Of all my posts over the last year, by far the most viewed has been my post on the open-source-ing of the DiscoDSP Highlife sampler. People love the open source. The project is not without its controversy - for a lot reasons I don’t understand and have no opinion about - but is still something I think is a good move for the alternative audio software world.

Since that post both the commercial version and the source code have been updated. Not in tandem; it appears there is a fork in the project, and the commercial version exists independently of the open-source version, i.e. features and improvements in the new commercial version do not necessarily appear in the source code. But the source code now has an official update with some new features. And I like to believe that somewhere a developer or neophyte is tinkering away and will release something none of us saw coming.

I’ve mentioned it before, Rayzoon Jamstix is a great value for the Windows-based project studio. It has another update that adds a boat-load of new features and fixes. I’m not using it much these days because I’m not doing much composing or creating, but when I start writing again I’m hoping to get some good use out of this.

And here’s a new old one: Beatburner, possibly one of the best names for an audio production tool, is now Free. As in lunch, erm… beer… erm… well, free software.

I haven’t had the time to install and give it a whirl, but that the developer turned what was, he says, a commercial “meh” into a hotly downloaded piece of software that will be powering thousands of users’ digital lofi tracks for the next few years is a Great Thing. And he’s supporting the swarm all on his own time and dime. There’s a new torrent which should ease some of the burden, and I’ve badgered him into putting up a PayPal donate. Give the guy a few bucks if you’ve downloaded it, or are planning to. He said something like 20,000 (!) downloads; if everyone gave one or two (insert currency here) he’d have made a nice little return on his investment.

And, as always, to stay up-to-date on all things computer audio related, soundware and software, rekkerd.org is a great blog. And his “short links” roundups are always interesting.

Two new VST pluings are now available to anyone who wishes to download. One appears to be a rather polished “sampler” that is more or less official abandonware. The other is a raw chunk of open source programming that may be a diamond in the rough.

The former, Vember Audio’s Shortcircuit, is simple-sample engine, with the emphasis on traditional sampler paradigms, i.e. not build around huge sample libraries, i.e. you drop single sample into it and mangle, modulate and trigger them. Windows only. I don’t know, is there a good MAC VST/AU simple sample playback, like Live’s Simpler or Cakewalk’s DropZone?

B.) The other, VSTLus by programmer John Williamson, is the first iteration of a MIDI utility that runs custom MIDI scripts. So all those hours you’ve spent scoring the web for free VSTi MIDI/MFX plugs and trying to understand/get them to work, can now be spent learning what appears a straightforward scripting language, that will do whatever MIDI tricks you can dream up. It’s all a bit above my head, especially in regard the the plugin’s programming, but I’m definitely keeping an eye on it. Windows only, but since it’s a BSD license here’s to hoping some enterprising MAC/~nix coder can recompile it. I image the scripts are cross-platform, and there’s a rudimentary API, so there’s plenty there for the hardcore. In some ways it reminds me of mucoder’s hypercyclic (my top choice for the Dev Challenge), or, more specifically, a stripped down MFX Development Kit. Personally, I love a good GUI, and the MIDI-hacking I’m most interested in are those that lead me in directions I’d probably not come across on my own, different flavors/degrees of generative and sequencing and modulation scripts. So hypercyclic fills that slot nicely for me. But who knows what can happen with this.