Hydrogen

Hydrogen 1.2.6 released

Tue, 29 Jul 2025 12:00:00 +0000

We are happy to announce patch release version 1.2.6 of Hydrogen!

This patch release fixes a bug introduced in 1.2.5 and other minor issues.

Added

The AppImage version does now provide all drumkits in /usr/share/hydrogen/data/drumkits/ and /usr/local/share/hydrogen/data/drumkits/ via the “Sound Library” as session kits.

Changed

Sample loading in songs has been made more portable.

Fixed

Fix velocity automation for patterns that are not of size 4/4 (#2171).
Fix saving and loading of sample files introduced in 1.2.5 (#2174)

Source code and binary releases can be found as usual on GitHub.

Hydrogen 1.2.5 released

Thu, 17 Jul 2025 12:00:00 +0000

We are happy to announce patch release version 1.2.5 of Hydrogen!

This patch release introduces Qt6 support, deprecates LASH support, and fixes a number of bugs and inconsistencies found since version 1.2.4 and is generally recommended for all users.

Added

CLI options --log-colors and --no-log-colors to enable and disable ANSI colors in log messages.
CMake option -DWANT_QT6 to build Hydrogen using Qt6 instead of Qt5.
CLI option --user-data for both hydrogen and h2cli to provide an alternative user-level data folder.

Changed

The shortcut for starting/pausing transport can now be used while focusing spin boxes (like the BPM one) too (#2098).
Combo boxes do not accept focus (and preventing shortcuts) anymore.
LASH support has been deprecated and will be removed in version 2.0 of Hydrogen (#1649).
Allow to select and copy version in About dialog (#2127).
Number of parallel build jobs in build.sh is now set dynamically to number of virtual processors (#2128).
Changelog was renamed CHANGELOG.md and converted from GNU-style changelog to markdown similar to https://keepachangelog.com/en/1.1.0/.
Hydrogen no longer uses XSD files to validate XML files during loading or via h2cli --check but uses direct XML inspection instead.
Minimal CMake version was bumped to 3.5.
Option -qt5 was introduced to native Windows build script windows/Build-WinNative.ps1 to build against Qt5 instead of Qt6 (default).
build.sh script compiles against Qt6 per default.

Fixed

Fix compilation with LASH support enabled (#2076).
Fix Hue slider in Preferences > Appearance > Color (#2081).
Show the Crash Reporter and exit with return code 1 on unhandled exceptions.
Fix crashes in SampleEditor (#2092).
Fix track names in multi track export. When using just the file extension, the raw instrument names will be used (#2096).
Fix import bug for drumkits created in version >= 2.0.
Fix memory leakage for songs created in version >= 2.0.
Fix memory leakage for notes with probability < 1.0.
Fix incoming MIDI NOTE OFF handling.
AppImage build folder is now removed on build.sh r (#2129).
Fix potential crash with JACK audio driver on startup, teardown, or song/drumkit loading.
Fix freeze in native file dialogs on Linux (#2165).

Removed

Qt XmlPatterns is no longer a dependency.
Folder linux/debian containing outdated Debian package rules used by the previous development team to distributed Hydrogen as .deb package.
Option -32bit was dropped in native Windows build script windows/Build-WinNative.ps1.

Source code and binary releases can be found as usual on GitHub.

Hydrogen 1.2.4 released

Sat, 07 Dec 2024 12:00:00 +0000

We are happy to announce patch release version 1.2.4 of Hydrogen!

It fixes a number of bugs and inconsistencies found since version 1.2.3 and is generally recommended for all users.

Added

Forward compatibility for .h2song, .h2pattern, .h2playlist, and drumkit changes introduced in version 2.0.
MIDI and OSC commands
CLEAR_SELECTED_INSTRUMENT - to remove all notes of the selected pattern associated with the currently selected instrument.
CLEAR_PATTERN - to remove all notes of the selected pattern.
INSTRUMENT_PITCH - to adjust the pitch of an instrument.
OSC commands
NOTE_ON and NOTE_OFF which are handled like incoming MIDI events without triggering their associated actions.
CLEAR_INSTRUMENT - to remove all notes of the selected pattern associated with the provided instrument number.
CLI option:
- -O/--osc-port to use a custom OSC port in both hydrogen and h2cli.
- -L/--log-file to provide a path to an alternative log file.
- -T/--log-timestamps to add timestamps to all log messages.
- --config to use a different user-level config file.
- --compression-level for h2cli to set the trade-off between max. quality (.mp3 and .ogg)/max. speed (.flac) (0.0) and max. compression (1.0) for exported audio files.
- Adding support for importing and exporting audio files of format .mp3, .opus, .au, .caf, .voc, .w64. Drumkits containing those formats can be loaded with older versions of Hydrogen too. libsndfile >= 1.1.0 is required on your system for MP3 support. (#2023)
- X-NSM-Exec entry added to org.hydrogenmusic.Hydrogen.desktop by @grammoboy2 (#2042).
- Delete key does now remove selected notes and notes under cursor in NotePropertiesRuler.

Changed

Brazilian translation updated.
Grid lines in the Song Editor are now rendered dotted to emphasize that this is the space the patterns in rather than objects in their own right.
Virtual keyboard strokes are now mapped exactly as incoming MIDI NOTE_ON events (respecting both “Use output note as input note” and hihat pressure groups). But do not trigger associated actions (#1770).
CLI option -d understand driver names regardless of capitalization.
h2cli option -V is now able to handle whitespaces between flag and argument.
h2cli long option for -k is renamed --drumkit -> kit in order to align the naming with the one used in hydrogen CLI options.
Smaller keyboard cursor size with resolution set to off.
Rename “J.Master” button into “Timebase”.

Fixed

Fix potential segfault on ill-formated notes in .h2song files.
Fix buzzing sound during startup when using Port Audio (#1932).
Fix build failure without precompiled headers (e.g. on Gentoo) (#1944).
Fix persistent of hihat pressure group settings while changing/restarting MIDI drivers.
Fix mapping of NOTE_OFF MIDI messages in hihat pressure groups.
Fix segfault when using MIDI sense button in table of Preferences > MIDI after removing rows above it from the table.
Fix synchronization problems while using JACK Timebase support (#1953).
Fix compilation error on macOS with case-sensitive filesystem (#1938).
Fix usability with large QT_SCALE_FACTOR (#1933).
Fix MIDI, WAV, and LilyPond export as well as drumkit import and export with with non-ASCII filenames (#1957).
Paths to songs and scripts are now properly saved relative to a .h2playlist file (in case the corresponding option was set).
Fix grid line rendering with resolution set to off (#2015).
Fix handling of adjacent tags with same content in Director by @aldimond (#2036).
Fix copy/cut/paste in PianoRollEditor.

Removed

Windows 32bit support dropped (due to upstream limitations).

Source code and binary releases can be found as usual on GitHub.

Hydrogen 1.2.3 released

Fri, 12 Jan 2024 12:00:00 +0000

We are happy to announce patch release version 1.2.3 of Hydrogen!

It fixes a number of bugs and inconsistencies found since version 1.2.2 and is generally recommended for all users.

Added

Forward compatibility for .h2song and drumkit changes introduced in version 1.3.0

Fixed

Restore mute button state of master mixer strip on song load.
Recorded MIDI notes were inserted ahead of the beat (#1851).
Drumkit Property Dialog:
- Images were written regardless whether one hits the ok or cancel button.
- When using Save As to create a new drumkit, the added image was put in the old drumkit folder instead and not properly copied into the new one.
- Allow to Save As drumkits derived from kits not found on the current system.
Audio Engine: In Song Mode with Loop Mode deactivated Hydrogen missed notes very close to the end of the song.
Fix crash on playing back notes with custom length (#1852).
macOS: fix naming of CoreMIDI header (#1865).
Fix various rendering issues with custom length notes.
Fix potential crash/failing startup on Windows in case PortAudio or PortMidi device is already occupied (#1893)
Fix crash on shutdown, song export, or driver changes in the Preferences while using JACK on Linux (#1902, #1867, #1907)
Pattern Editor:
- Only delete stop notes clicked by the user. (#1859)
- Proper undo of moving notes out of DrumPatternEditor. (#1859)
- Custom note lengths are now only drawn till the next stop note. (#1859)
- Highlight selected stop notes too. (#1859)
- Update selected notes visually on left and right keyboard movement. (#1859)
- Fixed stop note color which was no different than the default note color (#1854).
- Fixed grid line rendering on rational pattern size nominator.
- Fixed grid line colors on very fine resolution.
Fix broken file browser dialogs on Linux when using translations (#1908).
Fix drumkit export on Windows (#1927).
Timing drift (and artifacts) in playback track rendering on some hosts is fixed (#1920).

Source code and binary releases can be found as usual on GitHub

Hydrogen 1.2.2 released

Sat, 09 Sep 2023 16:00:00 +0000

I’m very happy to announce the 1.2.2 release of Hydrogen!

Starting with this release we will also provide AppImages for our Linux user base! If you haven’t heard about this technology yet: it’s a portable bundle containing the compiled Hydrogen binary as well as its dependencies and resource files. It runs on most Linux OSs (at least recent ones) and is very easy to handle. Just download it, make it executable, and run it.

Apart from that there were a couple of bug fixes and minor changes:

Added

Hydrogen is now released as AppImage for Linux as well.
Playlist dialog can now be resized and remembers geometry, position, as well as visibility.
Save and restore Director position, geometry, and visibility.
New and properly licensed AppStream metainfo files org.hydrogenmusic.Hydrogen.metainfo.xml replace old org.hydrogenmusic.Hydrogen.appdata.xml.
Hydrogen shows an error dialog and exits on the first invocation with no hydrogen.conf file present on user and system level (application was not properly installed).
A new cmake option WANT_DYNAMIC_JACK_CHECK was introduced. When set Hydrogen does check on startup whether jackd, jackdbus, or pw-jack is installed and disables JACK support in case none of them was found. This is intended for bundled builds, like AppImage and Flatpak, and can be overridden by setting the audio driver manually to “Jack” in the hydrogen.conf or by passing the “-d jack” CLI option.

Changed

Spanish translation updated.
Minor tweaks in French and German translation.
On Linux the order of audio drivers tried when selecting Auto changed from “JACK > ALSA > OSS > PulseAudio” to “JACK > PulseAudio > ALSA > OSS”.

Fixed

Style combo box in Preferences > Appearance > Interface is working again.
Fix segfault on hitting “Panic” button while transport was rolling.
Instrument/strip-specific actions, like MIDI action STRIP_MUTE_TOGGLE, did void the instrument selection of the Instrument Editor if the specified instrument was not the currently selected one.
Do not start playback at cursor when cursor in Song Editor is beyond the current song length.
Fixed compatibility with PortMidi version 217 (Hydrogen v1.2.1 was incompatible) (#1795). All versions of Hydrogen >=1.3 will, however, require on a more recent PortMidi version (at least v2.0.1).
Fixed allowed range of MIDI output notes to be [0,127] again (#1828) (introduced in v1.2.0).
Hydrogen does now successfully startup even if no data folder is present on user and system level.
Allow an arbitrary number of notes in a pattern (#1827).
Fix playback track volume fader (#1449)

Source code and binary releases can be found as usual on GitHub

Hydrogen 1.2.1 released

Thu, 08 Jun 2023 21:27:00 +0000

Release 1.2.1 of Hydrogen is the new stable release of Hydrogen. It fixes a number of bugs and inconsistencies found in version 1.2.0 and is generally recommended for all users.

Changes

Update French translation

Fixes

Fix reopening of last used Playlist. In addition, in case the PlaylistDialog was opened at the end of the last session - when “Reopen last used playlist” is checked in the Preferences - the dialog will be reopened too at the same position.
Fix spurious marking of opened songs as modified.
Fix MIDI (output) feedback for metronome toggling and pan setting.
Fix superfluous MIDI event - Action bindings. An incoming MIDI event can be mapped to an Action only once.
Fix tool tips of MIDI-learnable widgets. All bounded MIDI events will be shown.
Fix MIDI note output for channel 16 (previously only channel 1-15 were accessible in the InstrumentEditor).
Fix spurious tempo changes to 120bpm when switching songs or between pattern and song mode (#1779 and #1785)
Support “START”, “CONTINUE”, and “STOP” type System Realtime MIDI messages in PortMidi and CoreMidi.
Fix MIDI action binding to incoming MMC_DEFERRED_PLAY event.
Fix missing MIDI driver restart when adjusting corresponding parameters in Preferences.
Fix MIDI Machine Control (MMC) event type handling on Windows (#1773)
Fix loading of legacy drumkits. All layers but the first one were dropped during drumkit upgrade (#1759)
Fix MIDI input handling with “Discard MIDI messages after action has been triggered” checked. Incoming NOTEON message were dropped without triggering a sound (#1751)
Fix beat and bar calculation in pattern mode (#1741)
Fix compilation in GCC with -Werror=format-security (#1739)
Explicit usage of Python3 in stats.py script
Fix build against Musl (nekopsykose)
Omit git commit hash in displayed version of release builds

Source code and binary releases for Windows and macOS are available from GitHub.

Hydrogen 1.2.0 released

Fri, 07 Apr 2023 21:11:00 +0000

Release 1.2.0 of Hydrogen is the new stable release of Hydrogen. This release brings new features as well as many bug fixes, and is generally recommended for all users.

New features:

New scalable SVG-based GUI components with more standardized UX
Configurable colour themes and adjustable font size to increase accessibility
Pattern and Song editor can follow playback
Stacked mode and virtual patterns can show notes from other patterns alongside currently selecte pattern
Tagging improvements
New OSC commands
Builtin crash reporter
Slightly changed ADSR behaviour to align with natural user expectations

In addition there are many bug fixes, smaller tweaks to behaviour, and many under-the-hood improvements to audio processing structure, timekeeping and performance, as well as GUI speed.

Source code and binary releases for Windows and macOS are available from GitHub.

Hydrogen 1.2.0-beta1 released

Thu, 15 Dec 2022 17:20:00 +0000

Hydrogen-1.2.0-beta1 is a beta test release of Hydrogen, which previews new features in Hydrogen-1.2.

As this is a beta test release, please report any issues encountered on the GitHub issue tracker. The Hydrogen-1.1 release line (including the latest Hydrogen-1.1.1) remains the stable release line, and can be used if any critical issues are encountered.

New features previewed by this release include:

New scalable SVG-based GUI components
Configurable colour themes
Pattern and Song editor can follow playback
Stacked mode and virtual patterns can show notes from other patterns alongside currently selecte pattern
Tagging improvements
New OSC commands
Builtin crash reporter
Slightly changed ADSR behaviour to align with natural user expectations

In addition there are many bug fixes, smaller tweaks to behaviour, and many under-the-hood improvements to audio processing structure, timekeeping and performance, as well as GUI speed.

Source code and binary releases for Windows and macOS are available from GitHub.

Hydrogen 1.1.1 released

Sun, 05 Dec 2021 22:07:12 +0000

Release 1.1.1 of Hydrogen is the new stable release of Hydrogen. This is a maintenance release which addresses issues affecting release 1.1.0 and earlier versions of Hydrogen, including:

Preferences dialog ‘OK’ bug
Audio problems when using LADSPA plugins with PulseAudio
MIDI crashes and other issues on 64-bit Windows
Missing tags and markers
Inability to control audio latency on Windows (PortAudio)

Full details of these issues are available on GitHub.

Source code and binary releases for Windows and macOS are available from GitHub.

Hydrogen 1.1.0 released

Sat, 04 Sep 2021 22:17:23 +0000

Release 1.1.0 of Hydrogen is the new stable release of Hydrogen. This release brings new features as well as many bug fixes, and is generally recommended for all users.

New features in this release include:

Keyboard cursor-driven pattern, song and note properties editing
Note selection and movement in pattern editors
New OSC commands (new song, open song, save song (as), quit,
- toggle looped playback, toggle timeline, toggle Jack transport,
- toggle Jack timebase master, add/delete timeline marker,
- toggle song/pattern playback mode)
NSM support reworked
Deprecating JACK-session
Instrument main pitch shift offset
Custom pattern size support with representation in note values
Custom pan law support in mixer
Audio output device selection in CoreAudio (macOS) and PortAudio (Windows)

The complete list of bugs and other issues addressed by this release is available via the Github issue tracker. Source code and binary releases for Windows and macOS are available from GitHub.