release_notes/linuxsampler_2_2_0/01_linuxsampler_2_2_0.html

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    <meta name="author" content="Christian Schoenebeck">
    <title>Release Notes LinuxSampler 2.2.0</title>
    <navpath>LinuxSampler 2.2.0</navpath>
    <meta name="description" content="Release notes for LinuxSampler 2.2.0.">
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    <h1>LinuxSampler 2.2.0</h1>
    <p>
      LinuxSampler 2.2.0 and friends were released on May 9th 2021. Almost two
      years have passed since the
      <a href="01_linuxsampler_2_1_1.html">previous release</a>. This time there
      are a load of changes and especially many new features packed into this
      release.
    </p>

    <h3 id="cpp14">C++11 / C++14 Requirement</h3>
    <p>
      Starting with <b>Gigedit 1.2.0</b> and <b>libgig 4.3.0</b> you now need at
      least a <b>C++11</b>
      compliant compiler to build them from source; and for building
      <b>LinuxSampler 2.2.0</b> you now need at least a <b>C++14</b> compliant compiler.
      Originally it was planned to only raise the minimum compiler
      requirement to C++11 for LinuxSampler in this release as well, however
      during this development cycle, some C++14 features came across which helped
      to reduce code complexity in the LinuxSampler code base tremendously.
    </p>

    <h2 id="nksp">Real-Time Instrument Scripts</h2>
    <p>
      The <a href="01_nksp.html">NKSP</a> real-time instrument script engine has
      received tremendous new features and improvements in this release, which
      are outlined next.
    </p>

    <h3 id="64bit">64-Bit NKSP Integers</h3>
    <p>
      Instrument script variables of type integer
      (e.g. <code lang="nksp">declare $foo := 4294967295</code>)
      are now all 64-bit internally, which prevents unexpected side effects of
      script authors due to potential integer overflows that easily had happened
      before when integer script variables were just 32-bit wide.
      &nbsp;&nbsp;
      <a href="01_nksp_real_unit_final.html#64bit">Find out more ...</a>
    </p>

    <h3 id="real_numbers">NKSP Real Numbers</h3>
    <p>
      On <a href="01_nksp.html">NKSP language</a> level there is now support for
      floating point variables; both scalar types (e.g. 
      <code lang="nksp">declare ~foo := 3.94</code>
      ) and floating point arrays (e.g.
      <code lang="nksp">declare ?foo[] = ( 1.6, 4.7 )</code>
      ).
      &nbsp;&nbsp;
      <a href="01_nksp_real_unit_final.html#real_numbers">Find out more ...</a>
    </p>

    <h3 id="units">NKSP Standard Measuring Units</h3>
    <p>
      Another huge new NKSP language feature is
      <a href="01_nksp_real_unit_final.html#units">support for standard measuring units</a>
      like <code lang="none">Hz</code> (Hertz), <code lang="none">dB</code> (Decibel),
      <code lang="none">s</code> (seconds), <code lang="none">c</code> (cents) in conjuction with
      arbitrary metric prefixes like <code lang="none">kHz</code>, <code lang="none">mdB</code>,
      <code lang="none">ms</code>, <code lang="none">mc</code>, etc.<br>
      <br>
      For instance previously for pausing
      a script for one second, you had to write <code lang="nksp">wait(1000000)</code>,
      which still works, but now you can also just write <code lang="nksp">wait(1s)</code>.
      &nbsp;&nbsp;
      <a href="01_nksp_real_unit_final.html#units">Find out more ...</a>
    </p>

    <h3 id="finalness">NKSP Final Operator</h3>
    <p>
      The newly introduced "final" operator <code>!</code> in NKSP allows to
      force a synthesis parameter like e.g. volume or pitch to a specific value
      that should not be overridden by any other modulation source (e.g. neither
      from patch level, nor LFOs, nor from EGs, ...). This is sometimes helpful
      for being able to e.g. say in a script, "hey, the volume of this voice
      should be exactly -3dB, period. I mean it!", which is as simple as
      <code lang="nksp">change_vol($EVENT_ID, !-3dB)</code>
      &nbsp;&nbsp;
      <a href="01_nksp_real_unit_final.html#finalness">Find out more ...</a>
    </p>
    <img src="nksp_multi_mods_fin.png" caption="Force 'Finalness' by Script">

    <h3 id="functions">New Built-In NKSP Functions</h3>
    <p>
      Furthermore there are <b>23 new</b>
      <a href="01_nksp_reference.html#functions">built-in NKSP script functions</a>
      and <b>6 new</b> <a href="01_nksp_reference.html#variables">NKSP constants/variables</a>.<br>
      <br>
      There also <b>2 new event handler types</b> for processing MIDI <b>RPN events</b>:
    </p>
    <p>
      <code lang="nksp">
on rpn
  message("RPN address msb=" & msb($RPN_ADDRESS) & ",lsb=" & lsb($RPN_ADDRESS) &
          "-> value msb=" & msb($RPN_VALUE) & ",lsb="  & lsb($RPN_VALUE))
  if ($RPN_ADDRESS = 2)
    message("Standard Coarse Tuning RPN received")
  end if
end on
      </code>
    </p>
    <p>
      and for MIDI <b>NRPN events</b>:
    </p>
    <p>
      <code lang="nksp">
on nrpn
  message("NRPN address msb=" & msb($RPN_ADDRESS) & ",lsb=" & lsb($RPN_ADDRESS) &
          "-> value msb=" & msb($RPN_VALUE) & ",lsb="  & lsb($RPN_VALUE))
end on
      </code>
    </p>
    <p>
      <a href="01_nksp#rpn_event">Find out more ...</a>
    </p>

    <h3 id="patch_variables">NKSP Patch Variables</h3>
    <p>
      Instrument scripts give you great flexibility to achieve whatever exotic
      bahaviour you might have in mind for your sounds. Built-in patch
      parameters on the other hand, hard coded into the sampler engines and
      supported already by the underlying file format allow very quick and
      convenient parameter changes, e.g. simply by few clicks in the Gigedit
      instrument editor. What about having both?<br>
      <br>
      This is what the new NKSP "patch" variables are for. By simply declaring
      an instrument script variable with the new NKSP keyword <code>patch</code>
      you are publishing and exposing that variable as parameter in the
      instrument editor's patch parameters pane.<br>
      <br>
      Patch variables are shown and adjustable on a per instruments basis. So
      you can share a script among multiple instruments and override
      certain script parameters to customize the script behaviour for your
      individual instruments if needed. Gigedit shows you the default values of each patch
      variable. After changing a value of some of the variables the respective
      variable turns into a bold font, so you can immediately see which script
      parameters you have adjusted for the specific instrument and which not.
      By selecting one of the overridden variables and hitting the
      <b>Backspace</b> (&#9003;) key you can revert those variables back to
      their default values.
    </p>
    <p>
      <img src="nksp_new_patch_script_example_shot.png">
      <img src="gigedit_new_patch_vars_cut.png">
    </p>

    <h2 id="gig">GigaStudio Format Engine</h2>
    <p>
      For the GigaStudio/Gigasampler (.gig) format sampler engine several new
      format extensions have been added. Of course there are also many fixes for
      the gig engine in this release, but they are too many to list them here.
      Please refer to the
      <a href="http://svn.linuxsampler.org/cgi-bin/viewvc.cgi/linuxsampler/trunk/ChangeLog?view=markup">ChangeLog</a>
      for more details about all the corrections in this release.
    </p>

    <h3 id="lfo">LFO Extensions</h3>
    <p>
      You now have much more control over LFOs with the gig engine like
      selecting different LFO waveforms as sine, triangle, saw or square.
      GigaStudio had this limited to sine only. The default LFO wave form in
      LinuxSampler's gig engine has also changed to sine for that reason
      (instead of triangle in previous LinuxSampler versions). Additionally you
      can now also fine control the start phase of individual LFOs. In the
      original gig format you were only able to flip the phase.
    </p>
    <img src="gigedit_new_lfo_wave_forms.png">

    <h3 id="filters">New Filter Types</h3>
    <p>
      Furthermore there are now new audio filter types available for the Giga
      engine: new <b>lowpass 1/2/4/6-pole</b>, new <b>highpass 1/2/4/6-pole</b>,
      new <b>bandpass 2-pole</b>, and finally a <b>bandreject 2-pole</b> filter.<br>
      <br>
      You might say that some of
      those filter types existed before, and they still do and will continue to
      co-exist, but they simply sound differently. Keep in mind that the audio
      filters for the Giga engine were very carefully engineered to accurateley
      replicate the sounds as if being played with Tascam's GigaStudio, so that
      made and still makes sense. However you might simply like the sound of
      some of the new filter types more for certain reasons when creating your
      own gig instruments from scratch.
    </p>
    <img src="gigedit_new_audio_filter_types.png">

    <h2 id="sfz">SFZ Format Engine</h2>
    <p>
      On SFZ format engine side there are corrections for the SFZ opcodes
      <code lang="sfz">loccN</code>/<code lang="sfz">hiccN</code> and <code lang="sfz">xfin_hivel</code>.
    </p>

    <h2 id="tests">LinuxSampler Test Cases</h2>
    <p>
      For package maintainers: the LinuxSampler unit tests (which were broken
      before) have been fixed in this release and work now as expected. It is
      recommend for them to be run automatically to detect and prevent any OS
      issues that might cause misbehaviours for users. Just keep in mind the
      test cases als test the LSCP server which will listen on TCP port 8888
      during the tests. So make sure this port cannot be accessed from outside
      for security reasons.
    </p>

    <h2 id="gigedit">Gigedit 1.2.0</h2>
    <p>
      Our instrument editor for the GigaStudio/Gigasampler format also received
      many new features. Some of them have already been shown above among the
      new features in LinuxSampler.
    </p>

    <h3 id="script_editor">NKSP Standard Measuring Units</h3>
    <p>
      The real-time instrument script editor of Gigedit supports now syntax
      highlighting for LinuxSampler's new standard measuring units (kHz, c, ms,
      dB, etc.) feature of the NKSP script language.
    </p>
    <img src="gigedit_new_units_support_code_editor_shot.png">

    <h3 id="script_tab">New "Script" Tab</h3>
    <p>
      On the right hand side of Gigedit (the main working area actually) there
      is now a new tab "Script" which reveals a list of so called NKSP "patch"
      variables which have been <a href="#patch_variables">described above</a>
      among LinuxSampler's new features.
    </p>
    <img src="gigedit_new_patch_vars.png" caption="Gigedit's new 'Script' tab">

    <h3 id="sample_info">Sample Properties Dialog</h3>
    <p>
      A new dialog has been added to access the global settings and meta info of
      individual samples,
      similar to the meta info dialog that already existed for individual
      instruments.
    </p>
    <p>
      <img src="gigedit_new_sample_info_meta.png">
      <img src="gigedit_new_sample_info_settings.png">
    </p>

    <h3 id="gain">More Flexible Gain</h3>
    <p>
      Gain can now be set to any arbitary value between -96 dB .. +96 dB.
      Previously it was only possible to set gain to max. 0 dB and there was a
      checkbox which allowed a hard coded boost to exactly +6 dB. The previous
      appearance replicated the appearance of GigaStudio's original instrument editor.
    </p>
    <p>
    <img src="gigedit_more_flexible_gain_setting.png">
  The previous limitation of having just a single possible value for positive gain
  was unfortunate, but as it turned out this was actually not a limitation of
  the original gig file format. And in fact we have not added any gig file
  format extension for this reason to achieve this new freedom of arbitrary gain
  settings. So setting a positive gain of e.g. let's say +1.45 dB does not break
  compatibility of your sounds with GigaStudio.
    </p>

    <h3 id="convenience">Convenience Features</h3>
    <p>
      <img src="gigedit_spinbox_fine_tuning_steps.png">
      And last but not least various minor convenience functions have been added,
  for instance the default double click behaviour on instruments (which would
  open their meta info dialog) can now optionally be disabled, window size,
  position and vertical spliter position are now auto saved and restored (correctly) by default among
  Gigedit sessions.<br>
  <br>
  And the up/down buttons' steps have been individually
  adjusted to make more sense for the individual synthesis parameters they
  control. And regarding the latter: remember that the up/down steppers do 
  actually have two distinct operations per button: a regular left-mouse click
  for small changes and middle-mouse click for larger changes. Both have been
  adjusted appropriately for the individual synthesis parameters they control.
    </p>
    <img src="gigedit_new_instr_prop_by_double_click_opt.png">

    <h2 id="libgig">libgig 4.3.0</h2>
    <p>
      Our fundamental file access C++ library
      <a href="https://download.linuxsampler.org/doc/libgig/api/">libgig</a>
      has also received new features and corrections. Most of them deal with the
      Giga format extensions added by LinuxSampler, so they are obviously also
      added on libgig side. We are not going to repeat them here, because it should
      already be obvious from LinuxSampler's new features described above. There
      are however also new build requirements for libgig as follows.
    </p>

    <h3 id="uuid">UUID Function Required</h3>
    <p>
      From this release on (besides the new C++11 requirement) presence of some
      UUID generating function is required, which must be provided by the
      underlying OS. Previously
  the presence of an UUID generating function was optional in libgig for many
  years. Its absence in the past only meant that you were unable to load your
  own gig files (e.g. created from scratch with Gigedit by yourself) into
  Tascam's GigaStudio software, it did not mean though any restriction in
  conjunction with LinuxSampler in the past. The latter has changed in this
  release. Without UUIDs in gig files you would now also get misbehaviours
  even while staying entirely in the Linux eco space, and hence this is now a
  hard build requirement for libgig.
    </p>

    <h3 id="GigaStudio3">GigaStudio 3 Compatibility Fixes</h3>
    <p>
      And as always there are a various fixes in this release, foremost sane output
      compatibility with GigaStudio 3 was broken, so that GigaStudio version might
      not have accepted gig files changed by you with the prior version of libgig.
      This issue is now fixed in this release. Please refer to the
      <a href="http://svn.linuxsampler.org/cgi-bin/viewvc.cgi/libgig/trunk/ChangeLog?view=markup">ChangeLog</a>
      for other corrections in this release of libgig.
    </p>

    <h3 id="serialization">Serialization Framework</h3>
    <p>
  And last but not least libgig's <a href="https://download.linuxsampler.org/doc/libgig/api/namespaceSerialization.html#details">Serialization framework</a>
  was extended to support now
  various common C++ STL classes like <b>std::string</b>, <b>std::vector</b>,
  <b>std::map</b> and <b>std::set</b> out of the box. So no custom code is required aymore to
  serialize/deserialize such very common native C++ object types, which reduces
  code complexity for serializing/deserializing complex C++ projects a lot.
    </p>

  </body>
</html>
1	<html>
2	<head>
3	<meta name="author" content="Christian Schoenebeck">
4	<title>Release Notes LinuxSampler 2.2.0</title>
5	<navpath>LinuxSampler 2.2.0</navpath>
6	<meta name="description" content="Release notes for LinuxSampler 2.2.0.">
7	<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://doc.linuxsampler.org/css/preview.css">
8	<script type="text/javascript" src="https://doc.linuxsampler.org/js/preview.js"></script>
9	</head>
10	<body>
11	<h1>LinuxSampler 2.2.0</h1>
12	<p>
13	LinuxSampler 2.2.0 and friends were released on May 9th 2021. Almost two
14	years have passed since the
15	<a href="01_linuxsampler_2_1_1.html">previous release</a>. This time there
16	are a load of changes and especially many new features packed into this
17	release.
18	</p>
19
20	<h3 id="cpp14">C++11 / C++14 Requirement</h3>
21	<p>
22	Starting with <b>Gigedit 1.2.0</b> and <b>libgig 4.3.0</b> you now need at
23	least a <b>C++11</b>
24	compliant compiler to build them from source; and for building
25	<b>LinuxSampler 2.2.0</b> you now need at least a <b>C++14</b> compliant compiler.
26	Originally it was planned to only raise the minimum compiler
27	requirement to C++11 for LinuxSampler in this release as well, however
28	during this development cycle, some C++14 features came across which helped
29	to reduce code complexity in the LinuxSampler code base tremendously.
30	</p>
31
32	<h2 id="nksp">Real-Time Instrument Scripts</h2>
33	<p>
34	The <a href="01_nksp.html">NKSP</a> real-time instrument script engine has
35	received tremendous new features and improvements in this release, which
36	are outlined next.
37	</p>
38
39	<h3 id="64bit">64-Bit NKSP Integers</h3>
40	<p>
41	Instrument script variables of type integer
42	(e.g. <code lang="nksp">declare $foo := 4294967295</code>)
43	are now all 64-bit internally, which prevents unexpected side effects of
44	script authors due to potential integer overflows that easily had happened
45	before when integer script variables were just 32-bit wide.
46
47	<a href="01_nksp_real_unit_final.html#64bit">Find out more ...</a>
48	</p>
49
50	<h3 id="real_numbers">NKSP Real Numbers</h3>
51	<p>
52	On <a href="01_nksp.html">NKSP language</a> level there is now support for
53	floating point variables; both scalar types (e.g.
54	<code lang="nksp">declare ~foo := 3.94</code>
55	) and floating point arrays (e.g.
56	<code lang="nksp">declare ?foo[] = ( 1.6, 4.7 )</code>
57	).
58
59	<a href="01_nksp_real_unit_final.html#real_numbers">Find out more ...</a>
60	</p>
61
62	<h3 id="units">NKSP Standard Measuring Units</h3>
63	<p>
64	Another huge new NKSP language feature is
65	<a href="01_nksp_real_unit_final.html#units">support for standard measuring units</a>
66	like <code lang="none">Hz</code> (Hertz), <code lang="none">dB</code> (Decibel),
67	<code lang="none">s</code> (seconds), <code lang="none">c</code> (cents) in conjuction with
68	arbitrary metric prefixes like <code lang="none">kHz</code>, <code lang="none">mdB</code>,
69	<code lang="none">ms</code>, <code lang="none">mc</code>, etc.<br>
70	<br>
71	For instance previously for pausing
72	a script for one second, you had to write <code lang="nksp">wait(1000000)</code>,
73	which still works, but now you can also just write <code lang="nksp">wait(1s)</code>.
74
75	<a href="01_nksp_real_unit_final.html#units">Find out more ...</a>
76	</p>
77
78	<h3 id="finalness">NKSP Final Operator</h3>
79	<p>
80	The newly introduced "final" operator <code>!</code> in NKSP allows to
81	force a synthesis parameter like e.g. volume or pitch to a specific value
82	that should not be overridden by any other modulation source (e.g. neither
83	from patch level, nor LFOs, nor from EGs, ...). This is sometimes helpful
84	for being able to e.g. say in a script, "hey, the volume of this voice
85	should be exactly -3dB, period. I mean it!", which is as simple as
86	<code lang="nksp">change_vol($EVENT_ID, !-3dB)</code>
87
88	<a href="01_nksp_real_unit_final.html#finalness">Find out more ...</a>
89	</p>
90	<img src="nksp_multi_mods_fin.png" caption="Force 'Finalness' by Script">
91
92	<h3 id="functions">New Built-In NKSP Functions</h3>
93	<p>
94	Furthermore there are <b>23 new</b>
95	<a href="01_nksp_reference.html#functions">built-in NKSP script functions</a>
96	and <b>6 new</b> <a href="01_nksp_reference.html#variables">NKSP constants/variables</a>.<br>
97	<br>
98	There also <b>2 new event handler types</b> for processing MIDI <b>RPN events</b>:
99	</p>
100	<p>
101	<code lang="nksp">
102	on rpn
103	message("RPN address msb=" & msb($RPN_ADDRESS) & ",lsb=" & lsb($RPN_ADDRESS) &
104	"-> value msb=" & msb($RPN_VALUE) & ",lsb=" & lsb($RPN_VALUE))
105	if ($RPN_ADDRESS = 2)
106	message("Standard Coarse Tuning RPN received")
107	end if
108	end on
109	</code>
110	</p>
111	<p>
112	and for MIDI <b>NRPN events</b>:
113	</p>
114	<p>
115	<code lang="nksp">
116	on nrpn
117	message("NRPN address msb=" & msb($RPN_ADDRESS) & ",lsb=" & lsb($RPN_ADDRESS) &
118	"-> value msb=" & msb($RPN_VALUE) & ",lsb=" & lsb($RPN_VALUE))
119	end on
120	</code>
121	</p>
122	<p>
123	<a href="01_nksp#rpn_event">Find out more ...</a>
124	</p>
125
126	<h3 id="patch_variables">NKSP Patch Variables</h3>
127	<p>
128	Instrument scripts give you great flexibility to achieve whatever exotic
129	bahaviour you might have in mind for your sounds. Built-in patch
130	parameters on the other hand, hard coded into the sampler engines and
131	supported already by the underlying file format allow very quick and
132	convenient parameter changes, e.g. simply by few clicks in the Gigedit
133	instrument editor. What about having both?<br>
134	<br>
135	This is what the new NKSP "patch" variables are for. By simply declaring
136	an instrument script variable with the new NKSP keyword <code>patch</code>
137	you are publishing and exposing that variable as parameter in the
138	instrument editor's patch parameters pane.<br>
139	<br>
140	Patch variables are shown and adjustable on a per instruments basis. So
141	you can share a script among multiple instruments and override
142	certain script parameters to customize the script behaviour for your
143	individual instruments if needed. Gigedit shows you the default values of each patch
144	variable. After changing a value of some of the variables the respective
145	variable turns into a bold font, so you can immediately see which script
146	parameters you have adjusted for the specific instrument and which not.
147	By selecting one of the overridden variables and hitting the
148	<b>Backspace</b> (⌫) key you can revert those variables back to
149	their default values.
150	</p>
151	<p>
152	<img src="nksp_new_patch_script_example_shot.png">
153	<img src="gigedit_new_patch_vars_cut.png">
154	</p>
155
156	<h2 id="gig">GigaStudio Format Engine</h2>
157	<p>
158	For the GigaStudio/Gigasampler (.gig) format sampler engine several new
159	format extensions have been added. Of course there are also many fixes for
160	the gig engine in this release, but they are too many to list them here.
161	Please refer to the
162	<a href="http://svn.linuxsampler.org/cgi-bin/viewvc.cgi/linuxsampler/trunk/ChangeLog?view=markup">ChangeLog</a>
163	for more details about all the corrections in this release.
164	</p>
165
166	<h3 id="lfo">LFO Extensions</h3>
167	<p>
168	You now have much more control over LFOs with the gig engine like
169	selecting different LFO waveforms as sine, triangle, saw or square.
170	GigaStudio had this limited to sine only. The default LFO wave form in
171	LinuxSampler's gig engine has also changed to sine for that reason
172	(instead of triangle in previous LinuxSampler versions). Additionally you
173	can now also fine control the start phase of individual LFOs. In the
174	original gig format you were only able to flip the phase.
175	</p>
176	<img src="gigedit_new_lfo_wave_forms.png">
177
178	<h3 id="filters">New Filter Types</h3>
179	<p>
180	Furthermore there are now new audio filter types available for the Giga
181	engine: new <b>lowpass 1/2/4/6-pole</b>, new <b>highpass 1/2/4/6-pole</b>,
182	new <b>bandpass 2-pole</b>, and finally a <b>bandreject 2-pole</b> filter.<br>
183	<br>
184	You might say that some of
185	those filter types existed before, and they still do and will continue to
186	co-exist, but they simply sound differently. Keep in mind that the audio
187	filters for the Giga engine were very carefully engineered to accurateley
188	replicate the sounds as if being played with Tascam's GigaStudio, so that
189	made and still makes sense. However you might simply like the sound of
190	some of the new filter types more for certain reasons when creating your
191	own gig instruments from scratch.
192	</p>
193	<img src="gigedit_new_audio_filter_types.png">
194
195	<h2 id="sfz">SFZ Format Engine</h2>
196	<p>
197	On SFZ format engine side there are corrections for the SFZ opcodes
198	<code lang="sfz">loccN</code>/<code lang="sfz">hiccN</code> and <code lang="sfz">xfin_hivel</code>.
199	</p>
200
201	<h2 id="tests">LinuxSampler Test Cases</h2>
202	<p>
203	For package maintainers: the LinuxSampler unit tests (which were broken
204	before) have been fixed in this release and work now as expected. It is
205	recommend for them to be run automatically to detect and prevent any OS
206	issues that might cause misbehaviours for users. Just keep in mind the
207	test cases als test the LSCP server which will listen on TCP port 8888
208	during the tests. So make sure this port cannot be accessed from outside
209	for security reasons.
210	</p>
211
212	<h2 id="gigedit">Gigedit 1.2.0</h2>
213	<p>
214	Our instrument editor for the GigaStudio/Gigasampler format also received
215	many new features. Some of them have already been shown above among the
216	new features in LinuxSampler.
217	</p>
218
219	<h3 id="script_editor">NKSP Standard Measuring Units</h3>
220	<p>
221	The real-time instrument script editor of Gigedit supports now syntax
222	highlighting for LinuxSampler's new standard measuring units (kHz, c, ms,
223	dB, etc.) feature of the NKSP script language.
224	</p>
225	<img src="gigedit_new_units_support_code_editor_shot.png">
226
227	<h3 id="script_tab">New "Script" Tab</h3>
228	<p>
229	On the right hand side of Gigedit (the main working area actually) there
230	is now a new tab "Script" which reveals a list of so called NKSP "patch"
231	variables which have been <a href="#patch_variables">described above</a>
232	among LinuxSampler's new features.
233	</p>
234	<img src="gigedit_new_patch_vars.png" caption="Gigedit's new 'Script' tab">
235
236	<h3 id="sample_info">Sample Properties Dialog</h3>
237	<p>
238	A new dialog has been added to access the global settings and meta info of
239	individual samples,
240	similar to the meta info dialog that already existed for individual
241	instruments.
242	</p>
243	<p>
244	<img src="gigedit_new_sample_info_meta.png">
245	<img src="gigedit_new_sample_info_settings.png">
246	</p>
247
248	<h3 id="gain">More Flexible Gain</h3>
249	<p>
250	Gain can now be set to any arbitary value between -96 dB .. +96 dB.
251	Previously it was only possible to set gain to max. 0 dB and there was a
252	checkbox which allowed a hard coded boost to exactly +6 dB. The previous
253	appearance replicated the appearance of GigaStudio's original instrument editor.
254	</p>
255	<p>
256	<img src="gigedit_more_flexible_gain_setting.png">
257	The previous limitation of having just a single possible value for positive gain
258	was unfortunate, but as it turned out this was actually not a limitation of
259	the original gig file format. And in fact we have not added any gig file
260	format extension for this reason to achieve this new freedom of arbitrary gain
261	settings. So setting a positive gain of e.g. let's say +1.45 dB does not break
262	compatibility of your sounds with GigaStudio.
263	</p>
264
265	<h3 id="convenience">Convenience Features</h3>
266	<p>
267	<img src="gigedit_spinbox_fine_tuning_steps.png">
268	And last but not least various minor convenience functions have been added,
269	for instance the default double click behaviour on instruments (which would
270	open their meta info dialog) can now optionally be disabled, window size,
271	position and vertical spliter position are now auto saved and restored (correctly) by default among
272	Gigedit sessions.<br>
273	<br>
274	And the up/down buttons' steps have been individually
275	adjusted to make more sense for the individual synthesis parameters they
276	control. And regarding the latter: remember that the up/down steppers do
277	actually have two distinct operations per button: a regular left-mouse click
278	for small changes and middle-mouse click for larger changes. Both have been
279	adjusted appropriately for the individual synthesis parameters they control.
280	</p>
281	<img src="gigedit_new_instr_prop_by_double_click_opt.png">
282
283	<h2 id="libgig">libgig 4.3.0</h2>
284	<p>
285	Our fundamental file access C++ library
286	<a href="https://download.linuxsampler.org/doc/libgig/api/">libgig</a>
287	has also received new features and corrections. Most of them deal with the
288	Giga format extensions added by LinuxSampler, so they are obviously also
289	added on libgig side. We are not going to repeat them here, because it should
290	already be obvious from LinuxSampler's new features described above. There
291	are however also new build requirements for libgig as follows.
292	</p>
293
294	<h3 id="uuid">UUID Function Required</h3>
295	<p>
296	From this release on (besides the new C++11 requirement) presence of some
297	UUID generating function is required, which must be provided by the
298	underlying OS. Previously
299	the presence of an UUID generating function was optional in libgig for many
300	years. Its absence in the past only meant that you were unable to load your
301	own gig files (e.g. created from scratch with Gigedit by yourself) into
302	Tascam's GigaStudio software, it did not mean though any restriction in
303	conjunction with LinuxSampler in the past. The latter has changed in this
304	release. Without UUIDs in gig files you would now also get misbehaviours
305	even while staying entirely in the Linux eco space, and hence this is now a
306	hard build requirement for libgig.
307	</p>
308
309	<h3 id="GigaStudio3">GigaStudio 3 Compatibility Fixes</h3>
310	<p>
311	And as always there are a various fixes in this release, foremost sane output
312	compatibility with GigaStudio 3 was broken, so that GigaStudio version might
313	not have accepted gig files changed by you with the prior version of libgig.
314	This issue is now fixed in this release. Please refer to the
315	<a href="http://svn.linuxsampler.org/cgi-bin/viewvc.cgi/libgig/trunk/ChangeLog?view=markup">ChangeLog</a>
316	for other corrections in this release of libgig.
317	</p>
318
319	<h3 id="serialization">Serialization Framework</h3>
320	<p>
321	And last but not least libgig's <a href="https://download.linuxsampler.org/doc/libgig/api/namespaceSerialization.html#details">Serialization framework</a>
322	was extended to support now
323	various common C++ STL classes like <b>std::string</b>, <b>std::vector</b>,
324	<b>std::map</b> and <b>std::set</b> out of the box. So no custom code is required aymore to
325	serialize/deserialize such very common native C++ object types, which reduces
326	code complexity for serializing/deserializing complex C++ projects a lot.
327	</p>
328
329	</body>
330	</html>