LMMS releases 1.3.0-alpha.2, bringing the long-awaited DAW's update closer to stable

The LMMS development team has released 1.3.0-alpha.2, a new preview build on the road to the long-awaited 1.3.0 stable version. Following 1.3.0-alpha.1, which shipped back in 2021, the new release marks continued momentum on the development branch. While it is not the stable 1.3.0 release just yet, the project notes that it is considerably more polished than the typical nightly build, and recommends that most users opt for this alpha over the nightlies.

Much of the groundwork was laid earlier this year. As covered in the project's monthly progress reports, a feature freeze was enacted in May to prepare for the release, a move the team describes as highly successful, giving developers room to slow down and concentrate on squashing bugs old and new, along with performance issues that could otherwise have hurt the quality of the release. During this period, the team made 59 commits, addressing bugs tied to the new detachable windows feature, several crashes, and a handful of irritating UI glitches. Performance also got attention, with improvements to mix sanitization and to the song editor's behavior while scrolling, auto-scrolling, zooming, and moving clips around.

The release is substantial in scope: alongside hundreds of bug fixes, users get 8 new native plugins, ARM64 builds, and a long list of headline features. Among the major additions are detachable windows, microtonal alternative tunings with custom keyboard mappings, native LinuxVST support, a Tap Tempo tool, and a suite of new effects and instruments, including the Dispersion, SlewDistortion, Granular Pitch Shifter, Frequency Shifter, and SlewDistortion effects, the SlicerT slicer, the LOMM multiband compressor, and an Oscilloscope plugin. Workflow improvements round out the package, from pitch bending directly in the piano roll to clip splitting and resizing, workspace panning by dragging with the mouse, and countless smaller quality-of-life tweaks. With feature development now behind it, the release moves the project a significant step closer to the 1.3.0 stable milestone.