Metro 6.3 pre-release

[Jerm]

Upgrades from 6.2 are free. All new purchases include access to this version. There is an upgrade price of $29.99 to upgrade any flavor of Metro from 6.x to 6.3.

Download it here:
http://sagantech.biz/downloads.htm

IMPORTANT: The official system requirements have changed as of 6.1.

IMPORTANT: Metro Documents written with this version will NOT be readable in any version prior to Metro/Metro SE version 6.3!

IMPORTANT: This pre-release (Metro and Metro SE) still works under OS 9 but we are no longer providing Tech support for OS 9.

IMPORTANT: This is a pre-release, meaning it has some bug fixes (and possibly features) that were deemed important enough to be released before it could be rigorously tested.

We want our software to be bug free. If you find any bugs please report them here.

The following list includes changes to Metro, Metro SE and Metro LX. Some changes may not be applicable to specific products.

New to this version:
• New: Improved Tiger compatibility.
• New: Archive menu has been changed to 'Track Operations' which now includes Freeze, Group Freeze, Thaw, Group and Ungroup Tracks.
• New: Freeze, Group Freeze, and Thaw. Freeze converts soft-synth (or audio) tracks and all of their automation into a single audio track and groups the original tracks. Freeze converts each soft-synth (or audio) track and all of their automation into a single audio track. Tracks are saved with a .frz extension.
All of these functions automatically set or clear the bypass switch for plug-ins installed on an aux buss based on whether on not the plug-in has any references.
The freeze functions can dramatically improve processor usage.
The group freeze function will destroy any individual track loops so users should expand loops to the appropriate length before using!
• New: Prior to 6.3, MIX was rendering all soft-synths regardless of selection! After 6.3 only selected tracks will be included in the mix. This makes it more consistent with audio tracks.
• New: Playback Scrolling option called edit mode. When in edit mode windows will not change pages. This make it much easier to perform real time edits.
• New: Chord progressions. Progressions can be managed with the library functions save, delete and insert.
• New: Ultra Rhythm Explorer™. This updated Rhythm Explorer will automatically create amazingly intelligent drum beats, bass lines and guitar rhythms. It also has the ability to insert notes, record multiple patterns to a track and even insert a random chord progression from your chord progression library.
Details on how to use it are forthcoming. Rhythm Explorer preferences are now automatically saved and restored (full version only).
• New: Group Tracks.
• New: Chord names are automatically parsed while typing in markers.
• New: Marker times are now quantized based on the note quantization settings when created.
• New: Markers can now be copied from the marker window and pasted (or merged) from any data window.
• New: Core Audio Device output names to are now written to Metro documents. This allows Metro to put up the change ports dialog when a user tries to load a document with stale audio outputs.
• New: The 4 cue points are now saved in each section.
• New: The jukebox now converts files to MP3, MP4, Ogg, etc. in the order they are displayed in the jukebox window.
• New: Setting track loops no longer requires playback to be stopped first.
• New: Rewire support for publishing tempo and time signature to rewire slaves!
• New: Chord within Markers are now transposable.
• New: The tracks contextual popup has been expanded to include more items such as 'Track Operations', 'Mix or Render', 'Export track' and more.

• Fixed: serious hanging bug in 6.2.1.8 and greater. This would most likely only happen on dual processor systems during real-time editing.
• Fixed: Searching for VST plug-in presets under OS X is improved to search the standard preset folders (e.g User/Library/Audio/Presets).
• Fixed: Wait 4 note mode with audio or soft-synths was not always working 100%. In some rare cases could cause a crash.
• Fixed: A problem whereby tracks would render even though they were not selected for mix/render audio tracks.
• Fixed: A problem with automation enabling a muted track.
• Fixed: Double clicking on a drum track in the tracks window not correctly selects drum view in the graphic editor.
• Fixed: Core Audio device output ports will now correctly show brackets when they cannot be found.
• Fixed: This version automatically updates GM drum set to fix some assignments (important for the new Rhythm explorer).
• Fixed: This version automatically updates the chord library to fix some chord definitions (important for chord progressions).
• Fixed: the track number is no longer italicized in the title bar of the graphic editor when a track is archived.
• Fixed: A better job configuring Audio Unit plug-ins inputs and outputs.
• Fixed: Undo now remembers the state of plug-ins bypass button.
• Fixed: editor windows on aux busses no longer get erroneously and unexpectedly hidden.
• Fixed: In some unusual cases, it was possible that a note event would be sent to a soft-synth at a slightly wrong time.
• Fixed: In some unusual cases, it was possible that a note event sent to a soft-synth would get stuck on during a cue-loop.
• Fixed: In some cases, the play back bar would be out of sync with the sound.
• Fixed: A Realtime edit action could, in rare circumstance cause a crash.
• Fixed: in the offline effects edit dialog box, the calculated number of milliseconds was rounded off incorrectly. This field is now accurate to 2 decimal points.
• Fixed: Chord entry method 'Keep same tones' has been completely rewritten and produces far superior results.
• Fixed: There was a bug that caused Metro to not send events to certain plug-ins (e.g camel audio's sweet plug-ins CamelPhat and CamelSpace).
• Fixed: Expand by subsections was not working correctly if the track that contained the subsections was looped. Also the subsection's track length was not being maintained properly.
• Fixed: The selected slots in the graphic editors Multi-Track display is now saved with the section.
• Fixed: 'Save As Copy' should NOT have been setting the default path for audio files.
• Fixed: Miscellaneous cosmetic enhancements.
• Fixed: Clicking on the vertical keyboard when a track was not assigned to a Metro output sometimes did not respect the channel setting.
• Fixed: The first roll of the Mouse Wheel would sometimes affect the wrong pane in the graphic editor.
• Fixed: Selecting all in the jukebox was selecting items that were not currently visible.
• Fixed: It was possible that the graphic editor would show some tracks in a view that was never selected (note, controller, drum, etc.).
• Fixed: Metro now does not de-select other graphic editor track panes/slots if a right-click is in a selected pane.
• Fixed: Miscellaneous issues with pasting.
• Fixed: A workaround for some soft-synth plug-ins (ST2) because it was not handling MIDI controller events properly when mixing or rendering.
• Fixed: The jukebox now updates the length of the tune upon playback.
• Fixed: Pasting grooves did not always work properly.
• Fixed: Parsing aiff file which contained pictures was not working properly.
• Fixed: Automation on soft-synths assigned to aux buss would move to the wrong time when the tempo was changed in certain circumstances.
• Fixed: Remote control can now select sections greater that 255.
• Fixed: Remote control's return command was erroneously playing in some situations.
• Fixed: fixes a bug where once the first note in a chord is 8va it can never be reset!
• Fixed: Delete a chord/scale and Save chord/scale were broken in OS X.
• Fixed: When saving Rhythm Explorer presets, Metro now correctly defaults to the preset folder.
• Fixed: A minor problem with scale time has been corrected.
• Fixed: The metronome's audio output is set to the default audio device. Metro now resets the metronome's audio output at more appropriate times.
• Fixed: The time signature dialog wasn't always inserting the repeated partial time signature properly. Also the number of possible partial time signatures has been increased.
• Fixed: Transpose was not transposing across scales properly. For example if transposing from A major to A minor the 3rds were not always preserved.

[Adrian Delso]

Looks amazing. I'll give it a go today.

UPDATE:

It's now 14:32 GMT - the new build loaded smoothly, so I tried to break it by doing the things that caused it to hang/beachball/Force Quit/whatever for me under 6.2.

Clicking on Loop while an .aiff was playing was no longer a problem.
Clicking on Bar, typing in a number and hitting 'Enter' - ditto.
Clicking on Bar and trying to change the number by Click/Hold/Move - beachball, I'm afraid. (Using a Microsoft USB Wheel Mouse, btw.)

I am still using the demo, so perhaps a registered user ought to give it a go on a DP machine.

[sseaton]

Could you distribute ZIP files instead? Or possibly tell us what version of Stuffit Expander actually untsuffs the package? I constantly have trouble with Metro updates and Expander. I am running Tiger with the latest version of Expander, and I can't get the "Metro LX63.dmg.sit" to unstuff. Thanks.

[Jerm]

Sean,

LX is not distributed as a stuffit file. It is a dmg file that should automatically open on the desktop or you may need to use diskimagemounter. I don't understand how you got the .sit extension on the end of the file. Did Safari do that?

[Adrian Delso]

When I downloaded 6.3, I got a message inviting me to download the latest version of Stuffit Expander. Quite why, I couldn't understand!

[sseaton]

Yes. I downloaded the file using Safari. I thought it was quite strange to get both the dmg and sit extension.

[Jerm]

Did you try simply deleting the .sit extension from the name?

[Jerm]

Clicking on Bar and trying to change the number by Click/Hold/Move - beachball, I'm afraid. (Using a Microsoft USB Wheel Mouse, btw.)

The only way I could repeat this was if I looped a soft-synth track and set the number of bars to 0 while it was playing. Is this what you are doing?

[Jerm]

The only way I could repeat this was if I looped a soft-synth track and set the number of bars to 0 while it was playing.

This problem is fixed in 6.3.0.1

[Scoot]

The only way I could repeat this was if I looped a soft-synth track and set the number of bars to 0 while it was playing.

This problem is fixed in 6.3.0.1

Problem fixed or 0 bars no longer an option?
When you are dragging on the bar number it does have a tendancy to jump to 0.

[Adrian Delso]

What Scoot said, but with an audio file playing.

[almapercus]

About the download, I had no problem downloading LX 6.3 with Safari...

[Adrian Delso]

OK, I've actually bought Metro LX 6.3, but I'm now being asked for 'Name received in "Qualifying Metro" email' - which I haven't yet received! Oh, and clicking on the "?" for "Help", does nothing.

Bwah.

[Scoot]

Did you get a serial number upon purchase?

Not that I remember when the serial number comes (it was so long ago) but once you have it and you add in your name and email address as well, the qualifying name is sent via an email usually within a minute.


While qualifying you should get a response from the site saying it has been done and the name is coming within the next hour.
Does that bit occur?

[Jerm]

It sounds like your internet preferences are not set correctly. What OS are you using?