AudioTheory Guitars News

A quick patch to resolve an issue introduced in yesterday's update where the note selector would not work properly.

A small patch arrives for AudioTheory Guitars. This includes the following changes:

• Fix for scale intervals not displaying correctly
  
• Alternate A7 chord shape added
  
• Logo no longer vanishes on M1 MacBook when fullscreen mode is active
  
• File browser support now working on M1 Macs
  
• Bug fix for modal scales not saving between sessions
  
• Fix for diminished scales not loading correctly from the scale library
  
• Engine upgrade
  

A new update to AudioTheory Guitars arrives today. This adds in a feature that was primarily developed for AudioTheory Piano Keys – support for different sized keyboards all the way up to a full sized 88 key piano.

These options are now available for AudioTheory Guitars too, meaning that if you want to reference the guitar fretboard against a larger keyboard, or you want to connect up a MIDI device and see a matching number of keys on-screen, you can select the desired amount of keys in the application settings.




[h3]So what else is new?[/h3]
There are a whole bunch of changes that have been made to support the new range of keyboard sizes:

Toggles for UI elements. The note selector (bottom left) can now be toggled on and off . For the smaller keyboard sizes this gives better flexibility on what information you're seeing on screen, and for the larger sizes it's a requirement to allow the full length of the keyboard to display.

Additional sounds (for the lower and higher notes). Again, this is predominantly for 88 key support, but it means that new notes are available in other contexts too. It also accounts for the increased file size of this update.

MIDI support for out of range notes. For example, if you connect an 88 key MIDI controller but are using the 37 key view, you will still get audio feedback from the notes not on screen.

Extended output octave range. This covers the extended range of available notes, and can now be set between between -2 and +2.



[h3]Relative Note Naming[/h3]

This update also sorts out some issues with the relative note naming. The relative note names for pentatonic and blues scales now reference the appropriate major scale, and by default these display as numbers, although there is also the option to use Roman numerals if preferred.



That's all for today. Thanks for reading, and keep practicing. Oh, and happy new year!

A new update is here for AudioTheory Guitars. This combines a set of performance optimisations to make the application run more efficiently. These include a new method for checking for QWERTY input, settings for how the application runs in the background/ out of focus, and a new 'performance mode' that works behind the scenes to dynamically control the application render rate.



[h3]Variable Render Rate[/h3]

Ah, the solution to all of life's problems. This week I've made a fair few optimisations in the name of performance, but the most noticeable is a new variable render rate that means the display doesn't update when it doesn't need to.

This works well because there are many scenarios where you may find the software idling, it is after all reference material so it makes sense to leave it open up on screen. The software now looks out for these moments and greatly reduces the CPU overhead when possible, before seamlessly resuming to business as usual when any sort of input (or any action that results in a visible change on screen) is detected.



[h3]Run out of focus[/h3]

I have also changed the default behaviour of the application so that it pauses running if the window is not in focus. This makes it a lot more practical to leave open in the background.

Originally this was not set because I imagined scenarios where it would be useful to poll for MIDI input when using the application alongside a DAW or other piece of software (e.g. you could be working in Logic on one screen and have AudioTheory running in the background on a second monitor). This may still be the case, so if your requirements do in fact mean that it's desirable for the application to run out of focus, then you can turn this back on in the settings.

That's all for today. Thanks for reading, and keep practicing.

Fraser

This is a quick update that adds in the option to swap back to use the built-in driver as an alternative to ASIO. You can now swap between these in the options cog, but please note that any driver changes made will require an application restart before it takes effect.

Also, if you select ASIO this will only work if the ASIO4ALL driver is installed on your computer, if not then the application will revert to the built-in driver!