NEWS.md

NEWS

LADIOS Version 19 (2024-08-XX)

Changes:

• The dependency on appdirs, which has become unmaintained, has been replaced with plaformdirs (#184).
• CHANGELOG.md renamed back to NEWS.md GNU standards are for good and to be followed.

Documentation:

• Some minor fixes and updates to the installation instructions were done.

LADIOS Version 18 (2024-01-04)

This version differs from community version 18 (released on 2023-11-09) by revert of commit that degrades ladish experience. "All log messages are now prefixed with [jack_mixer] change is was made non-optional and complaints were rejected and then ignored.

This means that original author, Nedko Arnaudov, is back on maintaing jack_mixer codebase. While the ladish related regressons are maintained in the community version (since version 7 times), jack_mixer will be released as part of LADI project.

Fixed:

• Compilation with Cython >= 3 has been fixed (#176).
• Output channel name changes are properly reflected in input channel control groups (#177).
• Prefader kmeters now also fall at same rate regardless of jack buffer size.
• The Spanish translations was updated (#168).

Changes:

• PyXDG has been replaced with appdirs (#150).
• mesonep517 has been replaced with meson-python for PEP-517 compliant builds (for testing needs only) (#179).
• The included nsmclient module was updated (#164).

Features:

• NSM implementation now includes support for dirty/clean save status (#154).

With contributions from Christopher Arndt, Daryl Hanlon, Nils Hilbricht, Mark Knoop and Daniel Sheeler.

Version 17 (2021-10-15)

Fixed:

• Uniform fall rate for kmeter peak indicators across different jack buffer sizes was enforced (#133).

Features:

• Install a Ray Session template file that tells Ray Session this version has nsm support (#131).
• A Spanish translation was added.
• Ability to reset absolute peak meter readings after a user chosen time was added (#135).
• Custom slider mouse behavior was changed to mimic that of gtk slider, in particular, the fader no longer jumps to click position but requires a click and drag to move it (#137).
• Minimum and maximum width for custom sliders was added.
• Minimum and maximum width for meters was added.
• Meter redraw period as a user preference was added (#139).
• Ability to meter pre-fader signal was added (#97).
• Keypad plus and minus accelerator for channel shrink/expand (#141)

With contributions from Daniel Sheeler and Christopher Arndt and with Daryl Hanlon providing the Spanish translation.

Version 16 (2021-04-15)

Fixed:

• Some global settings were not properly persisted in the settings file when changed in the preferences dialog (#124).
• Selecting a custom default project path in the preferences dialog via folder selection widget did not update the path in the text entry.
• The message formatting in error dialogs was corrected and when an error dialog is shown, the error message printed to the console now only contains a Python traceback when the debug option is active.
• Various debug log messages received minor fixes and improvements.

Features:

• Internationalization (i18n) support was added, making GUI labels and messages and the command line help translatable.
• A German translation was added.
• A French translation was added.
• A global language setting was added to the preferences.
• French and German translations of the application description were added to the XDG desktop file.

Documentation:

• A man page for jack_mix_box was added.
• A new contributing guide was added to repository.
• The section on environment variables in jack_mixer's man page was updated and enhanced.
• The NSM project URL was updated in various documents.

This release was created by Christopher Arndt with Olivier Humbert providing the French translation.

Version 15.1 (2021-03-15)

Bugfix release

Fixed:

• In fixing issue #81 a regression was introduced in version 15, which caused channel volume levels to not be restored when loading a project XML file.

• The Channel.autoset_*_midi_cc methods in the Cython extension module didn't return the int result from the C functions they call, causing mis-leading debug log messages.

Project infrastructure and internals:

• A wiki was added to the jack_mixer GitHub project and a page with instructions on how to install from source on debian / Ubuntu.

• The dependencies for building a Python wheel via pip were updated.

• When building from a Git checkout, the cython program is also found when it is installed as cython3.

• Debug logging can be enabled by setting the JACK_MIXER_DEBUG environment variable (for when the -d command line switch can't be used, e.g. when run via NSM).

This release was created by Christopher Arndt.

Version 15 (2021-02-25)

Important change: jack_mixer now uses meson for building and installation. See INSTALL.md for new build instructions.

New:

• A global setting for default project file path was added and can be changed in the preference dialog.

  The default value is $XDG_DATA_HOME/jack_mixer (which is normally ~/.local/share/jack_mixer).

• A "Recent projects" menu was added, to allow loading recently used / saved projects more quickly.

• Direct channel output ports are now optional and can be enabled/disabled in the channel preferences dialog.

• Ctrl+left-click on the mute ("M") or solo ("S") channel buttons now activates exclusive mute resp. solo.

• A man page for jack_mixer was added.

• jack_mix_box now supports the -p|--pickup command line option to enable MIDI pickup mode, to prevent sudden volume or balance value jumps.

Fixed:

• Activating the solo function on an input channel could cause its output signal be sent to the monitor outputs instead of the signal from the channel, which had monitoring activated.

• Volume and balance level and mute and solo state changes originating from the UI now send the correct assigned MIDI CCs, allowing for MIDI feedback to controllers. Same for changes originating from reception of assigned MIDI CCs.

• The handler for right-clicking the input channel mute/solo buttons, was accidentally removed and is now re-instated.

• Creating a new output channel assigns it a randomly chosen color, which can be changed in the new channel dialog (used to work some releases ago, but was broken at some point).

• The jack_mix_box command line options --help and --stereo erroneously required an argument.

• Saving the current project on reception of the SIGUSR1 signal, which is a requirement for LADISH level L1 support, was broken in version 14.

• When re-ordering channels via drag-and-drop, the order of the edit / remove channel menu items were not updated.

• When creating an output channel, it could happen that the initial channel volume would randomly be set to -inf or 0 dB, regardless of what was selected in new channel dialog.

Changed:

• The minimum supported Python version is now 3.6.

• The jack_mix_box command line usage help message was improved.

• The channel strip buttons (solo, mute, etc.) now have more distinctive colors when activated or the mouse hovers over them.

• The balance slider step size was increased slightly so right-clicking the slider changes the value more rapidly.

• When using the "Save as..." function, jack_mixer now sets the default filename and directory for file chooser to the last ones used.

• A window title was added to the preferences dialog.

• MIDI control for mute and solo now interprets control value 0-63 as off and 64-127 as on, instead of toggling the state on reception of any controller value.

Project infrastructure and internals:

• The jack_mixer_c Python extension module, which was originally implemented in hand-written C code using the PYTHON C API, was replaced with the _jack_mixer extension module implemented in Cython, which generates the C code in _jack_mixer.c.

• The autotools build toolchain was replaced with a build setup using meson, which improves build times and maintainability markedly. See the file INSTALL.md for updated build and installation instructions.

• A build option to allow building only jack_mix_box was added (-Dgui=disabled).

• All Python code was re-formatted with black.

• All errors and warnings reported by flake8 were fixed or are explicitly and selectively ignored.

• The file version.py is now generated from the version set in the project definition in the top-level meson.build file, leaving this as the only place where the version number needs to be updated before a release.

• The NEWS file was renamed to CHANGELOG.md and converted to Markdown format.

This release was created by Christopher Arndt. With a contribution from Athanasios Silis.

Version 14 (2020-10-15)

• Changes to channel fader/meter layout and features:
  • Added K20 and K14 scales.
  • Added tick marks for left/center/right on balance slider and add tooltip displaying left/right value.
  • Added maximum width for control group labels. Labels are ellipsized if too long and a tooltip with the full name is added.
• Channel add/property dialogs usability improvements:
  • Remember last used settings for new input/outut channel dialogs (MIDI CCs are always initialized with -1 by default, so they can be auto-assigned).
  • Channel name is pre-filled in with "Input" or "output" and an auto-incremented number suffix.
  • Add mnemonics for all input/output channel dialog fields.
• When running under NSM, closing the main window only hides UI and the "Quit" menu entry is replaced with a "Hide" entry.
• Added a global option to always ask for confirmation when quitting jack_mixer.
• Allow drag'n'drop to change channel positions.
• Added ability to shrink/expand width of input and output channels.
• The font color of control group labels automatically adapts to their background color for better contrast and readability.
• Fixed: Ctrl-click on volume fader sets it to 0.0 dbFS, not 1.0.
• Fixed: some issues with channel monitoring.
• Fixed: don't create empty project file on new NSM session.
• Fixed: on project load, give input focus to fader of last added channel and deselect volume entry widget so keyboard input doesn't accidentally change the value.

With contributions from Christopher Arndt, Daniel Sheeler and Frédéric Péters.

Version 13 (2020-07-16)

• Added NSM support.
• Store preferences to per session config file to override global preferences.
• Added accelerator shortcuts to menu items.
• New ctrl-click, double-click, scroll, and click-drag-anywhere fader behaviors.
• Added MIDI 'Pick Up' behavior to avoid discontinuities.
• Can choose output channel colors.
• Changed to logarithmic ramping on volume changes.
• Added a pre/post fader button.
• Pick volume for new channels.
• Allow manual setting of MIDI control change numbers.
• Remove GConf; use plaintext .ini preferences file instead.
• Remove remnants of Swig python bindings.

With contributions from Daniel Sheeler and Christopher Arndt.

Version 12 (2020-06-22)

• Added reporting of the current volume through SIGUSR1 signal to jack_mix_box.
• Reset color of over 0db/NaN peak on click.
• Fixed memory leaks.
• Fixed some Python 3 compatibility leftovers.

With contributions from Daniel Sheeler and Athanasios Silis.

Version 11 (2020-06-18)

• Spread out volume transition over a period of time to reduce discontinuities.
• Port to pygobject and GTK3.
• Port to Python 3.

With contributions from Daniel Sheeler.

Version 10 (2014-04-27)

• Fixed change of channel settings (#18299)
• Added a MIDI out port for feeding back volume levels into motorized controllers
• Added jack_mix_box, a minimalistic (no UI) jack mixer
• Added a trayicon and minimize to tray feature

With contributions from John Hedges, Sarah Mischke, and Nedko Arnaudov.

Version 9 (2010-10-04)

• Changed to no longer appends PID to jack client name (#15006)
• Added 'Edit .. channel' submenus
• Set a default 'apply' button in channel properties
• Fixed creation of mono channels
• Removed bad crackling when changing the volume through MIDI
• Moved back to polling for MIDI events, to avoid the need for threads
• Changed to use backward compatible call to gobject.timeout_add (#14999)
• Updated not to fail if we can't get lash server name
• Added support for Ladish level 1
• Improved SIGUSR1 handling

With contributions from Nedko Arnaudov and Arnout Engelen.

Version 8 (2009-12-16)

• Fix private modules lookup
• Fix rotation of output channel colours
• New menu items to remove output channels
• New command line parameter to not connect to LASH

Version 7 (2009-12-14)

• New maintainer, thanks Nedko for everything!
• New icon by Lapo Calamandrei
• Option to have a gradient in the vumeters
• Option to use stock GtkScale widget for volume and balance
• Rewrite of the C/Python binding (this removed the dependency on SWIG)
• Improve performance when drawing vumeters
• New menu items to load/save settings
• New "Channel Properties" dialog, allowing to change assigned MIDI CCs
• Automatic post fader outputs for input channels
• Possibility to add new output channels, besides main mix
• New "monitor" output, assignable to any output channel, or input channel (in which case it will take its prefader volume)
• Removal of PyXML dependency

With contributions from Nedko Arnaudov, Lapo Calamandrei, Arnout Engelen, and Krzysztof Foltman.

Version 6 (2009-07-25)

• Fix building against jack 0.102.20
• Handle python prefix different from install prefix
• Fix LASH-less operation
• Update install instructions after lash-0.5.3 and phat-0.4.1 releases
• Apply Markus patch (thanks!) for sr #1698 (can't restore session using LASH)