[LAU] Announcing synthclone-0.3.0!

[Devin Anderson]

I'm happy to announce the release of synthclone-0.3.0!

synthclone is a tool that allows you to create sample-based
instruments. You can create sample-based instruments by sending MIDI
messages to your MIDI-capable gear or software that instructs an
instrument to emit sounds for a series of notes, velocities, controls,
and aftertouch values, or by recording your own samples. After the
sampling is done, you can apply effects to your samples, and finally
save this data as a sample-based instrument that can be loaded by
sampler software.

Features:

* Supports user-configurable per-zone sample time, release time, MIDI
note, MIDI velocity, MIDI aftertouch, MIDI channel pressure, MIDI
control changes, etc. via a table interface.
* Audition samples and change zone parameters until you're happy with
the data you're acquiring from your MIDI device.
* Save and restore sessions.
* Distributed with plugins that support the JACK Audio Connection Kit
(with JACK Session support), PortAudio and PortMidi, trimming of
samples, reversing samples, LV2 effects, the creation of Hydrogen,
SFZ, and Renoise instruments, automated zone generation, and loading
samples from your local filesystem!
* Can create multiple targets in one session (i.e. a Renoise patch and
an SFZ patch) from the same set of samples.
* A well-documented plugin API is available for developers to write
their own plugins to extend synthclone.

Important Changes Since 0.2.0:

* Lots of bug fixes.
* The new LV2 plugin allows you to use LV2 effects within synthclone
* The new Renoise plugin allows you to save your instruments as
Renoise instruments
* The new Reverser plugin allows you to reverse the samples you load
into synthclone
* The new Sample Loader plugin allows you to load samples into
synthclone from your local filesystem
* Internal architecture changes for future expansion of the plugin API
to handle main view manipulation

Future Development:

* Consider capturing release of samples.
* Figure out a good packaging scheme for Mac OSX.
* Support the Non-Session Manager protocol.
* Consider different ways to support the detection and/or creation of loops.
* Get someone to design an icon that isn't ugly.
* Extend the LV2 plugin to support more features so that it can load
more LV2 plugins.

Community Inquiry:

synthclone has outgrown its original purpose as a tool to sample
MIDI-capable instruments, and is slowly becoming a more general tool
for the creation of sample-based instruments.  In this respect,
synthclone is still lacking in a lot of ways; for example, it doesn't
support the creation or detection of loops.  Unfortunately, I'm not
aware of all the ways that synthclone needs to grow to become a more
general tool for samplists, as I only use and extend synthclone to
fulfill my own needs.  I'm also not motivated to add a bunch of
features to synthclone to extend it in different ways that I don't
immediately require.  So, I need to know the following:

1.) If you're a samplist, tell me what synthclone needs to become a
part of your sampling workflow.
2.) If you're a developer that would like to add functionality to
synthclone, let me know what I can do to help you move forward.
3.) The name 'synthclone` no longer describes what `synthclone` does.
I'm considering renaming the application.  If you have a suggestion or
thoughts on the idea, please let me know.
4.) In general, I'll take any feedback I can get. :)

Thanks:

David Robillard - While writing the LV2 plugin, I came across issues
with LILV/SUIL.  Some of those issues were *actually* issues, and some
of the issues were based on my own naivety.  Dave fixed the real
issues quickly, and patiently addressed the others.  Thanks, Dave.



The new version of `synthclone` is available at:

   http://synthclone.googlecode.com/

Please report bugs using the issue tracker:

   http://code.google.com/p/synthclone/issues/list

If you like `synthclone` and have ideas that can make it better and/or
want to keep up with its progress, join the users group:

   http://groups.google.com/group/synthclone-users

If you're a developer and want to write plugins for `synthclone` or
contribute to the application itself, join the development group:

   http://groups.google.com/group/synthclone-development

Thanks,

-- 
Devin Anderson
surfacepatterns (at) gmail (dot) com

blog - http://surfacepatterns.blogspot.com/
psinsights - http://psinsights.googlecode.com/
synthclone - http://synthclone.googlecode.com/