MuTools has introduced MuLab 6 – the latest version of its music production studio for Windows and Mac.

According to MuTools, “MuLab 6.0 features an enhanced look and feel and a rich collection of new and improved features throughout the app that all together seriously increase the creativity, comfort and productivity of MuLab.”

Here’s a look at recording audio in MuLab 6:

This video looks at slicing drumloops in MuLab 6:

Here’s what’s new in MuLab 6:

Session

• Docked part editors that auto-follow the focused track.
• Direct buttons for showing/hiding the browser, mixing desk and session modular area.
• New “Export Consolidated Session” function for making a complete session folder for export to another system.
• New “Export Tracks As Audio Files” function which exports each main track as a separate audio file.
• All rendering-to-audio functions can now be interrupted by pressing ESC.

Composer

• Audio parts now give you full control over the fade-in and fade-out curves and show these curves on the audio data.
• Audio parts: When changing the gain or stereo pan in the part property panel, this is applied to all selected audio parts.
• Sequence parts: When changing the transpose or velocity in the part property panel, this is applied to all selected sequence parts.
• New “Add New MuSampla Track” function.
• New “Insert Time Slice” and “Delete Time Slice” functions.
• New “Select Similar Sequence Parts” function.

• New “Increase Tempo”, “Decrease Tempo”, “Half Tempo” and “Double Tempo” shortcut functions.

Part Editors

• Sequence editor now has two tools: The standard arrow tool (cfr M5) and the pencil tool which makes it easier to quickly insert and delete notes with a single click.
• Sequence editor now has an event property panel for quickly changing the (selected) event values in an alternative way. With optimized undo/redo support so to avoid redundant undo/redo steps!
• New “Transpose -1”, “Transpose +1”, “Transpose -12”, “Transpose +12” sequence shortcut functions.
• Envelope editor now has an envelope point property panel, similar to the event property panel in the sequence editor.
• Audio-, sequence- and automation editors now much more clearly indicate the active/inactive region.
• Improved Event List Editor: Better layout + events that are outside the actual play region are grayed
• Event Graph Editor: Support for individual note keys, which is handy to select the velocities of a certain key.

MUX Modular

• New MuSampla version 2.
• Improved MuDrum:
• Improved mix-racks.
  • MuDrum sampler plug-in slots now also have an explicit On/Off button.
  • MuDrum: Pad editor is switched also when playing the pads.
• MultiSampla now has 4 stereo outputs so you can route specific zones to a separate output
• Modular Feedback Delay now has a “Invert Feedback” switch.
• Rack slots and module buttons now include a process on/off switch.
• Multi-sample editor: Zone editor now integrated as a docked sub-editor.
• Added support for note key names e.g. for when a target module defines C3 as “Kick”, D3 as “Snare” etc
• All embedded sample displays (e.g. in MuSampla and in the multi-sample zones) are fully functional now.
• New “Focus Previous Rack” and “Focus Next Rack” shortcut functions.
• These functions make it possible to also use MuLab as a stage rack with a bunch of preset racks that can be selected via MIDI.

Misc

• Improved curve editing: Curve edit fields (e.g. in the Audio Balancers) now support direct editing i.e. (alt+) drag up/down to change the curve without having to open the curve editor. Opening the curve editor is done via double-click. Plus other detailed improvements wrt curve editing.
• Improved and extended browser functionality.
• Added support for saving/reloading the sample markers near the source sample file.
• Optimized audio engine which should result in less drop-outs when high CPU load on certain systems.
• Many more preferences so to tune MuLab to your flavor.
• Improved look and feel.
• Improved factory library.
• Many more improvements which all together make a big difference. See below.

More

• Added support for a factory Start.MuSession which is opened and auto played on initial startup.
• Support for a ‘Focused Track’.
• “Add Automation Sub-Track” now also includes Controllers, Pitchbend and Aftertouch.
• MultiSampla now also has a Pitch Bend Range control.
• All sample editors: The marker displays now include a previous+next marker button.
• Right-click on MIDI Focus Module Panel Keyboard (top-right) also includes the “Auto MIDI Input Focus” selector function. (= on / off)
• When moving the vertical column dividers in the event list editor, the display was not properly redrawn. Fixed.
• When editing a value and you can select the value via a popup list, then the current value now is clearly indicated.
• The left sides of audio- sequence- and envelope-editors all have the same width now in all cases. That makes it easier to align editors.
• Audio parts now each memorize their own editor position + zoom.
• Fixed a problem when dropping a MuClip on the sequence editor.
• When adding racks while the music is playing could result in hanging notes. Fixed.
• Event Graph Editor: When drawing a line to draw/edit a curve, the line color was always black even on dark backgrounds. Tuned.
• Event graph editor: Fixed a problem with selecting velocity beams in certain specific cases.
• When double-clicking envelope points, the popup editor didn’t take the part start time into account. Fixed.
• A single click on an envelope point does not create an undo step anymore, as that was a redundant undo step.
• Sequence editor takes some extra space at the right into account so to easily manage any markers (e.g. loop-end) at the end of the sequence.
• “Auto Collapse/Expand Racks” now is a standard context function and not only accessible via shortcut and right-click on the collapse/expand rack button, but also via right-click on mixing desk background.
• When focusing modules (e.g. racks), also the modular area reflects that by solo-selecting the focused module.
• When switching presets for rack slot modules, in certain situations the rack was not properly updated. Fixed.
• Fixed a problem with the User/Settings sub-folder after having manually deleted the User folder as a kind of setup reset.
• Improved new recording placement.
• Enhanced interaction between the Step Recorder and the Sequence Editor.
• VST plugins: When clicking the editor top name display, that popup list will now highlight the current VST program.
• Preference names now includes spaces and dashes so to be more readable.
• Mixdown Audio split into “Export Composition As Audio File” + “Render Selected Parts As New Sample”.
• Fixed a play bug when looping the composition that caused that certain notes (the ones crossing the part’s end) were played upon loop while they should not be played.
• When splitting a unique sequence part and the “Standard Copy Part Is Shared Copy” preference is 1 (= yes = true) then the split will use shared sequences.
• Ensured that the preferences window never needs horizontal scrolling to read the description.
• The “External Audio Editor” setting has been moved to the Preferences.
• Optimized composer part management.
• Importing MP3 audio files now is interruptible by pressing ESC.
• Fixed a nasty crash bug when copy-pasting a MUX device (e.g. MuSynth) inter-session when such MUX device was using samples as well as using effects in the device FX slots.
• When using “Save Preset”, “Save Preset As” and “Delete Preset”, the browser now is automatically refreshed.
• When recording parts and the part is put on a collapsed track then that track is automatically made visible.
• Editors: Shift+click-without-drag on background = select none.
• New “Upgrade MuClips” function.
• When importing an audio file or sample loop, now the resulting part is put at a better position.
• VST plugins’ “Show Initial Delay” function replaced by “Show Info” which shows more info, including the Initial Delay.
• Browser now memorizes tree list state in between changing ‘What’.
• Browser: Auto Play button moved at left of progress bar + auto play controls are hidden if not applicable to current “What”.
• Shortcut manager: Explicit “Add” button.
• Audio editor now includes a little display that shows the current cursor time.
• Audio editor time bar now shows minutes+seconds instead of frames.
• Changing the pre/post switch could result in a lot of audio clicks while dragging the pre/post indicator. Tuned.
• More visible log details when scanning VST plug-ins.
• When the user settings can’t be saved, an alert box is shown which optionally also opens the relevant doc file.
• Saving color presets now uses a more simple name dialog instead of a full featured file browser. This avoids that color preset files are saved on a irrelevant place.
• “Main Editor Grid Contrast” and “Piano Key Lanes Contrast” preferences moved from Edit Looks to Edit Preferences.
• Browser: “Where” field now shows a tool tip when the text is not fully visible.
• Clicking the timebar in the automation envelope editor now snaps the new play position to the selected grid.
• When there are tracks with no target module, then moving the play position could result in unexpected controller/parameter changes. Fixed.
• Floating windows bar now always shows the option button so that you can close the bar if it’s not needed anymore.
• Inserting/removing a modular input/output did not redraw the parent MUX modular area. Fixed.
• You can now also drag-drop audio files on the [+] track button which will add new audio/sample tracks.
• Fixed an issue when dropping multiple audio files onto the composer.
• Oscillator: Octave, Transpose and Fine Tune are now indicated as bipolar parameters.
• ADSR: If it’s about a bipolar ADSR then all level parameters are now indicated as bipolar parameters.
• ADSR + Multi-Point Envelope: Velocity Sense is indicated as a bipolar parameter.
• Multi-sample editor: Several other improvements.
• Text string displays: Initial auto select all.
• Text string displays: Cursor only visible when focused.
• Step recorder fields are more aligned.
• Fixed a bug with resetting the MUX preset file cache.
• Fixed a bug wrt tooltips while dragging knobs and sliders.
• By default the UI focus box is not drawn anymore. It’s still a preference, only the very default has changed.
• Removed the DoubleClickDeltaTime preference. Now the double-click delta time preference of the OS is used.
• It was possible to accidentally create feedback loops in the modular area. Fixed.
• Optimized context menus.
• MUX “Deep Editor” renamed to “Modular Area”.
• Term “Locator” renamed to “Marker”.
• “Edit Looks” renamed to “Edit Colors” and extended that dialog. It also includes all device colors now.
• All Mu files will be a bit smaller in size.
• Fixed a rare bug which could result in unexpected note lengths when the composition loops from loop-end to loop-start.
• Fixed a rare bug in the sequencer engine that could cause audio clicks under high CPU pressure, or even rare crashes.
• Fixed a samplerate problem when rendering a sample from the selected parts.

See the MuTools site for details.