subject: Ecasound 2.9.0 released

1. Summary of changes in this release
-------------------------------------

Support for LV2 plugins has been added. Commands for controlling bypass
on a chain operator basis have been added. Dozens of bugs have been 
fixed.

2. What is Ecasound?
--------------------

Ecasound is a software package designed for multitrack audio processing.
It can be used for simple tasks like audio playback, recording and format
conversions, as well as for multitrack effect processing, mixing,
recording and signal recycling. Ecasound supports a wide range of audio
inputs, outputs and effect algorithms. Effects and audio objects can be
combined in various ways, and their parameters can be controlled by
operator objects like oscillators and MIDI-CCs. A versatile console mode
user-interface is included in the package.

Primary platform for running Ecasound is GNU/Linux. Ecasound can also be
run on many UNIX-derived systems such as FreeBSD, Mac OS X and Solaris.
Limited support for Windows is available through Cygwin. Ecasound is
licensed under the GPL. The Ecasound Control Interface (ECI) is licensed
under the LGPL.

3. Changes in 2.9.x series
--------------------------

* Thanks to Jeremy Salwen, Ecasound now supports LV2 plugins!
  See http://eca.cx/ecasound/Documentation/examples.html#lv2 for
  simple usage information.

* New commands: cop-bypass, cop-is-bypassed, stop-sync, c-is-muted,
  c-is-bypassed

* Chain operator state is now flushed when position is changed with
  a seek. Previously Ecasound effects worked like their analogue 
  counterparts, and e.g. a delay operator would not flush its internal
  delay line when a seek was performed.

* Various minor bug fixes, see NEWS file and git history.

Full list of changes is available at:
 - http://www.eca.cx/ecasound/history.php

4. Interface and configuration file changes in 2.9 series
---------------------------------------------------------

* New params to c-bypass and c-mute
  - 'c-mute on' -> set mute on
  - 'c-mute toggle' -> old behaviour, toggle existing setting
  - 'c-mute' -> old behaviour as well
  - 'c-is-muted' -> returns current state

  And same applies to 'c-bypass'.

* 'cop-remove' and 'ctrl-remove' cannot be used on a connected
  chainsetup anymore.

* Python C implementation of the ECI (Ecasound Control Interface) now
  deprecated. The Python ECI implementation is still available, 
  and has been updated to work with more recent versions of Python. 

* RPM packaging files (ecasound.spec) have been removed from git
  and tarball releases due. They've not been maintained since 2006
  and serve no practical purpose anymore.

5. Contributors to 2.9 series
-----------------------------

Patches - Accepted code, documentation and build system changes
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Extracted with 'git-shortlog -s':

v2.9.0:
     2  Alessandro Ghedini
     1  Jeremy Salwen
    79  Kai Vehmanen
     1  S. Massy
     1  Slack

Bug Hunting - Reports that led to bugfixes (items closed)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

v2.9.0
   * S.Massy (5)
      LV2 cop-describe, -evp extraneous params, -et bug,
      regression with -z:db, start+edit race with JACK
   * Joel Roth (1)
      engine starts by itself
   * Svilen Dobrev (1)
      proper handling of commas in resample, reverse et al
   * Jeremy Salwen (1)
      bug in LADSPA param descriptions
   * Rocco / linuxmedia4 (1)
      saving JACK object params with cs-save/cs-edit

Feature suggestions - Ideas that led to new features (items)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

v2.9.0
  * all you folks you've been asking for LV2 :)
      LV2 support, finally added thanks to Jeremy Salwen!
  * Adam Linson (1)
      c-is-muted, this was requested in 2003, so took just
      9 (nine!) years to deliver this one :P

6. Links and files
------------------
   
Web site (and mirrors):
        http://eca.cx/ecasound (fi)
        http://ecasound.seul.org (us)
        http://ecasound.sourceforge.net (us)

Source package:
        http://eca.cx/ecasound/download.php     
        ecasound-2.9.0.tar.gz, md5sum:
        05e7d4664cdf4c7a138c098e9506a551

List of distributions with maintained Ecasound support:
        See http://eca.cx/ecasound/download.php

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