nota-daw/nota v0.59.1

Nota 0.59.1

on GitHub

🎛 Nota 0.59.1 is out

A release about recording and arranging: takes you can comp, a song you can rearrange by its sections, and a Mixer that lives in the main window. The piano roll learns every MIDI controller, and hosted plug-ins drop out far less.

1. Take lanes and one-key retry
Loop-record audio in the Arrangement and every pass is kept as a take. Open the lanes under the track and drag across a take to use that part of it: the comp plays on the track's own row, and Flatten makes it one clip. A take that went wrong is one press away from a fresh start: ⌘. (Ctrl+. on Windows and Linux) throws it away and records again from the run-up, leaving nothing behind.

2. Rearrange the song by its sections
Drag a section in the Sections lane and everything in it moves along: clips, automation and take lanes. The sections in between close up, and you see the new order before you let go. Move earlier / later, Duplicate with content and Delete with content are on the section's menu. New sections get automatic names that renumber as the song changes.

3. The Mixer in the main window
View → Mixer docks the full Mixer under the Arrangement, Session or Modular view, and it can still pop out to a second screen. Groups show as named, tinted blocks you can fold, and Compact strips fit about twice as many tracks. A group's Link key ties its tracks together: arm one and they all arm, and edits on a clip apply to the clips beside it on the other tracks.

4. Every MIDI controller in the piano roll
Sustain, mod wheel, pitch wheel, expression and every other CC now have lanes of their own under the notes. Add as many as you need, size each one, and draw pedals as on/off blocks or controllers as curves. The Bend lane gets a range menu, ⇧ + wheel changes velocity, and a note can be moved, lengthened or given a velocity in the same drag that places it.

5. Nota in your language
Settings → Appearance → Language downloads the interface languages from the community-run nota-translations repository. French is the first. Translators can add or fix a language with a pull request there, without building Nota.

6. Plug-ins drop out less
Hosted instruments are processed once per audio block instead of once per MIDI event, so dense parts cost far less CPU. On macOS, plug-ins that ran their own threads or asked the host for its name on every block no longer cause dropouts. The status bar shows the sample rate and buffer size (click to change it) and counts dropouts when they happen.

Added
• Take lanes and comping for audio loop recording in the Arrangement (2f49e3d, f815a2d)
• Discard and retry the take being recorded: ⌘. / Ctrl+., also in the Transport menu and the command palette (ee5bb1d)
• Rearrange the song by dragging its sections with their content; Move earlier / later, Duplicate with content and Delete with content (fec5fc0)
• Automatic section names that renumber as sections change, and Reset to default for a custom name (b80b2ca)
• Dock the Mixer in the main window, or pop it out to its own window (db9990a)
• Groups in the Mixer, with folding, and Compact mixer strips (12b9bef)
• Link a group's tracks for arming and editing together (7b58fe8)
• Controller lanes in the piano roll for every MIDI CC, pitch wheel and channel pressure; several lanes at once, each with its own saved height (8e02be0, 989d2b9, 312530b, f295a21)
• ⇧ + wheel over a note changes the velocity of the selected notes (8e02be0)
• Shape a note while placing it: drag to move it, ⇧ for its length, ⌘ / Ctrl for its velocity (2b2a3a5)
• Pick the Bend lane's range in the piano roll, from ±2 to ±96 semitones (9f0c13b)
• Reset a note's velocity to the default from the velocity lane (4497c86, 71a1607)
• Label every note in the piano roll's keys column (Settings → Appearance) (b70b893)
• Clip editor track mode: every MIDI clip of the track on one timeline (b14e293)
• The clip editor can fill the window (⌘⇧F / Ctrl+Shift+F); double-click a panel edge to reset its size (b4ac5a8)
• Interface languages: a Language setting, languages downloaded from nota-translations (French first), and Load file… to preview a translation (1d7566b, 964150d, dd09daf)
• A short fade when an audio clip is split, and Fade at splits for existing joins (37d315a)
• Send levels in the Arrangement's track headers at the Large height (0fd02fe, 0cf5e59)
• Track inspector tab in the browser's left rail (c4d8cea)
• Track headers on the right of the Arrangement (bff01f5)
• Sample rate and buffer size in the status bar, with a menu to change the buffer size (80177b2)
• A dropout counter in the status bar (55c3c29)
• Delete several versions at once in the History tab (dba99f6, f295a21)
• File → Open recent (ec67c2b)
• Every release opens with its own splash art (d30d432)

Changed
• The detail panel opens on a double-click, not on every selection; Settings → Appearance brings the old behaviour back (633fc69)
• Dragging a section moves its content; hold ⌥ / Alt to move only the marker (fec5fc0)
• Audio clips draw a smooth waveform with a loudness body by default (184e643)
• The clip inspector and MIDI tools use two columns instead of scrolling (d209445)
• Track header buttons stay in the same place at every track height (c92bed1)
• Mixer strips fit the height they get, follow changes made elsewhere and list tracks in the Arrangement's order (db9990a, 535da00)
• Ungroup (⌘⇧G / Ctrl+Shift+G) on a track inside a group takes just that track out, keeping the group and its effects; clicking a group's lane selects it (e31ade6)
• Aurora's envelope boxes have knobs, drag, and take a typed value on double-click (38acfb8)

Fixed
• Hosted plug-in instruments use less CPU on busy MIDI, macOS plug-ins cause fewer dropouts, and memory no longer grows with every edit (c74d580)
• Bars, grids, rulers and position readouts follow the time signature instead of always counting 4/4 (002b9fe)
• Effects on an audio track ring out after Stop (d57d86d)
• Duplicating a track keeps its plug-ins, and plug-ins that cap their block size (sfizz) load (8098bd0)
• An SFZ file or library folder dropped on Nota Mosaic opens (86f4fdd)
• Playback no longer stutters while an audio clip is open in the Clip panel (40b324d)
• Smooth playback cursors on Windows and in the piano roll (29842b4)
• An armed audio track meters its input with monitoring off; Modular lists tracks in the Arrangement's order (535da00)
• Session clips open in the Clip editor (0472701)
• The loop region is saved with the project, the Mixer's volume reaches −∞, the DSP meter no longer shifts the transport bar, Open editor follows the plug-in's window, and Settings… appears once on macOS (ec67c2b)
• Right-click on knobs and graph handles shows the value menu, and Reset to default on a handle uses the instrument's default (0493c15)
• Flat window buttons on Windows (3c9c982)
• Toggle detail panel no longer leaves an empty band (db9990a)

Contributors
@ambertape, @chrislaupama, @vv7r, @NopeCharon, @thoi1, @rafi612

Thanks for the feedback
@norveganon, @ultralooper, @at6wq, @openSourcerer9000

Install

First launch: Nota isn't signed with a paid certificate yet. On macOS, if it says Apple could not verify Nota, open System Settings → Privacy & Security and click Open Anyway — step-by-step guide. On Windows, click More info → Run anyway in SmartScreen.