/[svn]/doc/docbase/release_notes/linuxsampler_2_0_0/01_linuxsampler_2_0_0.html
ViewVC logotype

Annotation of /doc/docbase/release_notes/linuxsampler_2_0_0/01_linuxsampler_2_0_0.html

Parent Directory Parent Directory | Revision Log Revision Log


Revision 2811 - (hide annotations) (download) (as text)
Sat Jul 18 12:10:30 2015 UTC (8 years, 8 months ago) by schoenebeck
File MIME type: text/html
File size: 14075 byte(s)
* Added release notes for LinuxSampler 2.0.0.

1 schoenebeck 2811 <html>
2     <head>
3     <meta name="author" content="Christian Schoenebeck">
4     <title>Release Notes LinuxSampler 2.0.0</title>
5     <meta name="description" content="Release notes for LinuxSampler 2.0.0.">
6     <link rel="stylesheet" href="http://doc.linuxsampler.org/css/preview.css">
7     <script type="text/javascript" src="http://doc.linuxsampler.org/js/preview.js"></script>
8     </head>
9     <body>
10     <h1>LinuxSampler 2.0.0</h1>
11     <p>
12     Unbelievable six years have passed since the last release of LinuxSampler.
13     A load of things have changed in silence, which I want to summarize for
14     you in this article.
15     </p>
16    
17     <h3>New Sampler Engines</h3>
18     <p>
19     The sampler's code base has seen substantial changes during that long
20     period. The sampler engine code base has been unified to a set of common,
21     abstract base classes which cleared the way for two new sampler engines:
22     <ol>
23     <li>The <b>SFZ2</b> format engine (.sfz).</li>
24     <li>The <b>SoundFont 2</b> format engine (.sf2).</li>
25     </ol>
26     So LinuxSampler is not limited to just the GigaStudio/Gigasampler format
27     (.gig) anymore.
28     </p>
29    
30     <h3>Real-Time Instrument Scripts</h3>
31     <p>
32     Another major new feature is the brand new support for so called
33     <i>Real-Time Instrument Scripts</i>, which are small programs that may be
34     bundled with sound files to extend the sampler with custom behavior for
35     individual sounds. You may know such instrument scripts from commercial
36     software samplers. At the moment this scripting feature is yet limited to
37     the Giga format engine. <a href="instrument_scripts.html">Find out more ...</a>
38     </p>
39     <img src="../../gigedit/scripts/gigedit_script_editor.png" caption="NKSP Instrument Script Editor">
40    
41     <h3>LSCP Shell</h3>
42     <p>
43     Also noteworthy is the new command line application <i>lscp</i>, which is
44     a text based shell for controlling the sampler from the command line,
45     providing colored output, type completion, help text while typing LSCP
46     commands and other convenient features for terminal enthusiasts who want
47     to use the sampler without GUI frontend applications.
48     <a href="instrument_scripts.html">Find out more ...</a>
49     </p>
50     <img src="../../lscp_shell/lscp_shell.png" caption="LSCP Shell">
51    
52     <h3>Internal Effects &amp; Extensions to LSCP</h3>
53     <p>
54     You may now also load external effects directly into the sampler. The
55     <a href="http://www.linuxsampler.org/api/draft-linuxsampler-protocol.html">LSCP network protocol</a>
56     (<a href="http://www.linuxsampler.org/api/lscp-1.7.html">v1.7</a>) has
57     been extended to manage such effects respectively. Effect chains may be
58     built, and the individual sampler parts may be routed to an individual
59     position of effect chains. At this point only LADSPA plugins are supported
60     yet. However the sampler's effect subsystem uses an abstract interface,
61     which allows easy integration of other effect systems. Also new with
62     latest LSCP version is the ability to trigger MIDI CCs by LSCP command.
63     </p>
64    
65     <h3>New GigaStudio format features</h3>
66     <p>
67     You may have heard that the GigaStudio software has seen its last version
68     with GigaStudio 4. Tascam officially discontinued this product, its
69     intellectual property has been sold several times among companies and
70     there is currently no way to buy a new copy of GigaStudio anymore. However
71     the GigaStudio format is still under active development with LinuxSampler.
72     We not only added support for the latest features introduced with
73     GigaStudio 4: iMIDI rules for example which allow to trigger notes by
74     MIDI CC and allow i.e. defining a set of legato samples; for the first
75     time ever we also added our own extensions to the Giga format: one of it
76     is the previously mentioned new instrument scripting feature and a more
77     minor extension is support for various other MIDI CCs which were never
78     supported by GigaStudio before. So you can now use any MIDI CC for EG1
79     controller, EG2 controller and attenuation controller.
80     </p>
81    
82     <h3>DAW Plugin Enhancements</h3>
83     <p>
84     The sampler's host plugins have also seen some enhancements: the LV2
85     plugin now stores and restores the sampler's overall state with the song
86     of your DAW application, the LV2 and AudioUnit plugin's outputs
87     were increased from 2 audio channels to 16 upon request by some users and
88     the VST plugin now uses the sampler's MIDI instrument mapping system to
89     show a list of available sounds to allow the user to switch among them.
90     And last but not least the VST plugin may also be used on Mac now.
91     </p>
92    
93     <h2>Gigedit 1.0.0</h2>
94     <p>
95     Also <i>Gigedit</i>, our instrument editor for the GigaStudio/Gigasampler
96     format, had been enhanced quite a lot during the last six years. As
97     mentioned above, we introduced our own extensions to the Giga format.
98     Obviously all those extensions will not work with any GigaStudio version,
99     they only work with a recent version of Gigedit and LinuxSampler. Gigedit
100     will inform you whenever you are using such kind of custom Giga format
101     extension, so that you are always aware in case your changes to sounds are
102     not cross/backward compatible with the GigaStudio software. You may also
103     disable those warnings on the settings menu.
104     </p>
105    
106     <h3>Multi-Selection of Dimension Zones</h3>
107     <p>
108     A load of enhancements have been added to Gigedit
109     in the last six years: Until now you were only able to edit either exactly
110     one dimension region or all dimension regions simultaneously. With this
111     release you may now hold the Ctrl button and select a specific set of
112     dimension region zones in the dimension region selector area (on the very
113     bottom of the Gigedit window) with your mouse. All synthesis parameters you
114     then change, will all be applied to that precise set of dimension region
115     zones.
116     </p>
117    
118     <h3>Improvements to Dimension Management</h3>
119     <p>
120     Also managing dimensions have been improved: previously to change the
121     amount of zones of a dimension you had to delete and recreate the
122     dimension. Which was not just inconvenient, but you also had to redefine
123     your synthesis parameters from scratch. Now you can just open the
124     dimension manager dialog and increase or decrease the amount of zones of
125     a dimension with few clicks. Same applies to the dimension type: you may
126     now simply open the dimension manager dialog and alter the type of a
127     dimension with few clicks.
128     </p>
129    
130     <h3>Monitoring Sample References</h3>
131     <p>
132     When working on complex Giga sounds you certainly noticed that one could
133     easily get lost about which samples are exactly used by which
134     instrument or even whether a sample is actually used at all by any
135     instrument or just left orphaned and wasting disk space. This was also due
136     to the fact that the Giga format does not require unique names for
137     samples. We have worked on resolving this usability issue. In the samples
138     list view you can now read the amount of times a sample is referenced by
139     instruments of your .gig file. If a sample is not used at all, then it
140     will be shown in striking red color in the sample list view. You may also
141     right click on a sample and select "Show references...", a new
142     window appears on your screen which will show you where exactly that
143     particular sample is used by, that is by which instruments and by which
144     regions of those instruments. Also the other way around has been
145     addressed: when you now edit the synthesis parameters of a particular
146     dimension region, you may now click on the new "&lt;- Select Sample"
147     button and Gigedit automatically selects and displays the respective sample
148     in the samples list view, which you may then might rename to some more
149     appropriate sample name, or you might check by which other instrument(s)
150     that sample is used by, etc.
151     </p>
152    
153     <h3>Silent Cases</h3>
154     <p>
155     You may now also remove the current sample reference from individual
156     dimension regions (assigning a so called "NULL" sample instead) by clicking on
157     the new "X" button next the sample reference field on the "Sample" tab
158     of a dimension region; this allows you to define "silent cases", that
159     is a case where no sample should be played at all, for example this is
160     often used for very low velocity ranges of i.e. between 0 and 6.
161     </p>
162    
163     <h3>Reordering Instruments</h3>
164     <p>
165     If you are working on .gig files with a large amount of Instruments, then
166     you might also be glad to know that you can finally also re-order the
167     instruments of a file by simply dragging the instruments around in the
168     instruments list view.
169     </p>
170    
171     <h3>Combine Tool</h3>
172     <p>
173     Another handy new feature for sound designers is the new "Combine" tool,
174     which you can reach from the main menu. It allows you to select two ore
175     more instruments (by holding down the Ctrl key while selecting with mouse
176     click) from your currently open Giga file and combine those selected
177     instruments to a new instrument. This way you may for example create
178     stunning layered sounds, or you may create velocity splits, crossfade
179     sounds by MIDI controller and much more, all with just a few clicks. This
180     may sound like a trivial task, but if you have worked on this before, you
181     certainly noticed that this was often a very time consuming and error
182     prone task before, especially with complex individual sounds which had
183     custom region ranges, custom velocity splits and much more exotic stuff
184     to take care of. The combine tool handles all such cases for you
185     automatically.
186     </p>
187    
188     <h3>Improved Interaction with LinuxSampler</h3>
189     <p>
190     Last but not least, the interaction of Gigedit with LinuxSampler (in so
191     called "live mode") had been improved: When you click on the "Edit"
192     button of a channel strip in QSampler or Fantasia, Gigedit will be
193     launched with the respective instrument automatically being selected.
194     Vice versa you may now also just select another instrument with Gigedit's
195     instrument list view and LinuxSampler will automatically load and play
196     that instrument on the respective sampler part for you. So no more need
197     to switch between the Gigedit window and QSampler/Fantasia window all the
198     time while working on your sounds.
199     </p>
200    
201     <h2>QSampler 0.3.0</h2>
202     <p>
203     As new sampler formats made it into LinuxSampler, this was also addressed
204     with QSampler. The sound selection dialog now also enumerates the sounds
205     of a selected SoundFont file. And to ease switching between sounds, you
206     may now click on the name of the current instrument of a channel strip,
207     a list will popup that alows you to quickly switch to another sound,
208     without having to open the channel strip's detailed part dialog.
209     </p>
210    
211     <h3>Suppressing Error Popups</h3>
212     <p>
213     In the past, error message dialogs frequently popped up on the screen.
214     Most of them were just telling unuseful messages, even if the overall
215     operation with the sampler was working correctly. There is now an "ignore"
216     check box attached to those error message dialogs, which allow you to
217     suppress most of the annoying error messages.
218     </p>
219    
220     <h3>Improved Mac Support</h3>
221     <p>
222     Recently we created a convenient installer for Mac OS X, which
223     conveniently installs all our software components on your Mac. So that
224     includes the stand-alone version of the LinuxSampler backend, VST and
225     AudioUnit plugin version of the sampler, "Fantasia" and "QSampler" frontends,
226     our instrument editor "Gigedit", the LSCP shell and various other command
227     line tools. You may also choose only some of them to be installed.
228     </p>
229     <p>
230     Using the sampler has also been improved on Mac. Before you first had to
231     launch the LinuxSampler backend separately and then launch QSampler.
232     Sometimes the sampler backend even had to be killed explicitly. Now
233     you can just click on the QSampler icon and it will automatically spawn
234     the sampler backend for you and shows its output on QSampler's integrated
235     terminal section. When you quit QSampler, it will also stop the sampler backend
236     for you automatically (you may tell QSampler to keep the sampler running in the background).
237     </p>
238    
239     <h2>libgig 4.0.0</h2>
240     <p>
241     Our fundamental file access C++ library
242     <a href="http://download.linuxsampler.org/doc/libgig/api/">libgig</a>
243     is now more than just a supporter of the GigaStudio/Gigasampler file
244     format. New file formats have been added and are now bundled with libgig:
245     <ol>
246     <li>
247     <a href="http://download.linuxsampler.org/doc/libgig/api/namespaceKorg.html">
248     Classes for KORG's sample based instrument files
249     </a> (.KSF, .KMP).
250     </li>
251     <li>
252     <a href="http://download.linuxsampler.org/doc/libgig/api/namespacesf2.html">
253     Classes for SoundFont v2 files
254     </a> (.sf2).
255     </li>
256     <li>
257     <a href="http://download.linuxsampler.org/doc/libgig/api/classResource.html">
258     Classes for AKAI sampler data.
259     </a>
260     </li>
261     </ol>
262     Various command line tools have been added to libgig, which allow to
263     dump, correct, extract and convert sounds between those various file formats.
264     Refer to the individual <i>man pages</i> for details about how to use
265     those new command line tools. As you can see, the ground had been prepared
266     for further new sampler engines with LinuxSampler to come.
267     </p>
268    
269     </body>
270     </html>

  ViewVC Help
Powered by ViewVC