Waveform 14 Public Beta

[sceyefeye]

That new daw looks like it may steal Waveforms thunder.

For some that might be the case. For others, like myself, not so much.

I differentiate between AI generated content and AI assisted tools that helps me work quickly - and in some cases do better work, and I use a few of those.

Content that is AI generated is a can of worms when it comes to copyright and more.

But each to their own...

I'm not into AI one bit.
And its not that part that impressed and would not use that feature at all.

But the workflow from the video at least of that DAW answers all the things I wished was adressed in Waveform, taking it closer to Ableton. Just being able to view FX chains in the bottom panel alone along with being able to modulate anything easily and see what your doing in the bottom panel speed things up and would have been a bigger benefit to WF14 than most the stuff they think people needed

Yeah - some definite UI niceness there

[sceyefeye]

That new daw looks like it may steal Waveforms thunder.

Eventually. Probably usable. But such a young product, I think his "to do" list is too long at the moment. On the other hand clip launcher for free. Definitely an interesting project to watch

[jens]

Hi @edrickblade. Are you able to share the release notes for each of the new betas as they are released? So far you have shipped .18, .20, and now .24, but without seeing the release notes it is difficult for those of us testing it to know what to test. Thanks.

Just to make sure there's no confusion here:

Edrick is not part of the Tracktion-team as far as we can tell.

Instead he's just a generic user like the rest us, who seemingly on purpose composes his posts in a way that makes it appear as if he was part of the team - I have no idea as to why he does it (especially despite us asking him to stop doing that a while ago already).

[Teksonik]

He does it to feel important. His life must be pretty empty.

Anyway I just installed the 14 Beta and I instantly hate it. I haven't even run into the A.I. crap yet which I hate with a passion that cannot be defined by any words in the English language.

I don't like the new interface at all and trying to define some custom colors that are at least tolerable has as of yet proven to be fruitless.

If this is a paid "upgrade" I won't buy it and if it means 13.5 X is no longer going to be developed then I'm out. It seems like they went with the philosophy of "if it's not broken....let's break it !!!"

They should have focused on actually supporting the old version rather than tacking on the latest newbie fads.

The search for a new DAW continues.....

[boaakerstrom]

"...I haven't even run into the A.I. crap yet which I hate with a passion that cannot be defined by any words in the English language..." Perhaps you just need to learn more words!

I'm not thrilled with AI being everywhere, but at least you ignore it in Waveform, unlike in some other DAWs.

As for the colours - I have managed to tone them down a fair bit, which makes for a better experience.

For me there are some issues: the options at the top of MIDI items are hard to see, it takes a long time to open projects in general - especially if they are on the larger side.

My template for cinematic music has just over 140 tracks - and that is more of a starting point, so it can on occasion grow a fair bit bigger. This works well in REAPER, but is really sluggish in Waveform. A shame since working with MIDI is just better in Waveform.

I really want to keep using Waveform as it has a great workflow once you get your head around it!

Well see what transpires after the Beta version...

[Teksonik]

I'm not thrilled with AI being everywhere

I'm not thrilled about AI being anywhere near the creation of any art form. The joy in creating any art is in the process. Handing that process over to a machine just takes the humanity out of the arts and does the end user no good since they don't grow as an artist. Anyway I've had bloody battles over the subject and my stance will not change.

As for the colours - I have managed to tone them down a fair bit, which makes for a better experience.

Oh I've managed to tone the colors down but there are some that apparently can't be changed as they can in WF13. Transport buttons and time line indicator arrow for example. The loop section indicator color can't be fully customized and so on. It's a step backwards in regards to customization.

I really want to keep using Waveform as it has a great workflow once you get your head around it!

That's the point, I have gotten my head around it and now we're expected to learn it all over again and for what? A.I. toys?

I've spent a lot of time customizing WF Pro 13 to my liking. Layout, workflow, colors, etc. Having to do it all over again if it's even possible now doesn't appeal to me at all.

I get it they have to keep adding things to attract new customers but don't break things along the way for existing customers. That's called a destructive update.

The thing is if WF 14 is going to be the supported version going forward that means WF 13 is dead ended. No more bug fixes, no more features. So we either move to 14 which is so far not superior in any way or stay with an abandoned version. Neither option is appealing at this point.

[p4tt4nz]

On Linux Ubuntu studio KDE plasma the plugin windows is always on top of everything. I mean everything, every app, every window i try to access if the plugin is open. I cant drag it out of frame so when u-he zebra opens up a registration window it appears behind the zebra plugin window and i cant get to it(on my laptop). Cant do anything with waveform. Have to do a kill on the process.

[talby]

Yes, this is annoying, I suffer this as well. At least it seems to be fixed in W14beta. Meanwhile, try in KDE Plasma to right click on the app icon which is visualized on the task panel bar for a running app and some of its windows, and enter the "More" menu for getting access to KDE window action "Keep below others" or "Keep above others".
Good Luck!

[aMUSEd]

At least the bug where it couldn't record MIDI notes from my NI Kontrol MkIII keyboard is fixed and DAW integration is working again

Spoke too soon for some reason it stopped working again

[mikoatkvr]

On Linux Ubuntu studio KDE plasma the plugin windows is always on top of everything. I mean everything, every app, every window i try to access if the plugin is open. I cant drag it out of frame so when u-he zebra opens up a registration window it appears behind the zebra plugin window and i cant get to it(on my laptop). Cant do anything with waveform. Have to do a kill on the process.

On Ubuntu 24.04 I use SUPER & LMB to drag plugins offscreen on my laptop ( IIRC it defaults to ALT & LMB on Ubuntu, but having that as system default that is a no go for most DAWS as this is usually a clip operation , so needs to be changed ) . If that is not already default on your system, try searching your keyboard shortcut settings and manually setting it to a suitable combo.

[pough]

Does anyone know how to tell which kind of plugin is loaded in WF14? In older versions the Controls Panel would show the plugin type (eg VST or VST3) but that information doesn't seem to show up anywhere.

The issues that I have had with the VST3 versions of Voxengo plugins is still around, so knowing which one is loaded is a good thing. (Yes, some plugin UIs show that information but not all do and sometimes the problem is UI-related.)

Speaking of which, the log files still don't say anything about the loading and un-loading of VST3 plugins. Considering how often plugins are the problem, they should probably log VST3 plugins...

[talby]

This is now shown in the Actions Panel, in entry "Name".

Format.png

[citrusui]

On the topic of plugins, it looks like there is no CLAP support planned? Reaper, Bitwig, FL Studio, and Studio One support CLAP plugins, so Waveform is lagging behind comparatively... (see earlier forum post from nearly 4 years ago now): viewtopic.php?t=583706

[Maarid]

it looks like there is no CLAP support planned?

We've already talked about this many times, until JUCE itself releases CLAP support, Waveform (which is made entirely on JUCE) not introduces it on its own.
https://juce.com/blog/juce-roadmap-update-q3-2025/
judging by the empty news from last year, the transition to version 9 is not planned in the near future, which most likely means no earlier than version 14.5.

[pough]

This is now shown in the Actions Panel, in entry "Name".

Format.png

Not here... Is there something other than selecting a plugin that I need to do?