The Rosegarden team are delighted to announce the 0.9.9 release of Rosegarden 4, an audio and MIDI sequencer and musical notation editor for Linux.

This release is feature complete for 1.0 and marks the start of official beta testing.

Rosegarden is one of the most comprehensive Linux music software projects, and is the only Linux application to offer full composition and recording capabilities to musicians who prefer to use classical notation. We encourage anyone who may be interested in using the 1.0 release to try out 0.9.9 and provide bug reports and other feedback via the mailing lists and bug trackers.

New features of the 0.9.9 release include:

o Plugin synth support using the DSSI system (http://dssi.sf.net/). Rosegarden now comes with integrated sample-synchronous synth support, with LADSPA effects and mixer routing for synth tracks, and configuration both through the built-in plugin GUI and plugins' own native GUIs.
o Triggered segments for pattern sequencing & performable ornaments
o New menu layout, many new keyboard shortcuts for everyday usability
o Recording from multiple MIDI sources
o Cautionary accidentals and configurable key-signature cancellations
o Pedal marks, mordents, trill lines, repeat bars
o Fine positioning and visibility control of notation elements
o Visual metronome
o Several new example files

Other features of interest include:

o Piano-roll, score, event list and track overview editors
o MIDI and audio playback and recording with ALSA and JACK
o JACK transport support for synchronisation with other software
o Ability to build and run without JACK support for MIDI-only use
o Audio plugin support using LADSPA
o Score interpretation of performance MIDI data
o MIDI and Hydrogen file import
o MIDI, Csound, Lilypond and MusicXML file export
o Clear, consistent and polished user interface
o Shareable device (.rgd) files to ease MIDI portability
o User interface in Russian, Spanish, German, French, Welsh, Italian, Swedish and Estonian, as well as UK and US English.

Rosegarden is Free Software under the GNU General Public License.