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Version 2.2.0 (9 May 2021) |
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There are a load of changes in this release. Many new features, many fixes, |
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but also new requirements. |
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Starting with this release of LinuxSampler you now need at least a C++14 |
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compliant compiler. Originally it was planned to only raise the minimum |
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compiler requirement to C++11 in this release, however during this development |
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cycle some C++14 features came across which helped to reduce code complexity |
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in the LinuxSampler code base tremendously. |
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The NKSP real-time instrument script engine has received tremendous new |
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features and improvements in this release. Instrument script variables of type |
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integer (e.g. $foo) are now all 64-bit internally, which prevents unexpected |
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side effects of script authors due to integer overflows that easily had |
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happened before when integer script variables were just 32-bit wide. On NKSP |
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language level there is now support for floating point variables; both scalar |
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types (e.g. ~foo = 3.93) and floating point arrays |
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(e.g. ?foo[] = ( 1.6, 4.7 ) ). Another huge new NKSP language feature is |
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support for standard measuring units like Hz (Hertz), dB (Decibel), |
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s (seconds), c (cents) in conjuction with arbitrary metric prefixes like kHz, |
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mdB, ms, mc, etc. The newly introduced "final" operator "!" in NKSP allows to |
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force a synthesis parameter like e.g. volume or pitch to a specific value that |
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should not be overridden by any other modulation source (e.g. neither from |
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patch level, nor LFOs, nor from EGs, ...). This is sometimes helpful for being |
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able to e.g. say in a script, "hey, the volume of this voice should be exactly |
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-3dB, period. I mean it!". Furthermore there are 23 new built-in NKSP script |
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functions and 6 new NKSP constants/variables. There also two new event handler |
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types for processing MIDI RPN events ("on rpn ... end on") and for MIDI NRPN |
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events ("on nrpn ... end on") in instrument scripts. And last but not least |
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there are now "patch" variables supported in instrument scripts which allow to |
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expose individual script variables to instrument editors for quick and easy |
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fine tuning of certain instrument script aspects on a per-instrument basis. |
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The Giga format engine adds various format extensions. For instance you now |
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have much more control over LFOs like selecting different LFO waveforms as |
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sine, triangle, saw or square. GigaStudio had this limited to sine only. The |
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default LFO wave form in LinuxSampler's gig engine has also changed to sine |
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for that reason (instead of triangle in previous LinuxSampler versions). |
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Additionally you can now also fine control the start phase of individual LFOs. |
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In the original gig format you were only able to flip the phase. Furthermore |
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there are now new audio filter types available for the Giga engine: new lowpass |
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1/2/4/6-pole, new highpass 1/2/4/6-pole, new bandpass 2-pole, and finally a |
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bandreject 2-pole filter. You might say that some of those filter types |
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existed before, and they still do and will continue to co-exist, but they |
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simply sound differently. Keep in mind that the audio filters for the Giga |
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engine were very carefully designed to accurateley replicate the sounds as if |
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being played with Tascam's GigaStudio, so that made and still makes sense. |
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However you might simply like the sound of some of the new filter types more |
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for certain reasons when creating your own gig instruments from scratch. And |
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as always there are various fixes for the gig engine in this release as well. |
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On SFZ format engine side there are corrections for the SFZ opcodes |
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loccN/hiccN and xfin_hivel. |
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There are various other fixes that apply to all sampler engines, please refer |
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to the ChangeLog for more details. |
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For package maintainers: the unit tests (which were broken before) have been |
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fixed in this release and work now as expected. It is recommend for them to be |
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run automatically to detect and prevent any OS issues that might cause |
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misbehaviours for users. Just keep in mind the test cases also test the LSCP |
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server which will listen on TCP port 8888 during the tests. So make sure this |
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port cannot be accessed from outside for security reasons. |
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Version 2.1.1 (27 Jul 2019) |
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This is a maintenance release with various fixes. There are only two |
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minor new features in this release: |
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The Giga format engine adds a format extension which allows sound |
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designers to define whether release trigger samples shall be played when |
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the sustain pedal is released. In the previous release this was actually |
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the default behaviour by the sampler, but meanwhile there was a consensus |
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on the mailing list that release samples being triggered by sustain pedal |
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is not the common, expected behaviour. So this is no longer the default |
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behaviour, but you can still opt in to this old behaviour by using this |
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new format extension option (i.e. by using latest release version of |
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libgig and gigedit and enabling the respective checkbox for your |
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gig instrument). If you don't enable this option then release samples are |
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now only triggered by note-off events. |
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The sfz engine adds support for the commonly used built-in sample |
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'*silence' of the sfz format. It does what you think it does; it |
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instructs the sampler to play no sound at all. This is commonly used |
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in sfz files for instance for the lowest velocity switch to not play any |
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sample. With the previous release trying to load sfz files which used this |
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built-in sample caused a file loading error. There are various other |
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commonly used built-in samples in sfz files which you can denote by the |
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leading star character in the sample name, however the '*silence' one is |
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currently the only supported built-in sample by our sfz engine yet. Trying |
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to load sfz files which are using other built-in samples does not prevent |
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your instrument from being loaded by the sampler, however you will get a |
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warning message on the console that the built-in sample is not supported |
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yet and the sampler will simply play silence for that non supported |
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built-in sample. |
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Version 2.1.0 (25 November 2017) |
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This release adds a large amount of extensions and improvements for the |
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real-time instrument scripting support of LinuxSampler (NKSP). |
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For example 48 new built-in NKSP functions and 21 new built-in NKSP |
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variables have been added. Also the NKSP language itself was extended. |
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Most notably the script engine now has an execution scheduler which is |
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the basis for many of the timing relevant new NKSP features in this |
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release, like programmatically suspending and resuming scripts for an |
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exact amount of time or triggering or killing notes at very precise |
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times. Bitwise operators have been added to NKSP, as well as support for |
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read only built-in variables, "synchronized" code blocks |
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("synchronized .. end synchronized"), user declared functions and user |
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declared const array variables have been added to the NKSP language, |
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and automatic suspension of RT threatening scripts by the RT script engine |
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has been implemented. Also syntax error messages with NKSP scripts have |
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been improved to output more clear and user friendly error messages, as |
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well as NKSP editor API has been improved which brings handy new features |
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to gigedit's NKSP script editor like automatically graying out code blocks |
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which are disabled by NKSP preprocessor statements. |
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The SFZ engine now supports <global>, <master>, #define and set_ccN |
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statements. And finally the SFZ engine now supports NKSP real-time |
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instrument scripts as well by adding a new "script" opcode. |
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Also the Instruments Database feature has received important maintenance |
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fixes. Before this release the instrument DB feature was barely usable |
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for quite some time. Fundamental instruments DB issues have been fixed in |
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this release to finally consider this feature stable again. |
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And finally this release provides a huge amount of general bug fixes. |
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Version 2.0.0 (15 July 2015) |
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The sampler's code base has seen substantial changes in the last six years, |
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since the last release of LinuxSampler. The sampler engine code base has |
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been unified to a set of abstract base classes which cleared the way for |
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two new sampler engines: The SFZ2 format engine (.sfz) and the SoundFont 2 |
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engine (.sf2). So LinuxSampler is not limited to the GigaStudio/Gigasampler |
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format (.gig) anymore. Another major new feature is support for real-time |
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instrument scripts, which may be bundled with sound files to extend the |
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sampler with custom behavior for individual sounds. You may know such scripts |
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from commercial software samplers. Find out more about instrument scripts |
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on http://doc.linuxsampler.org/Instrument_Scripts/. At the moment this |
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scripting feature is yet limited to the Giga format engine. Also noteworthy |
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is the new command line application "lscp", which is a text based shell for |
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controlling the sampler from the command line, providing colored output, |
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type completion, help text while typing LSCP commands and other convenient |
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features. You may now also load external effects directly into the sampler |
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(only LADSPA plugins yet). The LSCP network protocol (v1.7) has been extended |
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to manage such effects respectively. Also new with latest LSCP version is the |
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ability to trigger MIDI CCs by LSCP commands. You may have heard that the |
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GigaStudio software has seen its last version with GigaStudio 4. Tascam |
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officially discontinued this product, its intellectual property has been sold |
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several times among companies and there is currently no way to buy a new copy |
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of GigaStudio anymore. However the GigaStudio format is still under active |
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development with LinuxSampler. We not only added support for the latest |
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features introduced with GigaStudio 4: iMIDI rules for example which allow to |
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trigger notes by MIDI CC and allow i.e. defining a set of legato samples; for |
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the first time ever we also added our own extensions to the Giga format: one |
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of it is the previously mentioned new instrument scripting feature and a more |
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minor extension is support for various other MIDI CCs which were never |
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supported by GigaStudio before. The sampler's host plugins have also seen |
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some enhancements: the LV2 plugin now stores and restores the sampler's |
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overall state with your DAW application's song, the LV2 and AudioUnit |
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plugin's outputs were increased from 2 audio channels to 16 upon request by |
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some users and the VST plugin now uses the sampler's MIDI instrument mapping |
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system to show a list of available sounds to allow the user to switch among |
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them. And last but not least the VST plugin may also be used on Mac now. |
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Version 1.0.0 (31 July 2009) |
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This is the first release which allows the sampler to be used as audio |
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host plugin, namely supporting the standards VST, AU, DSSI and LV2. The |
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sampler's limits for max. voices & disk streams can now be altered at |
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runtime by frontends, no need to recompile the sampler anymore. The Mac |
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version now also supports CoreAudio as audio driver. The Windows version |
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finally supports the sampler's instruments DB feature as well, however |
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expect it still to be unstable at this point. Along to the already |
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existing JACK audio driver, Jack MIDI support has been added in this |
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release. The sampler allows frontends now basic MIDI control, that is to |
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monitor incoming MIDI data on MIDI input devices and sampler channels and |
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to send note-on and note-off MIDI events to sampler channels, which |
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allows frontends to provide a virtual MIDI keyboard to the user. Besides |
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these major changes there were countless bugfixes and optimizations. |
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Version 0.5.1 (6 December 2007) |
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This is the first release for the Windows platform, providing a MME MIDI |
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input driver and ASIO audio output driver. Note that the instruments DB |
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feature is not yet available for Windows systems, since the respective |
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code base has yet to be ported. Needless to say that there still might be |
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plenty of issues on MS systems. Beside that support for Windows, this is |
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merely a bugfix release (i.e. fixing one serious crash) with only minor |
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new features. |
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Version 0.5.0 (15 October 2007) |
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This release comes with a bunch of important new features. We implemented |
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a very powerful and easy MIDI program change mapping, which not only |
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allows you to define which instrument to load on which MIDI program |
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change number (and bank select number), it also allows further parameters |
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like whether the instrument shall be pre-cached or loaded only when needed |
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(and likewise freed when not needed). You can create arbitrary amount of |
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effect sends for each sampler channel, each having an arbitrary MIDI |
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controller for controlling the effect send level in realtime and can |
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flexible be routed to some of the sampler's audio output channel, i.e. |
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to a dedicated one for a certain effect type. The new instruments |
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database allows you to keep track even of largest instrument library |
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collections. You can order them in categories and search by various |
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criteria. The sampler now allows third party applications to offer so |
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called 'instrument editor plugins' which the sampler can use to spawn |
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an appropriate instrument editor application for a selected instrument |
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and for allowing to edit instruments with such an external editor |
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application on-the-fly, that is all modifications made with the editor |
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will immediately be audible with the sampler. No need to reload instrument |
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files anymore. Checkout our brand new instrument editor application called |
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'gigedit' which you can use for this feature. Loading huge instruments may |
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take a long time, that's why the sampler now allows to play an instrument |
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while loading. That way you can i.e. play and hold notes on the keyboard |
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while loading a new instrument on the same sampler channel at the same |
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time. Beside these new features, you can find the common huge list of bug |
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fixes and quality improvements. |
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Version 0.4.0 (24 November 2006) |
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Finally a new release after a long development cycle. The sampler now has |
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a completely revised synthesis core. Note that due to this, most of the |
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assembly code became incompatible and is thus deactivated at compile |
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time. So don't bother trying to activate the assembly option, it won't |
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compile! That's not an issue though, because even without assembly, the |
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new synthesis core is faster than the old one with assembly. The |
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Gigasampler engine now has real support for 24 bit samples, that is they |
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won't be truncated anymore, and finally supports all filter types of the |
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Gigasampler format. A lot of effort has been put into making all filters |
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under all parameters being as accurate as possible, compared to the |
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original Gigasampler ones. Analogue to hardware mixers, sampler channels |
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can now be muted and solo-ed and there is support for GM portamento and |
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GM mono mode (single note per channel) as well as support for sostenuto |
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pedal. Beside LSCP, third-party applications can now also link against |
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liblinuxsampler directly (using the sampler's C++ API). Beside these, |
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there have been of course a huge bunch of fixes and quality improvements. |
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Version 0.3.3 (15 July 2005) |
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Another bug fix release. It solves one usability issue regarding small |
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fragments / high sampling rates of audio drivers, fixes some compile time |
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errors with GCC 4.0 and fixes a minor efficiency bug. |
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Version 0.3.2 (24 June 2005) |
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This is more or less just a bug fix release. Beside a bunch of little |
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fixes it solves a serious crash in conjunction with voice stealing and |
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slightly improves Gigasampler format playback accuracy. |
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