Karaoke Software | LYRX v1.6 Update Available Now (Includes macOS Catalina Support)
LYRX 1.6 (for Windows & Mac) is ready for download!
We’re happy to announce LYRX is ready for macOS Catalina. The new 1.6 version of our newest and most popular karaoke software includes many under-the-hood updates and improvements — most notably the change over from the prior OpenGL API to Metal (macOS). As we wrote in a prior post, Catalina brought major changes to the macOS graphics API, moving from the OpenGL to Metal. This required our development team to refactor our graphics engine entirely. There will be notable benefits, especially as LYRX continues to grow.
Since our “code” is cross-platform the Windows version received the same graphics engine updates.
Development had to dig deep to make significant changes. As a byproduct, they were able to streamline some of the code for better overall performance. This benefits both the Windows & Mac versions, and will allow us to ‘build on’ to the existing LYRX platform with ease.
One other notable change is where LYRX stores your data. In prior versions we used “Documents” as the storage location for the LYRX data folder. This presented some problems with saving at times (largely due to permissions related issues, corrupt user profiles on Windows, Microsoft One Drive, and other security measures brought on by Catalina). When you install the new LYRX update it will migrate your existing user data to the new location so you will not need to start over. A new button has been added in LYRX’s options to access the new location of the LYRX data folder making for easy access.
Support for the new Music app (formally known as iTunes) is also included.
Now that this major maintenance release of LYRX is ready for live performance we can get back to the fun stuff! Quite a few features where shelved during the Catalina-specific re-write that we can get back to. Expect to see new features and other improvements soon!
As always, version 1.6 is a FREE upgrade for existing LYRX customers. Simply download and install the update with your existing version closed to update now!
New, Changed, and Fixed in LYRX v1.6
- OpenGL to Metal (macOS version)
- Using new modern way to access Music (iTunes) library
- Moved Location of data (LYRX) folder to prevent various access/saving issues
- Added button to access user data folder in LYRX’s options
- Performance improvements and bug fixes
IMPORTANT NOTE: If you receive this warning “lyrx-v1.6-installer_mac.pkg can’t be opened because Apple cannot check it for malicious software. this software needs to be updated. Contact the developer for more information” when installing to macOS Catalina please follow the steps on Apple’s website to install LYRX.
Have questions about the latest 1.6 version of our LYRX karaoke software? Please leave them in the comments section below!
Pop up message:
“lyrx-v1.6-installer_mac.pkg can’t be opened because Apple cannot check it for malicious software. this software needs to be updated. Contact the developer for more information”.
So…contacting the developer. 🙂
Right, this is what you will see on Catalina every time you go to install LYRX. As noted above (below the download button) if you receive that error just follow the steps (click the link and follow the steps on Apple’s website). This will be necessary every time you install LYRX on Catalina. Unless we embed some Apple code and remove some existing functionality the macOS will continue to produce that message. We do not plan to limit functionality therefore the message will always appear on install – you just have to follow the steps for installing software from an ‘unidentified developer’.
Don’t upgrade yet on Windows. Windows version does not align properly to the screen at startup. Older version used to be a borderless window at startup and fit perfectly in the space above the windows task bar. Now on startup, there is a windows border, which I think is unintended, and it is positioned off the screen, so you can’t see this border, but you can’t see it, or the top 1 cm of the LYRX application, such that the (learn) (options) (_) (X) buttons are cut off at the top. There is also a visible gap at the bottom where the desktop is not covered. If you can hit the windows border icon that makes the application “full screen” then it align properly. Work around is to hide the windows task bar, and then hit the full screen icon on the windows border. Other workaround is keep windows taskbar drag lower right edge to the left and that exposes the windows border, and then make that full screen. Please fix this ASAP. Wishing I had not upgraded just yet.
I haven’t seen this here on my test machines – but as you noted, all you would have to do is double-click the top bar of the GUI (in a blank area) to make it fit the screen. A simple double-click, so I certainly wouldn’t consider this a show stopper or a reason not to upgrade. Some graphical related items will be different, and small issues like this may occur, as it was a major re-write of the graphics code. We have been publicly testing for weeks however and performance etc. seems to be spot on. I will report this to development, but suggesting users shouldn’t update since they may have to double-click the top bar on the GUI to fit-to-screen is a stretch.
Well the top bar is NOT VISIBLE so you can’t click on it. This is a bug since the top 2 cm of the application are off the top of the screen. The developers need to force this to a borderless window in Windows like they did for the old versions. I have a borderless gaming app that allows me to remove the windows border on windowed applications. I tried that and it fixed the LYRX bug. It is a small bug, people can upgrade, but will have to workaround this issue. I was thinking the developers were MAC-OS focused, and this slipped by. They should be able fix this quickly, and should do so. The app seems to work fine once you get it aligned properly.
Interestingly enough, this wasn’t reported during alpha/beta – but I was able to re-create it now on another PC. However, I can see the top bar easily, and double-click to fit-to-screen. Regardless, it’s an issue, and it’s been reported to development so they can take a look at it. You’re correct, we do code all products on Mac and development does the majority of testing on macOS – just surprised other testers didn’t see/report the problem!
I have downloaded Lynx 1.6.0.1 installer and it says this can not be installed on my Hard disk running mac OS 10.13.6. I do not wish to update to latest mac OS yet… should this update still work..???
The new versions (including the 1.6.0.1 release) will require macOS 10.14 or higher. Unfortunately this is necessary due to all the updates required to support Catalina. It’s a major change to the graphics API and backwards compatibility has consequently suffered.