Cantabile 3 Preview 1 Available

Brad -

Two weeks ago I posted about getting a minimal version of Cantabile 3 out. Yesterday the build went out and so far things have gone fairly well…

If you’re a licensed user of Cantabile 2 Solo or Performer you should have received an email with instructions on how to download Cantabile 3 Preview 1. (If you didn’t, please get in touch with me).

As mentioned this is a very minimal first release but an important step in that it includes the new audio and user-interface. So far the response has been better than expected:

  • Over a quarter of Cantabile’s user base has installed it
  • The feedback has been almost unanimously positive
  • Only one person unsubscribed from the mail out
  • Performance of the new engine seems to be good
  • There have only been a handful of crash and error reports

Reported Issues

Given that this is a complete re-write to only get a handful of crash and error reports is very pleasing. Here’s the bugs that have been addressed:

  • Problems with not handling reset requests from ASIO drivers causing application crash
  • An incorrect error message when trying to load x64 plugin on x86 or vice versa
  • Support for Waves (shell) plugins was completely broken, but I think is now fixed (took a few goes)

The unresolved issues are:

  • A couple of users seem to get an error in the getting started wizard when pressing the final Finish button. I think this is occurring during or after the plugin scan but I’m still investigating.
  • One report of an internal error when applying route updates to a MIDI route. (Update: this is now fixed in build 3005)
  • One crash in an x64 sample conversion routine, but this hasn’t been seen again since the ASIO driver fixes.

To help track these issues down I’ve put in some more logging and also made some improvements to the crash and error reporting tools. If you can reliably reproduce any of the above issues (or any issue for that matter) and don’t mind spending time helping to track it down, please get in touch with me.

What’s Next

Right now I’m going to stay in a stabilizing mode and try to get it as bug free as possible before moving on to anything new.

At the same time, I’m also working on making the main window (all the custom UI stuff) work properly with screen readers and other accessibility tools. This is something I’ve overlooked in previous versions for too long. It’s easier to get it in early and update it as I go — rather than trying to do it all at a later date.

Thanks everyone for the positive feedback and for taking the time to help track down issues.