Bremmers Audio Design updates MultitrackStudio to 8.1 for Mac & Win - supports Surface Pro

Bremmers Audio Design has released MultitrackStudio 8.1, which includes support for the Microsoft Surface Pro 3 tablet.

There's a new 'Pen with touch scrolling' mode which works with pen almost exclusively. Touch can only be used to scroll and zoom editors etc., and to play the onscreen MIDI keyboard. All other touch actions are ignored, so you can't tap something accidentally with the hand palm.

'Pen with touch scrolling' mode is great for MIDI editing because the pen is far more accurate than the touch screen. The pen allows for rapid editing while touch can be used for easy navigating.

Touchscreen support has been improved as well. A button is available in the main window for switching between pen and touch mode quickly.

The user interface can now scale to larger sizes, which is necessary because of the Surface's very large screen resolution. There's also an option to make the program not DPI aware, so Windows scales the user interface. This looks rather blurry, but it does scale VST plugins too, which may come in handy since many VST plugins don't support UI scaling.

New:

• Support for Microsoft Surface Pro 3: new 'Pen with touch scrolling' mode. This mode works with pen exclusively, so you can't tap something accidentally with the hand palm. You can still scroll editors and lists with touch. A button is available for switching between pen and touch mode quickly.
• Windows: Added '200 %' and '240 %' values to Size box in Preferences window, so the UI can be scaled large enough on high-DPI screens like the Surface Pro's. Also added 'Auto (VST, ugly) ' option which makes the program not dpi-aware so Windows scales the UI (including VST plugins) in a blurry way.
• Touchscreen (Windows): semi-transparent 'Rewind' / 'To last start' hints appear on touching the transport counter box.
• Touchscreen (Windows): Time stretching in track editors.
• Touchscreen (Windows): Onscreen MIDI keyboard can be zoomed horizontally using two fingers on the bar at the top.
• Touchscreen (Windows): pianoroll, score and audio editors can be zoomed vertically using two fingers on the editor itself (requires Windows 8 or newer).
• Touchscreen (Windows): pianoroll: selected notes which are long enough get resize grip to move start of note (in addition to the one at the end of the note).
• Touchscreen (Windows): "Sticky add/draw modes (touch) " option in Preferences window.
• Improved transport cycling: overview bar remembers cycle region after transport stopped, transport menu features 'Set Cycle Start' and 'Set Cycle End' options which can also be invoked with the F7/F8 keys. Cycling can be started by clicking the start button while pressing the C key, or by pressing C+Space. With touchscreen (Windows) or pen you can press-and-hold the start button.
• "Section Practice Mode" and "Set Cycle Start" Remote Control actions.
• Punch-in recording: transport now automatically starts at least one bar before punch-in point (2 seconds if editor timescale isn't set to bars).
• Matrix Sampler now displays the note to which the current cell responds.
• Redesigned Tuner effect.
• Tempo editor shows mixed version of tracks in background.
• MultitrackStudio Instruments: use up/down arrow keys to step through instruments. With touchscreen (Windows) you can swipe up or down over the instrument box. Also works with the SoundFont Player presets (OS X).
• MP3 importing: file samplerate will now be converted if it doesn't match the song's.
• MIDI editors: tweaked graphics to make it easier to see which mode the editor is in.

Fixed:

• Issue with sending volume controllers (#7) to External MIDI Instruments.
• Mac: SoundFont Player ignored note-offs with certain soundfonts. You'll have to re-import these soundfonts.
• Mac: SoundFont Player ignored pitch bend range setting.
• Matrix Sampler's Volume knob settings weren't stored and recalled correctly.
• Pitch bend range messages are no longer being sent to Garritan 'CFX Concert Grand' VSTi (it conflicts with the plugin's stretch tuning controller #100).
• Touchscreen (Windows): playing legato on the Chords onscreen keyboard was difficult.

The new version is available free of charge for users who purchased the program after October 28, 2013. Older versions can be upgraded for $39 (Pro) / $23 (Standard).