Waveform 10 Public Beta

[FigBug]

Tracktion is proud to present a month long public beta period for Waveform 10! We are offering all registered users a beta copy of W10 to test throughout January. At the end of January, this copy will cease to open and you will have to purchase a full release version of W10 to continue using the application.

The main aim of this beta period is to gather feedback on bugs and compatibility issues which you can report using our support system at support@tracktion.com. Please note that whilst we read all beta emails, we won’t necessarily be able to answer all of them directly. Please make sure to include as much info as possible in the report including:
- A suitable title
- Operating system/platform
- A description of problem
- Steps to reproduce the problem
- A Waveform log file (to get this, from the app click “Help” -> “Show the Waveform log file“)

Please don’t use W10 for existing important projects as this will render them un-openable in previous versions of Waveform. Use this public beta version of W10 for exploring the new features and helping us make the full release the best it can be.

The quickest and simplest way to help us improve the app is to turn on Crash, System Info and Usage reporting from the window at startup or from the “Maintenance” Settings page. We have improved tools to identify issues in these automatic reports so turning them on will be the biggest help you can do us.

Remember, this is beta software so there will be bugs and features are subject to change and removal. New features are also undocumented at this time and we can’t offer full support, only in relation to bug reports.

All registered W9 users can find W10 Beta in their downloads area.

New Feature Highlights:
- Actions UI
- Edit / mix groups
- Track editor windows
- 62 new AirWindows based plugins
- Ranged selection
- Edit cursor
- Improved auto-save and crash recovery
- Plugin validation
- MIDI Improvements
- Improved Multi Sampler

Actions UI
To make Waveform easier to use when using the compact transport toolbar there is a new actions panel. The action panel is a replacement for the properties panel and shows all the same actions. It has advantages that commonly used items can be favourited and rarely used actions can be hidden via right click menu. As well, your own macros, built in macros or keyboard shortcuts can also be added to the actions panel.

When the transport toolbar is in it’s compact form, it also gives buttons for the currently selected item, the parent of the selected item and and children of the selected item. By default, these buttons show your default actions for the selected items. If you hold shift and click they will show all actions.

Built-in plugins will open in their own windows, like VST plugins, making them easier to use without having to expand the toolbar.

You can also assign keyboard shortcuts to get to your favourite actions and all actions to appear in a menu at the mouse cursor for quick access.

You can now double click on the modifier icon to open it’s properties.

Edit / Mix groups
Tracks can now be grouped so the clip positions, comps, takes can be edited in sync. [editing] and volume, mute, solo, record, send, colour, height and visibility can be linked.

There is a new side panel for groups. New groups can either be created from this side panel or from selecting several tracks and using the groups button.

Track editor windows
Tracks can now be viewed in their own window with their position and playback syncing independently set from the main arrange window. This can be useful for editing things like Step Clips or Clip Effects whilst playing back an arrangement.

To view the track editor, simply right click a track and click “Show the track editor”. In this mode, the track will follow the active selection.

To view a specific track choose the “Show the track editor for this track” option. You can also add tracks to the existing window with “Add this track to the existing editor”.

62 new Airwindows based plugins
A new suite of 62 new built in plugins with analog circuit inspired user interfaces. Focused feature sets means each plugin is optimized for one task. The plugins have simple controls, to help understanding but not to encourage formulaic work.

The suite includes: 2 delay, 9 distortion, 12 dynamics, 15 emulation, 2 EQ, 5 filter, 4 imaging, 3 modulation, 1 reverb and 9 utility.

Ranged selection
It’s now possible to select a range of a track across a discontinuous set of tracks and then copy or duplicate just the highlighted sections.
To do this, hold “shift + alt” to see the I-beam cursor. Drag over a range of tracks to select that region. Once selected you can hold “ctrl/cmd” and add/remove tracks from the selection.

Dragging clip headers from within the selection will move that section out.
cmd/ctrl dragging a clip header will copy those selections.

Edit cursor
The new vertical cursor under the mouse now dictates the position for operations such as splitting clips. This makes it possible to split whilst the transport is playing.

Improved auto-save and crash recovery
Rather than auto-saving after a specific number of minutes, open Edits will save continuously in the background. This should greatly reduce any risk of losing work.

If a crash happens, W10 will automatically relaunch (in a quicker mode without checking for updates etc.) asking if you want to re-open the existing Edits. This will then open the temporary versions of any Edits bringing you right back to where you were before the crash.

If you have the "Send Crashes" option enabled from the "Maintenance" settings page this crash will automatically get sent to us for review, helping us diagnose the cause of crashes and help us to create appropriate fixes.

Plugin validation
In order to better diagnose problems with plugins, we've added a new plugin validation tool to the app. You can run this on plugins from "Plugins" settings page to generate a report which can then be shared with us and plugin developers. If a plugin fails to scan in Waveform, you can use the "Validate File" button to choose that plugin file.

MIDI Improvements
A new MIDI preview tool allow multiple notes from multiple clips to be auditioned at once. Useful for previewing chords or how two synths sound together.

Added lock to MIDI editor clip list, so the clips being edited will stop following the selection. As well, the zoom settings won't reset when changing MIDI clips.

Improved Multi Sampler
A new option "Beat Replace Drum Loop" has been to the DAW to slice loops and replace them with a MIDI clip and the multi sampler, taking velocity into account.

Maximum voices has been increased to 64 and voice stealing has been added

UI improvements allow sound layers to be soloed and optionally selected on note on.

Sample capture has been improved. Samples can now be captured from plugin input or the DAWs retrospective record buffer. For system input capture mono / stereo and channel selection has been added.

UI/UX Improvements
- Arrange tracks now show track colours and folders
- Arrange tracks show track destinations
- Output text can be clicked to adjust track destinations
- Solo/mute buttons can now be dragged across tracks for quick setting
- Panel visibilities have been unified in to a single panel
- Adjust crossfade of clips by dragging their central crossfade
- Toggle plugins between normal and faceplate view

[mikoatkvr]

Get on this folks and make this the best release yet

[vitocorleone123]

THANK YOU

[Kalamata Kid]

Is ARA2 implementation in the works?

[FigBug]

Well, the good news is the crash reporting is working. Seeing two common crashes. TapeDust and Golem UIs are crashing. There is a crash on startup if your MIDI device fails to enable. I have them fixed and will try and get a new build out early next week.

[wut]

- A suitable title: Wrong icon when waveform started
- Operating system/platform: Ubuntu 18.04 LTS default desktop environment (GNOME3)
- A description of problem: The waveform icon is correctly displayed when you open the GNOME3 App grid



However when you start the application, the window uses no icon and thus falls back to a "NO ICON"-icon


A temporary fix is to rename the window with this command AFTER one started the app


xprop -name "Waveform" -f WM_CLASS 8s -set WM_CLASS "Waveform10"


This is not a new problem. It exists since waveform 8 and is present in 9 and 10 beta
Best regards

[dRowAudio]

I'm not sure why GNOME refuses to show the app icon.

Do you know of the library call equivalent to set the WM_CLASS so we can do it in code?

If not, perhaps we can do it via a shell from the app? E.g. by calling

Code: Select all

std::system ("xprop -name "Waveform" -f WM_CLASS 8s -set WM_CLASS "Waveform10"");

on startup? Anyone know if that would work?

[scalawag]

Logged on into my account with my username and password and downloaded succesfully.
Installed, run it and it asks for my username and password.
Failed!!!
It doesn't accept the same username and password i used to logon on Tracktion website. It only runs in demo mode.
I don't want to hear a voice telling me it's running in demo mode!!
What a good start....

[Stuttaton]

For me, it works fine so far.
I like the new user interface but there doesn't seem to be any major new features that would benefit me and the things I do.

[scalawag]

It says something like "your internet is OK, but we couldn't contact tracktion.com. Please retry later"

And yes my internet is OK and W9 is running fine....

[spoontechnique]

Spent a couple hours messing with W10. Love the beta so far. Here's a few (lengthy and possibly incorrect) initial impressions:

The actions menu is really cool. I like that you can build a custom list of your most-used commands. I would love a keyboard shortcut that cycles through or jumps to specific tabs (actions, files, tracks, groups, etc.) in the browser.

Track editor looks promising. I'll need to see it in action before I understand how to use it well. Would be cool if you could access it from the tracks tab in the browser. Groups are also amazing, though I'm also not 100% sure how to use them fully.

You can now render tracks within a submix! Also, if you remove the effects from a submix it converts back to a folder mix. I'd still like to be able to accept sidechain inputs from a submix, but there's an easy workaround sending an aux send to a muted track. Also, the Mute/Unmute All Plugins commands works on plugins on tracks within a submix/folder, but not on any submix plugins themselves. Not sure if that's even a complaint, just an observation.

Pluginval seems useful, but I can't get it to work on any plugin. I always get the "Unable to Validate: There was a problem validating this plugin, please check the plugin file still exists" error. This happens even when I use the Validate File option on plugins that I know are functional.

Since all the stock plugins have their own pop-out windows, it'd be nice to have a shortcut for opening/closing plugin windows. I can't find an appropriate macro.

Ctrl+alt+drag cursor was changed from select region to zoom. I use ctrl+alt+drag a lot to select a region for looping. Shift+alt+drag ranged selection doesn't replace it since you can't use it to set a looping bracket with the "Set In-Mark/Out-marker around selection" command (A by default I think?). I can't find a way to change it since mouse-based shortcuts aren't all in the keyboard shortcuts menu.

My main complaint with midi clips and step clips is that using triplets is still a pain (and other kinds of tuplets aren't an option). You have to click the time signature and then the triplets option every time, and there's no shortcut for triplets. It'd be nice to have a small window in the midi clip to switch to various tuplet divisions.

Also, step clips make it tricky to work with multiple rhythmic divisions. If I have a step clip full of quarter notes and I decide I want to add some 16th notes,
I have to set the whole step clip to 16th notes and the clip shrinks by a quarter, completely changing the rhythm. I think the Step Length option should only change the grid, so that you can have multiple rhythmic divisions in one clip. Normally with drum programming, I have to use a bunch of step clips mashing together, which makes them less useful than just using midi clips.

I also got the Tape Dust/Golem crash, but you guys already noticed that. I'll keep poking at the beta, especially midi and automation stuff. But overall it looks fantastic. It's going to be tough sticking to W9 until February. Keep up the great work!

[Stuttaton]

My main complaint with midi clips and step clips is that using triplets is still a pain (and other kinds of tuplets aren't an option). You have to click the time signature and then the triplets option every time, and there's no shortcut for triplets. It'd be nice to have a small window in the midi clip to switch to various tuplet divisions.

I just enter short notes in the approximate positions, select them and use "quantize note start and end times" in the midi editor. Then you don't have to mess with the time signature setting at all.

[spoontechnique]

That's a good workaround, thanks! I'd still like to be able to see the divisions on the grid though. Maybe it's just a preference thing.

[dRowAudio]

Logged on into my account with my username and password and downloaded succesfully.
Installed, run it and it asks for my username and password.
Failed!!!
It doesn't accept the same username and password i used to logon on Tracktion website. It only runs in demo mode.
I don't want to hear a voice telling me it's running in demo mode!!
What a good start....

Well this is the reason we run beta periods, precisely to iron out these kinds of bugs!

It sounds like either you have some kind of firewall in place or there was a problem adding the beta licence to your account. Email Brian our web dev at support@tracktion.com and he'll get you up and running.

[dRowAudio]

Pluginval seems useful, but I can't get it to work on any plugin. I always get the "Unable to Validate: There was a problem validating this plugin, please check the plugin file still exists" error. This happens even when I use the Validate File option on plugins that I know are functional.

Are you trying to validate VST3 plugins out of interest? Does validating VST2 plugins work?

Ctrl+alt+drag cursor was changed from select region to zoom. I use ctrl+alt+drag a lot to select a region for looping. Shift+alt+drag ranged selection doesn't replace it since you can't use it to set a looping bracket with the "Set In-Mark/Out-marker around selection" command (A by default I think?). I can't find a way to change it since mouse-based shortcuts aren't all in the keyboard shortcuts menu.

We moved the modifiers around a bit to accommodate the new ranged selection. Loop selection has moved to "shift + ctrl + alt".