Blockhead v0.26.0 alpha (Patreon)

Known feature issues in this build:

• Bouncing of send/receive blocks is still not supported. This is because a new read/write memory buffer needs to be created for use during the bounce operation (this is not necessary during baking because the Send is always fully baked before any connected Receives.) I would rather not allocate a new buffer every time a send/receive needs to be bounced so I will likely try to do something where a single re-usable buffer is used for these bounce operations.
• Macro blocks do not appear in the block list yet. This is mainly because: 1: Doing so would provide an interface to create recursive macro blocks which are not yet supported. 2: I don't want to add new stuff to the block/sample list code because all of that code is going to be thrown away and redone soon.
• Send/receive blocks no longer appear in the block list because it would allow the user to add an existing Receive to a macro. The receive block might already be connected to a Send block which does not belong to the same macro, which is not yet supported.
• The UI can potentially get laggy if you have many levels of nested macro blocks (~5 or more). Eventually things could get unusably slow. I should be able to optimize this stuff a lot in the future.
• The "macro dumper" widget can get in the way
• Things are not 100% stable when you have many nested macros. Some operations on macros such as slicing do very complex things under the hood and are potential trouble spots at the moment.

Update Notes

The project file format has changed in this build, so v0.25.2 and earlier projects will not be openable.

The demo_projects zip file attached to this post contains a tutorial project created by Yank Scally.

macOS: Blockhead should now be properly notarized so you should be able to just open it without any extra steps. If this is not the case then let me know.

Feature: Macro blocks. This is a way of grouping blocks together. In the future I think it will form the basis of some kind of custom instrument system. There are 4 ways to create a macro block:

1. Right click an empty area of a lane and select "Create Empty Macro"

2. Right click a single existing block and select "Create Macro From This"

3. Select one or more existing blocks, right click on the selection and select "Create Macro From Selection". If the selection spans multiple lanes or tracks then the configuration will be replicated inside the resulting macro

4. While dragging a selection of blocks, a box should appear at the bottom of the workspace. Drag the selection over the box and release the mouse button to begin stamping a macro. This will remove the original blocks.

Update: Baking notifications are now disabled by default because I found them too annoying and distracting. They can be re-enabled on the bakery settings page.

Update: Blockhead should never ever click/pop during state changes anymore. I think the most common place this was happening previously was when moving a block from one lane to another while it was playing back, or re-ordering lanes during playback.

Update: Improved instantiation speed and memory overhead of block controls a bit by re-using sub-viewports instead of creating a new one per block.

Update: Send/receive blocks don't appear in the block list anymore (as a temporary workaround to several issues that will be solved later)

Update: Choke region coloring effect now updates instantly

Bugfix: Possible crash if the baking process is auto-triggered for a block which is no longer on any lane

Bugfix: 'Restore default' button on the keybindings editor misaligned when big font is enabled

Bugfix: Playhead randomly disappears

Bugfix: Blocks rebake needlessly when they change lane

Bugfix: Selected blocks rebake needlessly while being dragged if they are touching each other

Bugfix: Muted send blocks do not interact correctly with effects beneath them

Bugfix: Blocks on other workspaces can be dragged around if they are left selected

Bugfix: Receive block produces silence during baking of dependant blocks if baking is turned off

Bugfix: Level meters don't update correctly unless the overall volume is constantly changing

Bugfix: Undo/Redo popup does not always stay centered in the window

Bugfix: Choke region coloring effect on a choked block is incorrect when two or more of the choking blocks overlap each other

Plugin Updates

Bugfix: 'Mix' parameters default to 0%

Wavebender v0.2.1 Bugfix: Possible crash with extreme parameter values

Links

Known Issues: https://trello.com/b/MT1A3Zob/blockhead-issues
Discord: Blockhead (discord.com)