Dear Csounders,

 A major new version of Visual Orchestra (2.0a) has just been 
released for testing and evaluation by VisOrc Mailing list members. 
 This will hopefully help find any problems before a more general 
release.     If you don't know,  Visual Orchestra (VisOrc) is a 
graphical user interface (GUI) for  CSound musical running on a PC 
(Windows95/98 or NT4).   

If you're interested and not already on the list you can send mail to 
 with 'Subscibe VisOrc' in the 
MESSAGE BODY and can also take part.

 Once the beta testing is finished Visual Orchestra will be
released under a 30 working day trial gizmo (whereafter the software
can be 'unlocked' by a simple secure online purchase or by mailing 
a cheque).   Those of you who have already sent a donation and 
those who help significantly in the beta testing/bug reporting and 
discussion will receive the unlocked version at a special price.    
I've yet to decide on the final price (this is also open for debate..) 
but am thinking of $100 for a single licence with significant 
discounts for site licences.

Everyone likes free software and the decision to charge this for the 
new version was not taken lightly,    I hope that you will consider 
the new features and improvements in 2.0 justify a purchase.

 So what's changed and what's been improved?   On the surface,
the interface remains much the same and current users should have
little problem adjusting.  ORC editor interface improvements include
the ability to select and manipulate multiple units and outputs (you
can now select, connect,  delete,  line-up,  move,  copy, etc. any
number of units).   The unit editor has also been revamped,  with all 
of the functions incorporated into an 'explorer' like tree.    Most
importantly I think,  due to the internal changes,  speed and 
reliability have been boosted considerably and crashes are a lot 
less frequent (even in alpha).

 Gone is the MDB savefile and unit database format which has 
been used since version 1.6 and which was responsible for almost 
all of the bugs and some really messy code.   Project files are now 
saved in a scripted text format which is faster,  smaller and easier 
to maintain, it also encourages the development of third party tools 
to translate standard ORC/SCO's into VisOrc projects.

 The Sco editor is now much more closely linked in functionality
and appearance to the Orchestra (you switch a tab of the ORC 
editor to access the SCO eventlist,  another to maintain GEN 
routines and another to compile),  however in all other respects the 
SCO contains the same powerful database functionality as 1.957.  
Compile sets, which were also introduced in 1.957 have been 
replaced by saveable text format files (consider them similar to a C 
makefile) in which you can maintain different settings for different 
CSound versions,  sample rate settings, day of the week,   etc....

 There aren't so many options and 'quirky' parts of the program.
A proper, customizable toolbar is a considerable improvement on 
both the appearance and functionality of the main interface while the
Unit-Editor is also moveable (not just hideable).   You'll see less
bizarre dialogs and the overall window appearance has been
standardised.    MIDI Input and Output has been removed to 
streamline the program (although the MIDI units are still available).  
Sliders and Implants will also not be implemented in the initial 
release, they were of limited use and I'd rather work on an 
'Generator' style 'panel interface' for RT control.  

 You can store and retreive individual instrument 'Snapshots',  a
*very* useful feature and one that (as far as I'm aware) has never
been a viable,  hassle free option in CSound before.    This also 
owes a lot to Generator (http://native-instruments.com) among 
others,  Csounder's can now name & save their synthesizer 
presets for instant retrieval too.

Much more to tell but its no doubt best to let you see and test it for
yourself,  I hope that this has whet your appetite a little :)

Comment's and Questions about this mail would be greatly 
appreciated, Bugs and problems also (but less ;)

Best Wishes and Happy Csounding,

David Perry


What is VisOrc?  go to http://cornelius.dhs.org/dave/ for more info.
Dave Perry
2e Fase MT (MPhil Music)
Perry@student-kmt.hku.nl
D.W.Perry@fibre.a2000.nl