I have put a 2nd beta of blue 0.106.0 available at:

http://www.csounds.com/stevenyi/blue

This version has a few changes from the first beta that was mentioned
on the blue list a few weeks ago, mostly suggested by Andres Cabrera
(Thanks!).  I am posting this as a beta because it is mostly feature
complete for what I wanted to accomplish but have not yet had the
chance to document the changes.

For those who haven’t followed the first beta, the setting up of
rendering has changed for blue.  Instead of typing out CommandLines,
most of the settings have moved to a model like MacCsound and Winsound
where one configures the most popular settings by checkbox or dropdown
or other UI element and can use advanced options by typing them in.
One can still use the older way of specifying a commandline per
project by clicking and override checkbox, and olderprojects will be
migrated in this way.

The render system is also changed in that the user defines an “Audio
Out”, “Audio In”, “MIDI Out” and “MIDI In” device as a program wide
configuration.  Projects then specifiy which of those device types
they want to use.  By not setting the exact flags but instead saying
which of these device types are to be used, projects become much more
portable (I can bring a project from Windows to Linux to Mac and if
the project; Audio Out will be set different on each computer, but
blue will use the “Audio Out” configured instead of flags), and longer
lasting (say you change your hardware and add a new soundcard, instead
of going into ever project to change what you’re using, you can change
the “Audio Out” option in blue once).  Some of this is replicated in
.csoundrc, but for most users uninterested in editing text
configuration files I believe this will be easier to understand.

With this new rendering model, I think user’s will have to configure
their settings for Csound once and should then rarely ever have to
touch those settings again after that initial setup (much like how
many commercial sequencers run a setup phase after installation that
the user doesn’t ever really touch).

Another reason I am publishing this now is that I have been too busy
to do work both on and with blue the past few weeks and won’t be able
to do so again for the next few weeks.  I have been very busily
preparing to leave for Warsaw, Poland in July and because it will be a
long trip (6-10 months; girlfriend is doing research for her
dissertation, I’m going to be living on savings for a while…), there
has been a lot to take care of.  I will be resuming work on blue in
July and because I should have a good amount of time to focus on music
and blue, I have high hopes to finally get around to everything I
wanted (and others have requested) to have in blue.

While I will be in Europe I would love to meet up with Csounders
there.  I think i will be travelling outside of Poland in early
September and would love to plan to get together to discuss Csound,
music, etc..  Also, if you are interested for a presentation on blue,
I’d be more than happy to do a demonstration.

Thanks to those who have been giving the great feedback through the
first beta and enjoy!
steven

p.s. – Because there is is documentation beyond what is in the release
notes and the messages on the bluemusic-users mailing list archive,
please feel free to email me or the mailing list any questions.

p.p.s. – Since I may not have the chance to do much work while I am
abroad, I have setup up a donation page at:

http://www.kunstmusik.com/donations/

Any donations during this time would be very much appreciated!

>Notes for 0.106.0 beta2<
[released 2006.06.14]

Steven Yi———————————————————————–

blue

    [new] – New Render System

            – Many Render Settings are configurable by GUI; Program Options
            mostly set default settings for new Projects except for realtime
            render settings, which are to be used on a proram wide level;
            Projects have the option for complete override to set commandline
            to match older workflow

    [new] – Reorganized Program Options Dialog with new settings for Rendering,
            added ability to turn message colors on and off (off by default,
            which should always be set to off when using with blue and the
            Csound Output Dialog)

    [new] – Added buttons next to Advanced Settings to open up CommandFlags
            documentation; requires Csound Documentation Root to be set in
            ProgramOptions (feature requested by Andres Cabrera)

    [new] – Add SoundFile Preview to FileChooser Dialogs (Feature requested by
            Will Light)

    [new] – Python NoteProcessor – Use python code to process noteList generated
            by SoundObject; blue NoteList class is introduced to python
            interpreter before processing as variable “noteList” and that holds
            blue Note classes; methods for NoteList and Note are the same as in
            the Java classes; please see Java code for NoteList and Note for
            more information, or also see Python NoteProcessor documentation

            -example added in examples/noteProcessors/pythonProcessor.blue

    [new] – Added shortcut (Ctrl-l) and Project menu option to toggle loop
            rendering for project (requested by Menno)

    [new/updated] – TextArea’s that use BlueEditorPane now paste for when
            clicking with middle mouse button (requested by Andres Cabrera)

    [new/fix] – when opening a project using either “Open” or Recent Files menu
            that is already open, now switches to the open project

    [fix] – for older projects, always set mixer to disabled regardless of if
            ProgramOptions is set to enable mixer by default or not

    [fix] – for projects which have no instruments in their orchestra (i.e. if
            a project is only using Sound SoundObjects), if mixer is enabled, do
            not generate any mixer code as it won’t be used
—