release_notes/linuxsampler_2_1_0/01_linuxsampler_2_1_0.html

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    <meta name="author" content="Christian Schoenebeck">
    <title>Release Notes LinuxSampler 2.1.0</title>
    <navpath>LinuxSampler 2.1.0</navpath>
    <meta name="description" content="Release notes for LinuxSampler 2.1.0.">
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    <h1>LinuxSampler 2.1.0</h1>
    <p>
      LinuxSampler 2.1.0 and friends were released on November 25th 2017.
      Two years have passed since the last release of LinuxSampler.
      Here is a summary about what's new.
    </p>

    <h3>Real-Time Instrument Scripts</h3>
    <p>
      In the <a href="01_linuxsampler_2_0_0.html">previous release</a> a major
      new feature called <i>Real-Time Instrument Scripts</i> was added, which
      are essentially small programs that may be bundled with sound files to extend the
      sampler with custom behavior specifically intended for individual sounds.
      <a href="instrument_scripts.html">Find out more ...</a>
    </p>
    <p>
      These programs are written by sound designers in a script language called
      <a href="01_nksp.html">NKSP</a>.
      In this release a large amount of extensions and improvements have been
      added for this real-time instrument scripting support of LinuxSampler.
      For example 48 new built-in NKSP functions and 21 new built-in NKSP
      variables have been added.
      <a href="01_nksp_reference.html">Find out more ...</a>
    </p>
    <p>
      Also the NKSP language and the underlying engine itself was extended.
      Most notably the script engine now has an execution scheduler which is
      the basis for many of the timing relevant new NKSP features in this
      release, like programmatically suspending and resuming scripts for an
      exact duration or at an exact point of time or triggering or killing notes
      at very precise times (all with microsecond accuracy).
      You can now even launch new threads in your NKSP scripts by
      calling the new built-in function <code lang="nksp">fork()</code>.
      Furthermore
      <a href="01_nksp.html#boolean_operators">bitwise operators</a>
      have been added to NKSP, as well as support for
      read only built-in variables,
      <a href="01_nksp.html#synchronized_blocks">"synchronized" code blocks</a>
      , as well as
      <a href="01_nksp.html#user_functions">user declared functions</a>
      and user declared const array variables have been added to the NKSP language,
      and finally automatic suspension of RT threatening scripts by the RT script engine
      has been implemented. The latter ensures that the sampler remains stable,
      and does not cause audio dropouts, even while you are working on heavy and
      extremely buggy scripts.
      Also syntax error messages with NKSP scripts have
      been improved to output more clear and user friendly error messages, as
      well as the NKSP editor API has been improved which brings handy new features
      to gigedit's NKSP script editor, which will further be described below,
      along with gigedit's new features.
    </p>

    <h3>SFZ Engine</h3>
    <p>
      The SFZ engine now supports <code lang="sfz">&lt;global&gt;</code>,
      <code lang="sfz">&lt;master&gt;</code> sections,
      <code lang="sfz">#define</code> statement and <code lang="sfz">set_ccN</code>
      opcode. And finally the SFZ engine now supports NKSP real-time
      instrument scripts as well by adding a new
      <code lang="sfz">script</code> opcode for this purpose. So NKSP scripts
      are no longer limited to our Giga engine.
    </p>

    <h3>New GigaStudio format features</h3>
    <p>
      The equally named software on Windows has gone years ago,
      but the format lives on with LinuxSampler and this release adds
      yet some more new extensions to the gig format. Most notably you
      now have options to control envelope generators' state machines.
      For example you can now define whether a certain EG state should
      either be aborted or continued to its end when a note off arrived.
      These controls are especially useful for certain kinds of sounds
      like percussive instruments.
    <p>
    <img src="gigedit_state_machine_options.png" caption="EG State Machine Options (Gigedit)">
    </p>
      Accordingly you will now find new check boxes for this in gigedit.
      As these are extensions of the original format, setting these options
      will only work with LinuxSampler and would be ignored with the
      original GigaStudio software.
    </p>

    <h3>Instruments DB</h3>
    <p>
      Also the Instruments Database feature has received important maintenance
      fixes. Before this release, the instrument DB feature was barely usable
      for quite some time. Fundamental instruments DB issues have been fixed in
      this release to finally consider this feature stable again as well.
    </p>


    <h2>Gigedit 1.1.0</h2>
    <p>
      Also <i>Gigedit</i>, our instrument editor for the GigaStudio/Gigasampler
      format, had been enhanced quite a lot. The most important new features are
      summarized next.
    </p>

    <h3>Script Editor</h3>
    <p>
      Gigedit's integrated instrument script editor supports now tight coupling
      directly with LinuxSampler's actual real-time instrument script backend.
      That provides several improvements for the script editor.
    </p>
    <p>
      <img src="nksp_editor_error_tooltip.png" caption="NKSP Error Tooltips">
      For example
      colored syntax highlighting of scripts is now always displayed correctly and
      simply looks much better now. Previously there was some small hard coded
      script parser code on Gigedit's side which however was buggy and simply
      did no great job. Now all the heavy lifting of handling all the details
      of the numerous NKSP language aspects are handled by the sampler instead,
      which also provides the following new script editor features.
    </p>
    <p>
      Due to that direct coupling with LinuxSampler's
      script backend, gigedit's script editor now shows all issues related to the script (errors
      and warnings) directly within the script editor in real-time while you are
      typing. The actual erroneous locations of the script are automatically
      highlighted with red background color, locations of the script with
      warnings are automatically highlighted with yellow background color, and
      when you move your mouse over the respective code location, the precise
      error/warning message is displayed as a tooltip. And last but not least
      there is a summary of issues displayed in the status bar of the script
      editor. Since LinuxSampler's instrument script backend is actually doing
      all the work for the script editor, all aspects of the language, all
      details about built-in functions and variables, and all potential issues
      with their precise cause and messages are automatically covered by the
      script editor now.
      That way you immediately know whether or whether not your script
      is OK with every character you are typing, and without requiring to
      actually load the script with an instrument into the sampler.
    </p>
    <p>
      <img src="nksp_editor_strike_through.png" caption="NKSP Disabled Code Blocks">
      Additionally when clicking on the
      script editor's "Apply" button or using Ctrl+S keyboard shortcut, then
      the script is automatically reloaded by the sampler. So you no longer
      have to reload the respective instrument manually while you are
      developing instrument scripts. There are also visual enhancements for the
      script editor, for example the line numbers are now shown on the left,
      the font size can be altered by the user, and unused code portions (i.e.
      disabled by <a href="">NKSP preprocessor statements</a>)
      are automatically striked through. That way you can immediately see
      which code portions of your scripts are actually used, and which are not.<br>
      <br>
      As as side note, you may have noticed a handy new built-in preprocessor
      condition in LinuxSampler 2.1.0 which can be enabled with
      <code lang="nksp">SET_CONDITION(NKSP_NO_MESSAGE)</code> and allows you
      to quickly disable <code lang="nksp">message()</code> function calls,
      i.e. to conviently switch your scripts between a debug and release mode.
      <a href="01_nksp.html#disable_messages">Find out more ...</a>
    </p>

    <h3>Macros</h3>
    <p>
      Another major new feature in this release are macros.
      A macro is a set of changes that should be applied to currently selected instrument.
    </p>
    <p>
      <img src="gigedit_macros_setup.png" caption="Macro List (Gigedit)">
      Such macros can be reviewed and edited, and they can be saved permanently for
      example as templates for common instrument creation tasks. Macros can be
      assigned to F keys on the keyboard so that they can be quickly triggered,
      you can transfer them over the OS clipboard and you can write comments
      to your macros so that you never forget what kind of purpose you had in
      mind for them. The macro features are based on libgig's new
      "Serialization" framework (described below) and accordingly you need at
      least libgig 4.1.0 for using these macro features.
    </p>
    <p>
      <img src="gigedit_macro_editor.png" caption="Macro Editor (Gigedit)">
      This is an example of editing a macro. Usually you may start creating a
      new macro by simply taking all parameters of a selected dimension region.
      Then in the macro editor you usually multi-row select (i.e. by Ctrl clicking
      items in the list) just the parameters you want this macro to alter, then
      click on "Inverse Delete" to just keep those few selected parameters in
      that macro. As a result, when you are going to apply this macro during your
      upcoming work, only those few parameters are modifed by this macro and all
      other ones are left untouched.
      Of course you can also alter the individual parameter values in
      this editor as well. 
    </p>

    <h3>Persistent Settings</h3>
    <p>
      All user settings of gigedit are now persistently saved and automatically
      restored. This also includes gigedit's windows' dimensions and positions.
    </p>

    <h3>Multi-Row Selection</h3>
    <p>
    <img src="gigedit_multi_row_action.png" caption="Multi Row Selection &amp; Actions (Gigedit)">
      Multi-row selection has been added to all list views now, so you can now
      more efficiently apply actions to multiple samples, instruments or scripts
      simultaneously at once, instead of requesting those actions for each item
      individually.
    </p>

    <h3>Multi-Zone Selection</h3>
    <p>
      <img src="gigedit_multi_dimreg_zone_actions.png" caption="Multi Zone Selection &amp; Actions (Gigedit)">
      Also modifying key features of several dimension region zones
      simultaneously is now supported. That means you can now delete, split and
      resize multiple dimension region zones at once. Oh yes, I forget, Ctrl+click
      selecting multiple dimension regions is supported now as well.
    </p>
    
    <h3>Feature Icons</h3>
    <p>
      <img src="gigedit_zone_icons.png" caption="Feature Icons (Gigedit)">
      You will also note that there are now icons displayed on the individual
      regions and dimension region zones. Those icons visualize common key
      features of regions and dimension region zones. For example if you forgot
      to assign any sample to one of them, then you will see a red dot on the
      respective region or dimension region zone. Another icon type is showing
      you whether a region or dimension region zone uses a sample loop.
      For example when you just imported a drum sample, you don't really want
      a loop to be on.
      This way
      you can immediately see and control the key features of all regions
      and their dimension region zones, without requiring to browse through all
      of them individually.
    </p>

    <h3>Keyboard Shortcuts</h3>
    <p>
     Various new keyboard shortcuts have been added so you can work more
     efficiently on your sounds. For example you can now use Ctrl+Left and
     Ctrl+Right to navigate through all regions of the currently selected
     instrument, and likewise you can use Alt+Left, Alt+Right, Alt+Up and
     Alt+Down to navigate through all dimension region zones of the currently
     selected region. Since there are many actions that can be either applied
     on instrument level, or on region level, or on dimension region level, as
     a general rule, for all keyboard shortcuts:
     <ul>
       <li><b>Shift</b> key is used for actions on instrument level</li>
       <li><b>Ctrl</b> key is used on region level</li>
       <li><b>Alt</b> key is used by gigedit for actions on dimension region level</li>
     </ul>
     So as another example you may copy all parameters of the currently
     selected dimension region zone by hitting Alt+C, then you might select
     another dimension region zone, or another instrument and then use Alt+V
     to apply the parameters from the clipboard. While the parameters are
     (as macro actually) on the clipboard you can also review, edit and
     delete the individual parameters before applying them. As a final
     example for new important shortcuts you may now use Shift+Up and
     Shift+Down for switching between instruments.
    </p>

    <h3>Combine Tool Improvements</h3>
    <p>
      <img src="gigedit_combine_tool_reorder.png" caption="Combine Tool (Gigedit)">
      Also the Combine Tool has been improved. You can now simply select the
      (multiple) instruments you want to combine directly from the applications
      main window, i.e. by Ctrl or Shift clicking them from the instruments
      list view, and then right click to call the combine tool on that
      selection. The Combine Tool now also shows you as preview the order in
      which the selected instruments are going to be combined. This is
      especially useful when combining instruments with certain dimension
      types where the order matters for the actual resulting sound; for example
      when using the velocity dimension. Simply use drag n drop to reorder
      the previously selected instruments before combining them.
    </p>

    <h3>Search Filter</h3>
    <p>
      <img src="gigedit_search_filter.png" caption="Search Filter (Gigedit)">
      And last but not least a filter option field had been added to the
      instruments list and samples list, which allows you to find specific
      samples and instruments very quickly by typing search key words, which is
      especially very helpful in case you are working on gig files which contain
      a very large amount of samples or instruments in a single gig file
      (like this one, which apparently has far more than 400 instruments).
    </p>

    <h2>libgig 4.1.0</h2>
    <p>
      Our fundamental file access C++ library
      <a href="http://download.linuxsampler.org/doc/libgig/api/">libgig</a>
      has also received some major improvements, which are outlined next.
    </p>

    <h3>Files larger than 2 GB</h3>
    <p>
      libgig 4.1.0 adds support for files much larger than 2 GB for GigaStudio /
      Gigasampler (.gig), DLS, as well as for RIFF files in general. This file size
      limitation existed for a very long time due to the RIFF format's historical,
      internal 32 bit file offsets. To circumvent this file size limitation the
      concept of so called "extension files" was added in the past to the
      GigaStudio format, which means that the GigaStudio instrument editor
      (the original one on Windows) splitted
      the respective overall instrument file into a set of files (.gig, .gx01,
      .gx02, ...), each being max. 2 GB in size, and all of them were expected to be
      located in the same directory for the sampler to load the entire large
      instrument successfully. libgig always supported only reading such gig
      extension files, however libgig never supported to create .gig files with
      extension files, nor did it support modifying existing ones.
    <p>
    </p>
      In this release
      it was necessary to finally get rid of this overall file size limitation in
      libgig. Now when that concept of extension files was introduced years ago, it
      made sense at that point, because there were still many systems out there
      which still had no support for large files (on either OS or file system
      level). However today even on low end mobile devices support for large files
      is already a broad standard. Accordingly instead of adding write support for
      extension files in libgig, the problem was addressed at its root by
      transparently using appropriate, automatic file offset sizes. So when writing
      .gig/DLS/RIFF files smaller than 2 GB there are still 32 bit file offsets
      being used by libgig. Accordingly such files are still backward compatible
      with older software. However if the overall file size to be written is 2 GB or
      larger, then 64 bit file offsets are automatically used by libgig instead.
      Note though that due to that circumstance such files &#8807; 2 GB are not backward
      compatible with older versions of libgig, nor could they be loaded with the
      original GigaStudio software.
    </p>
    
    <h3>Serialization API</h3>
    <p>
      Another major new feature in this libgig release is the entirely new
      <a href="http://download.linuxsampler.org/doc/libgig/api/namespaceSerialization.html">Serialization API</a>
      which provides a powerful and easy way
      to serialize and deserialize an arbitrary set of native C++ objects into an
      abstract data stream. Which means you can simply save the entire runtime state
      of an application to a file or send it as data over "wire" (i.e. over network
      or to another process) and restore that runtime state from that data there at
      any time. In contrast to other C++ serialization frameworks out there, this
      framework provides two major benefits:
      <ol>
        <li>
          This serialization framework is designed to be very robust regarding
          potential versioning changes of the native C++ classes being
          (de)serialized. So even if the C++ classes have seen massive software
          changes between the point where they were serialized and the point where
          they are to be deserialized; for example if class member variables of
          serialized C++ objects were renamed in meantime, or if variable offsets, or
          variables' data types had been changed, then the deserialization algorithm
          can still cope with such common software changes automatically in many
          cases, that is as long as the deserialization algorithm can "guess" what
          the changes were exactly. If the serialization framework is unable to
          automatically detect the precise software changes, then it will abort the
          deserialization task with an exception and an error message stating that
          the software versions are incompatible.
        </li>
        <li>
          This serialization framework supports "partial" deserialization. That
          means it not only allows to restore an entire runtime state, but it also
          allows to only restore an arbitrary desired subset of information
          from the previously serialized data stream, while leaving all other data
          of the running C++ objects untouched. The serialization framework also
          incorporates a reflection API which allows applications to implement
          convenient editors on top of such serialized data, i.e. allowing end users
          to pick or alter specific information within the serialized data.
        </li>
      </ol>
      This new Serialization framework is already embedded into the gig classes of
      libgig, and it is used as basis for the new powerful macro features in the
      gigedit instrument editor, like already outlined above.
    </p>

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1	<html>
2	<head>
3	<meta name="author" content="Christian Schoenebeck">
4	<title>Release Notes LinuxSampler 2.1.0</title>
5	<navpath>LinuxSampler 2.1.0</navpath>
6	<meta name="description" content="Release notes for LinuxSampler 2.1.0.">
7	<link rel="stylesheet" href="http://doc.linuxsampler.org/css/preview.css">
8	<script type="text/javascript" src="http://doc.linuxsampler.org/js/preview.js"></script>
9	</head>
10	<body>
11	<h1>LinuxSampler 2.1.0</h1>
12	<p>
13	LinuxSampler 2.1.0 and friends were released on November 25th 2017.
14	Two years have passed since the last release of LinuxSampler.
15	Here is a summary about what's new.
16	</p>
17
18	<h3>Real-Time Instrument Scripts</h3>
19	<p>
20	In the <a href="01_linuxsampler_2_0_0.html">previous release</a> a major
21	new feature called <i>Real-Time Instrument Scripts</i> was added, which
22	are essentially small programs that may be bundled with sound files to extend the
23	sampler with custom behavior specifically intended for individual sounds.
24	<a href="instrument_scripts.html">Find out more ...</a>
25	</p>
26	<p>
27	These programs are written by sound designers in a script language called
28	<a href="01_nksp.html">NKSP</a>.
29	In this release a large amount of extensions and improvements have been
30	added for this real-time instrument scripting support of LinuxSampler.
31	For example 48 new built-in NKSP functions and 21 new built-in NKSP
32	variables have been added.
33	<a href="01_nksp_reference.html">Find out more ...</a>
34	</p>
35	<p>
36	Also the NKSP language and the underlying engine itself was extended.
37	Most notably the script engine now has an execution scheduler which is
38	the basis for many of the timing relevant new NKSP features in this
39	release, like programmatically suspending and resuming scripts for an
40	exact duration or at an exact point of time or triggering or killing notes
41	at very precise times (all with microsecond accuracy).
42	You can now even launch new threads in your NKSP scripts by
43	calling the new built-in function <code lang="nksp">fork()</code>.
44	Furthermore
45	<a href="01_nksp.html#boolean_operators">bitwise operators</a>
46	have been added to NKSP, as well as support for
47	read only built-in variables,
48	<a href="01_nksp.html#synchronized_blocks">"synchronized" code blocks</a>
49	, as well as
50	<a href="01_nksp.html#user_functions">user declared functions</a>
51	and user declared const array variables have been added to the NKSP language,
52	and finally automatic suspension of RT threatening scripts by the RT script engine
53	has been implemented. The latter ensures that the sampler remains stable,
54	and does not cause audio dropouts, even while you are working on heavy and
55	extremely buggy scripts.
56	Also syntax error messages with NKSP scripts have
57	been improved to output more clear and user friendly error messages, as
58	well as the NKSP editor API has been improved which brings handy new features
59	to gigedit's NKSP script editor, which will further be described below,
60	along with gigedit's new features.
61	</p>
62
63	<h3>SFZ Engine</h3>
64	<p>
65	The SFZ engine now supports <code lang="sfz"><global></code>,
66	<code lang="sfz"><master></code> sections,
67	<code lang="sfz">#define</code> statement and <code lang="sfz">set_ccN</code>
68	opcode. And finally the SFZ engine now supports NKSP real-time
69	instrument scripts as well by adding a new
70	<code lang="sfz">script</code> opcode for this purpose. So NKSP scripts
71	are no longer limited to our Giga engine.
72	</p>
73
74	<h3>New GigaStudio format features</h3>
75	<p>
76	The equally named software on Windows has gone years ago,
77	but the format lives on with LinuxSampler and this release adds
78	yet some more new extensions to the gig format. Most notably you
79	now have options to control envelope generators' state machines.
80	For example you can now define whether a certain EG state should
81	either be aborted or continued to its end when a note off arrived.
82	These controls are especially useful for certain kinds of sounds
83	like percussive instruments.
84	<p>
85	<img src="gigedit_state_machine_options.png" caption="EG State Machine Options (Gigedit)">
86	</p>
87	Accordingly you will now find new check boxes for this in gigedit.
88	As these are extensions of the original format, setting these options
89	will only work with LinuxSampler and would be ignored with the
90	original GigaStudio software.
91	</p>
92
93	<h3>Instruments DB</h3>
94	<p>
95	Also the Instruments Database feature has received important maintenance
96	fixes. Before this release, the instrument DB feature was barely usable
97	for quite some time. Fundamental instruments DB issues have been fixed in
98	this release to finally consider this feature stable again as well.
99	</p>
100
101
102	<h2>Gigedit 1.1.0</h2>
103	<p>
104	Also <i>Gigedit</i>, our instrument editor for the GigaStudio/Gigasampler
105	format, had been enhanced quite a lot. The most important new features are
106	summarized next.
107	</p>
108
109	<h3>Script Editor</h3>
110	<p>
111	Gigedit's integrated instrument script editor supports now tight coupling
112	directly with LinuxSampler's actual real-time instrument script backend.
113	That provides several improvements for the script editor.
114	</p>
115	<p>
116	<img src="nksp_editor_error_tooltip.png" caption="NKSP Error Tooltips">
117	For example
118	colored syntax highlighting of scripts is now always displayed correctly and
119	simply looks much better now. Previously there was some small hard coded
120	script parser code on Gigedit's side which however was buggy and simply
121	did no great job. Now all the heavy lifting of handling all the details
122	of the numerous NKSP language aspects are handled by the sampler instead,
123	which also provides the following new script editor features.
124	</p>
125	<p>
126	Due to that direct coupling with LinuxSampler's
127	script backend, gigedit's script editor now shows all issues related to the script (errors
128	and warnings) directly within the script editor in real-time while you are
129	typing. The actual erroneous locations of the script are automatically
130	highlighted with red background color, locations of the script with
131	warnings are automatically highlighted with yellow background color, and
132	when you move your mouse over the respective code location, the precise
133	error/warning message is displayed as a tooltip. And last but not least
134	there is a summary of issues displayed in the status bar of the script
135	editor. Since LinuxSampler's instrument script backend is actually doing
136	all the work for the script editor, all aspects of the language, all
137	details about built-in functions and variables, and all potential issues
138	with their precise cause and messages are automatically covered by the
139	script editor now.
140	That way you immediately know whether or whether not your script
141	is OK with every character you are typing, and without requiring to
142	actually load the script with an instrument into the sampler.
143	</p>
144	<p>
145	<img src="nksp_editor_strike_through.png" caption="NKSP Disabled Code Blocks">
146	Additionally when clicking on the
147	script editor's "Apply" button or using Ctrl+S keyboard shortcut, then
148	the script is automatically reloaded by the sampler. So you no longer
149	have to reload the respective instrument manually while you are
150	developing instrument scripts. There are also visual enhancements for the
151	script editor, for example the line numbers are now shown on the left,
152	the font size can be altered by the user, and unused code portions (i.e.
153	disabled by <a href="">NKSP preprocessor statements</a>)
154	are automatically striked through. That way you can immediately see
155	which code portions of your scripts are actually used, and which are not.<br>
156	<br>
157	As as side note, you may have noticed a handy new built-in preprocessor
158	condition in LinuxSampler 2.1.0 which can be enabled with
159	<code lang="nksp">SET_CONDITION(NKSP_NO_MESSAGE)</code> and allows you
160	to quickly disable <code lang="nksp">message()</code> function calls,
161	i.e. to conviently switch your scripts between a debug and release mode.
162	<a href="01_nksp.html#disable_messages">Find out more ...</a>
163	</p>
164
165	<h3>Macros</h3>
166	<p>
167	Another major new feature in this release are macros.
168	A macro is a set of changes that should be applied to currently selected instrument.
169	</p>
170	<p>
171	<img src="gigedit_macros_setup.png" caption="Macro List (Gigedit)">
172	Such macros can be reviewed and edited, and they can be saved permanently for
173	example as templates for common instrument creation tasks. Macros can be
174	assigned to F keys on the keyboard so that they can be quickly triggered,
175	you can transfer them over the OS clipboard and you can write comments
176	to your macros so that you never forget what kind of purpose you had in
177	mind for them. The macro features are based on libgig's new
178	"Serialization" framework (described below) and accordingly you need at
179	least libgig 4.1.0 for using these macro features.
180	</p>
181	<p>
182	<img src="gigedit_macro_editor.png" caption="Macro Editor (Gigedit)">
183	This is an example of editing a macro. Usually you may start creating a
184	new macro by simply taking all parameters of a selected dimension region.
185	Then in the macro editor you usually multi-row select (i.e. by Ctrl clicking
186	items in the list) just the parameters you want this macro to alter, then
187	click on "Inverse Delete" to just keep those few selected parameters in
188	that macro. As a result, when you are going to apply this macro during your
189	upcoming work, only those few parameters are modifed by this macro and all
190	other ones are left untouched.
191	Of course you can also alter the individual parameter values in
192	this editor as well.
193	</p>
194
195	<h3>Persistent Settings</h3>
196	<p>
197	All user settings of gigedit are now persistently saved and automatically
198	restored. This also includes gigedit's windows' dimensions and positions.
199	</p>
200
201	<h3>Multi-Row Selection</h3>
202	<p>
203	<img src="gigedit_multi_row_action.png" caption="Multi Row Selection & Actions (Gigedit)">
204	Multi-row selection has been added to all list views now, so you can now
205	more efficiently apply actions to multiple samples, instruments or scripts
206	simultaneously at once, instead of requesting those actions for each item
207	individually.
208	</p>
209
210	<h3>Multi-Zone Selection</h3>
211	<p>
212	<img src="gigedit_multi_dimreg_zone_actions.png" caption="Multi Zone Selection & Actions (Gigedit)">
213	Also modifying key features of several dimension region zones
214	simultaneously is now supported. That means you can now delete, split and
215	resize multiple dimension region zones at once. Oh yes, I forget, Ctrl+click
216	selecting multiple dimension regions is supported now as well.
217	</p>
218
219	<h3>Feature Icons</h3>
220	<p>
221	<img src="gigedit_zone_icons.png" caption="Feature Icons (Gigedit)">
222	You will also note that there are now icons displayed on the individual
223	regions and dimension region zones. Those icons visualize common key
224	features of regions and dimension region zones. For example if you forgot
225	to assign any sample to one of them, then you will see a red dot on the
226	respective region or dimension region zone. Another icon type is showing
227	you whether a region or dimension region zone uses a sample loop.
228	For example when you just imported a drum sample, you don't really want
229	a loop to be on.
230	This way
231	you can immediately see and control the key features of all regions
232	and their dimension region zones, without requiring to browse through all
233	of them individually.
234	</p>
235
236	<h3>Keyboard Shortcuts</h3>
237	<p>
238	Various new keyboard shortcuts have been added so you can work more
239	efficiently on your sounds. For example you can now use Ctrl+Left and
240	Ctrl+Right to navigate through all regions of the currently selected
241	instrument, and likewise you can use Alt+Left, Alt+Right, Alt+Up and
242	Alt+Down to navigate through all dimension region zones of the currently
243	selected region. Since there are many actions that can be either applied
244	on instrument level, or on region level, or on dimension region level, as
245	a general rule, for all keyboard shortcuts:
246	<ul>
247	<li><b>Shift</b> key is used for actions on instrument level</li>
248	<li><b>Ctrl</b> key is used on region level</li>
249	<li><b>Alt</b> key is used by gigedit for actions on dimension region level</li>
250	</ul>
251	So as another example you may copy all parameters of the currently
252	selected dimension region zone by hitting Alt+C, then you might select
253	another dimension region zone, or another instrument and then use Alt+V
254	to apply the parameters from the clipboard. While the parameters are
255	(as macro actually) on the clipboard you can also review, edit and
256	delete the individual parameters before applying them. As a final
257	example for new important shortcuts you may now use Shift+Up and
258	Shift+Down for switching between instruments.
259	</p>
260
261	<h3>Combine Tool Improvements</h3>
262	<p>
263	<img src="gigedit_combine_tool_reorder.png" caption="Combine Tool (Gigedit)">
264	Also the Combine Tool has been improved. You can now simply select the
265	(multiple) instruments you want to combine directly from the applications
266	main window, i.e. by Ctrl or Shift clicking them from the instruments
267	list view, and then right click to call the combine tool on that
268	selection. The Combine Tool now also shows you as preview the order in
269	which the selected instruments are going to be combined. This is
270	especially useful when combining instruments with certain dimension
271	types where the order matters for the actual resulting sound; for example
272	when using the velocity dimension. Simply use drag n drop to reorder
273	the previously selected instruments before combining them.
274	</p>
275
276	<h3>Search Filter</h3>
277	<p>
278	<img src="gigedit_search_filter.png" caption="Search Filter (Gigedit)">
279	And last but not least a filter option field had been added to the
280	instruments list and samples list, which allows you to find specific
281	samples and instruments very quickly by typing search key words, which is
282	especially very helpful in case you are working on gig files which contain
283	a very large amount of samples or instruments in a single gig file
284	(like this one, which apparently has far more than 400 instruments).
285	</p>
286
287	<h2>libgig 4.1.0</h2>
288	<p>
289	Our fundamental file access C++ library
290	<a href="http://download.linuxsampler.org/doc/libgig/api/">libgig</a>
291	has also received some major improvements, which are outlined next.
292	</p>
293
294	<h3>Files larger than 2 GB</h3>
295	<p>
296	libgig 4.1.0 adds support for files much larger than 2 GB for GigaStudio /
297	Gigasampler (.gig), DLS, as well as for RIFF files in general. This file size
298	limitation existed for a very long time due to the RIFF format's historical,
299	internal 32 bit file offsets. To circumvent this file size limitation the
300	concept of so called "extension files" was added in the past to the
301	GigaStudio format, which means that the GigaStudio instrument editor
302	(the original one on Windows) splitted
303	the respective overall instrument file into a set of files (.gig, .gx01,
304	.gx02, ...), each being max. 2 GB in size, and all of them were expected to be
305	located in the same directory for the sampler to load the entire large
306	instrument successfully. libgig always supported only reading such gig
307	extension files, however libgig never supported to create .gig files with
308	extension files, nor did it support modifying existing ones.
309	<p>
310	</p>
311	In this release
312	it was necessary to finally get rid of this overall file size limitation in
313	libgig. Now when that concept of extension files was introduced years ago, it
314	made sense at that point, because there were still many systems out there
315	which still had no support for large files (on either OS or file system
316	level). However today even on low end mobile devices support for large files
317	is already a broad standard. Accordingly instead of adding write support for
318	extension files in libgig, the problem was addressed at its root by
319	transparently using appropriate, automatic file offset sizes. So when writing
320	.gig/DLS/RIFF files smaller than 2 GB there are still 32 bit file offsets
321	being used by libgig. Accordingly such files are still backward compatible
322	with older software. However if the overall file size to be written is 2 GB or
323	larger, then 64 bit file offsets are automatically used by libgig instead.
324	Note though that due to that circumstance such files ≧ 2 GB are not backward
325	compatible with older versions of libgig, nor could they be loaded with the
326	original GigaStudio software.
327	</p>
328
329	<h3>Serialization API</h3>
330	<p>
331	Another major new feature in this libgig release is the entirely new
332	<a href="http://download.linuxsampler.org/doc/libgig/api/namespaceSerialization.html">Serialization API</a>
333	which provides a powerful and easy way
334	to serialize and deserialize an arbitrary set of native C++ objects into an
335	abstract data stream. Which means you can simply save the entire runtime state
336	of an application to a file or send it as data over "wire" (i.e. over network
337	or to another process) and restore that runtime state from that data there at
338	any time. In contrast to other C++ serialization frameworks out there, this
339	framework provides two major benefits:
340	<ol>
341	<li>
342	This serialization framework is designed to be very robust regarding
343	potential versioning changes of the native C++ classes being
344	(de)serialized. So even if the C++ classes have seen massive software
345	changes between the point where they were serialized and the point where
346	they are to be deserialized; for example if class member variables of
347	serialized C++ objects were renamed in meantime, or if variable offsets, or
348	variables' data types had been changed, then the deserialization algorithm
349	can still cope with such common software changes automatically in many
350	cases, that is as long as the deserialization algorithm can "guess" what
351	the changes were exactly. If the serialization framework is unable to
352	automatically detect the precise software changes, then it will abort the
353	deserialization task with an exception and an error message stating that
354	the software versions are incompatible.
355	</li>
356	<li>
357	This serialization framework supports "partial" deserialization. That
358	means it not only allows to restore an entire runtime state, but it also
359	allows to only restore an arbitrary desired subset of information
360	from the previously serialized data stream, while leaving all other data
361	of the running C++ objects untouched. The serialization framework also
362	incorporates a reflection API which allows applications to implement
363	convenient editors on top of such serialized data, i.e. allowing end users
364	to pick or alter specific information within the serialized data.
365	</li>
366	</ol>
367	This new Serialization framework is already embedded into the gig classes of
368	libgig, and it is used as basis for the new powerful macro features in the
369	gigedit instrument editor, like already outlined above.
370	</p>
371
372	</body>
373	</html>