[Ardour-Users] Ardour 3.0 alpha 9 released

[Paul Davis]

Ardour 3.0 alpha9 is now out. There's a nice new feature for people using 1
MIDI device to record multiple tracks, and some very necessary fixes for track
visibility, height control and general layout in the editor window, plus the
usual selection of crashing and missing functionality bug fixes. I expect a few
glitches with the new stuff, so please do leave feedback via the bug tracker or
the ardour-users email list (not the forums) .

Ready-to-run binary packages can be found here:

    * Linux 64 bit Intel:
http://ardour.org/files/Ardour_64bit-3.0alpha9_9807-dbg.tar
    * Linux 32 bit Intel:
http://ardour.org/files/Ardour_32bit-3.0alpha9_9807-dbg.tar

New Stuff

    * It is now possible to enable/disable input on MIDI tracks. This makes it
      possible to connect several different tracks to the same MIDI
      device/source, and then choose which one(s) will actually get the
      incoming MIDI data at any point in time. You can turn this on and off
      with a button next to the input button in the mixer strip, or in the
      editor window's Track/Bus list. There's still a little bit of tweaking to
      provide some "turn others off and this one on" capabilities.

    * The icons in the editor window's track/bus list have been redesigned by
      Thorsten Wilms.

    * Track resize "handles" have been removed - you can now resize a track in
      the editor with the mouse by press-drag-release in the lower 25% of the
      track controls box. The mouse cursor will change to indicate when the
      mouse is in the "resize" area.

Fixes

    * New system for managing the properties of on-screen GUI "objects". This
      was introduced primarily to allow us to manage the visibility and height
      of all tracks. Side Effect: existing track visibility and height
      information in existing Ardour3 sessions will be ignored. You won't lose
      any data, but if you had hidden tracks or they were non-default heights,
      you'll find that all tracks and busses are now visible and the default
      height. Sorry for the inconvenience, but this new system gives us much
      more flexibility to manage this stuff as we move forward. It will also
      fix a number of crashes and incorrect behaviour with automation tracks in
      alpha8 (and earlier).

    * Fix erroneous note resizing in regions with non-zero start (#4143).

    * don't try to add Amp processor automation curves using the generic
      mechanism as they are already special-cased separately (#4127).

    * Display audio file format in the menu bar (#4016).

    * Updated / new French translations from Roming22-FR

    * Send full MIDI time code (if enabled) after changing sync source; should
      fix #4147.

    * LV2 persist extension now works because we don't keep resetting the ID of
      the plugin.

    * Fix horizontal sizing of the track controls area in the editor

    * don't mark the big clock window as a "utility" window

    * Enable playlist switching for MIDI tracks

    * shuttle control: make scroll events step by precisely 1 of the current
      units (semitones or percent)

    * Improve layout of automation track controls box

Thanks once again to Carl Hetherington for his work on bug fixes.