[LAU] [ANN] Qtractor 0.8.1 - The Sticky Tauon is out!

[Rui Nuno Capela]

Hello everybody!

  Qtractor 0.8.1 (sticky tauon) is out!

Release highlights:

* JACK Transport mode switching on main menu/tool-bar (NEW)
* Main menu Track/Navigate/Next, Previous wrap around (FIX)
* Auto-backward play-head position flip-flopping (FIX)
* JACK Transport tempo/time-signature in-flight changes (FIX)
* Sanitized audio clip zoom-in/out resolution (FIX)

  Obviously, this one dot bug-fix release and everyone is then compelled
to upgrade. On the side, a couple of notes are also worthy of mention...

  Besides some other stray thoughts, you may be asking yourself, after
reading those crappy release highlights above, what the heck that
"in-flight" tempo / time-signature change-fix is all about?

  No stress. There's always a reason, as if reason won't ever prevail,
above all else...

  So, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, should here be told:
jack_link [8] is the dang reason. And then, you may now know and play
the badass with Ableton Link [7]. Keep in mind that jack_link [7] is
kind of a toy, so please, have it under a child's perspective ;)

  You can still play all along with your band fellows, don't get me
wrong. You all have to be on the same machine or in the same local
network segment (LAN) anyway, just like yours truly QmidiNet [9] does
(and recommends). But that's probably one hell of a disparate story,
although sharing the same networking concept... move along!

  Whatever. When in doubt, please ask me. Whenever you find yourself in
despair, you can also ask me. But take note that I made no promises nor
guarantees that it would ever work for you. And this goes as far as in
any formal disclaimer can go.

  The hard truth is: your are on your own. But please, enjoy and have
(lots of) fun while you're at it ;)

  As second note, this project has finally called in for its own vanity
and internet domain name: qtractor.org [1]. I guess it was about time.

  Nuff said.


  Qtractor [1] is an audio/MIDI multi-track sequencer application
written in C++ with the Qt framework [2]. Target platform is Linux,
where the Jack Audio Connection Kit (JACK [3]) for audio and the
Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (ALSA [4]) for MIDI are the main
infrastructures to evolve as a fairly-featured Linux desktop audio
workstation GUI, specially dedicated to the personal home-studio.

Website:
  http://qtractor.sourceforge.net
  http://qtractor.org

Project page:
  http://sourceforge.net/projects/qtractor

Downloads:
  http://sourceforge.net/projects/qtractor/files
- source tarball:
  http://download.sf.net/qtractor/qtractor-0.8.1.tar.gz
- source package:
  http://download.sf.net/qtractor/qtractor-0.8.1-29.rncbc.suse.src.rpm
- binary packages:
  http://download.sf.net/qtractor/qtractor-0.8.1-29.rncbc.suse.i586.rpm
  http://download.sf.net/qtractor/qtractor-0.8.1-29.rncbc.suse.x86_84.rpm

Git repos:
  http://git.code.sf.net/p/qtractor/code
  https://github.com/rncbc/qtractor.git
  https://gitlab.com/rncbc/qtractor.git
  https://bitbucket.org/rncbc/qtractor.git

Wiki (help still wanted!):
  http://sourceforge.net/p/qtractor/wiki/

License:
  Qtractor [1] is free, open-source Linux Audio [5] software,
distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL [6])
version 2 or later.


Change-log:
- The View/Options.../Display/Dialogs/Use native dialogs option is now
set initially off by default.
- All tempo and time-signature labels are now displayed with one decimal
digit, as it was in mostly everywhere else but the time ruler/scale headers.
- JACK transport tempo and time-signature changes are now accepted, even
though playback is not currently rolling; also, changing (JACK) Timebase
master setting (cf.View/Options.../General/Transport/Timebase) will take
effect immediately, not needing nor warning for session restart anymore.
- Track/Navigate/Next and Previous menu commands, finally fixed to wrap
around the current track list.
- Current session (JACK) transport mode option switching is now being
made accessible, from the main menu and drop-down toolbar buttons, as
well as user configurable PC-keyboard and/or MIDI controller shortcuts
(cf. Transport/Mode/None, Slave, Master, Full).
- Fixed some auto-backward play-head position flip-flopping, when
opening a new session while the previous was still on rolling/playing
state, hopefully.
- Added French man page (by Olivier Humbert, thanks).
- MIDI clip changes are now saved unconditionally whenever the editor
(piano-roll) is closed or not currently visible.
- Audio clip peak/waveform files re-generation performance, scalability
and resilience have been slightly improved.
- Some sanitary checks have been added to audio clip peak/waveform
re-generation routine, as much to avoid empty, blank, zero or
negative-width faulty renderings.
- Do not reset the Files tree-view widgets anymore, when leaving any
drag-and-drop operation (annoyingly, all groups and sub-groups were
being closed without appeal).
- Make builds reproducible byte for byte, by getting rid of the
configure build date and time stamps.


References:

[1]  Qtractor - An audio/MIDI multi-track sequencer
     http://qtractor.sourceforge.net
     http://qtractor.org

[2]  Qt framework, C++ class library and tools for
     cross-platform application and UI development
     http://qt.io/

[3]  JACK Audio Connection Kit
     http://jackaudio.org

[4]  ALSA, Advanced Linux Sound Architecture
     http://www.alsa-project.org/

[5]  Linux Audio consortium of libre software for audio-related work
     http://linuxaudio.org

[6]  GPL - GNU General Public License
     http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html

[7]  jack_link, a JACK transport timebase bridge to Ableton Link [8]
     https://github.com/rncbc/jack_link

[8]  Ableton Link, a technology that synchronizes musical beat, tempo,
     and phase across multiple applications running on one or more devices
     https://github.com/Ableton/link

[9]  QmidiNet - A MIDI Network Gateway via UDP/IP Multicast
     http://qmidinet.sourceforge.net


See also:
  http://www.rncbc.org/drupal/node/1809


Enjoy && Keep the fun, as always.
-- 
rncbc aka. Rui Nuno Capela
rncbc at rncbc.org