The next beta is now available on the registered users pages. There are quite a few goodies in this one. Here are the highlights…

• new feature: tap.applescript is no longer copy protected. It will work after the demo expires, and will work in standalones without a ‘pro’ license
• fixed bug in the Tap.Tools Builder extra that caused some resources to not be properly copied into the standalone application
• problem with copying and pasting registration numbers for authorization should have been fixed by the Max 5.0.2 release
• Misc bugs fixed in tap.decay_calc
• Max 5 version of the tap.windowdrag object is now present (both platforms)
• New tap.filter~ object is now present (the help file still stinks, but the inspector is cool :-)
• Fixed crashes in tap.phasor~ (old bug from Tap.Tools 2)
• Fixed problems where tap.limi~ didn’t actually limit the signal
• Fixed crashes in tap.pulsesub~ (old bug from Tap.Tools 2)
• The tap.adapt~ object no longer posts spurious (and harmless) messages to the Max window * Fixed crash in tap.delay~ (bug from Tap.Tools 2) when setting the delay time higher than the buffer size.
• Added the “T” key command when patching, creates a new object box with “tap.” already entered.
• All objects: the colored ring around the inlet where the mouse is hovering is now colored blue if the inlet is cold (doesn’t trigger output).
• All objects: the inspectors now have switches where an attribute is toggle, or menus where the attribute is one of a list of choices

Known Issues:

• reference pages and help patchers still need a lot of work
• software update does not work on Windows Vista due to permissions problems

The Software Update problem on Vista probably will not be solved for the actual release (if ever). That means that the only thing left on the known issues list is documentation, and the coding part of Tap.Tools 3 is “done”. So if anyone spots bugs, we need to know about it!

A new beta has been released for the Mac. No new beta is needed for Windows, as it was spared by these Mac-only problems (just like yesterday’s beta 3).

The changes fix problems with instantiation on different combinations of OS version and CPU architecture. The tap.svn object in this beta will not instantiate in OS 10.4, but that has already been fixed for whenever the next beta will be. Probably in about a week.

Beta 2 of Tap.Tools 3 is now available on the registered users pages. Here are the highlights…

Bug Fixes and Improvements

• tap.jit.kernel can be instantiated correctly
• fixed the broken backwards-compatibility alias for tap.lp-comb -> tap.comb
• installing Tap.Tools 3 no longer uninstalls Tap.Tools 2, and vice-versa on the Mac
• installer properly places supporting libraries in /Library/Application Support on the Mac instead of in /opt
• tap.dcblock~ and tap.overdrive~ now work properly on Windows (fixed crashes)
• fixed outlet assistance for tap.sieve
• tap.gang can now be instantiated successfully
• miscellaneous fixes to tap.applescript
• some improvements to documentation
• fixed software update and tap.svn problems reported by several people
• minor permissions fix on the Mac
• updated tap.plug.multiparam for Max 5
• various stability and efficiency improvements
• fixed bogus font errors when using the included JSUI widgets

Remaining Known Issues

• tap.limi~ does not process audio correctly
• tap.windowdrag does not instantiate
• tap.filter~ does not instantiate
• reference pages and help patchers still need work
• software update does not work on Windows Vista due to permissions problems
• registration numbers must be entered manually (copying and pasting does not work from an email client in Max’s textedit object as of Max 5.0.1)

Tap.Tools 3 is going to be download-only. No more shipping physical CDs.

Tap.Tools has been available on CD for an extra charge for 8 years. The extra charge was to try and justify all of the extra time and energy it took to make and ship CDs—time that was diverted away from improving the software.

It was also frustrating because by the time a CD would be received in the mail, the software would have a newer update on the website—so users would just have to download the update anyway.

More recently we’ve been thinking about what happens to those CDs. They get thrown out eventually. And the cases too. The ink that’s on them. The petroleum that is used to make them. The electricity. The fuel to ship them. It seems more and more environmentally irresponsible to offer physical CDs.

So they are gone. Tap.Tools 3 is going to be download only. Please enjoy the cleaner air…

The Tap.Tools 3 beta is coming along. We should have a second beta installer ready this coming weekend to resolve a number of problems reported in the first beta.

Within the next week we will starting to update the electrotap.com website.

All users who purchased the registration for their copies of Tap.Tools after October 1, 2007 will receive a free update to Tap.Tools 3. Emails to this effect, complete with updated registration info will be going out in the next few days.

For all other users the upgrade price from Tap.Tools 2 will be $21 for Artist licenses and $34 for Pro licenses. The pricing for brand new copies will remain the same: $65 for an artist license and $99 for a Pro license, respectively.

At today’s exchange rate that means an artist upgrade is less than 14€. That’s a pretty good deal for the folks in Europe :-).

Tap.Tools 3 is getting close, so I thought I would provide some details on what can be expected in the initial Tap.Tools 3 release.

Software Update

Tap.Tools 3 features a new Software Update that will fetch any new features or fixes from the services whenever you ask it to. This means that fixes will be available immediately, instead of waiting for enough fixes to accumulate to justify building a whole new installer.

Max 5 Integration

Tap.Tools 3 doesn’t just work with Max 5, but actually integrates it’s wealth of new features. This includes the new inspector styles, searchable documentation system, file browser tagging, double-clickable Max window posts, and new file formats.

New Audio Infrastructure

Internally, Tap.Tools 3 is transitioning to a new audio infrastructure. This uses 64-bits to pass audio signals internally, and also allows for more dynamic channel specification. The result is better sound quality and new multichannel capabilities for many objects.

Simplification

Tap.Tools still supports a lot of objects that aren’t as useful now as they used to be. Nearly half of the objects pre-date Max 4.0 (let alone 5.0)! Objects like atoi and itoa have replaced the need for tap.ascii. The tap.ascii object still exists for backwards compatibility, but it’s hidden and won’t confuse you when using Max’s autocompletion or filebrowser. The same is true of many other objects.

New Objects

While the emphasis has been on infrastructure, no new version would be complete without a few new objects.

• tap.filter~ encapsulates many different kinds of filters, which may be freely switched on the fly.
• tap.filecontainer lets you create custom file formats that bundle together many files into a single file.
• tap.folder performs operations such as creating, deleting, copying, etc. folders in the filesystem.
• tap.svn subversion source control management client (see http://collab.net/subversion/) for more information.

Lots of Little Things

We won’t bore you with all of the details, but a lot of things have happened on a less grandiose scale. For example:

• tap.applescript rewritten from scratch to be much more reliable and flexible. It has a new script method for specifying scripts on the fly.
• tap.windowdrag re-written to be Max 5-savvy and is also now available on Windows.
• New documentation provided as screencast movies to show how to do things.
• Various optimizations, including improved object load time performance
• New feature that guarantees Max will load the correct version of an object, and not find old/conflicting versions the object(s) in your searchpath.
• Tap.Tools Builder assistant for making it easier to create standalone applications with Tap.Tools.

I spent quite a bit of time working on the first of several screencasts for Tap.Tools 3 tonight. Some of the Tap.Tools 3 documentation will be in video format. I’m not sure how much yet.

I was surprised by how hard it is to do it well! While the result is probably acceptable, I feel like I ended up sounding like Mr. Rogers introducing one of Max 5’s neighbors.

I now have a lot more respect for people who do this stuff really well.

• can create new folders
• can delete folders
• can copy files or folders
• (at least on the Mac) can unzip zip archives into a folder

This object is also used by the new software update feature in Tap.Tools 3.

One of the features of Tap.Tools 3 on the Mac is an all new tap.applescript object—rewritten from the ground up.

In this screenshot you can see one of the new features: you can specify a complete script as a message, and then run it by sending a bang.

Tap.Tools 3. I’ve mentioned it before in tentative terms, or in personal conversations, but I’ve been mostly tight-lipped about it here on the blog. It’s been on the burner for a while though, and the parts are starting to come together.

The Overview

I’m just going to give a broad impression for the time-being, but more information will be dribbling out as we get closer to a release.

The big re-write… (including 64-bits)

The whole set of objects is being re-written in Objective-C. Much of this information has been posted to this blog. The Objective-C framework will be released under an open source license. The objects will be released under a similar license to what is currently in use for Tap.Tools 2.

Writing the object’s in Objective-C provides access to greater functionality in the Max objects—particularly on the Mac, but also on Windows. Code written in Objective-C also has the benefit of being automatically promoted to run as 64-bit under MacOS 10.5 Leopard.

Max 5 Integration

Tap.Tools 3 will largely be focused on integrating seemlessly with Max 5. It will include extensive documentation pages (which don’t currently exist in Tap.Tools 2), re-written help patches, strong use of Max 5’s metadata tagging, and various other features. Tap.Tools 3 will require Max 5. Once people use Max 5, I don’t think this will be an issue.

New Objects, Less Objects

Yes, there will new objects. More information on them will appear at a later time. There is also a notion of “less objects”. While the existing objects will still work, new higher-level objects will begin to combine many of the Tap.Tools externals.

This means that there could actually be fewer objects, but more functionality. For example, the current release of Tap.Tools has at least 5 different lowpass filters in it. They will all be combined into a single object, and then you can choose the filter as an attribute. It makes it easy to audition the different algorithms. Object mappings will make sure old patchers don’t break.

When

Tap.Tools 3 will be released concurrently with Max 5. This is anticipated to be Q1 2008.

All people who have purchased, or will purchase, Tap.Tools 2 after October 1, 2007 will receive a free upgrade to Tap.Tools 3 when it is released.