Pro Wave 0.1.9

Pro Wave 0.1.9 is an early development build of a Logic Pro-style music production app (DAW) written in Rust: tracks, MIDI and audio regions, Piano Roll, Mixer, Library and a built-in synthesizer. Expect missing features and rough edges.

What's new in 0.1.9

All systems (Windows, macOS, Linux)

✅ Flatpak can reach the network: Check for Updates failed with "failed to lookup address information" in the Flatpak, whose sandbox had no network access.
✅ Close Project: File > Close Project now closes the project (after asking about unsaved changes) and leaves a new, empty one.
✅ Check for Updates on slow connections: the check now tries three times, 30 seconds each, before it reports a timeout.

✅ Several time signatures per song: Track > Show Signature Track. Double-click to add a change at a bar, double-click a block to set it, drag it to another bar, right-click to delete it. The ruler, the grids, the Piano Roll, the Event list, the display and recording follow every change, and so does the engine (the metronome accents each bar). The display shows the signature at the playhead and edits it.
✅ Fade tool and crossfades: the Fade Tool in the tool menu: drag the left half of an audio region for a fade in, the right half for a fade out. Drag: X-Fade (or the Inspector's X-Fade box) crossfades a region with the audio region it overlaps.
✅ VCA tracks: Track > New VCA Track. A VCA moves the level of the tracks you give it in their Group slot, and its Mute and Solo reach them too.
✅ External MIDI tracks: Track > New External MIDI Track. Pick a MIDI port and channel in the Inspector and the track's regions, and notes you play, go out to your synthesizer.
✅ MP3 and CAF audio: drag them onto the window like WAV, AIFF and FLAC.
✅ 1000 tracks: the engine plays 1000 tracks (1000 audio tracks streamed for 20 seconds with no dropouts on the test PC), and the interface stays quick with them.
✅ Lower delay on Windows: about 12 ms instead of 32 ms between Pro Wave and the speakers on the test PC (a sound card driver with smaller buffers can do better). If it cannot be used Pro Wave falls back to the old way by itself.
✅ Smoother meters and playhead: the engine hands the playhead, the transport and every meter to the interface together, after each block of sound.
✅ Tempo curves: right-click a point of the Tempo track > Ramp to Next Tempo Change. The tempo moves in a straight line to the next point, and the engine follows it.
✅ SMPTE and MIDI Time Code: the time in the control bar follows every tempo change and curve; right-click it to pick the frame rate (24, 25, 29.97, 29.97 drop frame, 30), the start time, a MIDI port to send MIDI Time Code to, or a port to follow it from (the transport starts, jumps and stops with it).
✅ Pattern regions and Drummer regions: Track > New Pattern Region and New Drummer Region (or double-click an empty stretch of a Drummer track). A pattern is a grid of steps with a velocity each; a Drummer plays Rock, Pop, Funk, Jazz, Hip Hop or Electronic, busier or calmer and louder or softer as you drag its pad, with fills and variations. Convert to MIDI Region makes them editable note by note.
✅ Memory-mapped audio files: WAV and AIFF files are read straight from memory (the same samples as before). 1000 tracks take about a fifth less memory of their own.
✅ Step Sequencer extras: each step of a pattern can have a Chance, a Repeat count and a Tie, and the pattern plays Forward, Backward, Ping-Pong or Random. The Edit box above the grid picks what a click sets.
✅ MIDI files: File > Import > MIDI File… (or drop a .mid on the window) and File > Export > Selection as MIDI File…. The tempo changes and signatures go along.
✅ MIDI FX: Track > MIDI FX…: Transposer, Velocity Processor, Scale Quantizer, Chord Trigger, Note Repeater, Arpeggiator, Randomizer, Modulator and Scripter, in a chain on the selected track.
✅ Modulator: a sine, triangle, saw or square wave (its cycle in beats or bars, its depth) that moves a MIDI controller (any number, or pitch bend) of an External MIDI track while the song plays.
✅ Scripter: write the processing of the notes yourself in a small script (Rhai). The script is checked as you type, runs in a sandbox and stops if it takes too long.
✅ MIDI Transform: Functions > MIDI Transform… in the Piano Roll: pick the notes (all of them, or by pitch, velocity, position or length) and what to do to them (transpose, set or add velocity, shift, change length, scale, randomize). Presets: Transpose, Fixed Velocity, Legato, Humanize and more.
✅ Sustain pedal and controllers to your synthesizer: the pedal of a MIDI region, and the Modulator, now go out to External MIDI tracks (and are let up when you stop).
✅ Score: the Score tab of the editor shows a MIDI region as notation, with the treble and bass clefs, the key signature (pick the key at the top; minor keys too), the time signature, accidentals that last to the end of the bar, rests, and ties for notes that cross a bar line or are not one note value long. Click to add a note (in the key), right-click a note to delete it.

✅ Safer with odd files and devices: a MIDI file with a huge number of notes, tempo changes or tracks, or with times far past the end of a song, no longer slows Pro Wave down or breaks it (files over 128 MB are refused), very long pattern regions and MIDI FX chains stop at a size limit instead of using all the memory, and a MIDI device that floods a port can no longer fill the memory. The interface does less work each frame for pattern and Drummer regions, the Score and the Tempo track.
✅ Tested with the pointer: the Pattern grid, the Drummer pad, the Score and the MIDI FX window are now tried in automatic tests that click, drag and right-click like a person would.

Still to do or test

❌ Several signatures: the Event list's Signature tab
❌ MIDI Time Code has not been tried with real hardware; MIDI Machine Control is not there
❌ Drummer regions: following a Groove Track
❌ Score: beams, voices, chord symbols, printing and MusicXML; MIDI files: program changes, pitch bend and other controllers
❌ External MIDI with a real synthesizer (checked with automated tests only), MIDI clock and program changes
❌ VCA tracks: automation, and a VCA for the Master
❌ Crossfades: a region wholly inside another, and No Overlap trimming
❌ ASIO (built, but no ASIO driver to try it with)

Downloads

System	File	How to install
Windows 10/11 x64	prowave-windows-x86_64.zip	Unzip, run prowave.exe
macOS (Apple Silicon + Intel)	prowave-macos-universal.zip	Unzip, move Pro Wave.app to Applications (see below)
Debian, Ubuntu, Mint	prowave-studio_0.1.9_amd64.deb	sudo apt install ./prowave-studio_0.1.9_amd64.deb
Fedora, openSUSE, RHEL 9+	prowave-studio-0.1.9-1.x86_64.rpm	sudo dnf install ./prowave-studio-0.1.9-1.x86_64.rpm
Any Linux	Pro_Wave-0.1.9-x86_64.AppImage	chmod +x it and run it
Any Linux (sandboxed)	prowave-studio-0.1.9-x86_64.flatpak	flatpak install --user ./prowave-studio-0.1.9-x86_64.flatpak
Any Linux	prowave-linux-x86_64.tar.gz	Unpack, run ./prowave or ./install.sh

Linux packages need glibc 2.31 or newer (Ubuntu 20.04+, Debian 11+, Fedora 32+) and ALSA for sound. Details, required libraries and troubleshooting are in README.txt inside the tarball and in dist/README-linux.txt.

Not signed yet

None of the files is code signed, so your system will warn before running them:

• Windows: SmartScreen shows "Windows protected your PC". Choose More info, then Run anyway.
• Windows antivirus: Norton, Avast, AVG or McAfee may block the unsigned prowave.exe with "Windows cannot access the specified device, path or file". Add the Pro Wave folder to the antivirus's exclusions (Norton: Settings > Antivirus > Scans and Risks > Items to Exclude from Auto-Protect, Script Control, SONAR and Download Intelligence Detection).
• macOS: the app is ad-hoc signed but not notarized. The first time, right-click Pro Wave.app, choose Open, then Open again. If macOS says the app is damaged, run xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine "/Applications/Pro Wave.app".

How well tested is it?

Windows is the developer's daily platform. The Linux and macOS packages were built and install-checked on GitHub's build servers (Ubuntu and Fedora installs, and a 15-second launch under a virtual display on Linux), but have not yet been run on real Linux or macOS hardware. Please report what works and what doesn't.

Licensed under the GNU General Public License v3 or later.