LMMS Progress Report: January 2026

[messmerd]

LMMS Progress Report: January 2026

Welcome back to our monthly series of LMMS Progress Reports!

If you missed last month's report, you can find it here.

Nightly News

The year is off to a good start with 12 PRs merged in January.

• Pitch Bending Directly in the Piano Roll (#7759)
  
  January's major new feature is pitch bending directly in the Piano Roll without the need for a separate automation window. It's a significant quality-of-life improvement brought to us by regulus79 after 10 months of development, testing, and review. While it is currently limited to linear automation curves, support for other curve types may come in the future. Until then, those who want full control can still access the automation editor via Shift+Click.

Other changes:

• Improve lmms::fastRand() and use it instead of std::rand() (#7741)
• Add Horizontal Scroll Bar to the File Browser (#8184)
• Remove SampleLoader (#8186)
• Fix Sample Clip Loop Exporting (#8192)
• Improve strum tool LMB event (#8195)
• AudioFileProcessor: Update amp model when new sample is loaded (#8198)
• Bump project year (#8207)
• Avoid adding journal checkpoints when initially creating volume knobs (#8214)
• Refactor ExportProjectDialog (#8215)
• Vibed: Fix regression caused by fastRandInc (#8225)
• Set file format combo box unconditionally (#8237)

Other news

• LoMMuS Discord bot ported to TypeScript
  
  headquarter8302 recently ported the LoMMuS Discord bot to TypeScript, which brings a number of advantages over JavaScript and should help reduce the number of future bugs. The script runner was also switched to Bun, enabling features like hot reloading.

In progress

In January, 30 new PRs were opened, of which 9 have already been merged. The following is a list of both new and old PRs which were worked on in the past month.

Nearing completion

• Detachable windows (#3532)
  
  This PR received its first approval, and with luck, it may be merged by next month. While there are a few known issues, they are minor and could be fixed in a follow-up PR.

• Refactor PortAudio backend (#7444)
  
  sakertooth fixed the MME and DirectSound backends, and messmerd did some final testing and review.

• Use vcpkg for MinGW dependencies (#8218)
  
  messmerd was finally able to get vcpkg working for dependencies of the Windows MinGW builds. Until now, we've relied on an old Ubuntu PPA containing the cross-compiled dependencies we need, but now we're able to build them all ourselves using vcpkg. Or at least most of them - Qt still must be obtained through the PPA for now. However, this PR at least removes most of our reliance on the PPA and brings the dependencies up-to-date, which finally unlocks features such as mp3 and opus support, per-note panning in Sf2 Player, and possibly LV2 plugin support.

In the works

• Better support for smooth scrolling trackpads and mice (#7941)
  
  bratpeki recently obtained a trackpad and is now testing the PR on macOS.

• Auto-quit rework (#8070)
  
  messmerd addressed a number of comments from a code review and added support for custom allocators.

• Add search bar for the soundfont player (#8193)
  
  This PR by yohannd1 adds a convenient search bar to Sf2 Player to make searching for patches easier.

• Grid Abstraction - Vector Graph (#8221)
  
  szeli1 is trying a different approach to improving the Vector Graph, offering an alternative to the earlier attempts in #4367 and #7158 which both faced criticisms from reviewers.

• Enable ASIO support in MSVC builds (#8238)
  
  messmerd added support for Steinberg's Audio Stream Input/Output (ASIO) as a PortAudio backend in vcpkg, and then enabled support for it in LMMS. Unfortunately, it fails to properly initialize at startup, so this problem will need to be solved before the PR can be merged.

• SFZ Player plugin
  
  While there is no PR yet, regulus79 has been working on a native plugin for playing SFZ files.

Other PRs

These PRs were also created or worked on during January.

• NotePlayHandle: add a pending release state to fix Short notes are (sometimes) not played #6264 (#6282)
• Add feature to export tracks (#7119)
• Fix SongEditor Snap Size to Adjust with Time Signature (#7620)
• MainWindow revert to scrollbars (#7828)
• Removed the first recording button from SongEditor as it has no use (#7899)
• Optimize cloning steps in Pattern Clips and add limits (#8042)
• Adjust model rounding behavior to avoid a potential future mystery bug (#8119)
• Lb302 cleanup (#8132)
• Pull TransferFunction Plugin Effect and Visualiser Plugin Effect (#8168)
• Piano Roll Detuning - QoL Port (#8187)
• Fix Hardcoded Max dB Value When Double-Clicking Knobs (#8189)
• Fix Pattern Editor UI updates when adjusting note volume via scrolling (#8196)
• Fix velocity/panning change affecting unselected notes (#8201)
• "Universal" workspace panning (#8203)
• Fix negative subwindow limit (#8204)
• Improve extension handling on save dialogs (#8206)
• Track Instrument Changes in Journal (#8208)
• Apply name filter if export file lacks extension (#8212)
• Fix AutomatableSlider Creating Too Many Journal Entries (#8223)
• Clarify VST support to VST2 and mention LV2 support in README (#8233)
• Fix clips not retaining colors after using "Clear notes out of bounds" (#8234)
• Improve performance when moving channels in the Mixer (#8235)
• Set file format combo box unconditionally (#8237)

Goals for February

We're continuing to work towards the goal of releasing a new alpha version. Only two 1.3-alpha.2 milestone issues remain before the new release is ready, so we will be focusing on those this month, as well as any new bugs that come up.

New contributors

• Itreza2 contributed two PRs (#8184 and #8214)
• yohannd1 made their first contribution in #8198, fixing an AudioFileProcessor bug
• zatrit fixed a recent regression in Vibed (#8225)

Administrative changes

• bratpeki was added to the Developers team on GitHub
• szeli1 was added to the Developers team on GitHub

Closing thoughts

Thanks for reading! We have a lot of work ahead of us, but if you'd like to contribute to LMMS's development, it could go faster. Whether you're a developer or a tester, it all helps!

If you have any questions or suggestions, please let us know below or on our Discord.

Have a great February!

[JMii63]

this post marks a year of LMMS Progress Report (this is un-fact-checked and i have no idea if it's correct)! yippee