1. A short summary of changes
Support has been added for libsndfile. This allows to access
a number of new audio file formats such as W64, PVF and VOC
files. Integration with libaudiofile and MikMod has also
been improved. Bugs in the native Python ECI implementation
have been fixed. Rubyecasound, a Ruby ECI implementation, has
been added to the package. A serious memory-leak in list
handling functions of the C ECI implementation was fixed. This
bugfix also affects C++, Perl and PHP ECI implementations.
Compiling Ecamegapedal works again as the header files
missing from the previous 2.3.1 release are now again
included in the dist-package. Many minor bugs have been fixed.
---
2. What is Ecasound?
Ecasound is a software package designed for multitrack audio
processing. It can be used for simple tasks like audio playback,
recording and format conversions, as well as for multitrack effect
processing, mixing, recording and signal recycling. Ecasound supports
a wide range of audio inputs, outputs and effect algorithms.
Effects and audio objects can be combined in various ways, and their
parameters can be controlled by operator objects like oscillators
and MIDI-CCs. A versatile console mode user-interface is included
in the package.
Ecasound is licensed under the GPL. The Ecasound Control Interface
(ECI) is licensed under the LGPL.
---
3. Changes since last release
* Rubyecasound, a Ruby ECI implementation, has been added
to the package. Developer documentation can be found
at <http://eca.cx/eci>. Rubyecasound was developed by
Jan Weil.
* Some files were missing from the previous 2.3.1 release
dist-package. This caused the "make check" test procedure
to fail, and also prevented from compiling Ecamegapedal
against 2.3.1. In 2.3.2 the missing files are once again
included in the dist-package.
* Libsndfile support has been added to Ecasound
(development item 'edi-33'). Support for libaudiofile
has also been improved in this release. The user
can now compile in support for both libraries at
the same time. It is possible to use command-line options
to select which library to use for a given file. Similar
improvements have been made to the MikMod support.
See the ecasound(1) man page for more details.
* Some bugs in libsamplerate integration have been fixed.
Upgrading to libsamplerate version 0.0.15 or newer is
recommended. This release contains a few important fixes
that affect Ecasound. A few examples of resampling
with Ecasound have been added to the docs:
<http://www.wakkanet.fi/~kaiv/ecasound/Documentation/examples.html>.
* A severe memory-leak bug was found and fixed in the C ECI
implementation. This bug affects applications that heavily
use EIAM commands that return lists of strings. The C ECI
is used by C++, Perl, PHP and Python ECI implementations.
* Bugs in the native Python ECI implementation have been
fixed. The C-based Python ECI implementation is still
selected as the default, but you can override this with
the '--enable-pyecasound=python' option to configure.
Note, 'native' here means that ECI API is implemented without
linking to any Ecasound libraries. Instead the ECI implementation
forks 'ecasound' binary on the background and communicates with it
using pipes. This allows for clear decoupling between ECI apps
and specific Ecasound version. More information about ECI can
be found at <http://www.eca.cx/eci>.
Full list of changes is available at
<http://www.wakkanet.fi/~kaiv/ecasound/history.html>.
---
4. Interface and configuration file changes
None.
---
5. Contributors
Patches - Accepted code, documentation and build system changes
Jan Weil (2) -- rubyecasound ECI implementation, new docs
Mark de Wever (1) -- typo in libecasoundc-config usage
Kai Vehmanen (various)
Bug Hunting - Reports that led to bugfixes (items closed)
Fernando Pablo Lopez-Lezcano (1) -- preset.h not installed
Jan Weil (1) -- the ecacontrol.py bug
---
6. Links and files
Web sites:
http://www.eca.cx
http://www.eca.cx/ecasound
http://www.eca.cx/eci
Source packages:
http://ecasound.seul.org/download
http://ecasound.seul.org/download/ecasound-2.3.2.tar.gz
Distributions with maintained Ecasound support:
Agnula -
http://www.agnula.org
AltLinux -
http://www.altlinux.com
Debian -
http://www.debian.org
FreeBSD -
http://www.freebsd.org/ports/audio.html
Gentoo Linux -
http://www.gentoo.org
Mandrake -
http://www.mandrake.org
PLD Linux -
http://www.pld.org.pl
SuSE Linux -
http://www.suse.de/en
Contrib Packages and Add-On Distributions:
AudioSlack for Slackware -
http://www.audioslack.com
PlanetCCRMA for RedHat/Fedora
-
http://www-ccrma.stanford.edu/planetccrma/software
Thac's RPMs for Mandrake -
http://rpm.nyvalls.se
Apps.kde.com packages for Mandrake/Redhat/SuSE
-
http://apps.kde.com/rf/2/info/id/2146
Note! Distributors do not necessarily provide packages for
the very latest Ecasound version.
--
http://www.eca.cx
Audio software for Linux!