[LAU] Latest Yoshimi Release

[Will Godfrey]

V 1.5.7 - Nightingale

This release is mainly focused on usability improvements.

For example, the Master Reset can now clear MIDI-learn lists. All you have to
do is hold down the Ctrl key when clicking the button. Usually you don't want
to, but it's there for the times you do.


There are rare occasions when a very large PadSynth patch can take as much as
15 seconds to initialise. If you try to do anything on that part that can
affect PadSynth (during that time) the result can be fatal. Well not any more,
as now you'll get a warning message: "Part {n} busy."


In the bank selection window there are two new buttons 'Import' and 'Export'.
These allow you to transfer complete banks in and out in a controlled manner.

There are a lot of these out in the wild, and the 'Import' process lets you
copy them in to specific slots in particular roots. It only copies in what
Yoshimi recognises, but informs you if there are any unrecognised files. There
is sometimes really odd junk that has crept into 'wild' banks. Also, Yoshimi
will never overwrite any of your precious installed banks or mess with their
IDs.

Similarly when you want to pass one of your own banks to friends, with 'Export'
it is easy to identify the bank you want to copy out, and Yoshimi will not
overwrite any external directories.


Following on from this, many people don't fill in the Author and Copyright
fields of their own instrument patches, making it hard to acknowledge them.
This is now partly automated in the hope that it may encourage people to do so.

You can set up this default by going to the 'Instrument Edit' window and
filling the field in just once, then while holding down the Ctrl key, click on
the 'Default' button. From then on, just a click on this will fill the field
with this text.


Going further into instruments, we now have a few useful key shortcuts.

If you hold down 'K', and click on the 'Edit' button in the main window, it
will directly open the kit editor window for the current part. Similarly
holding down 'E' and clicking will give you the part's effects window.

Most voice patches only use the first Add, Sub and Pad engines and there are
similar shortcuts for these using 'A', 'S' & 'P' and clicking on the 'Edit'
button. If you use the left mouse button it will only open the associated
window if that engine is enabled, otherwise it will open the usual Part Edit
window. Using the Right button will enable the engine then open its window.

For the QWERTY keyboarders 'D' can be used instead of 'P', putting these in a
neat row :)


Now we take a dive into the feared AddSynth Voice window!

The first thing you notice is these are tabbed, so you can quickly jump between
the voices. An extra detail is that non-active voices have their numbers in
light grey text, while the active (or the current selected) ones have clearly
visible black text.

This is all fully in sync with the Voice List window.


We've changed some ambiguous wording in the Voice window too. The 'Change'
buttons are now 'Waveform' ones. Also the highly confusing 'Ext' or 'Internal'
entries are better worded - it was quite common for people to ask how they got
the 'Ext' ones and where they came from.

For the voice itself, the selector is now named 'Oscillator' and the text is
'Internal' or 'Voice {n}'

At the top of the Modulator section, you have 'Oscillator Source' and this time
it will be 'Local' or 'Voice {n}'.

The lower selector is titled 'Local Oscillator' and the text will be 'Internal'
or 'Mod. {n}'.

An extra detail is that these entries are greyed out for voice 1, as you can
only select the internal oscillator or one from a lower numbered voice.


Returning to effects, there is now interpolation in place for the controls,
which makes these crackle-free and far more useful with MIDI-learn - Remember,
you can have up to 200 learned lines.


Finally, there are the usual code improvements and bug fixes.

Yoshimi source code is available from either:
    https://sourceforge.net/projects/yoshimi
Or:
    https://github.com/Yoshimi/yoshimi

Our list archive is at:
    https://www.freelists.org/archive/yoshimi
To post, email to yoshimi at freelists.org

-- 
Will J Godfrey
http://www.musically.me.uk
Say you have a poem and I have a tune.
Exchange them and we can both have a poem, a tune, and a song.