buzztard project aims to provide a free replacement (or clone) of the currently windows only and closed source software Buzz. The buzz software is not really further developed, as the main developer has lost his source code.
We want to provide a music production environment, that is based on a very modular approach (following some of the ideas behind buzz), to allow many people to get involved. We hope that our software will have a better usabillity than buzz has although. We don't want to make this a 1:1 copy though.
The buzztard project itself has no direct link to buzz (apart from concepts). To allow migration for buzz users, we will provide song-file import and buzz-machine reuse.
The project's objective is a music application. If you've used programs like FastTracker or the original AMIGA SoundTracker, that will give you an idea. The buzztard editor uses a similiar concept, where a song consists of a sequence with tracks and in each track one uses patterns with events (musical notes and control changes). In contrast to the Tracker programs, tracks are not simply sample players. A song has a setup where one can arrange virtual audio plugins and link them together. Each of these machines can be controlled realtime or via patterns in the sequencer.
The buzztard editor will be just one possible application of the framework we will implement. Tools like a dj mixing application or a live session composer are other things that could be built using this framework.
The main goal is to get as far as buzz now is. Beyond that, we have thousands of ideas to make to improve the usability and production potential of such software. Buzztard should not be just a clone of buzz. It shall live beyond! Yay!
What's New in This Release: [ read full changelog ]
· Internal pipeline management in buzztard was rewritten.
· One can now play partially connected songs, and add or remove plugins while playing.
· One can play notes while editing.
· Saving of songs is more robust.
· Lots of bugfixes and UI improvements were made.
· The user-guide was improved, including three small tutorials.
· Python and JavaScript are initially supported via gobject introspection.
· In gst-buzztard, lots of improvements were made in the buzzmachine wrapper, buzz index support was added for categories, and machines were made live-playable.
· In bml, the API was split into the library and the instance API.
· In bsl, bugs were fixed and compatibility was improved.
