Anklang Release NEWS

Anklang 0.3.0

Full Changelog: https://github.com/tim-janik/anklang/compare/v0.2.0...v0.3.0

Hardware and System Requirements

Linux - the Anklang deb and AppImage are based on Ubuntu 20.04.
Packaged sound engine binaries support SSE-only or AVX+FMA optimizations.

Documentation

Latest API reference documentation is auto generated: https://tim-janik.github.io/docs/anklang/index.html

Fixed Bugs

Choices are not rendered properly in device view #59
Focus, shadow DOM, submenus, buttons and input elements #55
Unify and fixate srcdir and builddir #54
UI websocket death on invalid UTF-8 #49
Insertion order doesn't work, every device is inserted at end #46
Inserting Reverb after BlepSynth has no effect #24

Closed Issues

Build breaks: cp: ./ls-tree.lst: No such file or directory #18
Freeverb Default Settings #23
LV2: currently we need a X11 display since the Gtk Thread is unconditionally started #35
LV2: unique device name generation duplicated with CLAP #34
loop player #39
Negative frame offsets in MidiEvent #26
Shebangs in *.sh files are wrong #17

Merged Pull Requests

Ase/combo.cc: fix combo insertion order for devices inserted at end #47 (swesterfeld)
DEVICES: blepsynth/blepsynth.cc: introduce flexible ADSR model #6 (swesterfeld)
DEVICES: blepsynth: remove design/test tools (moved to dsp-research repo) #30 (swesterfeld)
Fix typo in ch-development.md #58 (ritschwumm)
Freeverb merge dry/wet into mix parameter #45 (swesterfeld)
Midi events uint offset #43 (swesterfeld)

Synthesis Devices

Fixed race condition in LiquidSFZ device loader thread. swesterfeld
Improved Freeverb device with sample accurate parameter changes, mix optimization, and smoothing for automation. swesterfeld
Added support for String properties in AudioProcessor.
Fixed midi event frame offsets to be unsigned integers, resolving issue #26. [swesterfeld
Integrated swesterfeld/liquidsfz submodule for SFZ support in ASE. swesterfeld
Moved blepsynth design/test tools to the dsp-research repository. swesterfeld
Improved sample accuracy in Blepsynth synth device, fixed bugs. swesterfeld
Added Saturation device with parameter smoothing and performance optimizations. swesterfeld
Introduced flexible ADSR model for volume envelope in Blepsynth device. swesterfeld
Added Sallen-Key Filter to Blepsynth device, improved LadderVCF filter. swesterfeld

ASE

New CLI options -M and -P to override audio and midi drivers.
Added debug/info/error logging to a log file.
Support gzip file compression for http transfers, pre-compressed all source maps.
Added Member<> template to expose C++ member field as API to JavaScript.
Default tempo set to 120 BPM, playback starts with transport tempo.
Fixed loading from non-anklang directories.

User Interface

Introduced a project state grep dialog accessible via Alt+F12.
Consolidated UI components in various places and removed redundant code.
Replacing error confirmation dialogs with notice popups.
Simplified and converted most UI components to LitElement components.
Updated UI components to use a new tree browser component.
Added support for file selection in device UIs.
Introduced JavaScript Signal polyfill to simplify for dependency tracking.
Fixed JavaScript focus handling, error formatting, and type checking.
Added Tailwind CSS for styling, removed normalize.scss.
Fixed piano roll drawing order, shifted cursor movement, and other UI fixes. swesterfeld
Improved UTF-8 support for legacy filenames, including mapping to private use area.
Fixed mouse wheel handling in modern Chrome and Firefox browsers.
Switched file browser to use <grid/> component for faster rendering.

Testing

CI, docker, Dockerfile fixups and improvements.
Introduced a new test for track renaming in the X11 UI test suite.
Enhanced the x11test-v to run silently by default, with optional verbose output.
Added support for replay of multiple JSON files in X11 tests, upgraded electron and puppeteer dependencies.
Parallelized automated test suite runs.

Miscellaneous

Various code cleanups, package dependency and include fixes.
Switched to C++20, improved build system for better cross-platform support.
Fixed WebSocket errors and improved callback handling in the API server.
Switched to using git submodules for external dependencies.
All public domain sources are dedicated via the Unlicense.
Remove icon-gen, sharp dependencies, generate UI icons using mogrify.

Contributors

@ritschwumm made his first contribution in https://github.com/tim-janik/anklang/pull/58
@swesterfeld continued his excellent device work.

Anklang 0.2.0

Hardware and System Requirements

Linux - the Anklang deb and AppImage are based on Ubuntu 20.04.
Packaged sound engine binaries support SSE-only or AVX+FMA optimizations.

Documentation

Integrated documentation from JS components into the user manual and API reference.
Various improvements to the documentation and architecture descriptions, as well as manual refinements were made.
Added continuous API reference documentation generation to the CI: https://tim-janik.github.io/docs/anklang/index.html
Integrated JavaScript docs into Poxy docs and search (API reference).
Added dedicated documentation sections for the ClipList, PartList and PianoRoll.
Integrate PDF manual builds using TeX, automated via CI.
Added integration for JsDoc and TypeScript annotations.

Audio Synthesis

Added support for clap_event_transport_t, fixes #5. [stw]
Implemented non-linear mapping for the BlepSynth ADSR times. [stw]
Fix BlepSynth cutoff frequency modulation for its filter, pass frequencies in Hz. [stw]
Implemented the CLAP draft extension for file references.
Incorporated Freeverb by Jezar at Dreampoint with damping mode fixes.
Added a Jack PCM driver based on Stefan Westerfelds code and howto.

ASE

Automatically stop audio playback with the new -t time command line argument.
Added --class-tree to print out the class inheritance tree.
Added -o audiofile support for capturing output into WAV, OPUS and FLAC files.
Added --blake3 FILE to test Blake3 hashing.
Added SortedVector to unify several vector sorting code paths.
Fix potential undefined behavior in the Pcg32Rng code, when left shifting a 32bit value by 32 bits. [stw]
Added various code cleanups and fixed imports.
Adjusted main loop PollFD handling to avoid engine hangs after UI exit.
Added Loft, a lock- and obstruction-free concurrent memory allocator.
Added a very fast multiply-with-carry PRNG, with a period of 2^255.
Fixed atexit memory leaks, proper handling of nullptrs and compiler sanitizers.
Implemented single Project/Engine relation and new API for activating and deactivating projects.
Properly implemented garbage collection of remote JSONIPC handles.
Improved performance by prefaulting heap and stack pages and malloc tuning.
Enabled link time optimization for production builds.
Implemented low-latency scheduling for the synthesis engine via sched_* or RtKit.
Implemented remote reference counting for the JSONIPC API.
Introduced automatic backup creation when saving project files.
Improved serialization for projects, allowing dedicated resource file inclusion.
Integrated building of releases with SSE + FMA support into ASE.
Updated the code to compile cleanly with g++-12, libstdc++-13 and clang++-15.

User Interface

Added support for context help via F1 key in Lit components (handling shadowRoots)
Fix flashing of unstyled content in Chrome and layout artefacts during context menu popups.
Adapted mouse wheel normalization and sensitivity to modern browsers.
Improved tooltips and change notification handling on properties.
Added support for moving and copying (with CTRL key) piano roll notes using the mouse. #16 [stw]
Support resizing multiple selected notes at once by dragging with the mouse in piano roll view. #15 [stw]
Unified all (non-Vue) CSS styles into a single build and simplified its structure.
Updated all icon sets and UI fonts.
Implemented caching for static assets like stylesheets and invalidation handling via content hashes.
Added a new warm grey palette based on ZCAM Jz (lightness) steps, which allows subtler color gradients to enhance overall appearance.
Added the latest modern-normalize.css style resets to improve consistency across browsers.
Added TypeScript annotations and type checking to improve UI JavaScript code quality.
Added support for state toggling using LEFT/RIGHT/UP/DOWN keys to Switch inputs.
Switched the main font to the variable font variant of InterDisplay.
Implemented simple and fast SCSS extraction of JavaScript css`` literals.
Moves SCSS snippet processing to postcss at build time.
Implemented a reliable reactive wrapper that keeps Lit components and C++ components in sync.
Added tracklist scrolling and improved tracklist styling.
Added sound level meter rendering from telemetry data in the Track View component.
Introduced caching of (remote) properties across several different web components.
Improved piano roll layout by moving to HTML grid.
Rewrote and extended all piano roll note editing tools.
Reimplemented the Knob component to use PNG sprites instead of SVG layers.
Added support for Zoom In/Out/Reset functionality in the menubar.
Improved support for click-drag menu item selection in various menus, including track view, piano roll and device panel.
Fixed Vue 3.2.28 breaking $forceUpdate() calls before mounting.
Several web components were ported from Vue to Lit to simplify code and better efficiency.
Eliminated shadowRoot uses for most components, saving resources.

Packaging

Added fix so all AppImage executable properly operate $ORIGIN relative.
Fixed missing dependencies in AppImage builds so all needed libraries are included.
Improved version handling and added missing Git info to distribution tarballs.
Streamlined asset builds and other technical aspects of the release process.
Ensure release assets are always built in the same reproducible environment.
Started regular Nightly releases via the CI toolchain on every significant trunk merge commit.

Testing

Introduced end-to-end testing using X11 with headless runs.
Added replay functionality via Puppeteer of DevTools event recordings.
Added clang-tidy to the CI rules to improve code quality
Added regular Arch Linux test builds.

Anklang 0.1.0

System Requirements

Linux - Ubuntu 20.04 is needed to run the Anklang AppImage

Hardware Support

Build and package a second sound engine binary with AVX & FMA optimizations.

Documentation

Extended documentation in many places.
Improved copyright listing of all source files involved.
Provide user documentation as anklang-manual.pdf.
Provide developer documentation as anklang-internals.pdf.

User Interface

Improve UI responsiveness when handling async API calls.
Support proper note selection sets in the piano roll.
Introduced Undo/Redo stack for piano roll changes.
Use batch processing to responsively handle thousands of notes.
Support shortcut editing for piano roll functions.
Added Cut/Copy/Paste to piano roll.
Added play position indicator to piano roll.
Tool selection in piano roils now works on hover.
Notes moved in the piano roll now properly bounce against edges.
Selection in the piano roll now supports SHIFT and CONTROL.
Clips can now store notes with velocity=0.
Migrated CSS processing to postcss.
Fix file path handling for project load and save.
Shortend nicknames are now auto-derived for external plugins.
Support loading of command line files in Anklang.
Add MIME support for starting Anklang for *.anklang files.

Synthesis

Support single clip looping (very rudimentary), to be extended later.
Add Gtk+-2 dynlib to provide a wrapper window for plugin UIs.
Add support for CLAP-1.0.2 plugin loading and processing, the following CLAP extensions are currently implemented: LOG, GUI, TIMER_SUPPORT, THREAD_CHECK, AUDIO_PORTS, PARAMS, STATE, POSIX_FD_SUPPORT, AUDIO_PORTS_CONFIG, AUDIO_PORTS, NOTE_PORTS.