ArkaneDAW v0.3.12

What's new

• UI zoom: Ctrl + (or Ctrl = / numpad +) zooms in, Ctrl - zooms out, Ctrl 0 resets. The zoom level is remembered between launches. Ctrl + numpad +/- no longer switches patterns.
• Replaced instruments are audible again: replacing the instrument on an imported MIDI drum channel no longer leaves the typing keyboard two octaves down (below the range of most Concerto instruments, so nothing sounded). The replaced channel is also selected, so the typing keyboard and MIDI input play it right away.
• Concerto: a channel created while another channel was still loading the same instrument no longer stays silent.
• Concerto / Studio Drums: replacing, undoing or deleting a channel while its samples are still loading no longer makes those samples go missing until restart.
• Menus always on top: context menus and dropdowns can no longer open behind windows, however many plugin windows you open in a session.

ArkaneDAW v0.3.11

What's new

• Runs without libfuse2: the AppImage now uses the static AppImage runtime, so it starts on distributions that no longer ship libfuse2 (e.g. Ubuntu 24.04) without extra packages.
• Plugin hosting on older distributions: the VST/CLAP host and bridge now need only glibc 2.34 (Ubuntu 22.04, Debian 12, Fedora 35, RHEL 9 and newer) and no longer depend on the system libstdc++. Previously they needed glibc 2.38.
• Quieter first start: a missing ffmpeg no longer opens the dependency dialog at startup; you're asked for it when you export to MP3/OGG/FLAC. The plugin-host check now actually runs the host, so a host that can't start on your system is reported.
• MIT license: ArkaneDAW is now open source under the MIT License.
• AppStream metadata is included in the AppImage (software centers, AppImage catalog).

ArkaneDAW v0.3.10

Editing

• Knife slicing with Right-Shift in the playlist and piano roll: hold Right-Shift and press the left mouse button to show a straight knife line that follows the pointer, snapped to the grid (hold Alt for 1-tick precision). Drag up or down to cut across more tracks or keys, then release to slice. In the playlist the knife takes priority over the clip-menu arrow.
• Pattern clips follow pattern growth: a playlist clip that shows a whole pattern now gets longer when the pattern does, in the same undo step. Clips you cut, slipped or shortened stay as they are.

Patterns

• Rename button in the pattern selector.
• Split by channel: makes one pattern per channel, named " - ", in place of the original. Its playlist clips are split onto consecutive tracks.

Fixes

• Space only starts and stops playback (Ctrl+Space pauses). It no longer re-opens a focused dropdown or preset picker, or presses a focused button or menu item. Text fields still type spaces.
• Windows can no longer end up in front of context menus. Before, the channel rack menu could open behind its window after many focus changes.
• Removed the chevron at the left of window title bars, which did nothing.

ArkaneDAW v0.3.9

MIDI import

• Drums now play on Studio Drums, a sampled acoustic kit, instead of the synthesized Studio kit of Classic Drum Machines. Cymbals and hi-hats sound like real cymbals now, not tonal or bell-like.
• The kit covers the full General MIDI drum map: two crashes, ride and ride bell, china, splash, closed / pedal / open hi-hats, toms and Latin percussion (only whistles and cuíca are missing). China and splash notes used to be silent.
• If the Studio Drums sound library isn't installed, imports still use Classic Drum Machines and the hint bar says how to install it (OPTIONS › Sound libraries…).
• To upgrade drums in a project you already imported, right-click the drum channel › Replace › Studio Drums. Its notes stay.

ArkaneDAW v0.3.8

MIDI file import

• FILE › Import › MIDI file… brings a .mid file in as one new channel per part, each with a matching built-in instrument (piano, organ, guitar, bass, strings, brass, pads…; drums on Classic Drum Machines). The parts land in a new pattern named after the file, placed at bar 1 of the first empty playlist track. In an empty project the file's tempo and time signature are used too.
• Drop a MIDI file on a channel in the channel rack to replace that channel's notes in the current pattern with the file's notes (the row lights up while you drag). Dropping it on an empty part of the rack imports it as new channels.
• The browser now lists .mid files, and you can drag them from there.
• Every import is one undo step.

Tempo automation

• Tempo automation clips now play. In song mode the tempo follows tempo clips during playback and export, and the time display and tempo readout follow it too. Tempo-synced effects (delays, LFOs) change with it.
• Tempo is now in the Add automation clip menu.
• Importing a MIDI file with tempo changes into an empty project adds them as a Tempo automation clip.
• Audio clips aren't stretched by tempo changes: each one plays at the tempo where it starts.

ArkaneDAW v0.3.7

Recording

• MIDI into channel no longer loops the pattern. In pattern mode, playback keeps running past the pattern end while you record, so a take can be longer than the pattern. The pattern grows to fit what you play. A pattern with a set length is lengthened to whole bars.
• Space during the countdown cancels it. Pressing Space (or Play) while the count-in clicks are playing, or while waiting for input, now stops the recording start. Before, it skipped straight to playback.
• The countdown counts the first number of the time signature: 3 clicks in 3/4, 6 in 6/8, 7 in 7/8, each one beat long.

Guitar

• New Reverb knob in Output: a long, lush hall you can add with one knob. It sits on top of the existing Room ambience.

ArkaneDAW v0.3.6

Guitar: more natural tone

• Even levels across the neck: notes no longer jump up to 10 dB in loudness from one fret to the next. The guitar body now resonates after the strings, like a real top and sound hole: the low notes boom a little, without runaway peaks.
• Acoustic models are brighter and less boxy. They are now heard through the force on the bridge, and every pluck knocks the top for a woody attack.
• Strings decay like real strings. Wound bass strings lose their treble quickly and plain strings stay brighter (the other way round on nylon). Low notes no longer ring metallic.
• Hard plucks start slightly sharp and settle. With Humanize up, fretted notes are never perfectly intonated.
• Re-picking a ringing string chokes it without a click.

Record: choose what it records

• Right-click Record → Mixer input into playlist and MIDI into channel (ticked when on). Both are on by default because they don't conflict. The choice is remembered.
• Mixer input into playlist records armed mixer tracks (microphones, line inputs) as audio clips in the playlist.
• MIDI into channel records your MIDI controller and the typing keyboard into the current pattern, on the selected channel. With several channels selected, only the first one in the rack records.

ArkaneDAW v0.3.5

Sampler: Cut itself

• Right-click a sample channel in the channel rack → Cut itself (ticked when on). A new note stops the sample that is still playing on that channel, so 808s, basslines and open hats don't stack up and every hit starts fresh. The old note fades out in 4 ms, so there's no click.
• Notes that start together (chords) still all play.
• The same toggle is in the Sampler's Pitch section.

Concerto

• Fix: the new cymbals and gong showed "Instrument not found in the Concerto sound library" when the installed library was an older version. Concerto now says the library needs updating and shows an Update library button right in the instrument (version 1.2.0 includes the cymbals and gong).

ArkaneDAW v0.3.4

New instrument: Guitar

A modelled guitar in the Synths group, with steel-string acoustic, nylon classical and electric (single-coil, humbucker, hollow-body) models. Every note is played on a real string and fret:

• Chords are fingered like real grips and strummed string by string (down, up or alternating), with strum time and humanize controls.
• Solo mode: overlapping notes hammer on and pull off; bigger jumps (or slide notes) slide along the string. Vibrato and pitch bend.
• Strummer mode: hold a chord and play the rhythm on the strum keyswitches, like Ample's strummer.
• Keyswitches: C2 sustain, D2 palm mute, E2 muted, F2 harmonics, G2 strum down, A2 strum up, B2 mute strum.
• Tunings: standard, Drop D, Eb/D standard, Drop C, Open G, Open D, DADGAD.
• Built-in amp & cab (clean, crunch, lead, metal) with a noise gate, plus double tracking, a room reverb and a live fretboard that shows the fingering (click it to play).
• 22 presets, from fingerpicked nylon and strummed acoustic to funk, jazz, rock leads and metal chugs.

Concerto

• Percussion now includes clash cymbals (crash and choke), a suspended cymbal (mallet, stick, bell, roll with real endings, swells) and a gong / tam-tam. If you already have the Concerto sound library, update it (version 1.2.0) to get the new sounds.
• Concerto is now listed under Synths. The Orchestral category is gone.

Projects for scripts and AI agents

• .arkane project files are now saved indented, so they're readable and easy to diff and edit by hand, with scripts, or with coding agents (Claude Code, Codex, …).
• New docs: PROJECT_FORMAT.md explains the format, and plugins.json lists every built-in plugin's parameters and presets.
• Projects written by hand load fine: missing fields get their defaults, out-of-range values are clamped, and broken references are dropped.
• Reload on outside edits: when the open project file changes on disk, ArkaneDAW reloads it automatically, or asks first if you have unsaved changes. Ctrl+Z undoes the reload.

ArkaneDAW v0.3.3

Channel rack

• Up/Down arrows select the previous/next channel (Alt+Up/Down still moves channels).
• Channel select buttons are wider.
• Hold left click on a select button and drag up/down to select a run of channels (Ctrl/Shift adds to the selection).
• Double-click a select button to select all channels.

Tempo

• Tap tempo now rounds up to a whole BPM (no decimals).