Revision history

Version 12.9

• Added support for reading sound banks from several old E-mu synthesizers — the E-mu Emulator (.E1B/.E1H), Emulator II (.EII), Emulator III (.EB3/.E3B), Emulator IIIx (.E3X), ESI-32 (.ESI), Emax (.EB1/.EM1), and Emax II (.EB2/.EM2).
  
• The Read from Sampler CD command has received its own toolbar button, and the dialog is now displayed in the property inspector pane. The remainder of the former IO menu has moved to the Tools menu. In addition to the Read button, you can now also import from a Sampler CD by double-clicking on a file in CD contents list, or by dragging it to the left-hand panes.
  
• A single MIDI SDS Transfer command replaces the formerly separate Send/Receive commands. It also has its own toolbar button, and is displayed in the property inspector pane. When it is opened, it is always "live" for receiving waveforms. A Request button can ask the other end to initiate a transfer. A Send button initiates transmission of waveforms. Which waves are sent is selected from a new Waveforms to send list. The order in the list determines the order in which they are sent. You can rearrange it by dragging items, or by using up/down arrow buttons. You can also remove items using an X button or the delete key. If anything is selected in the waveforms list, only these selected waves are sent. If nothing is selected, all waveforms in the list are sent. Another new feature is an Auto option for the transfer bit-depth.
  
• Finally, don't worry, this won't be the last of "version 12.x" — the series will continue with more minor version updates; v12.10, v12.11, ...
  

Version 12.8

• Waveform markers serve new purposes:
  
  • They now have a type: Position, Section, or Loop points. The latter can have decimal positions, as well as a Loop type and a Play count.
    
  • Waveforms now have a default loop marker, replacing the earlier loop parameters. Additional, alternative loop markers, can also be added (use the + button in the Loop editor).
    
  • Regions now have Play section and Loop section selections, replacing the earlier waveform start/end offsets and loop override parameters. The play section can be set to either Play entire waveform, or to any marker defined in the linked waveform (for position markers, it will start playing at the position and continue until the end). The loop section can be set to Default loop, No looping, or any loop marker defined in the waveform. There is also a new preview of the linked waveform, with the current loop and play sections illustrated.
    
  • The Marker editor has become a separate tab in the waveform properties, with expanded functionality. You can select multiple markers to delete in one go. There's Delete all markers and Play marker buttons. The Space key will also play a marker in the list, the Insert key adds a new, while the Delete key removes. View in editor switches to the waveform editor and zooms in on the selected marker, while View regions selects regions referencing it. There is also a new waveform overview that you can left-click on to select a marker, right-click to Add new position marker here, or right-drag to Add new section marker here.
    
  • Added Split sections/slices into separate waves and Combine waveforms into a sliced wave to the Audio processing wizard. The former can also remap regions to the use the new split waves, while the latter can undo the process of the former.
    
• Usability improvements:
  
  • In envelope graphs, segments that neither have any value set on the current level, nor are selected for editing, are now drawn in gray (red if selected, or blue if a value is set).
    
  • The region visualizations in the layer and instrument properties now have faint lines that indicate the region root key.
    
  • Added Fade in/Fade out commands to the waveform editor context menu when you have selected the beginning or the end of a waveform (keyboard shortcut: F).
    
  • The layer Drum kit editor now allows selecting multiple keys to do Clear keys (the Delete key also works). And there is a new |> button for playing the currently selected waveform (the Space key does the same if the keys list or the vel-splits list is in focus).
    
  • The Renumber instruments function in the Instrument processing wizard now has two options — to renumber all instruments in a collection sequentially, or to add an adjustment to the selected list of instruments (e.g. -1 to decrease by one).
    
  • The Normalize function now has an option to Normalize l/r stereo channels separately, useful if the stereo balance is off.
    
  • Added a Product text meta data field to the collection (currently supported only by .SF2/.SF3).
    
  • The About dialog is now displayed in the property pane.
    
• File format improvements:
  
  • Added support for reading and writing newer Reason NN-XT files using Unicode strings (.SXT).
    
  • Added support for reading .EXS files referencing waves in .CAFF files. For "consolidated" .EXS files, where all waves are merged into in a big wave, it will now add marker sections for each slice and set up region play sections.
    
  • For Renoise .XRNI instruments using slices, it will no longer automatically unslice it, but use region play sections instead.
    
  • When reading Kontakt .NKI files using slices (v4 or earlier), the slices are now added as marker sections.
    
  • When saving alternate groups to .SFZ, it will now use the lorand/hirand opcodes rather than seq_position/seq_length. It will also try to convert these opcodes into alternate groups when reading.
    
  • Many minor bug-fixes.
    

Version 12.7

• Unicode is now supported for text meta data. While only a few file formats supports it today, it is likely to become more common. When you save to a format that use a more limited character set, it will try to convert the characters. Note however, that it won't succeed very well with non-Latin-based characters (it will attempt to transliterate Greek and Cyrillic letters). Also note that the Ensure that every waveform or instrument name is unique program option will make sure that names are also unique when encoded in Latin-1.
  
• Added support for image meta data for waveforms. This is typically used to store an album cover for music tracks. In the waveform General tab, next to the comment section, there is a small image thumbnail, and +/- buttons to set or clear the image. A larger version is shown on the Player tab. File formats that support images are .AAC, .APE, .FLAC, .MP2, .MP3, .MPC, .OGG, .OPOUS, .WMA, and .WV, and supported image formats are .JPG, .PNG, and .GIF.
  
• Added support for reading and writing Renoise instruments (.XRNI). This includes conversion of modulation sets and an effects device chain.
  
• Added support for lossless FLAC compression for .SF3 files. Note that this is a highly informal standard, and only some apps supporting .SF3 will read FLAC data. Therefore, you need to explicitly select FLAC 16/24-bit as the data format when saving if you want it - selecting <Auto> will not write FLAC. When saving with FLAC compression, it will automatically choose between 16 and 24 bits depending on the Preferred data format of each waveform. Also, it will now only save compressed waveforms when the compressed data is actually smaller than the uncompressed data (applies to both OGG and FLAC - for very short waveforms, the compressed version is often larger).
  
• For .SF2 files, following the example of Polyphone, the undefined "loop mode 2" is now interpreted as unlooped and "trigger on key release".
  
• Added support for reading and writing cue points/markers/regions in .AIFF, .CAFF, .W64, and .WAV files. These will show up as markers in the waveform editor. Editing them is a bit hidden — you need to right click on a position in the wave graph to find Add marker here, Add marker from selection, and Edit markers.
  
• Korg and Kurzweil waves can have an alternate start point (used e.g. for legato playing). These will now be translated to an AltStart marker, and also retained when saving. Note however, than it won't preserve Kurzweil keymap AltMethod/AltControl settings when saving. When reading, if AltControl is to On, then the AltStart is set to the region wave start offset.
  
• .AIFF and .CAFF files can store a release loop in addition to a sustain loop. If different from the sustain loop, it will be translated to a ReleaseLoop marker for the waveform, and also retained when saving.
  
• Added Convert loop to marker and Convert marker to loop functions to the Audio processing wizard.
  
• Added support for saving an "smpl-chunk" (containing loop point, root key, fine-tune, and volume adjustment) in .FLAC files using the "--keep-foreign-metadata" method.
  
• Added EBU RF64 support for reading/writing .WAV files larger than 4GB (64-bit version only, and you'll need enough RAM).
  
• Added support for reading Decent Sampler library files (.DSLIBRARY).
  
• Added support for reading AKAI MPC expansions (.XPN).
  
• When saving AKAI S1000/S3000 samples (.S), it will now calculate a tuning adjustment if the sample rate is not 44100 or 22050 Hz (the rates supported by the hardware).
  
• The many tabs of the old program preferences dialog have been replaced with three larger Options tabs, shown in the inspector pane.
  
• Added a Wave playback volume option, allowing you to lower the playback volume when using the play buttons in e.g. the waveform and loop editors, in order to have it more in line with the volume from the auditioning synth.
  
• The Format text in names function in the Instrument processing wizard has two new options: Remove spaces and underscores and Limit to 7-bit ASCII character set.
  
• When saving instruments containing alternating trigger groups to file formats that do not support this, only one alternate is now saved, avoiding incorrectly layered sounds.
  
• The layer drum kit editor is now smarter in that it auto-selects the alphabetically next waveform to the previous split or key when you add a new split. You can also assign a waveform to a blank key by just selecting a waveform, no need to explicitly add a split first.
  
• In the Batch conversion wizard, pressing the space bar will now play the selected file.
  

Version 12.6

• Loop finder improvements:
  • It is very much faster.
  • It will align loop points to zero crossings.
  • Loop search range and minimum loop length options replace the earlier separate start/end ranges. A min length of 0% will typically find single wave-cycle loops (which can sound static, so forcing it longer can be a good idea). The search range is illustrated in the preview graph.
  • Added tool-tips to explain the options.
  • A new option to find a fractional loop start point.
  • A new option to find a loop tuning.
  • A new option to apply a gentle High-Pass filter.
• A Player tab in the Song properties replaces the MIDI player dialog, with several improvements:
  • A channel-activity overview is shown in a clickable timeline with a position indicator.
  • The MIDI score bar position is shown in addition to the time (may not be accurate if time signature metadata is absent).
  • A list with per-channel information shows VU-meters, currently playing instruments, and track names (if any).
  • You can Solo or Mute individual channels (click the leftmost dot in the channel list to toggle Solo, right- or ctrl-click to toggle Mute).
  • Lyrics metadata are shown in the status bar below the player as you play a song.
• A Player tab in the waveform properties replaces the Audio player dialog, with some improvements:
  • A waveform overview is shown in a clickable timeline with a position indicator.
  • The spectrum display option is larger, smoother, and better.
    
• The internal auditioning synthesizer loads wave data much faster.
• Edit boxes with numerical values can now edited by scrolling the mouse wheel when the cursor is above it (hold down Shift for finer increments, or Control for coarser).
• Envelope editors now have mouse support. The segment beneath the cursor is highlighted and can be edited either using the mouse wheel, or by dragging with the left mouse button. Hold down Shift for finer adjustments. Hold down Control to zoom the graph.
• The 2D keymap editor in the layer properties now lets you grab the inside of a region box to move the whole region as a stiff block if you hold down the Control key. (You can of course still grab an edge to move just the boundary, as before).
• If you right-click the waveform editor graph, the context menu has a new option for stereo waves to Draw separate L/R tracks. It also holds an option to Fill area beneath wave, replacing the earlier graph-mode drop-down and freeing up space for a new amplitude-zoom slider.
• Added support for reading and writing AKAI S900 and AKAI S950 program/samples files (.P9/.S9).
• Added support for reading and writing 1010 Music Blackbox/Tangerine/Bitbox sampler preset format (preset.XML). You can either save a single instrument as "simple 4x4 pads", which assigns a single wave for each of the notes 36..51 to the 16 pads. Or you save either an instrument or a collection as "multisample", which saves multis for up to 16 instrument to the pads. Note that you must name the output file exactly "preset.xml" for it to be recognized by the hardware.
• The Adjust volume option in the Audio processing wizard now lets you choose between adjusting the volume parameter, or applying gain to the wavesamples.
• Added a Filter waveform function to the Audio processing wizard.
• Assorted bug fixes.

Version 12.5

• The Audio recording wizard has received several improvements aimed at making it easier to use for "auto sampling" an instrument:
  • It now has three modes: Record manually, Auto-sample a MIDI instrument and VSTi, where the latter two are new.
  • In the MIDI mode, after pressing Next, you will find a page where you select a MIDI output device and setup a note sequence that you want to record. Press Start to automatically play and record it all, proceeding to the processing page when done, where the recording is already split into waves for each note that was played.
  • In the VSTi mode, you select a VST instrument plug-in instead of an audio input on the first page. Press Next to select the note sequence that you want to record, then Start to capture it all. Note that this runs much faster than real-time, and gives a bit-exact recording. NB; this is currently limited to VST v2.x.
  • A live waveform graph is now displayed as audio is being recorded.
  • When you start a recording, it will now first spend two seconds measuring the ambient noise level before the actual recording begins. This improves the trim and split functions on the final processing page. The ambient level is indicated in light gray in the recording graph.
  • The input device selection page now has a Record in mono option that forces mono recording (for devices that are stereo only, this takes the first/left channel — no merging of left and right to avoid combing effects).
  • The processing page now have play and delete buttons.
• The audio playback in the loop editor, and in the waveform editor, can now handle all the loop types, as well as fractional loop points, not just integer forward loops. When playing in the loop editor, you will now hear changes immediately when you drag a slider or change a setting.
• You can now run auditioning, and other audio output, in exclusive mode. This is normally not recommended, as it prevents other applications from using the output device. But you now have the choice — running in exclusive mode do have the benefit of allowing you to specify the data format and sample rate.
• Removed support for auditioning using the Microsoft synthesizer. The built in software synthesizer is better in all respects.
• Added support for reading FXpansion DR-005 files (.DBK).
• Added caching of VST plug-in info, improving the speed of creating a VST plug-in list after the first time it has scanned the plug-ins.
• You can now add or remove VST search paths under Options→Preferences→Paths.
• Reworked the Split at silent sections function in the Audio processing wizard. It now has the parameters Trig level, Release level, Min silence, Min sound, Fade-in, Fade-out, Find zero crossing, and Keep post-release. New tool-tips give more into about the parameters. And the trig/release levels are shown in the preview graph.
• The program can now check if there is any updated version when you start it. You will be asked if you want it to do this when you first run it. Change it at any time under Options→Preferences→Miscellaneous.
• The Propagate down param edit delta option now has a toolbar button for toggling it, and to show its current state.
• If you try to save a collection that contains only a single instrument, you’ll now be presented not just with the file formats that can save collections, but also with those that only holds a single instrument.

Version 12.4

• Added support for reading and writing Nord Sample Editor 4 project files (.NSMPPROJ). Note that you need to open and resave the files in the Nord sample editor software in order to get an accompanying .NSMP or .NSMP3 binary that you can download to the Nord synthesizers.
  
• Added support for reading and writing Dream SND5000 formats (.XDB, .XDI, .XDD). Files for earlier versions of the Dream synths that use the same file extensions can also be read. Note that these are the XML-based files for the Dream editor software. You need the Dream bank compiler from the Dream SDK to compile them into banks that can be loaded to the hardware. There are two options for saving, "standard" or "NAND", indicating what memory type to be compatible with.
  
• When saving Korg banks (.PCG), it can now create per-key velocity splits for drum kits. For melodic instruments, it should do more accurate translations from layers with velocity splits to keymaps.
  
• Added support for key and velocity crossfading, called X-fade in the user interface. This means that regions may fade in at the lower end of its range, and/or fade out at its upper end. It is fully supported only for .SFZ and Kontakt .NKI file formats. It is also read-only supported for Akai S1000/S3000/S5000 (.P, .AKP), Korg M3/Kronos (.PCG), and Roland S-5xx and S7xx-series (.SDK). For SFZ/NKI you would normally specify this as a ramp, with a key or velocity point where the volume is zero, and another point where it is full volume. We do it a bit differently — you specify the key and a velocity range "as normal" for non-overlapping regions. The hi and lo values will be the centers for the X-fades. Then you specify the range of keys or velocities over which the fade should happen (the default 0 meaning no fade). This way makes it much easier to maintain compatibility with all of the file formats that do not support cross fading (although of course, for those it will switch abruptly from one region to the next instead of smoothly fading between them). An informational text will show you the corresponding ramp ranges: e.g. if it shows "C3 / C4 .. C5 \ C6", then it means that volume is zero at C3, ramps up to full at C4, remains constant up until C5, then ramps down to zero again at C6. If you do not want to see the X-fade parameters, you can disable them in the program "parameter set" settings.
  
• On the Options menu, there is a new choice to "Propagate down param edit delta". This may need a bit of an explanation — when editing an articulation parameter value, the delta of the value change is propagated down to any overrides set on lower levels of the instrument hierarchy. E.g. let’s say that you have set Pitch to +2 st on an instrument, and an override to -4 st on a layer below it. With the option disabled, if you change the instrument level value to +5 st, the override below it stays unchanged at -4 st. With the option enabled, the delta from the higher level – here an increase by +3 st, is added to the override on the lower level, in this case the layer override is changed from -4 to -1 st. Conceptually, it is still an override – i.e. values set on the different levels are not added during playback. But when editing instruments, the new behavior can be convenient, so that you when you adjust something higher up, everything below changes by an equal amount, without you having to look for any overrides that may be set lower down. Note that parameters that are not numbers, e.g. drop-down lists, are not be affected by this option.
  
• When you right click on an item, the "Process..." command now opens a sub-menu where you choose what processing algorithm to use. This bypasses the first “selection page” of the Audio/Instrument/Song processing wizards. If the chosen algorithm has no options, then it is executed directly, also bypassing the "Finish" page. If you want the old behavior, use Tools->Processing wizard, or the Ctrl-P keyboard short cut.
  
• The Instrument processing wizard now has an option to "Split layers with velocity splits".
  
• Added support for saving songs using the "Save all in multiple files" command. Songs now also show a "Source file" info in their properties.
  
• Added a new "Loop sanitizer/converter" to the Audio processing wizard, useful when making instruments for synthesizers that have specific requirements on loop points. In addition to new functionality, this supersedes three previous entries in the wizard. It has options to:
  
  • Convert alternating (bidirectional) loops to forward loops.
  • Convert reverse loops to forward loops.
  • Ensure that loops are a minimum of 32 samples in length (if a loop is shorter, it is replicated inside the new loop as many times as necessary).
  • Ensure that there are a minimum of 32 samples after the loop end point (copies samples from before the loop start, if needed).
  • Ensure that there are a minimum of 32 before the loop start point (adds zero padding to the start of the waveform, if necessary).
• In the program preferences "File load" tab, there is now an option to "Ensure that every waveform or instrument name is unique". It is on by default, and has always been enabled before, but now you may turn it off if you so prefer. If you do turn it off, be aware that if you save to a format that uses external wave files, one wave may overwrite another wave if they both have the same name.
  
• When dragging the right-hand pane split, it now adjusts the entire window width, so that the properties pane maintains its full width.
  
• A number of bug fixes.
  

Version 12.3

• A layer can now contain velocity splits, as well as key-splits, so long as the regions in the layer do not overlap on a two-dimensional key-velocity-map. Thus, a layer will never use more than one "voice". (In earlier versions, you had to use separate layers to do velocity splits – a legacy from a bygone age.)
  
• The layer properties now has a new two-dimensional region editor. The old keyboard-style view is still there too, as a convenience, but will not show you velocity splits. Note that region edges will by default stick to each other when you move an edge. To make them unstick, hold down the control key while dragging.
  
• The drum kit editor mode in the layer properties now shows a list of velocity splits for each key.
  
• Added an "Auto-merge layers with non-overlapping regions" option to the "File load" tab in the preferences – turned on by default.
  
• The save dialog now always has an "Auto" selection for the data and channel formats. If it determines that the same format will be chosen for all the waveforms, that is also indicated, e.g. "Auto <PCM 16-bit>".
  
• Added two new naming options to the "Save all in multiple files" dialog: "<number> - foo.bar" and "<number> - <name>.bar".
  
• When reading file formats with text metadata in Unicode format, most Greek and Cyrillic letters can now be transcribed into Latin-1.
  
• Reading instruments from .ISO image files now works for formats that reference external wave files.
  
• When reading or writing Yamaha Motif/Motif ES/EX5 formats (.W2V/.W7V/.S1V), it will now handle stereo waveforms as if they were interleaved stereo (even though they are actually stored as two mono keybanks with a stereo-pair flag).
  
• When writing AKAI .XPM files, it can now create up to four alternating layers playing on a pad (mutually exclusive to using velocity switching on the pad).
  
• When writing AKAI S-series .P files, it can now save up to four velocity splits within a key group.
  
• When writing AKAI MPC1000-series .PGM files, it can now save up to four velocity splits for a pad.
  
• When reading AKAI MPC3000 or MPC2000 .PGM files, it now understand "simult" and "vel sw"-modes, i.e. with up to three waves per pad.
  
• Refactored the internal item database.
  
• Updated the Opus codec to v1.4.
  
• Accumulated bug fixes.
  

Version 12.2

• Added support for reading and writing AKAI MPC X/Live/One/One+/Beats/Touch/Studio/Renaissance instrument files (.XPM + .WAV).
  NB; if you want to read .XPN files, you can rename them to .ZIP and unpack to extract the .XPM and .WAV files inside.
  
• Added support for reading and writing the unofficial compressed "SoundFont 3" format (.SF3).
  This is an extension to SF2 where you can choose to have all, or just selected waveforms compressed with OGG Vorbis.
  
• Improved support for NI Kontakt files (.NKI/.NKB/.NKM). In addition to Kontakt v1 to v4.1 files, which were supported before, it can now also read v4.2 and up to v7 files. The newer versions use an entirely different file format, but the synthesis architecture remains the same, and you will get the same level of conversion of LFOs, envelopes, filters and selected effect types. NB; encrypted commercial libraries still cannot be read.
  
• Added support for directly parsing ISO-9660 formatted disk images (.ISO). Either open the image file normally (which will read all instruments that it finds on the disk), or use the "I/O→Read from Sampler CD" dialog and click the "..." button to mount the disk image (which will allow you to select which files to read).
  
• Audio recording wizard improvements:
  
  • Support for audio device exclusive mode — on by default. This allows selection of sample rate, data format and channel format, and it will record the unmodified bits from the device, avoiding any sample rate and data format conversion.
    
  • Added an "Input volume" slider and merged the two first pages into one.
    
  • Added an "Auto adjust level" option, which listens to the input and tries to set a reasonable input level before you start recording.
    
  • Added a post-processing page, with options to trim the start/end and maximize the audio peak value, to split the recording at silent sections, to auto-detect the pitch, set the root key and add it to the waveform name, to auto-detect loop points, and to launch the "Create instrument wizard" with the new waveforms.
    
• When using the mouse wheel to zoom a wave (in the waveform properties), it now centers on the point underneath the mouse cursor. You can also hold the middle mouse button and drag to move the wave. And the zoom and scroll state will now be remembered for each wave.
  
• When saving instruments or collections using interleaved stereo to formats that only supports mono, it will now automatically convert stereo layers to dual mono layers. This should hopefully remove a very common source of confusion for novice users.
  NB; if you want to reverse the process when loading a file, then tick the "Auto-merge dual mono waveforms" option on the "File load" tab in the program preferences.
  
• When item names need to be truncated to fit within the limits of a specific file format, it is now smarter and tries to preserve -L/-R endings, as well as trailing numbers and note designations.
  
• Improved sorting of regions into layers when reading SF2 files.
  
• Writing Korg stereo keymaps should now work better (you still need save to .KSC in order to get two .KMP files output, but they should get the name endings fixed up for the synth to recognize it). Also improved writing of Kronos stereo drum kits.
  
• The "Auto loop finder" now leys you select what ranges to search for a loop — to control the approximate loop position, or to reduce the search time.
  
• Layer names now indicate the max velocity range used by its combined regions (if not 0..127) and it also shows L or R if everything is panned full left/right.
  
• The version number in the About dialog now includes maintenance release sub-version numbers.
  
• You can now use "Help→Check for Updates..." to check for new versions.
  
• Accumulated bug fixes.
  

Version 12.1

New "multi-item editing" support:


• Edit parameters for multiple items as quickly and as easily as for a single item. When more than one is selected, e.g. five regions, the property pane will show <5 regions> instead of a region name. If a parameter is the same for all of the items, it is drawn in gray (inherited values) or in blue (overrides), as before. But if it has different values for different items, then it is left blank. Just type in a new value to set it for all of the selected items, or clear the box to reset it to inherit its value from the parent levels.
  

Improved visualizations:


• The various visualization graphs (waveforms, envelopes, audio player et c) now use anti-aliased line drawing for better visuals.
  
• The Equalizer section now has a graph to visualize it. A secondary purpose of this is that you can right-click it to select Copy/Paste EQs.
  
• The Filter section now has a visual graph. Again, a secondary purpose is to right click it to select Copy/Paste Filter.
  
• You can now use the mouse scroll wheel to zoom in waveform graphs (control keys and mouse buttons variously modify the function).
  

More new features:


• The "auto-select collection items" and "auto-select waveforms" options are now much more responsive when working with large collections.
  
• The various "Read <format> CD" commands on the I/O menu have been replaced by a single "Read Sampler CD" command, which will auto-detect the disk format.
  
• You can now read Sampler CD disk image files directly (.ISO). NB; only AKAI/Roland/Ensoniq/Kurzweil native formats are supported for now - it won't read UDF or ISO-9660 formatted disk images.
  
• You can now use VST plug-ins that don't have a UI. When there's no UI, it'll show a simple VST parameter editor instead.
  
• When the Batch conversion wizard is in 'Collections' mode, and you input a file with only waveforms, no instruments, then instruments will be created from the waveforms. When in 'Waveforms' mode, if you input a MIDI song, it will be rendered to a waveform.
  
• On the Options menu, there's two new choices: "Auto-audition waveforms" and "Auto-audition collection". When enabled, this plays any waveform or collection item for 1s when you click on it.
  
• The MIDI Player dialog now has an option to visualize velocity per note instead of note count per track.
  
• Added support for reading waveforms from Yamaha SY99 all files (.T01).
  
• Added support for reading waveforms from Yamaha SY85 all files (.G01).
  
• Improved compatibility with PlayStation 2 wave files (.VAG).
  
• Added support for one more type of Sony PS2 sound files (.ADS/.SS2).
  
• Add support for reading Roland S-550 CD-ROMs.
  
• Added support for reading Korg PA2X/PA3X/PA4X/PA5X wave files (.PCM). Note that compressed waves can not be read.
  
• When reading an Audio CD, metadata is now fetched from gnudb.org.
  
• Blue collection tree icon outlines replaces the earlier red flash for indicating articulation overrides.
  
• Many smaller tweaks and improvements.
  

Version 12.0

• There is now an Undo/Redo-system.
  
• There is also a new Navigation history with Forward/Backward buttons on the tool bar. This allows you to backtrack your path through the property tabs. You can also use mouse button 4/5, much like in web-browsers.
  
• The previous Save/Restore state commands have moved to a bookmark icon and drop-list on the toolbar.
  
• The pop-up property dialogs have been retired. In their place is a new "property inspector pane” filling the right-hand side of the main window. This works much like the former auto-properties function, but is smoother and fits much more info on each tab. A note on keyboard navigation: Tab/shift-Tab toggles between the collection and waveform panes, or navigates among the controls in the property pane. Control-Tab/control-shift-Tab navigates among the property pane tabs - and when reaching the left- or rightmost of them, it continues to the most recently used of the collection and waveform panes.
  
• Articulation parameters can now be individually overridden on any level of an instrument, where before you could only override all or nothing. Unless a level is disabled in the parameter set setup, you’ll see articulation tabs on regions, layers and instruments. Values that are inherited from a parent level are shown in gray. Values that are activate overrides are shown in blue. To clear an override, and reset it to inherit the parent value, just remove the value from the edit box (delete the numbers and to leave it blank). Or for drop-lists, select the first blank entry in the list.
  
• There are now four envelopes and four LFOs – one of each for volume, pitch, filter and pan. When working with formats that don’t support this, you can disable it in the parameter set (uncheck "Envs: Separate P/V/F/X envelopes" and "LFOs: Separate P/V/F/X LFOs"). That turns it back to the way it was earlier (V-ENV + M-ENV and P-LFO + M-LFO).
  
• The region overrides for waveform volume and fine tuning have been removed. In their place, use the volume and pitch parameters on the articulation tabs. NB; if you disable region level articulation in the parameter set, you'll still have region level volume and pitch parameters, but now located on the region general tab instead.
  
• The region root key, waveform start/end, and loop overrides are still there, but now use the same convention as the articulation parameters – drawn in blue if an override is active, and cleared by wiping the text.
  
• The Copy/Paste articulation buttons, which were formerly placed on some General tabs, have moved to the Edit menu. They can also be found in the context menu when right-clicking on instruments, layers and regions.
  
• The LFO settings now have a small icon visualizing the LFO shape. A secondary purpose of this is that you can right-click it to select Copy/Paste LFO.
  
• You can now right-click the loop editor graph and select Copy/Paste loop. The region waveform override section has corresponding Copy/Paste loop buttons.
  
• In the loop, waveform and envelope editors, if you hold down the control key and drag with the left mouse button in the graph, it'll now control the zoom levels.
  
• The Audio processing wizard now allows a preview also when working on multiple waveforms, and has << and >> buttons to switch which wave is previewed.
  
• Added support for up to three envelope Release segments, as well as an Initial Level (this can all be disabled in the parameter setup).
  
• The number of available effect channels has been increased from 2 to 4.
  
• Added Velocity to LFO depth parameters.
  
• Added a Random to Pan parameter.
  
• For SoundFont 2 files (.SF2), what is in that format called instrument global parameters, are now mapped to layers rather than regions. This can potentially make the files marginally smaller, but more importantly, fewer parameters need to be stored (which is often a limiting factor for making big SF2s).
  
• For Kontakt files (.NKI), the formats group parameters are now mapped to layers when reading. Non-overlapping layers may be merged though, typically for drum kits, in which case the parameters move to the region instead. Zone parameters maps to regions as before. When writing, it will create groups as needed from the layer level when it can, or from the region when needed.
  
• For SFZ v2 files (.SFZ), the formats parameter setup, with three levels of individually overrideable parameters, now maps directly to that of the program.
  
• For SFZ v2 files (.SFZ), it will now use the ARIA extension eg1_ampeg=1 to override the v1 ampeg - but only when a more complex volume envelope is used which can’t be represented in v1. The v1 ampeg is still written for the benefit of such players as don't recognize the extension.
  
• When using any of the "Read from CD" commands, the usual post-file-load operations are now performed after reading (see options on the File load tab in the preferences).
  
• Added support for Akai S3000/S5000/S6000 "envelope 3" (.P/.AKP).
  
• Added support for rare MIDI format 2 files (.MID).
  
• Added support for rare Roland sequences with pattern triggers (.SVQ).
  
• Added support for reading Kurzweil PC3K/Forte song format (.P3K/.FOR).
  
• Added support for reading Unreal Engine 3/4/5 SoundWave assets (.UASSET).
  
• Added support for reading and writing Decent Sampler presets (.DSPRESET).
  

Version 11.7

• The layout of the articulation property pages have been changed to better illustrate how values are summed together for modulation. They have also received a touch of color here and there.
  
• The previous OK/Cancel buttons in the property pages are now named Undo/Close, with Undo only lighting up when you have edited something. Just like before, this is live editing, where everything takes effect at once - closing a page keeps your edits - you must explicitly press Undo if you wish to revert them.
  
• There are now tooltips in the various editor and options tabs, replacing the earlier F1 context help.
  
• Several trigger parameters are now available both on the layer level and, as before, on the region level. This works like the articulation overrides, e.g. the velocity range is by default 0..127, which can optionally be overridden on the layer, and again optionally overridden on the region. Many times, these values are common for all regions in a layer, so it is easier to edit them there, than to have to go into every region and repeat the same edit.
  
• Added "Auto-move trigger parameters to layer if all equal on region level" and "Auto-remove duplicate waveforms when merging files" options to "File load" tab of the program settings (both enabled by default).
  
• Auditioning a region or a layer that doesn't have articulation enabled, but the parent instrument or layer have, now plays with the articulation from the parent.
  
• Improved SFZ format support. You can now choose between saving as SFZ v1 or SFZ v2. When reading, it will try to map global opcodes to instrument level articulation, and group opcodes to layer level articulation, rather than all to region level. Similarly, when writing, global (SFZ v2 only) and group opcodes will be written, not just region opcodes. The directives #define (SFZ v2) and #include (ARIA) are now supported as well. Several new opcodes were also added.
  
• Improved conversion to Kurzweil K2000 format (.KRZ). It now identifies stereo waves (either dual-mono or interleaved) and saves them in the synths preferred format (two mono waves stored under one a single id and flagged as stereo). It also finds duplicated keymaps and saves only one instance. Per region tuning and volume adjustments are now saved to keymaps. When reading, if the layer volume envelope is disabled, the "native envelope" from the sample is now converted into a region V-EG.
  
• Added support for writing Kurzweil PC3K-series files (.P3K).
  
• Added beta support for writing Kurzweil Forte-series files (.FOR). NB; this is as yet untested.
  
• Added parameter set selections for SFZ v1, SFZ v2 and Kontakt NKI in the program settings.
  
• The envelope editor now uses individual edit boxes for each value, rather than the previous approach of selecting which one value to see and edit at a time.
  
• The loop editor now uses cubic interpolation rather than linear interpolation for the display when zoomed in to more than 1 pixel/sample.
  
• Added a "Loop tuning" parameter (adjusts the pitch during loop playback). Supported by SFZ v2, Korg Kronos/M3/Triton, Akai S1000/S3000, EXS24 and Kontakt NKI.
  
• Added a "Delay time" parameter to the region trigger section (supported by SFZ, Korg Trinity/Triton/Kronos/M3, Yamaha Motif/ES/XS/XF...)
  
• Added "Velocity/ModWheel/Aftertouch to Resonance" parameters. Supported fully by SFZ v2, SF2 v2.01, DLS level 2++, Kontakt, Korg Kronos/M3/Triton/Trinity, and partially by Yamaha Motif/ES/XS/XF, Yamaha Tyros and Reason 2.x NN-XT.
  
• Added a "Random to Pitch" parameter. Supported by SFZ.
  
• Added support for a 3-pole/18 dB low pass filter - natively available for Akai S1000 and Yamaha Motif/ES/XS/XF, and emulated using two filters for SFZ v2, Kontakt, TX16Wx, and Yamaha Tyros.
  
• Filters are now assumed to not have gain compensation for resonance. This is an unknown property for many synths, but for DLS, which do specify gain compensation, the inverse of the compensation is now added to the region volume.
  
• When using the "Create instrument wizard" and enabling "Auto-create regions from waveform root keys", it will use only those waveforms that you have selected in the waveforms pane (if none are selected, it works on all waves as before).
  
• You can now save an individual layer or region to any format to which you can save an instrument. Similarly, a MIDI track can be saved to anything that can handle a MIDI song.
  
• A number of bug fixes and minor improvements.
  

Version 11.6

• Added support for writing NI Kontakt instruments (.NKI), banks (.NKB) and multis (.NKM). This should be compatible with Kontakt v3 and up (the full version, not the free player). Also improved the articulation parameter conversion when reading said formats.
  
• Added support for reading and writing NI Kontakt 'Monolithic' files, i.e. with embedded samples (unencrypted only, pre-v4.2.2, .NKI/.NKB./.NKM).
  
• Added support for reading NI Kontakt Compressed waves (.NCW).
  
• Added compatibility with NI Reaktor file format versions 5, 6 and 7 (.MAP).
  
• Improved articulation parameter conversion for Yamaha Tyros-series (.UVN/.UVD/.TVN/.TVD).
  
• Improved conversion of SoundFont v1 (.SBK) and added support for reading ROM waves from the SB Live-driver file "1mgm.sf2" (when reading .SBK or .SF2 files referencing ROM waveforms).
  
• Added a "Save in sub-directories" option to the "Save all in multiple files" function.
  
• All envelope segments now have "Vel to time" and "Key to time" scaling parameters, i.e. no longer just "Vel to Attack" and "Key to Decay". Supported to various degrees by SoundFont 2.1, Akai S-series, Kurzweil K-series, Yamaha Motif-series, Yamaha Tyros-series.
  
• Envelopes now have a "No Release" option (a.k.a. no note-off, a.k.a. one-shot mode). For formats that don't support this, it translates into max release time.
  
• Added "Mod wheel to Volume" and "Master Volume" parameters (the latter will be summed into region volumes for formats that don't support it).
  
• The region "Waveform parameter override" block has been split into three independent sub-sections: "Override tuning/volume", "Override loop" and "Wave Start/End offset".
  
• The "Remove silent sections" function in the Audio processing wizard now has an option to "Delete waveform if it is all silence".
  
• Added an option to adjust the mix volume of the "Awave Synthesizer". It is now louder than before by default, but you can lower it if you experience clipping (or raise it even more if you want to make it even louder, at the expense of risking clipping).
  
• Refreshed the texts and layouts of the articulation parameter tabs.
  
• The program and the installer executables are now digitally signed for improved security.
  
• A number of bug fixes and stability improvements.
  

Version 11.5

• The "Awave Synthesizer" has been completely rewritten and now features:
  
  • Much lower CPU usage when auditioning instruments.
  • Much lower latency.
  • Much faster MIDI to waveform conversions.
  • It replaces the "Microsoft Synthesizer" for playing MIDI files.
• WASAPI is now used for all audio playback (replacing the older DirectSound interface). Low latency shared mode is available if your driver supports it.*
  (* If you are using the "Realtek High Definition Audio" driver (typical for motherboard integrated audio), then switching to Microsofts generic "High Definition Audio Device" driver will allow you to go from 10 ms down to 2.7 ms).
  
• Working with large collections is now much faster.
  
• The various item property dialogs (waveforms, regions, layers et c) now directly apply any changes that you make - as you make them - so that you can immediately audition your changes. As the "Apply" button is no longer needed, it has been removed. In case you want to revert your changes, you still have the "Cancel" button.
  
• The virtual keyboard (i.e. playing notes with your computer keyboard) has been improved:
  
  • You can now edit the key mapping under Preferences->Auditioning.
  • It is now split into upper- and lower-octave sections, allowing for a few overlapping keys (for convenience when playing).
  • It should now handle "OEM keys", i.e. the keys between 0PLM and Enter. These will vary depending on the keyboard layout, so you may need to configure it - by default it is set up for US/UK layouts.
• When auditioning things, the status bar now shows the state of pressed keys and a handful of basic controllers.
  
• In the Preferences dialog, a single "Audio settings" tab replaces the previous "Audio playback" and "Auditioning" tabs.
  
• The articulation property tabs have been restructured so that:
  
  • Articulation "enable" is now found on the "General" tab of the item. The earlier "Articulation" tab has been removed.
  • The panning and effect send settings have moved to a "Mix" tab, where they are joined by the EQ settings.
  • The terms V-EG, M-EG, M-LFO, P-LFO (Volume, Modulation and Pitch) are now used instead of EG1/EG2/LFO1/LFO2.
• The previous six-stage "DAHDSR" envelope model has been extended to a more advanced "AADDSR" model. Still six stages, but with three additional level parameters. The previous Delay-Attack part is now Attack1-Attack1Level-Attack2. Hold-Decay is now Decay1-Decay1Level-Decay2. The modulation envelope is now bi-directional and sports two additional parameters: Attack2Level and ReleaseLevel (these are locked at 1 and 0 for volume envelopes). The program will convert this to whatever type of envelope that a file format supports. If you work only with file formats that doesn't support this (e.g. SF2 or DLS) and don't want to see the extra parameters when editing envelopes, then you can disable "EGs: Six-stages + levels + bid (AADDSR)" under "Parameter set" in the program options.
  
• All "Key to x" parameters now centers on key 60 (i.e. middle-C) and are expressed as change "per octave" (rather than the less intuitive center on key 0 and change "per 128 keys" as were the case in previous versions). Similarly, "Velocity to x" parameters now centers on velocity 64 (rather than velocity 0). (The sole exception is "velocity to volume", which is a special case in that it instead fixates the peak volume point.)
  
• Added "M-LFO to Pan" and "M-EG to Pan" parameters.
  
• Added "Key Velocity to M-EG to Pitch" and "Key Velocity to M-EG to Cutoff" parameters.
  
• Instrument properties now have a new "Effects" tab where you will find find two assignable "Channel FX" slots. These are the receivers of the effect sends set in the articulation tabs (by default Reverb and Chorus). A handful of effects are available to choose from (Chorus, Reverb, Delay, Tremolo, Compressor, Distortion, Phaser), with adjustable parameters for each. This has limited support in file formats as of yet, but may be expanded upon in the future (tbd).
  
• Added support for reading and writing Cwitec TX16Wx sampler banks and programs (.TXBANK, .TXPROG).
  
• Much improved conversion from Roland D-50 sound banks SysEx (.SYX) and added support for reading D-50 VST sound banks (.BIN). Also added support for reading Roland D-50 PCM ROM dumps (which makes the whole thing somewhat more useful). The latter can be either a single combined 512KB file, or one file per chip of 256KB (or even 512KB if the data was accidentally duplicated...).
  
• Melody machine compressed SoundFonts (.SFARK) can now be read directly, without the need of an external DLL. This now works in the 64-bit app too.
  
• Improved the precision of the "Auto tune" function.
  
• The column header in the MIDI track dialog is now clickable (for sorting).
  
• The "Load/Save Art" buttons have been replaced with "Copy/Paste Art".
  
• If you right click on an envelope you now get a menu with the options "Copy/Paste envelope".
  
• Various bug-fixes and minor improvements.
  

Version 11.4

• Awave Studio is now available in both 64-bit native and 32-bit versions.
  Be sure to use the new 64-bit version if you ever ran out of memory in earlier versions.
• The UI now supports high-dpi screens (without blurry upscaling) and the icons have been improved.
• Accessibility improvements (screen reader compatibility for menus, keyboard navigation fixes).
• File dialogs now use an up-to-date style.
• Unicode support for file names.
• Improved keymap to layer/region mapping when reading and writing Kurzweil files (.KRZ).
• Added support for raw ITU G.722 data. If you use a .G722 file extension it assumes the 64-kbit/s mode. Use .G722-6, .G722-7 or .G722-8 to explicitly indicate 48, 56 or 64 kbit/s modes (i.e. 6, 7 or 8 bits per codeword, with two samples encoded per word). It can also read G.722 data from .AIFF, .AU and .WAV-files.
• Added support for writing (as well as reading) Opus files (.OPUS).
• Added visualization to the MIDI player dialog, showing the number of notes playing on each channel.
• Various fixes and improvements.

Version 11.3

• Added support for reading waves from Korg PA-series sample files (.PCM).
• Added support for reading Kontakt v3 files (.NKI).
• Improved reading of Kurzweil Forte and PC3K series files.
• Improved volume level conversion for Korg Trinity/Triton/M3/Kronos.
• The "Enable/Disable loops" function in the "Audio processing wizard" now has a new option to "Enable loop over the whole waveform for all waveforms regardless of previous state".
• Added a "Set waveform names from root keys" option to the "Audio processing wizard".
• Added an option to save as "<hibank>-<lobank>-<prg> - <name>.bar" a "m-bank-program-name" to the "Save all in multiple files" dialog.
• Added a "Set EG1 release rate to" option to the "Set articulation parameters for all items" function in the "Instrument processing wizard".
• Fixed problems with written Yamaha EX5 wave files (.S1M).
• Added support for reading ID3v2 data embedded in Microsoft wave files (.WAV).
• Windows XP is no longer supported.

Version 11.2

• Added support for reading Kurzweil Forte (.FOR) and Kurzweil PC3K (.P3K) files.
• Added support for reading ripped raw DVD LPCM audio using the file extensions .DVD-16-44, .DVD-16-48, .DVD-16-96, .DVD-16-192, .DVD-24-44, .DVD-24-48, .DVD-24-96 and .DVD-24-192 (give the raw files an appropriate extension to tell the program if it is 16/24 bit and 44/48/96/192 kHz).
• Added support for reading GigaStudio files with multiple extension files (.GIG + .GX01 + .GX02 et c). Note however that although Awave Studio will read the file and show the instruments and waves in it, it will not be able to convert anything that needs more than 1-2GB of memory due to the limitations of 32-bit applications. I.e. you can convert individual waves and probably also pick out individual instrument layers, but not whole collections of > 2GB size.
• Fixed incorrect interpretation of "loop off" and "ignore release" flags for Kurzweil K2000 (.KRZ) files.
• Fixed tempo conversion for Roland .SVQ songs that were using a tempo track.
• Fixed issue with parsing of Gravis Ultrasound ULTRASND.INI file.
• Fixed envelope conversion from certain Gravis Ultrasound .PAT files with an invalid voice count parameter.
• Fixed import of .EXS files with an unknown object type flag set.

Version 11.1

• Added support for reading Sony PS2 SCEI instrument sets (.HD + .BD files).
• Added support for reading Sony PS2 SCEI sequences (.SQ files).
• Added support for reading Konami KDT1 songs (.KDT files).
• Added support for reading SmartSound SDS files (.SDS).
• It is now possible to drop a folder onto the main window in order to open all files in the folder.
• It is now possible to drop a folder onto the input files list in the Batch conversion wizard.
• Added a "Ø-cross" button to the loop editor, that helps you move loop start and end points to the nearest zero-crossing.
• A new Batch conversion wizard option named "Enable Audio processing wizard" allows you to use all the algorithms from the Audio processing wizard during batch conversions.
• When using the Batch conversion wizard in "Convert waveforms" mode, you can now select "Auto" as data format.
• The "Remove silence" function will now try to preserve loop points if possible.
• Added "Drum kit support" enable/disable in the parameter set list.
• Added a button in the MIDI track editor to start playback from the position selected in the MIDI event list.

Version 11.0

• Added support for reading Native Instrument Kontakt instruments (.NKI) and multi banks (.NKM). NB; only files compatible with Kontakt versions predating v.4.2.2 are supported. Files written by later versions use a different binary format which is not supported.
• Added support for reading and writing Korg Kronos program collection files (.PCG).
• Added support for reading and writing Korg M3 and M50 program collection files (.PCG).
• Added support for reading and writing Korg M50 program collection files (.PCG).
• Added support for writing (in addition to reading) Korg Triton LE program collection file (.PCG).
• Improved conversion of Korg Triton and Korg Trinity program bank files (.PCG).
• Added support for reading & writing Korg Kronos samples (.KSF), keymaps (.KMP) and script files (.KSC). Note that when you read a .KSC its "uuid" (a unique number identifying the set of files) is set as the collection comment. If you write it back to a .KSC (or .PCG) then its uuid is set from the collection comment if available, otherwise a new uuid is generated.
• Added support for reading Opus audio streams (.OPUS). NB; this requires the OpusFile add-on DLLs.
• Added support for reading and writing Wusik 4000 files (.W4KSND).
• Improved conversion from Kurzweil K2000-series files (.KRZ).
• Added support for reading AdLib Visual Composer song files (.ROL + .BNK).
• Added a "Linear Filled" option for the waveform graph on the wave edit page. This fills the area between the wave and the zero-line. This is now the default display mode.
• Reworked the "Logarithmic" option for the waveform graph - it's now bidirectional and filled.
• Added support for using VST plug-ins in the "Audio processing wizard" and in the in the "Batch conversion wizard".
• The "Split waveform at silent sections" function in the "Audio processing wizard" is much improved.
• Improved "Remove silent sections" function in the "Audio processing wizard".
• Improved the speed of the "Auto loop finder" function in the "Audio processing wizard".
• Added support for equalizer parameters. This is implemented for the following formats: Kurzweil K2000-series (.KRZ), Kontakt (.NKI), Korg Kronos/M3/M50 (.PCG), Yamaha EX5 (.S1V), sfz v2 (.SFZ), Yamaha Tyros-series (.TVU/.UVN), Yamaha Motif-series (.W2V/.W7V/.X0V/.X3V).
• Added a "key to pan" parameter. Implemented for AKAI S5000 (.AKP), Kontakt (.NKI), SoundFont v2.1 (.SF2), AKAI S1000 (.P), Pinnacle (.PBK), Korg Kronos/M3/M50/Triton/Trinity (.PCG), Yamaha EX5 (.S1V), Yamaha Motif XS and XF (.X0V/.X3V).
• Added a "Find volume" function to the "Audio processing wizard". This lets you estimate the loudness of waveforms and append a dB value to the wave name and/or adjust the volume to make them equally loud.
• The MIDI Player now supports track channel groups for playback of more than 16 channels.
• There are now two options for saving .SFZ files - with "samples in same folder" or "samples in sub-folder".
• There are now 8 "alternate groups" in the region trigger type selection. Regions in the same group alternate between each other independent of other regions.
• In Options→Preferences→Synth to Wave, it's now possible to set a minimum waveform length in addition to maximum length.
• When using the "Auto property sheet" option, it's now better at remembering the property window position.
• If there's a path to an audio file on the Windows clipboard, you can now open it in the program using Ctrl-V or Edit→Paste.
• Various bug fixes.

Version 10.6

• Added support for "key release" region triggers, i.e. waves that are played at note off. This new parameter is currently supported for the following file formats: rgc:audio sfz (.SFZ), Korg Triton & Trinity (PCG.), Yamaha Motif XS & Motif XF (.X0V, .X3V), GigaSampler/GigaStudio* (.GIG), Ensoniq EPS-series (.EFE), Kurzweil K2000/K2500 (.KRZ), Logic EXS24 (.EXS). [* for .GIG only when reading.]
• Added support for "alternate" region triggers, i.e. switching between alternate waves each time that a note is triggered. The parameter is currently supported for the following file formats: rgc:audio sfz (.SFZ), Yamaha Motif XS & Motif XF (.X0V, .X3V), GigaSampler/GigaStudio* (.GIG), Logic EXS24 (.EXS).
• Added support for trigger selection of regions by the Sustain Pedal state, i.e. different waves can be played if the pedal is "Up", "Down", or both. This can be used e.g. for hi-hat open / closed, or piano staccato / sustain. The parameter is currently only supported by the following file format: rgc:audio sfz (.SFZ), GigaSampler/GigaStudio* (.GIG), Ensoniq EPS-series (.EFE).
• When using the computer keyboard to audition sounds, the Shift-keys now acts as a sustain pedal.
• Improvements to the Awave Software synthesizer; e.g. reduced CPU-usage when not playing anything, an improved chorus effect, and chorus & reverb effects implemented as "sends" rather than "inserts".
• Improved stability of "MIDI to Wave" rendering.
• The "Options->Preferences->Format options" tab now has a selection for the data format for Dialogic files (.VOX). This is usually Dialogic ADPCM at either 8000 or 6000 Hz. But there are also .VOX files using other formats and unfortunately there is no way to determine the data format from the files themselves, therefore you can now select it manually here.
• Assorted minor bug-fixes.

Version 10.5

• Added an "I/O->Read Ensoniq CD" command to read files from Ensoniq EPS 16+ and Ensoniq ASR-10 CD-ROMs.
• Added support for writing Yamaha Tyros 3 drum-kits (.UVD).
• Added limited support for reading Cakewalk SFZ format version 2 (.SFZ). NB; version 2 EGs and LFOs are not converted (version 1 EGs and LFOs are).
• Added support for reading and writing Westacott WinRanX Instrument Files (.WRF).
• Added support for reading & writing Korg M3 samples (.KSF), keymaps (.KMP) and scripts files (.KSC).
• Accumulated bug fixes.

Version 10.4

• Added support for reading and writing Yamaha EX5 files (.S1V, .S1M, .S1A).
• Added support for writing (in addition to reading) Yamaha Tyros 2 and Tyros 3 files (.TVN, .UVN).
• Added support for reading Yamaha Motif XF all/voice/wave files (.X3A, .X3V, .X3W).
• Added beta-support support for writing Yamaha Motif XS and Motif XF voice and wave files (.X0V, .X0W, .X3V, .X2W). This hasn't been fully tested yet, so feedback is appreciated!
• Added support for reading and writing Logic EXS24 files (.EXS). NB; only basic parameters are converted - LFOs, envelopes et c, are currently ignored.
• Added support for reading audio data from Matroska container format files (.MKV and .MKA). Currently the following audio codecs are supported: MPEG, AAC, Ogg, and PCM.
• Added support for reading songs from Cakewalk/Sonar work files (.WRK). This includes support for associated SoundFont files and for SysEx banks with Yamaha DX-series or Roland MT-32 instruments.
• Improved conversion of Kurzweil files (.KRZ, .K25).
• Added support for writing AKAI S900/S950 sample files.
• Added support for reading Ensoniq Mirage floppy disk images (.EDM). As these can not be reliably auto-detected, you must use a file extension of .EDM. NB; envelopes are not converted, and the pitch can be a bit shaky...
• Resampling of waveforms is now up to 8x faster.
• Added a "Compact MIDI file size" function to the "MIDI processing wizard", allowing removal of duplicate/unnecessary MIDI messages, and optional replacement of Note-Off with zero-velocity Note-On (which saves a Byte whenever the previous message is a Note-On on the same channel).
• Added an "Auto-detect and fix phase inversion" option to the "Convert to mono" function in the "Audio processing wizard".
• The MIDI track editor now allows multi-selection, so that you can delete more than one event in one go.
• When reading rare "format 2" MIDI files, each "pattern track" is now automatically converted into a separate format 0 songs.
• Added support for reading several "raw Adlib / OPL register capture" formats (with conversion of both song and instrument data):
  • DOSBox Raw OPL format v1 & v2 (.DRO files).
  • Rdos Raw OPL capture format (.RAW files).
  • id Software Music Format (.IMF & .WLF files).
• Reading & writing Monkeys Audio files (.APE) now requires the external file MACDLL.dll (included in the latest codec pack).
• Added support for reading .WAV files containing Ogg Vorbis format compressed audio.
• Added support for reading 2/2.67/4-bit SoundBlaster/Creative Labs ADPCM compression from .VOC files.
• Added support for reading rare "non-seekeable" .OGG files.

Version 10.3

• Added support for reading Yamaha Motif XS files (.X0A/.X0V/.X0W), with fairly complete conversion of the more important articulation parameters.
• Added support for reading Yamaha Tyros 3 files (.UVN). Also improved the conversions of Tyros 2 files (.TVN). For both formats, there's now experimental support for conversion of envelope, LFO and filter parameters.
• Added support for reading and writing Musepack (.MPC) compressed files (SV7 and SV8 types supported for reading, only SV8 for writing).
• Added support for reading and writing Shorten (.SHN) lossless compressed files.
• Added support for reading Korg Triton LE bank files (.PCG).
• Added support reading "MIDI Converter Studio" packed Sound Fonts (.SF2PACK).
• Much improved support for reading Roland song sequencer files (.SVQ). New is support for v2 and v3 files, files with >64KB of note data, files using an alternate tempo indication, and conversion of key signature metadata.
• Fixed several problems with conversions of AKAI MPC-series program files (.PGM). Also added translation of more parameters for these formats.
• Added experimental support for encoding and decoding KAWAI R50/R50E/R50III/R100 ROM-dumps (.KAWAI12 files). These are assumed to contain 12-bit nonlinear (DAT Long play format) audio, zero-padded to 16-bits in the files.
• Added support for reading audio from "AVI v2" files (.AVI) that use index lists.
• The "file types" tab in the options dialog has been removed as it has been deprecated. In its place it now supports the Windows "Default programs" and "Open with" features (Vista/7 only).
• The file open dialog is now resizable.
• Added an 4s pause (8s if "slow dev." is selected) between waveforms when using the "Send all" command in the "MIDI SDS transmit" dialog, allowing synths some breathing space between waves.
• The "Set parameters for all items" function in the "Instrument processing wizard" has been split into two: "Set region/wave parameters for all items" and "Set articulation parameters for all items". New options have been added to set the following parameters: "default pan pos", "default chors mix", "filter type", "filter resonance", "LFO1 to Volume", and "LFO2 to Pitch".
• Now correctly handles UTF-8 encoding of text metadata (in addition to Latin-1, Windows 1252 and UTF-16).
• Assorted bug fixes.

Version 10.2

• The old program menu plus separate tool-bar have been merged into a single custom "command bar".
• Added support for reading songs from Roland sequencer files (.SVQ).
• Added support for reading Yamaha Tyros 2 voice files (.TVN). NB, only the waveforms and the most basic parameters are read for now.
• Added support for reading and writing Apples CoreAudio file format (.caf, .caff). Currently supported for reading are uncompressed PCM, floating point, IMA 4-bit ADPCM, MAC3 and MAC6, mu-law and A-law, (AAC, ALAC, MP1, MP2, MP3) data formats. Supported for writing are PCM, float, mu/A-law, and IMA ADPCM.
• Added support for reading and writing WavPack (.WV) lossless compressed files. NB; to use this you need to install the free WavPack codec add-on (wavpackdll.dll).
• Added support for reading Apple lossless (a.k.a. ALAC) compressed data (.M4A and .MOV files).
• Added support for reading version 4 of the Reason NN-XT file format (.SXT).
• Added support for reading a rare compressed version of Yamaha SMAF (.MMF) mobile ring-tones.
• Added support for encoding 12 and 20-bits/sample FLAC files (in addition to 8, 16 or 24-bit/sample). Also Added support for using libFLAC.dll versions later than v1.1.2.
• Added support for reading and writing WusikStation v5 sound files (.wusiksnd) as well as reading pack files (.wusikpack).
• If you have zoomed in vertically in the loop editor (i.e. amplitude-wise), you can now drag the graph vertically using the mouse if you want too see parts of the wave that is beyond the edge of the display.
• Added a "Renumber instruments" function to the "Instrument processing wizard".
• Speed improvements in the 'Awave software synth'. The synth now also supports a chorus effect.
• What was previously called "FM instruments" are now called "Synthesis models". And they are now found as region-leaves instead of as special-case instruments. A region can now link to either a waveform - for regular wavetable synthesis, or to a synthesis model - for emulating other kinds of synthesis. The definition of regions has not changed, i.e. you can use them to split sounds across the keyboard, you can layer them et c, you can even use waveforms and synthesis models in the same instrument. NB, editing of the synthesis model parameters is not supported, limiting its use to sounds imported from files.
• Added support for reading waveforms from Roland MT-32 / CM32L / LAPC-1 control and PCM ROM dumps. Also added support for reading instruments from Roland MT-32 (and compatibles) SysEx files, as well as control ROM dumps. These are very accurately converted into synthesis models which can be played using the Awave software synth (NB, with the current release, you can't do much else with them - converting to wavetable synthesis, like what's possible for the FM synthesis models, is currently not supported for LA-synthesis). Instruments can also be read from Roland D-50 SysEx files. These are more roughly converted to synthesis models (you'll be asked to supply .wav files for any PCM samples used by such instruments).

Version 10.1

• If you are running under Windows XP then buttons and other control will now use the rounder 'XP style' look.
• In the loop editor, it is now possible to move the loop graph by pressing down the mouse button on the loop graph and dragging.
• There's now a handful of keyboard short-cuts in the waveform editor (right click the graph to see the context menu for which keys).
• Added a 'Track playing pos' option (on by default) to the waveform graph context menu in the waveforms editor tab.
• Added an option to display (& edit) also the minor bank number as part of the instrument names.
• Added support for reading DLS 2.2 files containing compressed waveforms using "wave-format-extensible" chunks.
• Added support for reading FMOD SoundSystem sound banks (.FSB files, uncompressed variety only).
• Improved Akai S5000 / S6000 release time translation.
• Added support for WusikSND v4 stereo samples.
• A hand-full of bug-fixes.

Version 10.0

• The 'Awave Software synthesizer' is a new 'built in' software synthesizer that can be use both for auditioning instruments and for rendering MIDI songs to waveforms. Here are some of its features:
  • All processing is done using 32-bit floating point calculations, including support for 32-bit output, thus virtually eliminating quantization noise.
  • Arbitrary sample rates are supported.
  • Very high quality sample rate conversion - our best FIR resampling algorithms are used - providing much higher sound quality than what is available with normal 'real-time' synths (be it hardware or software).
  • Smooth parameter changes - envelopes, LFOs, MIDI controllers (interpolated ramps), et c, et c - everything is updated on a per sample basis. It is very common that synths update some or all of these only every few hundred samples or even less often - which saves many CPU cycles but degrades the sound quality.
  • Accurate mathematical functions are used throughout instead of approximating 'look-up tables'.
• Previous versions allowed you to convert a MIDI song (or track) intro a waveform by saving it to special 'WAV - Render MIDI to WAV, x Hz' file format selections. This used the Microsoft Software Synthesizer from DirectX to 'play' the song and captured the output to a file on disk. This has now been replaced by two different mechanisms that both use the new 'Awave Software Synthesizer' to render from MIDI into waveform format:
  • You can right click one (ore more) MIDI songs (or tracks) and select 'Render song/track to Waveform'. The same command is also available on the Tools menu. This creates a waveform (in memory) that contains the rendered MIDI song. A dialog box pops up that shows the rendering progress. You can abort it at any time by pressing the [x] button.
  • You can select a MIDI song (or a track) and then do a 'Save selected MIDI song/track as...'. Just like in previous versions - but - instead of just providing a few 'special' file format options to render to WAV files, you now have listed, first of all of course, all of the file formats that supports MIDI-like data, but then also all of the file formats that supports saving waveforms. MIDI to waveform rendering is then done automatically whenever necessary.
  If you go to 'Options → Preferences... → MIDI to Wave' you'll find options that control the MIDI to Waveform rendering; e.g. sample rate and what 'Default GM bank' to use (any instrument that is not loaded into Awave Studio and that used by a song will be pulled from the selected default GM bank).
  
  Note that the rendering need not be done in real-time. Simple passages in a MIDI song may be rendered faster than real-time, while more complex passages will take more time to render. Also note that the 'Play MIDI song/track' commands still use the DirectX synth for playback (the Awave Software Synthesizer is simply not fast enough for such real-time playback).
• The Awave Software synthesizer is now also the default auditioning synth - albeit with reduced resampling quality and limited polyphony. Under 'Options → Preferences → Auditioning' you can select the sample rate and the audio latency (determined by how much sound is 'pre-buffered') that is used when auditioning instruments. The advantages with using this synth for auditioning is of course that it supports every single instrument parameter that Awave Studio supports, and that it should provide 'reference quality' sound.
• FM to Wavetable conversion was introduced in Awave Studio v9.5 with support for reading sounds from different Yamaha DX-series synths as well as AdLib sound card formats and instruments from SMAF (.MMF) ring-tones. Several improvements are made in this version:
  • FM synthesis instruments are no longer converted to Wavetable (sample-synthesis) instruments when a file is opened. Instead the sound parameters are stored in memory in an algorithmic synthesis format and the synthesis type conversion is delayed until such time as it is needed (e.g. when saving it or when auditioning). This makes loading the files much faster. NB, if you want, you can manually right click on one of these instruments and select "Convert FM to Wavetable" to explicitly convert it into a wavetable instrument.
  • The Awave Software synthesizer will do the FM to wavetable conversion "on the fly" while playing, which makes auditioning these instruments much easier. When using other auditioning synths, there will be a delay between clicking on the instrument and before you can audition it, while a "temporary" conversion is being done (this creates an invisible temporary converted copy, leaving the original instrument in FM-synthesis format).
• Added support for GigaStudio v3 format files (.GIG) including support for 24-bit compressed samples.
  NB, the GIG files produced by Awave Studio are not be directly loadable in GigaStudio v3 because we do not have the correct algorithm for 'signing' them, but you load them in the GigaStudio editor, then hit the "Save" icon (not Save As) then they will be reseved with a correct signature and voila, you'll be able to use them.
• Very much improved support for reading the audio data tracks from Apple QuickTime movies (.MOV).
  
  The following audio data formats can now be read from these files:
  • PCM 8/16/24/32-bit ('NONE', 'raw', 'twos', 'sowt', 'lpcm', 'in24' and 'in32' format tags).
  • Float 32/64-bit ('fl32' and 'fl64' format tags).
  • mu-Law/A-law ('ulaw' and 'alaw' format tags).
  • Apple MACE3 and MACE6 compression ('mac3' and 'mac6' format tags).
  • IMA 4-bit ADPCM compression ('ima4' and 'ms\17' format tags).
  • MS 4-bit ADPCM compression ('ms\2' format tag).
  • MPEG audio layer III compression ('.mp3' and 'ms\85' format tags).
  • GSM 06.10 compression ('agsm' format tag).
  • MPEG-4 AAC compression ('mp4a' format tag) - NB; requires AAC add-on.
  • AMR compression ('samr' format tag) - NB; requires AMR add-on.
  Both reading and writing of the following related file formats is now supported:
  • Apple QuickTime movie format (.MOV).
  • MPEG-4 base media file format (.MP4).
  • iTunes MPEG-4 audio file format (.M4A).
  • 3GPP file format (.3GP).
  • 3GPP 'project 2' file format (.3G2).
  Reading files using 'zlib compression' (of 'movie-boxes') are now also supported.
  
  Several types of text metadata is now supported:
  
  • The original QuickTime-format (usually found in .MOV files)
  • The 'iTunes'-format (usually found in .M4A files).
  • The 3GPP-format (sometimes found in .3GP files).
  • The ID3v2 format (found in some .MP4 and .3GP files).
  Reading all the audio data pieces from so called 'fragmented' files is now supported (sometimes found in .3GP/.3G2/.MP4 files).
  Sample description 'version 2' is now supported (i.e. support for > 2 chs and > 64000Hz).
  
• Improved support for reading the audio data tracks from Microsoft Audio Video Interleave files (.AVI).
  
  The following audio data formats can now be read from these files:
  • PCM 8/16/24/32-bit.
  • mu-Law/A-law.
  • Microsoft 4-bit ADPCM compression.
  • DVI/IMA 4-bit ADPCM compression.
  • MPEG audio layer III compression.
  • MPEG AAC compression - NB; requires AAC add-on.
  • Plus any format that has an installed "Windows ACM codec".
  New is also support for the OpenDML extension for > 2 GB file size (a.k.a. "AVI 2.0").
  
• Added support for reading A-Law, G.726, GSM, MACE3 and MACE6 compression formats from .AIFC/.AFC files.
• Added support for parsing AAC data from .WAV files.
• Increased the number of decimal digits of accuracy for many instrument parameters.
• Added new "Filter type" and "Filter slope" instrument parameters (Off, Low-Pass, High-Pass, Band-Pass or Band-Reject filter, and 6, 12, or 24 dB / octave slope). Formats that either fully or partially support these parameters are: .404, .gig, .krz, .mt2, .pbf, .pcg, .sdk, .sfz, .sts, .sxt, .vsb, .wxv.
• Added a "Key number to Volume" parameter for formats that supports it (.ARL, .KRZ, .PCG, .SDK, .SF2, .SFZ, .W2V, .W7V).
• The program manual is now in 'HTML help' format (it now both looks better and is easier to use than when it was using the older 'WinHelp' format).
• When loading a mobile phone ring signal made for an older monophonic phone, a "beeper" instrument is now automatically added for a more correct retro sound.
• Double-clicking on an item-icon in the collection pane now brings up the item properties (instead of expanding/collapsing the tree-view).
• It is now possible to re-arrange the order of layers using drag'n'drop. There's also new 'Move up layer' and 'Move down layer' commands on the context menu.
• Added a loop length display to the loop editor.
• MIDI channels are now numbered 1..16 rather than 0..15.
• When saving DLS level 2 files, the tuning parameter is no longer saved separately. Instead it is combined with the root key and fine-tune parameters. This is because the most commonly available DLS synthesizer, i.e. the Microsoft Software synthesizer, ignores the DLS level 2 tuning parameter, which could result in incorrect pitch when it played certain notes. This also affects the sound from the MIDI Player dialog.
• Added '.SD2 file' options to the 'Format options' tab in the preferences that allows you change the default data format for 'data fork only' Sound Designer II files.
• Added a new "Fix compatibility issues" function to the 'MIDI processing wizard'. It provides several options for improving the portability of MIDI songs:
  • "Ensure that there are a 'Bank LSB' (CC 32) message to complement every 'Bank MSB' (CC 0) message".
  • "Ensure that there are a 'Program change' message before the first note of each MIDI channel".
  • "Remove all MIDI System Exclusive messages".
  • "Replace Note-On messages with velocity 0 with Note-Off messages".
• Added a very simple "MIDI recording wizard" that allows you to capture MIDI note data.
• Added small play buttons to the MIDI song & track property dialogs.
• Minor corrections to the writing of 'Mobile DLS' files (drum flag is not supported & region level articulation is also supported for the 'minimal' type).

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