annotate CHANGELOG @ 1516:47a18e281a93 3.0-integration

Add "What's New" to help menu; primp up About box

Changes in Sonic Visualiser 3.0 since the previous release 2.5:

 - Add ability to record audio, and ability to change the audio device
   for playback or recording in the preferences

 - Add complete support for high-resolution (Hi-DPI or retina)
   displays, including for layer data rendering as well as UI controls
   and icons. This makes the biggest difference when using a retina
   Mac, on which previous versions did not render layer data at retina
   resolution, but it also improves scaling and rendering of UI
   elements on Hi-DPI displays on Windows and Linux

 - Add ability to open, display, and analyse very long audio files (of
   more than 2^32 sample frames)

 - Add ability to export scalable (SVG) image files

 - Run plugins in a separate process, so that if a plugin crashes, it
   no longer brings down Sonic Visualiser with it. In every other
   respect the behaviour should be unchanged

 - Scan plugins on startup in a separate process, and report on any
   that crash or won't load

 - Change mp3 file loading so as to compensate for encoder/decoder
   delay and padding (using "gapless playback" logic). While this is a
   real improvement, unfortunately it does mean that the initial
   padding in mp3 file load has changed from previous versions, which
   may mean some sessions saved in previous versions are no longer
   correctly aligned. It's not a great idea to use mp3 as a file
   format of record, because of differences like this between
   decoders. The previous behaviour is still available as a preference.

 - Add new Hybrid normalisation type for spectrogram and colour 3d
   plot layers. This normalises each column to its peak value and then
   scales the normalised values by the log of the peak in order to
   restore some distinction in scale between columns with different
   levels. It can provide quite visually clear results.

 - Add function to subdivide time instant layers into regular
   intervals (and its inverse)

 - Add new preference for default colour scales

 - Switch to using combined level/pan controls in layer property boxes
   and for the main volume control

 - Fix a number of problems on Windows with loading and saving some
   file formats to filenames not representable in system codepage

 - Finally switch the Windows built to 64-bit by default (with
   adapters to run either 32- or 64-bit plugins)


Changes in Sonic Visualiser 2.5 since the previous release 2.4.1:

 - Add unit-converter dialog, for converting between various pitch and
   timing units

 - Fix failure to reload note layers from session file

 - Use a more sensible scale for the play-speed dial

 - Fix crash when importing very wide CSV files

 - Fix generation of wrong layer type from some CSV files

 - Fix failure to export last instant in a time-instant layer


Changes in Sonic Visualiser 2.4.1 since the previous release 2.4:

 - Fix a crash when rendering certain colour 3d plot layers


Changes in Sonic Visualiser 2.4 since the previous release 2.3:

 - Add support for left/right scrolling using a two-finger touchpad
   gesture (where available)

 - Make the octave numbering into a configurable option, and change
   the default. Previously Sonic Visualiser labelled middle-C as "C3";
   now it labels middle-C as "C4", a more common standard in the world
   outside MIDI sequencer software. The previous system is available
   as an option in the Preferences. This affects only the visible
   labels: there is no change to analysis or to the file format

 - Sonify time-value layers. Any time-value curve whose scale unit is
   set to Hz will now acquire a playback toggle control; this control
   is off by default, but if it is switched on, the curve will be
   played back using a variable-frequency sound generator

 - Add support for playback of note layers with non-MIDI frequencies
   (formerly the note playback was limited to exact MIDI pitch)

 - Change the default playback sample for note layers from piano to an
   electric piano with sustain. The piano sample is still available,
   and any sessions saved using it should continue to use it

 - Add a cancel button for Vamp plugin processing: currently,
   cancelling a transform results in a part-complete layer rather than
   removing the results

 - Add keyboard shortcuts to cycle the current layer (in addition to
   the existing ones to cycle the current pane)

 - Fix various bugs related to layer ordering: layer tabs re-ordering
   themselves randomly when new layer added, layers being ordered
   randomly when saving and reloading a session

 - Fix incorrect interaction with non-Unicode usernames when creating
   temporary and template directories on Windows

 - Shade the start and end of the main audio file, to make them easier
   to see for files that start or end in silence

 - Speed up rendering and scrolling in time-value layers

 - Make it possible to import CSV files directly into Note layers by
   adding Pitch as a data type in the CSV file import dialog

 - Fix play pointer jump to wrong frame when clicking on row in the
   layer edit dialog

 - Fix problems with keyboard shortcuts when using Qt5 on OS/X. This
   is the first release in which the official builds use Qt5 for all
   platforms.


Changes in Sonic Visualiser 2.3 since the previous release 2.2:

 - Add a startup welcome dialog that also explains what SV makes
   network connections for and allows user to forbid them

 - Add "Export Audio Data" feature

 - Show piano keyboard scale in note and time-value layers as well
   as spectrogram, where vertical scale is log Hz; also show
   numerical scale in note and region layers when not auto-aligned

 - Speed up CSV file import and avoid showing crazily wide window
   for CSV file format dialog when file has lots of columns

 - Fix incorrectly saved window geometry when exiting from maximised
   state

 - Reduce number of timer wakeups when idle

 - Add American English translation and make choice of translation
   into a preference (defaulting to system locale)

 - Permit installation to non-default location with Windows installer
   build


Changes in Sonic Visualiser 2.2 since the previous release 2.1:

 - Build with support for hidpi ("retina") text on OS/X

 - Fix very slow analysis when using Ogg or FLAC files decoded
   via libsndfile

 - Fix inaccurate scale auto-align between time-value layers and
   others

 - Fix failure to open files specified on command line (or via
   Open With) on Windows

 - Reset cyclical counters and switch back to navigate mode when
   a new session is started


Changes in Sonic Visualiser 2.1 since the previous release 2.0.1:

 - Fix incorrect handling of FixedSampleRate outputs (Vamp SDK fix)

 - Make it easier to see results from transforms that return a single point

 - Make labelling clearer on time-value layers

 - Add discrete-curve mode for time-value layers (for curves with gaps)

 - Update code to build against Qt5


Changes in Sonic Visualiser 2.0.1 since the previous release 2.0:

 - Fix incorrect samplerate in reading m4a files on OS/X


Changes in Sonic Visualiser 2.0 since the previous release 1.9:

 - Support 64-bit builds on OS/X (using CoreAudio instead of
   obsolete QuickTime audio file reader)

 - Simplify RDF reading and fix some bugs. Now requires Dataquay
   (http://breakfastquay.com/dataquay/) rather than using Redland
   directly. Release builds use Sord/Serd rather than Redland

 - Add a fullscreen mode on the F11 key


Changes in Sonic Visualiser 1.9 since the previous release 1.8:

 - Add session templates; save session as template; apply template to
   session

 - Tidy up the file open logic so as to remove the dialog asking how
   to open a file, where possible

 - Various bug fixes.


Changes in Sonic Visualiser 1.8 since the previous release 1.7.2:

 - Sonic Visualiser now registers as a file type handler on OS/X,
 providing better integration with the desktop generally (Dan Stowell)

 - There is a new function to toggle all Time Rulers at once (key #)

 - The CSV import dialog has been overhauled, allowing more flexible
 selection of purpose for each column

 - Text overlays are now easier to read on dark backgrounds

 - Hidden layers are now ignored when exporting an image (Dan Stowell)

 - A crash when starting a new session or exiting the application
   after loading a session with saved alignment data has been fixed

 - The duplication of right-button menu functions when multiple files
 were loaded has been fixed

 - The layer-add menu functions now have shortcuts (Dan Stowell)

 - The codebase has been reorganised into libraries and a configure
 step added.  It should be easier to build and maintain on OS/X and
 Linux than previously, although it won't make much difference on
 Windows.

 - A Czech translation is now included (thanks to Pavel Fric).


Changes in Sonic Visualiser 1.7.2 since the previous release 1.7.1:

 - The time-value layer now has an origin line and an option to
 show derivatives (change from one point to the next) rather than
 raw values

 - A static initialiser race has been fixed, possibly fixing an
 occasional crash on startup in Windows

 - A crash when pressing Play straight after New Session has been
 fixed


Changes in Sonic Visualiser 1.7.1 since the previous release 1.7:

 - The RDF importer does a better job of assigning labels to layers,
 layers to panes, and values to labelled regions

 - Interactive editing in the Text layer benefits from the same
 improvements as made in 1.7 to Note and Region layers

 - The layer data editor window has a text search feature

 - The main window status bar now shows the last label to have passed
 the playback position in the current layer, at the right end of the
 status bar

 - The Russian translation has been updated (thanks Alexandre)


Changes in Sonic Visualiser 1.7 since the previous release 1.6:

 - A new "Insert Item At Selection" function on the Edit menu
 can be used to create Note and Region layer items whose time
 extents correspond to the current selection(s)

 - Interactively editing points in the Note and Region layers
 now works much more smoothly

 - SV can now import MIDI files that use SMPTE timecode for event
 timing (importing MIDI files using with the more common
 timebase-based timing was already supported)

 - Time values throughout the display may optionally be shown in
 seconds and frames at various frame rates
 
 - A crash on exit in Windows has been fixed

 - A very unobtrusive user survey is now included

 - Various other bug fixes.


Changes in Sonic Visualiser 1.6 since the previous release 1.5:

 - The Colour 3D Plot layer now supports logarithmic vertical
 scale and linear interpolation options.

 - A new colour scheme (High Gain) has been added for spectrogram
 and Colour 3D Plot, which improves readability for some data.

 - Further performance improvements have been made to Colour 3D
 Plot.

 - Various other bug fixes.


Changes in Sonic Visualiser 1.5 since the previous release 1.4:

 - You can now insert time instants, time values, and notes using
 a MIDI device during playback.  If a time value or note layer is
 current it will be used for insertion (giving a value equal to
 the pitch class, or the played note, respectively); otherwise an
 existing or new time instants layer will be used just as it is
 when inserting instants using the PC keyboard.  Using a MIDI
 device should give better timing than using the PC keyboard.

 - There is a new Activity Log window with a (purely informative) list
 of events and user interactions that happen while SV is running.

 - The spectrogram has somewhat improved graphical scaling, and
 this is now the default (being much faster than the 4x oversampled
 method).  The previous default is still available as a preference.

 - Visualisation of very dense colour plots (such as spectrograms
 calculated by plugins) is substantially faster in this release.

 - Spectrogram display is now faster in many circumstances.

 - Alignment using the MATCH plugin is faster on OS/X than before.

 - SV will take into account RDF plugin descriptions, if available,
 in order to make somewhat better decisions about display of plugin
 outputs (for example, placing segmentation data into a layer with
 segmentation plot type).

 - You can now switch layers by clicking on the spare area at the left
 end of the pane that is also used for the current pane indicator.

 - The vertical black lines dividing segments in the time value
 layer's segmentation plot style are now optional.

 - Several widget layout bugs on OS/X have been fixed.

 - Several serious crashing, deadlock, and data corruption bugs have
 been fixed.


Changes in Sonic Visualiser 1.4 since the previous release 1.3:

 - SV now has a Region layer type, used for display of features with
 durations.  It also supports Vamp v2.0 plugins that provide durations
 for features.

 - Layer data can now be imported from RDF described using the Audio
 Features Ontology, as well as from the existing text file types.  SV
 can also export annotation layer data to RDF/Turtle, although in a
 somewhat simplistic manner at present.

 - You can search for transforms by text in the new "Find a Transform"
 dialog.  This searches both installed plugins, and plugins that have
 not been installed but that have descriptions available on the
 semantic web.

 - You can now zoom and scroll vertically in the time-value, note,
 and colour 3d plot layers.

 - Sonic Visualiser can now load sessions from uncompressed XML files
 as well as its own compressed-XML .sv format.  Files with extension
 .xml that contain suitable session data will be loaded as sessions.
 Note that .xml extension files still do not show up in the default
 file load filter.  This is intentional, as there may be any kind of
 data in them -- if you want to load uncompressed session files from
 XML, you need to know you're doing it.

 - Several crashes and other bugs have been fixed.


Changes in Sonic Visualiser 1.3 since the previous release 1.2:

 - There is a new spreadsheet-style data viewer and editor for
 viewing and editing the data in some types of annotation layer.

 - Alignments are now saved to the session file.

 - The spectrogram layer is usually somewhat faster than it was.

 - You can now hold Shift while dragging to move an item, in order
 to override the initial drag resistance introduced in 1.2.

 - The gross mis-labelling of time lines in the ruler has been fixed.

 - There is a new, somewhat provisional PulseAudio output driver.

 - Several other bug fixes.


Changes in Sonic Visualiser 1.2, since the previous release 1.0:

 - SV now supports time-alignment of multiple performances of a work
 loaded at the same time.  This option is enabled when the MATCH Vamp
 plugin is installed.  When alignment is switched on and more than one
 audio file is open, SV will assume that all open files are
 differently timed performances of the same work, and will calculate
 time alignments for them.  Playback will then play only a single file
 at a time, and the playback cursors in other files will track at the
 varying speeds to try to ensure that each is at the same point in the
 underlying score.  This enables effective comparison of several such
 files, as well as a meaningful way to switch from one performance to
 another during playback (ensuring that the switch happens at the
 correct point in the performance being switched to).

 - There is a new Image layer, which can display images from the
 local filesystem or retrieved via HTTP or FTP.

 - A new measurement tool has been added.  With the measurement tool
 selected, dragging in a pane draws a rectangle labelled with the
 scale values for its start and end corners and its size.  You can
 have any number of measurements present at once; they are associated
 with the top layer, their scale values depend on the scale for that
 layer, and they are only shown when that layer is at the top and the
 measurement tool is active.  Measurements are saved and reloaded in
 the session file.  Drawing measurements can be undone and redone, and
 a measurement can be deleted by hitting Del when highlighted.  Note
 that the measurement tool shows the scale values associated with the
 pixel positions of the mouse when dragging, not any values associated
 with actual features present in the audio or its analysis (e.g. the
 values are not rounded to the nearest spectrogram bin).

 - You can double-click using the measurement tool in the spectrogram
 to get an instant measurement rectangle for a feature.  This is a
 purely graphical feature that works by calculating the boundary of a
 contiguous region of pixels "similar to" the one you double-clicked
 on; it does not use audio analysis.  Adjusting the gain and colour
 scheme etc of the spectrogram will (by design) affect the
 measurements obtained this way.

 - The spectrum can now optionally show frequency estimates of peaks
 aligned with a piano keyboard along the horizontal axis (this needs
 some refinement).

 - The harmonic cursor in the spectrogram has moved from the Select
 tool to the Measurement tool.  There is now a similar harmonic cursor
 in the spectrum.  Both of them show more information as text
 alongside the cursor than previously.

 - There is a new Erase tool for erasing individual points from an
 editable layer.

 - Several keyboard shortcuts have changed -- all of the Alt+key
 shortcuts now either use Ctrl or a plain keypress with no modifier,
 to avoid clashes with window manager shortcuts and to make them
 easier to use and remember

 - The playback controls are now in a Playback menu as well as the
 toolbar.

 - There is a new key and mouse control reference under Help (or press
 F2).

 - You can double-click on a pane in navigate mode to jump to a time.

 - All of the single-colour layers (waveform, time values etc) now
 allow you to define your own colours as well as using the built-in
 set.  The colour of a layer is now shown next to its name on the pane.

 - When you add a new single-colour layer it will use a default colour
 that is not yet in use in another layer (if there is one).

 - Single-colour layers can now optionally have black backgrounds (with
 a set of lighter colours in the default colour palette that use black
 backgrounds by default).

 - There's a new Printer colour scheme in the spectrogram with only a
 small number of grey shades.

 - Vertical zoom in a log-scaled spectrogram is much more intuitive;
 it now leaves the point that was in the centre of the visible area in
 the centre after zoom, instead of the point that was in the centre of
 the linear range corresponding to the visible area.

 - You can now turn a colour 3d plot layer upside down by clicking the
 Invert Vertical Scale button.

 - There's a new Layer Summary window which shows the panes and
 layer data in a tree layout.  This is very simplistic at the moment.

 - Each pane now has an [X] button at its top left, which removes that
 pane when clicked.

 - There's a new Solo play mode toggle button; when active, only the
 currently selected pane is played.  This is also the default when
 time alignment is in use.

 - Rewind/ffwd now stay confined to the selection if Play Selection is
 enabled; also, the rewind and ffwd "one step" buttons are now enabled
 even if there is no time instants layer for them to align to (they
 align to the time ruler instead and so jump in steps of a size
 dependent on the zoom level).

 - You can now export note layers to MIDI.

 - MIDI note velocity is partially supported.  Note velocity is
 retained when importing and exporting MIDI and is used in playback,
 but it is not yet shown in the display and cannot yet be edited.

 - You can now drag-and-drop files (of whatever type) onto SV from
 other programs such as file managers or web browsers.

 - mp3 files (and Ogg, but they aren't supported on Windows at the
 moment) are now decoded in a background thread so you can see the
 start of the track without waiting for the rest to decode.

 - Mac builds of SV can now load AAC/mp4 files and anything else
 supported by QuickTime.

 - There is now an option to resample audio files on import if they
 don't match the samplerate of the first file loaded.  By default this
 is switched off, as it affects the visible waveform.  The default
 behaviour is unchanged (play at the wrong rate).  There is still no
 option to handle multiple rates "correctly" (i.e. by resampling
 on playback and showing the waveforms at different resolutions
 according to each one's underlying rate) and there probably never
 will be.

 - SV can now open .m3u playlist files, though it's a hazardous thing
 to do as it simply loads all the files in the playlist at once.

 - SV now has various options for how to number tapped time instants
 (bar/beat, plain counter, time in seconds, tempo etc).

 - The official builds use Qt 4.3, which fixes some nasty
 bugs in the file dialog that the version 1.0 builds suffered from.