MUTOOLS

muzycian · Post by **muzycian** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 8:55 am

MUTON Alpha 3 is out.

MUTON is an ultra-light music composer with these main features:

* MIDI Recording & Playback
* Composition & Sequence Editing
* Effect & Instrument VST Plugins
* Powerful Audio Mixing Desk
* Audio Engine using 32 bit floats, almost any samplerate
* Sample accurate sequencing
* ASIO Compatible
* Multi Undo/Redo

What's new in Alpha 3:

New features:

* Open & Save Session now use a proper file browser, so you can manage multiple session files
* Changed Player Panel behaviour: it does not set the Player of Parts, that's done via the Part's context menu
* Pressing "T" or control-click pops up a big Mouse Tool Box for quick tool selection
* Edit Object? => right-click + "Edit" or click the "E" button where available (for now: in the mixdesk)
* Note Key Editor: added "Close Editor" in context menu
* Changed Composer layout
* Mute icon at left of tracks (instead of the "M")
* When the track header area is made small, only the mute button remains
* Added a Splitter tool in the Composer
* Delete Key also supported in Note Key Editor
* Note Key Editor: Piano Keyboard now plays
* Furtherly organized the skin resources
* Created a preliminary skin info page at mutools.com/skin_sdk.html
* Now also runs on Win98SE

Bug fixes/finetunings:

* Resolved a memory leak in the Midi File Reader
* Resolved bug that could cause a GUI hang in the Note Key Editor
* Edit Part Loop/Play Offset improved
* Improved Popup Menus
* Resolved a bug when setting the Loop area in the Song Composer's Time Bar
* Resolved a bug: Synths with mono output: volume fader didn't work and insert effects were processed in a wrong way
* Resolved a crash bug in the Event List Editor
* Audio Mix Desk: Plugin list more properly filtered
* Removed double-click bottlenecks -> more snappy GUI
* Improved display of notes in Composer Parts
* Resolved a crash bug when choosing programs for VSTIs that don't support effGetProgramNameIndexed
* Tempo now properly saved/loaded
* Resolved crash bug when opening session during play
* Misc internal developments
* Misc little finetunings...

The download link is included in the email sent to all alpha testers.

Looking forward to your feedback!

Cheers,

Jo

pljones · Post by **pljones** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 9:35 am

UI comment:
MUTON starts up with the (empty) mixing desk showing. Under Edit, there's a "Show Mixing Desk" option. This could initially be confusing (although as soon as you lose the mixing desk behind another window it becomes very useful!). Can the menu detect whether the mixing desk is visible and only offer to make it visible if it isn't?

Trivia:
I'm not sure I like the font resizing (e.g. name a track, then resize the track name area - the font size changes between certain minimum and maximim sizes). It looks rather untidy to have different tracks having their names different sizes...

More seriously:
*) I don't seem to be able to open my ASIO drivers. Edit->ASIO Setup offers the two I have but selecting either has no effect.
*) Closing the app displayed another "Memory leak" message. Couldn't seem to reproduce it (so possibly a "first run" problem or maybe VST folder scanning?).

muzycian · Post by **muzycian** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 2:36 pm

pljones wrote:UI comment:
MUTON starts up with the (empty) mixing desk showing. Under Edit, there's a "Show Mixing Desk" option. This could initially be confusing (although as soon as you lose the mixing desk behind another window it becomes very useful!). Can the menu detect whether the mixing desk is visible and only offer to make it visible if it isn't?

I'll check that.

Trivia:
I'm not sure I like the font resizing (e.g. name a track, then resize the track name area - the font size changes between certain minimum and maximim sizes). It looks rather untidy to have different tracks having their names different sizes...

I'm not sure what you mean.
All tracks use the same font size, right?

More seriously:
*) I don't seem to be able to open my ASIO drivers. Edit->ASIO Setup offers the two I have but selecting either has no effect.

The new setting is only active on next run.

*) Closing the app displayed another "Memory leak" message. Couldn't seem to reproduce it (so possibly a "first run" problem or maybe VST folder scanning?).

I think that's a leak in the ASIO system.
I'll resolve it.

pljones · Post by **pljones** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 9:23 pm

Woot! Okay, yes that's working. Session saving and reloading looks like it's working and fast, too! (I like to work with NS_Kit7Free loaded into SFZ as WAV files - in Muzys 3.14, it takes a long time to load, in MUTON it's pleasantly faster!)

Oh -- one thing not working on reloading a session (did I report this before) is sends to other mixer channels. And the plugin settings don't appear to get restored. I guess this is "the session file format is in a state of flux"

.

Could do with a mixdown to audio

I wish it remembered the last session I'd been testing with, too!

It doesn't appear to be picking up new VST plugins unless I'm doing that wrong (it seemed to want to be pointed at a file, so I fed it a .DLL and restarted but nothing showed).
=edit=
Okay, I fed it the containing folder and it was happy.
=/edit=

pljones · Post by **pljones** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 9:49 pm

pljones wrote:Could do with a mixdown to audio

Voxengo recorder produced this:
http://www.drealm.info/mp3/roughdrums.m3u
from this MuSession:
http://www.drealm.info/muzys/DrumPart1.MuSession
along with sfz, NS_Kit7Free with my Alternate 3 mapping, Classic Reverb, Compressor and Master Limiter (x2).

pljones · Post by **pljones** » Sat Jan 28, 2006 8:56 pm

Bug: the chooser list for effect program names truncates names with special characters in them.
Load up MUTON Alpha 3. Add a mixer channel. Insert Kjaerhus Audio Classic Reverb. Select this as the current player and click the program name ("Default"). The list includes "80" twice ("80's snare" and "80's snare (send)"), plus a few other examples.

muzycian · Post by **muzycian** » Mon Jan 30, 2006 9:26 am

pljones wrote:
pljones wrote:Could do with a mixdown to audio
Voxengo recorder produced this:
http://www.drealm.info/mp3/roughdrums.m3u
from this MuSession:
http://www.drealm.info/muzys/DrumPart1.MuSession
along with sfz, NS_Kit7Free with my Alternate 3 mapping, Classic Reverb, Compressor and Master Limiter (x2).

I get an "internal server error" on these links.

muzycian · Post by **muzycian** » Mon Jan 30, 2006 9:45 am

pljones wrote:Bug: the chooser list for effect program names truncates names with special characters in them.
Load up MUTON Alpha 3. Add a mixer channel. Insert Kjaerhus Audio Classic Reverb. Select this as the current player and click the program name ("Default"). The list includes "80" twice ("80's snare" and "80's snare (send)"), plus a few other examples.

Strange thing is that Kjaerhus uses ascii code 180 for a simple character ' instead of normal ascii 39.

Anyway, next MUTON won't truncate anymore for that reason. Though it might not display such characters, because the used font might only use a basic character set. This is the case with the default font. But lateron there may come skin with a more extended font.

Cheers,

Jo

pljones · Post by **pljones** » Mon Jan 30, 2006 9:00 pm

muzycian wrote:I get an "internal server error" on these links.

Hmm... I've tried with "wget" (which eliminates many potential problems with the hosting) and with Firefox. Both get the m3u plus the contained mp3 and the session file fine. So I'm not sure what the problem could be. What browser are you using? Strange, anyway. (I shall blame GoDaddy for the time being...)

Strange thing is that Kjaerhus uses ascii code 180 for a simple character ' instead of normal ascii 39.

Ugh, now that is odd. But yes - best not to truncate anyway.

muzycian · Post by **muzycian** » Mon Jan 30, 2006 9:48 pm

pljones wrote:
muzycian wrote:I get an "internal server error" on these links.
Hmm... I've tried with "wget" (which eliminates many potential problems with the hosting) and with Firefox. Both get the m3u plus the contained mp3 and the session file fine. So I'm not sure what the problem could be. What browser are you using? Strange, anyway. (I shall blame GoDaddy for the time being...)

Now it works!
(i guess it must have been my weekend head)

Was there something wrong with that file?
Or was it only a little demo 4 mixdown request?

pljones · Post by **pljones** » Tue Jan 31, 2006 7:30 pm

muzycian wrote:Was there something wrong with that file?
Or was it only a little demo 4 mixdown request?

It's just to show how the session file appears on reload. You have to manually restore the mixer sends to get them labelled correctly. They appear as "Send to None". On the sfz channel, the first should be "Send to Reverb" and the second should be "Send to Master". On the Reverb channel, it should be "Send to Master".

Feature request: pre-fader mode for the level meter

. (I have a long list with other, more important entries on..!)