8.0.0

Release date:

Sun, 13 Sep 2026 08:37:52 +0300

New features:

• A filter section per oscillator in the Synth

  • Each VCO gets its own low pass with resonance and slope, and a high pass
  • The Mod EG and both LFOs can sweep any of the new corners
  • Every existing patch starts wide open, so nothing changes

• A fourth VCO, Instability and Drive in the Synth

  • VCO4 has its own waveform, octave, pitch, shape and sync, and is Pitch 4
    as a modulation target
  • Instability lets each oscillator wander on its own; Drive saturates the
    low pass from inside
  • All three start silent or at zero, so existing patches are unchanged

• Filter slopes on the synths, the Sampler and the Drum Synth

  • LPF and HPF run at 12 or 24 dB/oct, each with its own slope
  • Existing patches keep the slope they had

• Vibrato that arrives after the note

  • Delay and Fade on both LFOs of the Synth, FM Synth and Wavetable Synth
  • Both default to zero, so existing patches are unchanged

• Presets

  • For the Bass Synth, the Delay, the Auto Ducker and the EQ 8-Band
    Parametric, and ten more each for the Synth and the FM Synth
  • Save your own beside the built-in ones; they live in
    ~/.config/Noteahead/presets, one file each

• String & Voice V3

  • Ensemble reaches only the Human Voice section, as on the VC340
  • The Strings shimmer on their own with Ensemble off; V2 is unchanged

• Speech

  • A glottal source with Openness and Jitter, and Child, Deep and Breathy
    voices; Female is now brighter than Male, not darker
  • A Line trigger mode speaks a lyric one sentence per note
  • A lone capital is spelled out: "A M" is "ay em"

• Chain effects after a send effect

  • A Chain button on each send runs a rack on what that send returns, so a
    reverb can be EQ'd without the dry signal going through it

• IN and OUT meters per device in the Mixer

  • OUT reads Level in dBFS or Loudness in LUFS; click it to switch

• Curves and steeper cuts in the EQs

  • The EQ 8-Band Parametric and the Air Band EQ draw their response curves
  • The EQ 8's Low Cut and High Cut can run at 24 or 48 dB/oct

• The render report measures the mix's balance

  • Band levels read against the mix's own midrange, and notes on what they
    tend to sound like

• 96 bands in the RTA, and a faster display

  • Above 400 Hz the bars answer in 20-60 ms instead of 100-390, at half the
    CPU

Bug fixes:

• Oversampled renders keep their top end and mids

  • At 44.1 kHz every oversampled effect took 3.6 dB off 20 kHz
  • The Stereo Exciter, Tube Stage and Analog Fuzz combed at 2x and 4x

• The Stereo Exciter works at any level

  • Harmonics means the same at any level and adds only above Tune
  • Solo now plays only what it adds, at every oversampling factor
  • Projects that use it keep their settings but will sound brighter

• Side chains

  • Sources on send buses and in the master rack are no longer ignored
  • An insert follows its source even while its own device is silent
  • Removing a device stops driving what was side-chained to it

• Delays and tempo

  • Tempo-synced effects follow the song instead of a fixed 120 BPM
  • A delay on a send bus no longer swallows its own echoes
  • The Time knob shows the time the delay actually runs at
  • Copying a send effect brings its chain along

• EQs

  • Looking at a band's type no longer overwrites its Q
  • The EQ 8 dialog opens at the first band
  • The Air Band EQ's 2.5 kHz band is a bell, not a shelf; projects that use
    it will sound different up top

• The Synth's VCO4 answers Phase Sync

• Sampler

  • The offset fields keep following the pad after Return is pressed
  • A missing sample file no longer loses the whole project

• Speech

  • Several numbers, doubled consonants and unstressed vowels are read right
  • No click when a note is released, and no warble on a stressed syllable;
    existing projects keep their vibrato
  • Sibilance honours its default

• A device this version does not know survives a save

• Export metadata follows the song that is open

Other:

• Side-chain sources are listed by name

• The EQ's bands open at a Q that suits the type

  • A saved Q is never overwritten

• The Sampler embeds its samples by default

  • Existing projects keep the setting they were saved with

• The Air Band EQ is documented in the built-in manual