Qtractor 0.5.5 - The Foxtrot Uniform swings out!

Here it goes.

Mostly a LV2 1.0.0 compliance release with some fixes from the stash and fewer candies from the jar. On the darker/brighter side (your choice) there's news on the LV2 atom(ic) fall-out now being officially over. A new dawn has commenced, quite like as every day follows every night, and vice-versa may I add :)

Dang!

I'd better stop right here and save you all from that boring trivialities. Let's go with the plain, interesting facts:

Release highlights:

• LV2 Atom/MIDI support (NEW)
• LV2 Worker/Schedule support (NEW)
• LV2 Presets support (NEW)
• LV2 Time/position support (NEW)
• LV2 Programs/instrument support (NEW)
• MIDI plugin event timing on tempo changes (FIX)
• Loop-recording/takes audio sync (FIX)
• Quick start guide and user manual (NEW)
• Russian and Italian translations (NEW)

Website:

Project page:

Downloads:

• source tarball:
  qtractor-0.5.5.tar.gz
• source package (openSUSE 12.1):
  qtractor-0.5.5-4.rncbc.suse121.src.rpm
• binary packages (openSUSE 12.1):
  qtractor-0.5.5-4.rncbc.suse121.i586.rpm
  qtractor-0.5.5-4.rncbc.suse121.x86_64.rpm
• brand new (quick start guide &) user manual:
  qtractor-0.5.x-user-manual.pdf

Weblog (upstream support):

http://www.rncbc.org


License:

Qtractor is free, open-source software, distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL) version 2 or later.


Change-log:

• Auto-monitored MIDI tracks were missing their pass-through to their respective MIDI output bus plugin chains, now fixed and letting any multi-timbral instrument plugin to get a peek from auto-monitoring.
• New user option/preference to whether to open a plugin's editor (GUI) by default, when available (cf. View/Options.../Plugins/Editor).
• Clicking and/or dragging for rubber-band selection on main track-view canvas doesn't change the edit-head and -tail positions anymore.
• Backward and Forward transport commands now have an additional stop at first clip start point.
• LV2 Atom/MIDI buffering support is finally entering the scene; LV2 Worker/Schedule support is also included in a bold attempt to convey non-MIDI event transfers between plugin and its UI.
• MIDI Clip editor (aka. piano-roll) and MIDI Tools fix: avoid note-on events of zero velocity, which conventionally equates to a dangling note-off event and dropped into oblivion sooner or later. There's no more need for Shift/Ctrl keyboard modifier to change in one single step all the MIDI events that are currently selected (now consistent with drag-move).
• LV2 Presets support now entering effective operational status; a new local option has been added (cf. View/Options.../Plugins/Paths/LV2 Presets directory; default is ~/.lv2).
• Dropped XInitThreads() head call as it was never useful but on those early days of JUCE VST plugins.
• Italian (it) translation added (by Massimo Callegari, thanks).
• Clip fade-in/out dragging now follows snap-to-beat setting.
• Late modern eye-candy indulgence: alternate shaded stripes, on every other bar as in a "zebra" background option for the main tracks and MIDI clip editor views (cf. View/Snap/Zebra).
• LV2 Time/position information is now being supported through special designated plugin input ports (after suggestion by Filipe Coelho aka. falktx). Additionally, the time/position information report has been corrected and complemented for VST plugins.
• Audio vs. MIDI time drift correction has been slightly improved against rogue tempo changes across looping cycles.
• Honor tempo/timing on MIDI instrument plugins. Happy regression fix on getting MIDI note-offs at looping ends back in business; all the necessary bumming for MIDI plugins to play nice in face of tempo changes and whenever playback is started from anywhere but the beginning of the time-line (ie. frame zero); thanks to rvega aka. Rafael Vega, for the heads-up).
• Audio clip wave-forms were being displayed in inverted phase (ie. upside-down) all this time ever since day one. What a shame! :)
• LV2 Programs interface is getting initial experimental status, to let LV2 instrument plugins get on par with the DSSI and VST crowd for MIDI bank/program instrument inventory and selection support (a sidetrack complot with Filipe Coelho aka. falktx, thanks:).
• Dropped the old but entirely useless LV2 URI-unmap feature, now being superseded by official LV2 URID (un)mapper.
• Russian (ru) translation added (by Alexandre Prokoudine, thanks).
• SLV2 deprecation process started, effective now at configure time.
• Added include to shut up gcc 4.7 build failures (patch by Alessio Treglia, closing bug #3514794).
• Another approach avoiding recursive observer widget updates. Also applies to mixer, monitor and track state buttons.
• Update to latest LV2 state extension (by David Robillard, thanks).
• Loop-recording/take number displayed on clip title, respectively.
• Make(ing) -jN parallel builds now available for the masses.
• A one buffer period slack on audio engine's loop turn-around logic might just have fixed an illusive report on loop-recording/takes going progressively out-of-sync, most notably when recording under large audio buffer period sizes (>= 1024 frames/buffer).
• Editing MIDI while playback is rolling, doesn't mute the track any more, adding a point to the live editing experience.
• Finer granularity for direct access parameter mouse wheel changes.
• Dropped a dumb optimization for short full-cached multiple linked/ref-counted audio clips which were incidentally out-of-sync after rewind/backward playback. Once again and uncertain to be the last take on this, got fixed (probably related to some oddity reported by Louigi Verona, thanks).



Enjoy && Have fun!