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Blockhead v0.47.0 alpha
🕑 Added 2026-01-22 17:11:30 +0000 UTCUpdate Notes
Removed: All CLAP plugin support has been removed (temporarily.) This was added too early in development and was causing too many headaches and roadblocks at both the technical and design levels. 3rd-party plugin support will return some day in some other form.
Removed: "Convert to meta block" and "Convert to tempo guide" menu options were removed. (Replaced with the new generic block conversion feature detailed below.)
Feature: Script blocks.
Nerds may now create a script block to do custom audio processing in Lua.
Here is the current documentation for the scripting API:
https://github.com/colugomusic/blockhead-scripting/wiki/Blockhead-Scripting-Reference
I think the API is likely to change dramatically in response to user feedback and other things I want to add. I am not worrying about backward or forward compatibility for the time being. There is a good chance that future versions of Blockhead will break your scripts so don't get too carried away yet writing big libraries of scripts unless you are ok with spending time updating them.
As multiple people have already asked, yes there will be a fleshed out parameter system in the future which allows Blockhead to generate sliders and envelope editors etc. for Lua variables and have scripts interact with the manipulator system. (I want to start work on this soon.)
Please give feedback and feel free to request additions to the scripting API. The library of available functions will probably grow much larger than it is now. I have really just added the functions that I needed to implement the few scripts that I have written so far for testing.
A few example scripts are available in the context menu of the script editor. To begin editing, right-click on the script block and select "Edit Script". (If you are spending a lot of time writing scripts I recommend instead setting up an external text editor on the script settings page of the settings dialog. You can then press the button in the footer of the script block to edit the script in your preferred editor. The script will automatically update within Blockhead any time you save the file.)
Feature: Block instances can now be converted from any type to any other type by right-clicking and selecting "Convert to..." from the context menu, which will open the QuickFind interface. This does the same thing as clicking on the button at the top-right of a sampler/effect/synth/script block. "Conversion" means that most properties of the block are retained, such as plugin parameters, names, labels, etc. (the block is not simply erased and replaced.)
Feature: Blink plugin browser was added for a more convenient list of the available Blink plugins.
Update: Better multithreading. Blockhead will now try to make much better use of your CPU cores. Sample loading and baking operations will now occur in parallel whenever possible. The new background task visualization on the Project panel will give a better visualization of how many things are happening in the background. You can hover your cursor over it to get more details.
Update: Better UI for setting project defaults. (Click the "Block Defaults..." button now at the bottom-left of the Project panel.)
Bugfix: ๐ค UNICODE IN FILE PATHS ๐ค All issues and crashes related to unicode characters in file paths should hopefully now be fixed on all three platforms. This includes loading/saving project files and samples and all importing/exporting operations.
Bugfix: Crash when trying to bounce a selection which contains a tempo guide.
Bugfix: Input buffer playback reads from the wrong section of the buffer after the write marker loops around at least once.
Bugfix: Muted blocks are no longer muted after saving and reloading the project.
Bugfix: Very long blocks become audibly distorted after baking is finished.
Bugfix: Warp markers sometimes can't be dragged.
Bugfix: Undo popup message shows the description of the wrong history item.
Bugfix: "Bounce in place" operation is disabled in some situations where it shouldn't be.
Bugfix: Blocks can still be dragged from the block browser while the workspace is not visible.
Bugfix: Blockhead hangs on project load in some corner cases.
Bugfix: Incompatible blocks can be dragged onto the carnival scene.
Bugfix: Carnival sampler nodes never finish loading if the sample is dragged directly into carnival from the sample browser.
Bugfix: Auto-restart option is mising from the start block context menu.
Bugfix: A broken project file will be generated if the project contains any chord/scale parameters which are set to 'Static' mode.
Bugfix: Block footer parameter controls do not immediately update when traversing history.
Links
Manual (WIP): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1y6je_g2oNnxClL1eXV20dcQpoyZEkek5LTxQPyEFT0w
Known Issues: https://trello.com/b/MT1A3Zob/blockhead-issues
Discord: Blockhead (discord.com)
Development Videos: https://www.youtube.com/@colugo5172/videos
Comments
Sameer Uddin
i cant output hello world without a syntax error none the less with claude code defintiely going to explore the lua possibilites . cheers
Colugo Music
I have found and fixed one possible crash on startup but I don't know if it's the same one you're seeing. If you run blockhead from the terminal does it say anything interesting?
staticofmasses
Crashing on launch on Ubuntu Studio 25.1. Main window loads for about 2 seconds then crashes. Any ideas?
Jonathan Canupp
Every blockhead update is an exciting event. In my world, at least. :)
Patrick
Sweet! Looking forward to try the scripting! Thanks for adding new features, particularly love block convert function. Thanks for smashing the bugs and keep up the great work!
pawelpolak
Hell yeah! I'm so hyped to try out the scripting! and some of these bugs were bugging me for a good while! good job!
