only actual new feature comes from a sync of the internal Ildaeil with the just released version 1.2 of it, which allows to load arbitrary files as plugins.
For Cardinal this means it is easier to host VST2 and CLAP plugins without having to rely on an external Carla window (which typically needs to be installed separately too).

Changelog

• Allow Ildaeil loading arbitrary files/binaries as plugins
• Fix headless build
• Fix Host Time step not triggering under certain conditions
• Fix missing CardinalNative during "make install"
• Fix missing MIDI support in CardinalNative Windows builds
• Remove superfulous modules in falkTX_-_Divide-no-Conquer.vcv example patch
• Several fixes to CLAP plugin version
• Update internal Carla to latest, brings initial experimental CLAP hosting

Downloads

The source code plus Linux, macOS and Windows binaries can be downloaded at https://github.com/DISTRHO/Cardinal/releases/tag/22.10.
Cardinal is released as LV2, VST2, VST3 and CLAP plugin, plus AudioUnit and JACK standalone for certain systems.