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@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ include_once("includes/header.php"); |
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On <i>2020-01-15</i> by<i> falkTX</i> |
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<p> |
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Hello again everyone, ...!<br/> |
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Hello again everyone, it is release day! <i>(kinda, just a casual 4 days late...)</i><br/> |
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</p> |
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<p> |
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This is the announcement of the first release candidate of Carla 2.1.<br/> |
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@@ -47,101 +47,238 @@ include_once("includes/header.php"); |
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First, the highlights and major changes, in no particular order of relevance.<br/> |
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</p> |
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<h3>Highlights and major changes</h3> |
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<br/> |
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<h5>Better CV Support</h5> |
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<table><tr><td width="50%"> |
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<a href="<?php echo $ROOT; ?>/screenshots/news/carla-2.1_cv-stuff.png"> |
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<img src="<?php echo $ROOT; ?>/screenshots/news/carla-2.1_cv-stuff.png" style="width:100%;height:auto;" alt="settings"/> |
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</a> |
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</td><td width="50%"> |
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<h3>Better CV Support</h3> |
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<p> |
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CV ports are now supported in the internal patchbay mode, meaning you do not need to use JACK with Carla in order to use CV plugins. |
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</p> |
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<p> |
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Automable parameters can now be exposed as a CV port, so they can be controlled by regular CV sources or other plugins.<br/> |
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This is a kinda feature preview, as there are some limitations at the moment: |
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</p> |
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<ul> |
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<li>Parameter changes are not sample accurate<br/>(in a later version, Carla will split buffer up to 32 frames for more fine-grained control changes)</li> |
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<li>Not all plugin formats and parameter types are allowed to be controlled this way<br/>(to be extended as we test compatibility)</li> |
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<li>Only available for parameter inputs, not outputs</li> |
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</ul> |
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<p> |
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In order to make CV more useful by default, we added a new internal "MIDI to CV" plugin, originally created by Bram Giesen.<br/> |
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More plugins will be added as needed, for now we recommend to use ams-lv2 and mod-cv-plugins as they already do a lot.<br/> |
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</p> |
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<p> |
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In the patchbay<br/> |
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Expose parameters as CV ports<br/> |
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Added internal MIDI to CV plugin<br/> |
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More plugins will be added as needed, ams-lv2 and mod-cv-plugins already do a lot but a few things are likely to be missing<br/> |
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Also, a new variant of Carla as plugin was created that provides audio, MIDI and 5 CV ports (for each side).<br/> |
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This allows CV signals to flow in and out of Carla as a plugin. |
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</p> |
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</td></tr></table> |
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<!-- TODO --> |
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<!-- https://github.com/blablack/ams-lv2 --> |
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<!-- https://github.com/moddevices/mod-cv-plugins --> |
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<br/> |
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<h5>High-DPI support (work in progress)</h5> |
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<table><tr><td width="50%"> |
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<a href="<?php echo $ROOT; ?>/screenshots/news/carla-2.1_high-dpi.png"> |
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<img src="<?php echo $ROOT; ?>/screenshots/news/carla-2.1_high-dpi.png" style="width:100%;height:auto;" alt="settings"/> |
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</a> |
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</td><td width="50%"> |
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<h3>High-DPI support (work in progress)</h3> |
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<p> |
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Most of the icons changed to scalable format<br/> |
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UI will scale with the desktop automatically, as Qt takes care of that for us.<br/> |
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Some bitmaps still remain, to be replaced by vector images in a future release. |
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Initial work was done to support high-DPI screens.<br/> |
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Note that this was not tested very extensively, due to lack of proper hardware, but the requirements in terms of code are all there.<br/> |
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There are still a few "normal" resolution bitmaps in use, to be replaced in future releases.<br/> |
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You can click on the screenshot on the left to see Carla rendered at 3x the resolution.<br/> |
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<br style="line-height:0.75em"/> |
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So for now, the situation is: |
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</p> |
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<ul> |
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<li>Most of the icons changed to scalable format</li> |
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<li>UI will scale with the desktop automatically, as Qt takes care of that for us</li> |
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<li>Some bitmaps still remain, to be replaced by vector images in a future release</li> |
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<li>Not extensively tested, feedback is welcome</li> |
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</ul> |
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</td></tr></table> |
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<h5>Proper theme and Carla-Control for Windows</h5> |
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<br/> |
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<!-- TODO --> |
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<table><tr><td width="50%"> |
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<a href="<?php echo $ROOT; ?>/screenshots/news/carla-2.1_windows.png"> |
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<img src="<?php echo $ROOT; ?>/screenshots/news/carla-2.1_windows.png" style="width:100%;height:auto;" alt="settings"/> |
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</a> |
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</td><td width="50%"> |
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<h3>Proper theme and Carla-Control for Windows</h3> |
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<p> |
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The Windows build stack changed from using official Python and PyQt5 packages to msys ones, allowing us to link against them using mingw (Carla does not support MSVC)<br/> |
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This makes possible to use the proper "pro" theme like Linux and macOS already did, and also get Carla-Control finally working on Windows.<br/> |
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This brings feature parity for all 3 major desktop OSes. \o/ |
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This makes it possible to use the proper "pro" theme like Linux and macOS already did, and also get Carla-Control finally working on Windows. |
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</p> |
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<p> |
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Previously, the Carla Windows builds were using Qt's "fusion" theme (which the Carla "pro" theme is based on), which looks very similar but misses all of custom tweaks made for Carla.<br/> |
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This includes, for example, preventing pop-up menus from taking the entire screen or ugly thick lines being drawn where a small one was expected. |
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</p> |
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<p> |
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A small but important step towards cross-platform feature parity. \o/ |
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</p> |
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<p> |
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Note: Carla plugins are not "notarized" yet, so they will not run under latest macOS 10.15/Catalina where this is a requirement. |
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</p> |
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</td></tr></table> |
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<h5>Canvas changes</h5> |
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<br/> |
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<table><tr><td width="50%"> |
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<a href="<?php echo $ROOT; ?>/screenshots/news/carla-2.1_mac-vst.png"> |
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<img src="<?php echo $ROOT; ?>/screenshots/news/carla-2.1_mac-vst.png" style="width:100%;height:auto;" alt="settings"/> |
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</a> |
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</td><td width="50%"> |
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<h3>VST2 plugin for macOS and Windows, plus exposed parameters</h3> |
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<p> |
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canvas connect action<br/> |
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small canvas, AA, cut connections, rework nick87720z<br/> |
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inline display in canvas, experimental<br/> |
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This is the final item that was missing for cross-platform feature parity.<br/> |
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We now have Carla as VST2 plugin running on both macOS and Windows! |
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</p> |
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<p> |
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Embedding of the full GUI on these systems is not possible, so a small "middleware" window is shown as the plugin custom UI.<br/> |
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Not the best experience, but allows Carla to finally work as VST2.<br/> |
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</p> |
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<p> |
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Additionally, 100 parameters are exposed to the host, dynamically used in the order of the plugins loaded.<br/> |
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So for example, if the first plugin in the rack has 20 parameters, the first 20 parameters of carla-vst will be mapped to that plugin.<br/> |
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This continues in order for the remaining plugin parameters until we reach 100 of them. |
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</p> |
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<p> |
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When Carla is loaded as an internal plugin, parameters will be dynamically available too.<br/> |
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This feature is not available in the LV2 version of Carla though, at least not yet. |
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</p> |
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</td></tr></table> |
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<br/> |
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<h5>carla-control and osc rework</h5> |
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<table><tr><td width="50%"> |
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<a href="<?php echo $ROOT; ?>/repo/screenshots/carla-vst-wine.png"> |
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<img src="<?php echo $ROOT; ?>/repo/screenshots/carla-vst-wine.png" style="width:100%;height:auto;" alt="settings"/> |
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</a> |
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</td><td width="50%"> |
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<h3>Wine-native bridge, sorta experimental</h3> |
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<p> |
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Carla's OSC support has been reworked, now has its own dedicated page in the settings.<br/> |
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Carla-Control has been extended to support all non-local-dependent features of the main Carla (like patchbay management and transport controls).<br/> |
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This will be extended even further in future releases.<br/> |
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This is a way to load Linux binaries under Windows applications running with Wine, in case you need that for some reason<br/> |
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Personally I made it so that I could run the native Carla inside FL Studio, which allows me to use its sequencer but not have to deal with Windows plugins. |
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</p> |
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<p> |
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This is available in the KXStudio repositories as "carla-vst-wine" package, you need to copy /usr/lib/winvst/Carla* into your Wine VST dll folder to make it work.<br/> |
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It requires Carla to be installed system-wide, so it cannot work if Carla is downloaded manually. |
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</p> |
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<p> |
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Building it is kinda tricky, as it requires building a native-windows dll first, and then a few things with winegcc...<br/> |
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Packager documentation will be added soon to Carla's source code repository, so other Linux distributions can pick it up.<br/> |
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</p> |
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<p> |
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I demoed this feature at Sonoj last year (2019), you can watch it as the 3rd part of <a href="https://media.ccc.de/v/sonoj2019-1914-carla-magic" target="_blank">this video</a>. |
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</p> |
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</td></tr></table> |
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<h5>UI changes</h5> |
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<table><tr><td width="50%"> |
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<a href="<?php echo $ROOT; ?>/screenshots/news/carla-2.1_add-plugin.png"> |
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<img src="<?php echo $ROOT; ?>/screenshots/news/carla-2.1_add-plugin.png" style="width:100%;height:auto;" alt="settings"/> |
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</a> |
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</td><td width="50%"> |
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<h3>Refreshed add-plugin dialog and favorite plugins</h3> |
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<p> |
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Add-plugin dialog<br/> |
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Built-in plugin editor parameter list, with groupping<br/> |
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Dynamically show knobs in rack view as much as possible<br/> |
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colorize all slot skins?<br/> |
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Implement clearing xrun count, bottom bar stuff<br/> |
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The add-plugin dialog had a major overhaul, now looking much better and with more content visible at once.<br/> |
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Target was to improve the user experience, making clear that there are filters available. (it was not so obvious in previous versions) |
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</p> |
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<p> |
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The star on the most-left section of the table is to mark a plugin as a favorite, which will add it as a shortcut to the right-click menus on empty rack and patchbay areas. |
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</p> |
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</td></tr></table> |
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<h5>juce stuff again, but disabled by default on source builds, etc</h5> |
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<table><tr><td width="50%"> |
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<a href="<?php echo $ROOT; ?>/screenshots/news/carla-2.1_params.png"> |
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<img src="<?php echo $ROOT; ?>/screenshots/news/carla-2.1_params.png" style="width:100%;height:auto;" alt="settings"/> |
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</a> |
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</td><td width="50%"> |
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<h3>Single-page and grouped plugin parameters</h3> |
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<p> |
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The dialog for the generic plugin parameter view also had an update.<br/> |
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All parameters are now placed in the same tab (separated only by input and output types), and grouped when supported by the plugin.<br/> |
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The options for mapping a parameter to a MIDI CC were taken out and replaced by a button that triggers a menu with the relevant options. |
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</p> |
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<p> |
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Disabled during a previous beta, support for the JUCE library was added back - but now completlt optional<br/> |
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This brings support for VST3 under macOS and Windows, and AU under macOS.<br/> |
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As a bonus, it is now possible to show the custom control panel of ASIO devices. :)<br/> |
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Support for JUCE is disabled by default under non macOS/Windows builds.<br/> |
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Also note that JUCE does not support VST3 under Linux at this point, so neither does Carla even if you build it yourself with JUCE enabled.<br/> |
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Note that, at the moment, only a few LV2 plugins support parameter groups.<br/> |
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This is because most hosts do not support this feature, so plugins do not have many incentives to support such a thing.<br/> |
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And with not a lot of plugins supporting it, hosts also do not care that much. The usual circular dependency deal...<br/> |
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But since the feature applies quite nicely to Carla, made sense to add it. |
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</p> |
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<p> |
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The group can be collapsed by clicking on it. |
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</p> |
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<p> |
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A similar feature will be added to the patchbay in a later release, so we can group audio ports too. :) |
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</p> |
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</td></tr></table> |
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<h5>Wine-native bridge, sorta experimental</h5> |
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<h3>More UI changes</h3> |
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<p> |
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As a way to load Linux binaries under Windows applications running with Wine, in case you need that somehow<br/> |
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(personally, etc etc)<br/> |
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Already in the KXStudio repositories as "carla-vst-wine" package, you need to copy... to make it work<br/> |
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Presented at Sonoj last year, ... |
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Building it is kinda tricky, packager documentation will be added soon to Carla's source code repository<br/> |
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The rack items will dynamically show as many knobs as possible<br/> |
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You can now change the "skin" and color of any rack item, making it easy to identify certain plugins<br/> |
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Added buffer-size, sample-rate and xrun information to the status; clicking on the xrun counter will reset it to zero<br/> |
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</p> |
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<h5>vst plugin for macOS and windows, plus exposed parameters</h5> |
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<h5>Canvas changes</h5> |
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<p> |
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What was missing for feature parity.<br/> |
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Embedding of the full GUI is not possible, so a small window is shown instead etc etc<br/> |
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100 parameters are exposed to the host, dynamically used in the order of the plugins loaded<br/> |
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Right-clicking on a canvas group will show options for quickly connecting all ports to another group<br/> |
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Many small tweaks and fixes, plus a few extra actions, as contributed by Nikita Zlobin (to be documented on the user manual)<br/> |
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Support for Ardour-style inline-displays, marked experimental in this release (sadly cannot be made stable until Carla v3.0)<br/> |
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</p> |
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<h5>Carla-control and OSC rework</h5> |
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<p> |
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Carla's OSC support has been reworked, now has its own dedicated page in the settings.<br/> |
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Carla-Control has been extended to support all non-local-dependent features of the main Carla (like patchbay management and transport controls).<br/> |
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This will be extended even further in future releases.<br/> |
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</p> |
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<h5>AU and VST3 support is back, by leveraging JUCE</h5> |
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<p> |
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Disabled during a previous 2.0 beta release, support for the JUCE library was removed and replaced by a heavily stripped-down version of it. (while it was still GPlv2 licensed)<br/> |
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The reasons for that decision still remain relevant, but in order to keep in mind with Carla's goals, I decided to add back JUCE support - but now completely optional.<br/> |
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It will always be possible to build Carla without JUCE, it is only used for extra hardware and plugin format support.<br/> |
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In fact, Linux builds by default do not use it, as there is no need for it. |
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</p> |
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<p> |
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Anyway, the published macOS and Windows Carla builds do use JUCE, which means Carla supports VST3 under macOS and Windows, and AU under macOS.<br/> |
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As a bonus, it is now possible to show the custom control panel of ASIO devices. :) |
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</p> |
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<p> |
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Worth noting is that JUCE does not support VST3 under Linux at this point, so neither does Carla even if you build it yourself with JUCE enabled. |
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</p> |
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<h3>Other changes</h3> |
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<p> |
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Some changes that make sense or are useful enough, and that deserve to be mentioned.<br/> |
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Within a bunch of small fixes and new implementations, here are some changes that deserve to be mentioned:<br/> |
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</p> |
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<ul> |
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<li>Official builds use...</li> |
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<li>internal jack client</li> |
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<li>NSM support for JACK Applications</li> |
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<li>Introducing "Cancelable actions"</li> |
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<li>Initial support for LV2 params</li> |
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<li>Respect X11 UIs size hints from plugins</li> |
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<li>More libjack stuff</li> |
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<li>Carla now requires Qt5, can no longer work with Qt4; but can still use LV2 Qt4 UIs with its built-in bridges</li> |
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<li>NSM is now supported for JACK applications</li> |
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<li>Added a 16 MIDI port mode for JACK applications</li> |
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<li>Added "Cancelable actions" during project and plugin bridges load, so they will no longer time-out; instead the user has the option to cancel them at anytime</li> |
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<li>Initial support for LV2 parameter API</li> |
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<li>Initial support for LV2 file paths, assuming plugin has no custom UI (click on the show-gui button to open a file dialog)</li> |
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</ul> |
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<h3>Notes for developers and packagers</h3> |
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<ul> |
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<li>Drop Qt4 support</li> |
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<li>Link to jack directly with..., allows for internal client</li> |
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<li>Linking against the JACK library directly is now possible by using `make JACKBRIDGE_DIRECT=true`, which allows for building Carla as an internal client</li> |
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</ul> |
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<h3>Notes for users</h3> |
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<p> |
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The code for scanning plugins had a little rework, making some internal data structures change.<br/> |
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The code for scanning plugins had a little rework, again, making some internal data structures change.<br/> |
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Because of this, a full rescan of your plugins is needed after the update.<br/> |
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</p> |
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@@ -152,11 +289,29 @@ include_once("includes/header.php"); |
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Bug reports and feature requests are welcome! Jump on over to the <a href="https://github.com/falkTX/Carla" class="external free" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Carla's Github project</a> page for those. |
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</p> |
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<h3>Future</h3> |
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<h3>Future and final notes</h3> |
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<p> |
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in progress change of frontend coding language, from Python to C++ (for performance, reliability and debugging reasons).<br/> |
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I have started a change of the Carla's frontend coding language, from Python to C++ (for performance, reliability and debugging reasons).<br/> |
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There are a few canvas related things, currently experimental, that can never be made stable or fast due to how Python/PyQt works.<br/> |
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Also Carla is not scaling very well at the moment, and the addition of CV controlled parameters and inline-displays does not help its case.<br/> |
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So a move of the entire frontend to C++ makes quite a lot of sense.<br/> |
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Whenever this is finished a new release will be made.<br/> |
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But it is going to be something that, even though means a lot behind the scenes, visibly nothing will change (except performance)<br/> |
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But it is going to be something that, even though means a lot behind the scenes, visibly nothing will change. (except performance)<br/> |
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Because of this, do not expect many UI related changes in Carla for the time being. |
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</p> |
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<p> |
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A user manual for Carla has been started.<br/> |
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It proved to be quite helpful for development too, as I had to justify why things are the way they are, and explain how they work too.<br/> |
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Now that Carla UI should not change too much for a while, it is the right time for such thing.<br/> |
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I personally dislike writing such things, but understand it can be quite useful.<br/> |
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The work-in-progress manual is at <a href=https://kx.studio/Documentation:Manual:Carla">https://kx.studio/Documentation:Manual:Carla</a>.<br/> |
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(Not much to see there at the moment though, give me time) |
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</p> |
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<p> |
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That's it.<br/> |
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Please remember that this is a release candidate, and not the final release.<br/> |
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Some issues are expected, I will do my best to fix all reports that get to me.<br/> |
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If I don't know about the issues though, I can't fix them. So please report any issues you find, thanks! |
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</p> |
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<hr/> |
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