BananaV 0.3.0

BananaV 0.3.0 comes to macOS — as an experimental version — and brings smooth playback in 4K, VST 2 and VST 3 plug-ins, a Transform mode on the preview, windows that dock where you drop them and 18 more interface languages. BananaV is a free and open-source video editor written in Rust, for Windows, Linux and now macOS.

Download

System	File
Windows 10 and 11, Intel and AMD (x64)	BananaV-0.3.0-windows-x64-setup.exe
Windows 10 and 11, ARM (Snapdragon and the like)	BananaV-0.3.0-windows-arm64-setup.exe
Linux, Intel and AMD (x64)	BananaV-0.3.0-linux-x64.AppImage
Linux, ARM (ARM64)	BananaV-0.3.0-linux-arm64.AppImage
macOS 11 or later, Apple's chips and Intel (one app) — experimental	BananaV-0.3.0-macos-universal.dmg

Windows: open the installer and follow the steps. BananaV goes to your Start menu, with no administrator password, and Settings › Apps uninstalls it (your settings and projects stay). The installer is not signed yet, so Windows may warn about an unknown publisher: choose More info, then Run anyway. To use BananaV without installing it, get BananaV-0.3.0-windows-x64.zip or -windows-arm64.zip, unpack it and run BananaV.exe.

Linux: make the AppImage executable (chmod +x BananaV-*.AppImage) and run it. Its README, license and notices are in BananaV-0.3.0-linux-x64-docs.zip (and -linux-arm64-docs.zip); the LGPL libraries' sources are in BananaV-0.3.0-LGPL-sources.tar.gz.

macOS (experimental): open the disk image and drag BananaV into Applications. It is not signed yet: if macOS stops it the first time, open it anyway from System Settings › Privacy & Security. This is the first macOS version: it is built and started on GitHub's Macs, but we have not tried it on Macs of our own yet, so things may be missing or wrong. Intel Macs have been checked less than Apple's chips (GitHub's are virtual machines): some effects drawn on the graphics card may look slightly different there, and screen recording may not work yet. Please tell us what works and what does not on Discord or in the issues. The LGPL libraries' sources for macOS are in BananaV-0.3.0-macOS-LGPL-sources.tar.gz.

SHA256SUMS.txt has the files' checksums. The tag v0.3.0 holds exactly the source code these packages were built from.

What's new

macOS, experimental

One app for Apple's chips (M1 and later) and Intel Macs, macOS 11 and later.

• Video decoded and encoded on the Mac's media engine (H.264 and HEVC, "Apple VideoToolbox" in the Render window), the interface drawn with Metal, sound through Core Audio.
• The Command key does what Ctrl does elsewhere, a Control-click is a right click, and the menus and tooltips say Cmd and Option. Quit asks about unsaved changes first; projects open from Finder.
• VST 3, VST 2 and OpenFX plug-ins from the Mac's plug-in folders, their editors inside the FX window. Intel-only plug-ins run with BananaV opened through Rosetta.

Smooth playback, 4K included

• A 4K 59.94 project at Best (Full) plays every frame, the interface taking a third of the time it took. Frames come back at the size the window shows them (drawn at full size, so effects look the same), and their memory is used again.
• Heavy 4K parts no longer stall for a second when they start playing; four effects stacked on a 4K event play at 53–56 frames a second.
• Picture and sound start together after a jump, and jumps within a group of pictures go on decoding instead of starting again (MP4 and MOV).
• Video thumbnails wait while playing or rendering.

VST 2 and VST 3 plug-ins

• VST 3 and, through BananaV's own compatibility, VST 2 plug-ins: in the Plug-In Chooser, run in the mixer with automation, the timeline's position and tempo, their programs in the FX window's preset list, .vstpreset, .fxp and .fxb files.
• A plug-in's own editor shows inside the FX window. 32-bit plug-ins run in BananaV's 32-bit bridge.
• Each plug-in is tried in a process of its own when it is found, and one that crashes while BananaV runs is switched off without taking BananaV with it.

Starts that used to end early

• When a graphics driver fails on DirectX 12, the next start switches to Vulkan, then OpenGL, and keeps the one that works; on Windows BananaV starts again by itself. Crash.log says what happened.

Transform on the preview

• A Transform button by Preview Quality: drag the picture to move it, a corner or a side to resize it, just outside a corner to turn it. It writes the event's Pan/Crop.
• The Transform window, beside the Explorer, holds every control of the event: Motion (position, scale, rotation, crop, flips, anchor point, the Pan/Crop box and keyframes), Opacity with the fades, Time (playback rate, loop, reverse) and its audio's volume, channels and pitch.

Windows where you want them

• Drag a tab and drop it where it lights up: beside another tab, or a side of a window. A tab's menu floats it in a window of its own, on another monitor if you like.
• The interface can be made darker or lighter (Options › Preferences › Display).

Updates and languages

• BananaV tells you when a newer version is out and, on Windows, installs it as it closes. Help › Check for Software Updates… looks at any time.
• 18 more interface languages, partly translated (menus, main windows, timeline, Render window): Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Russian, Ukrainian, Spanish (Spain and Latin America), Portuguese (Portugal), German, Japanese, French, Italian, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Swedish, Turkish, Thai and Korean. Text in any script shows its letters instead of boxes.

Media generators and titles

• Checkerboard, Color Gradient, Noise Texture, Solid Color and Test Pattern rebuilt and drawing on the graphics card; Color Gradient's control points, Credit Roll's sixteen ways in and out.
• Titles & Text: fifty animations, its text bar above the panel, sizes that keep their look at any frame size, and a background cropped to the text.

Timeline and more

• The loop region is clearer and lets go of the time selection when you click elsewhere; a right-click removes it. Envelope Appearance sets the envelopes' lines and points.
• About and the title bar show the version.
• Envelopes painted with Shift and a drag, then thinned; Options' Internal list of every preference.
• About ninety mouse pointers of BananaV's own, telling what a press does with the keys held.
• .veg projects bring generated media, transitions at events' ends and the fades' reciprocal curves.

The changelog has every change, in order of importance. Questions, bugs and ideas: Discord and issues.

BananaV 0.2.0

BananaV 0.2.0 brings 51 audio effects, compatibility with .veg projects, color correction with LUTs and, for the first time, an installer for Windows. BananaV is a free and open-source video editor written in Rust, for Windows and Linux.

Download

System	File
Windows 10 and 11, Intel and AMD (x64)	BananaV-0.2.0-windows-x64-setup.exe
Windows 10 and 11, ARM (Snapdragon and the like)	BananaV-0.2.0-windows-arm64-setup.exe
Linux, Intel and AMD (x64)	BananaV-0.2.0-linux-x64.AppImage
Linux, ARM (ARM64)	BananaV-0.2.0-linux-arm64.AppImage

Windows: open the installer and follow the steps. BananaV goes to your Start menu, with no administrator password, and Settings › Apps uninstalls it (your settings and projects stay). The installer is not signed yet, so Windows may warn about an unknown publisher: choose More info, then Run anyway. To use BananaV without installing it, get BananaV-0.2.0-windows-x64.zip or -windows-arm64.zip, unpack it and run BananaV.exe.

Linux: make the AppImage executable (chmod +x BananaV-*.AppImage) and run it. Its README, license and notices are in BananaV-0.2.0-linux-x64-docs.zip (and -linux-arm64-docs.zip); the LGPL libraries' sources are in BananaV-0.2.0-LGPL-sources.tar.gz.

SHA256SUMS.txt has the files' checksums. The tag v0.2.0 holds exactly the source code these packages were built from.

What's new

51 audio effects

Equalizers (Modern Equalizer, Track EQ, Graphic, Parametric and Paragraphic EQ), dynamics (Compressor, Gate, Limiter, DeEsser, Multi-Band and Graphic Dynamics, Wave Hammer Surround), reverbs and delays, modulation (Chorus, Flanger, Phaser, Vibrato, Tremolo Pan, Amplitude Modulation), Distortion and Tube Stage, Vocal Strip, Pitch Shift, Time Stretch, Audio Restoration and the Express set.

• Each effect has its own panel and factory presets, with sliders that reset on a double-click, and those drawn as curves have a graph editor.
• Pitch Shift, Time Stretch, Gapper/Snipper and Vibrato play on events, their sound made through the whole chain; in a track's or a bus's chain they let the sound through, and the FX window says so.
• Modern Equalizer: eight bands, with minimum and linear phase, oversampling, mid/side and per-channel routing.

Compatible with .veg projects

File › Open, File › Import and File › Export. Import stays marked Experimental while real projects test it: tell us what arrives wrong.

• Tracks, events and takes, fades, groups, markers, regions, command markers, the CD layout and bins.
• Transitions, with their settings and progress envelopes; effect keyframes of every kind, with Bézier handles; effects switched off or placed before the Pan/Crop.
• The 51 audio effects at their settings, in tracks, events and busses.
• Volume: each event's gain, Normalize, channels and phase; the tracks' volume, pan, envelopes and sends; the busses' faders, mute, solo, effects and envelopes.
• Pan/Crop with its masks, velocity, Resample mode, Reduce Interlace, Undersample rate, Track Motion with its shadow, glow and 3D box, Parent Motion and compositing children.
• Export writes all of this except audio effect chains. Not imported yet: events of generated media, a transition at an event's end, and pan up and down. When a project opens, the status bar says what stayed out.

Color correction with LUTs

Color Grading rebuilt: color wheels, curves, HSL curves, white balance, levels, tone and saturation, with Camera and Look LUTs from .cube files and Export LUT to take your grade anywhere.

• Lift and Gain eyedroppers, a neutral tone picker and a color selector; curve handles with Lock axis and Lock to grid.
• Older projects' Color Grading settings go back to their defaults.

Pan/Crop rebuilt

• An event's Pan/Crop is a box in its media's pixels, and older projects come in as they were.
• Keyframes move along smooth paths with Smoothness; masks follow their keyframes, each with its own path settings.
• The rotation center can be dragged, the presets include the 1:1, 4:3, 16:9 and 1.85:1 shapes, and the menu resizes adjustment events to the project.
• Compared frame by frame with reference renders.

Smooth playback

• The graphics card draws from the first frame: effect shaders compile in the background in 6.5 s instead of 63 s.
• A 1080p60 event with two effects plays at 60 frames a second, evenly, on about one processor core.
• The window paints only when a frame is due, and the Explorer's tree no longer touches the disks every frame.

Timeline

• The Sharp curve is now 4p³ − 6p² + 3p in fades, envelopes and keyframes; snapping reaches 7 pixels; Esc stops playback; W and E go to the Trimmer's start and end.
• Peak files beside media (.sfk) give their waveforms without reading the sound.

The changelog has every version's changes. Questions, bugs and ideas: Discord and issues.

BananaV 0.1.0 Ultra Alpha 2

Warning

Ultra Alpha: a very early test build. Expect missing features, bugs and crashes. Don't use it for important work, keep copies of your media and projects, and expect projects saved with it not to open in later builds.

The second test build of BananaV, a free and open-source video editor written in Rust. It brings more than 175 changes since Ultra Alpha 1: DVD authoring and burning, motion tracking and stabilization, 3D compositing, studio audio, about a hundred effects and transitions remade, and a much steadier time with third-party plug-ins. And, for the first time, BananaV's source code is public, in this repository.

Download

System	Package
Windows 10 and 11, Intel and AMD (x64)	BananaV-0.1.0-ultra-alpha.2-windows-x64.zip
Windows 10 and 11, ARM (ARM64: Snapdragon and the like)	BananaV-0.1.0-ultra-alpha.2-windows-arm64.zip
Linux, Intel and AMD (x64)	BananaV-0.1.0-ultra-alpha.2-linux-x64.AppImage
Linux, ARM (ARM64)	BananaV-0.1.0-ultra-alpha.2-linux-arm64.AppImage

Windows: unpack the zip anywhere and run BananaV.exe; nothing is installed. The build is not signed yet, so Windows may warn about an unknown publisher the first time: choose More info, then Run anyway.

Linux: make the AppImage executable (chmod +x BananaV-*.AppImage) and run it. Its README, license and notices are in BananaV-0.1.0-ultra-alpha.2-linux-x64-docs.zip (and -linux-arm64-docs.zip).

SHA256SUMS.txt has the packages' checksums.

What's new since Ultra Alpha 1

Highlights

• The source code is public. BananaV is free software under the GPL, version 3 or later, and from this build on its source code is in this repository: the tag v0.1.0-ultra-alpha.2 holds exactly the code these packages were built from. Read AGENTS.md and CONTRIBUTING.md to take part.
• Third-party plug-ins, steady and fast. Large packs of professional OFX plug-ins, with hundreds of effects in one file, now work. On Windows a plug-in that crashes is switched off instead of taking BananaV down, and one that needs a missing or mismatched library is skipped quietly instead of Windows showing an "Entry Point Not Found" box at every start.
• Plug-ins on the graphics card. Plug-ins that render with CUDA draw straight on NVIDIA cards: a 4K frame with a blur went from 180 to 80 ms. The on-screen controls plug-ins draw with OpenGL show over the preview.
• Smooth playback through transitions. No more stalls at a transition's start and end, and when effects are heavy the preview draws two frames at once.
• Final Cut Pro 7 XML both ways. BananaV opens other editors' XML files, including those that keep their media in bins, with transitions, stereo sound and each of a recording's audio streams, and writes them the way those editors read them. File › Open takes .xml and .fcpxml files.
• DVD, Video CD and audio CD. BananaV's own MPEG-2 and MPEG-1 encoders, DVD-Video authoring and burning, Video CDs and audio CD burning.
• Tracking and stabilization. Motion tracking, video and 360° stabilization, and slow motion and motion blur by optical flow.

Plug-ins and performance

• On Windows, a plug-in that crashes is switched off until BananaV restarts, and the status bar says so.
• Fixed a crash some plug-ins caused when they started helper programs; plug-ins now load only when used and hear BananaV closing.
• Fixed BananaV crawling with many plug-ins installed: every lookup copied all their descriptions, several times a frame.
• A plug-in whose libraries are missing, or are another program's of the same name, no longer brings up Windows' "Entry Point Not Found" box over and over at start: it is listed as failed and the reason goes to the log.
• CUDA rendering on NVIDIA cards, and plug-ins' OpenGL controls over the preview.
• A crossfade's transition opens in the FX window with its presets and settings, and can be switched off without losing them.
• Playback without stalls at transitions: plug-ins are readied before each one starts, and two frames are drawn at once when effects are heavy.
• An effect plays as fast with its FX window open as with it closed: playback no longer reads each frame's input back from the graphics card for the window's pickers (still frames keep it), and plug-ins' OpenGL controls are drawn again only when they change, so the rest of the interface no longer slows down with them.
• A slow preview (4K with heavy effects, say) no longer freezes for the rest of playback after a frame that takes longer than about 0.8 s: it keeps showing frames as fast as it can draw them.
• Reverse playback decodes ahead and plays smoothly.

Editing and timeline

• A redesigned Pan/Crop window. Its properties are laid out as a property grid: Position, Rotation (the angle and the point it turns about), Keyframe interpolation, Source (Maintain aspect ratio and Stretch to fill frame) and Workspace, beside a workspace you can resize.
• Pan/Crop keyframes: select several (click, Ctrl+click, Shift+click, or drag the cursor across them), drag them together (the first one too), and cut, copy, paste, delete or change their curve all at once from their menu or the keys. The keyframe timeline scrolls and zooms, and what lies past the event's end is shown white.
• The Pan/Crop window decodes the media at its own cursor, at the size it shows it, so it stays sharp and follows you while you scrub, with Sync Cursor on or off.
• Mask drawing: a click adds a corner and a drag a curve; clicking the first point closes the path; clicking a point turns it sharp, and clicking it again brings its handles back; dragging a line bends it, its handles showing as they follow; the Split Tangent tool adds a point exactly where a line is clicked. Pick several points with Ctrl, Shift or a rectangle, and move or delete them together. A mask's box appears when you double-click it and goes when you click elsewhere. The mask properties are laid out as a grid too.
• The selection rectangle highlights events as you drag it.
• An event's shortcut menu lists its commands in their usual order, greyed where they would do nothing; a crossfade shows its length in its middle while one of its events is selected, at any zoom, under its transition's name when it has one.
• Event Properties (an event's shortcut menu): the Video Event tab (the active take's name, the switches, the playback and undersample rates), or the Audio Event tab, then the Media and General tabs.
• Media Properties: Alpha channel (Undefined, None, Straight, Premultiplied, or Premultiplied against a background color), Color range (Undefined, Limited, Full) and Rotation (90° either way, 180°) now change how the media is read, and the Format names the file's type and codec. The new General tab shows the file's type, size and dates, each stream's format, color depth, bit rate and length, and the component that reads it.
• Nested timelines (create, open and go back to the main one), and nested projects used as media, playing their prerendered video.
• Sync links between events.
• Smart Split joins the video parts with the Warp Flow transition.
• Reversing an event makes the reversed subclip in Project Media.
• The Take Chooser plays and stops takes; a copy edited in the audio editor becomes a take.
• Double-clicking an event and dragging extends the time selection.
• The timeline scrolls by itself when a drag reaches its edge.
• Enter goes back to where playback started, and playback runs on past the project's end.
• In a crossfade the overlapping sound is shaded darker, and a video crossfade shows its transition's name in a blue band.
• Audio waveforms thin along their fades as you drag them, a crossfade shows both sounds merged, dark lines mark where each crossfade begins and ends, a selected event's outline stays visible over its neighbour, and the fade and level handles are blue tabs, the pointer changing over a fade's handle.
• Meters across the track headers, Restore Track Height, and dragging a header's edge sizes every selected track alike.
• Envelopes: double-click a line to add a point, drag it to raise or lower that stretch; a point's menu offers its preset values, Set To... (type the value right at the point), Delete, the fade curves, Flip, Thin and Reset All. Drop video effects on an adjustment track, or on any video track's header, to add them to the track.
• V and P add the volume and pan envelopes to the selected audio tracks, then hide and show them; a volume envelope has 0 dB in the middle of the track and +6 dB at the top, its points drawn as diamonds.
• With several tracks selected, Delete Track deletes them all in one undo.
• An envelope point under the pointer turns into a white diamond, its tooltip giving the envelope, the time and the value ("Composite Level at 00:01:45:14 is 42 %"); a double-click that adds a point puts the cursor on it. A crossfade's dark lines trim its events from either side: the start of the event coming in, the end of the one going out under it.

Video and compositing

• Pan/Crop masks, with a redesigned Pan/Crop window, and masks in track and output effects.
• Motion tracking, with the motion handed to effects and regions imported from an effect; Bézier Masking tracks each of its masks.
• Video stabilization, with its Expert view, dual fish-eye stitching and 360° stabilization.
• Slow motion, motion blur, the Warp Flow transition and the Optical Flow resample mode.
• 3D compositing, and Track Motion in 3D with layouts, views, a trackball, presets and editing in object space.
• The video bus track's automation, fade colors and the Video Output FX keyframes; Bypass Motion Blur on video tracks.
• Smart adaptive deinterlacing, interlaced renders, Undersa...

BananaV 0.1.0 Ultra Alpha 1

Warning

Ultra Alpha: a very early test build. Expect missing features, bugs and crashes. Don't use it for important work, keep copies of your media and projects, and expect projects saved with it not to open in later builds.

This is the first build of BananaV, a free and open-source video editor written in Rust, for anyone who wants to try it early and help shape it. It is made for testing, not for production work.

Download

System	Package
Windows 10 and 11, Intel and AMD (x64)	BananaV-0.1.0-ultra-alpha.1-windows-x64.zip
Windows 10 and 11, ARM (ARM64: Snapdragon and the like)	BananaV-0.1.0-ultra-alpha.1-windows-arm64.zip
Linux, Intel and AMD (x64)	BananaV-0.1.0-ultra-alpha.1-linux-x64.AppImage
Linux, ARM (ARM64)	BananaV-0.1.0-ultra-alpha.1-linux-arm64.AppImage

Windows: unpack the zip anywhere and run BananaV.exe; nothing is installed. The build is not signed yet, so Windows may warn about an unknown publisher the first time: choose More info, then Run anyway.

Linux: make the AppImage executable (chmod +x BananaV-*.AppImage) and run it. Its README, license and notices are in BananaV-0.1.0-ultra-alpha.1-linux-x64-docs.zip (and -linux-arm64-docs.zip).

SHA256SUMS.txt has the packages' checksums.

What you need

• Windows: Windows 10 or 11, a graphics card with DirectX 12, Vulkan or OpenGL, and Media Foundation, part of Windows, to open and render video (on Windows "N" editions, install the Media Feature Pack).
• Linux: a 64-bit distribution from 2022 on (glibc 2.35 or newer: Ubuntu 22.04, Debian 12, Fedora 36 and later), a graphics card with Vulkan or OpenGL, an X11 or Wayland desktop and sound through ALSA (PipeWire and PulseAudio offer it).

Tell us what breaks

• Chat, questions and bug reports: Discord (the #bug-reports forum).
• Website: https://bananav-editor.github.io/

When you report a bug, say what you did, what happened and what you expected, and attach a screenshot if you can. On Windows the logs are in %LOCALAPPDATA%\BananaV\Logs.

Source code

BananaV is free software under the GNU General Public License, version 3 or later. Its source code will be published here soon, with the first public release. (The "Source code" archives GitHub adds below hold only this repository's README for now.)

The packages carry the license (LICENSE.txt), the notices of the open-source libraries BananaV is built with (THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.txt; on Linux also SYSTEM-LIBRARIES-NOTICES.txt) and the licenses of the font, color and transition code it ships. The Linux AppImages include FFmpeg's libraries and LAME, under the LGPL: their sources, and the script that builds FFmpeg, are in BananaV-0.1.0-ultra-alpha.1-LGPL-sources.tar.gz.