AudioTheory Guitars News

The latest update for AudioTheory Guitars is here and this one makes some pretty big 'under the hood' changes. This includes support for the ASIO4ALL audio driver, designed to give lightning fast response times and improve the latency of the application.

[h3]AudioTheory Guitars and the ASIO4ALL driver[/h3]

ASIO4ALL is a freeware audio driver designed for low latency playback. Most DAWs require the use of an ASIO driver, and whilst it is optional for AudioTheory Guitars, it's highly recommended. It's very easy to install and you are guaranteed to get better performance than the built-in Windows driver.

Oh and yes, to confirm this is a Windows specific feature. Mac and Linux come with audio drivers that can handle very low latencies out-of-the-box. More on how the settings have changed on these platforms in a bit.



[h3]Changes to the Windows version of AudioTheory Guitars[/h3]

There are a few things now in place designed to help swap you over to the ASIO driver. If you load up the application without this installed you will see a one-time notification directing you to the ASIO4ALL website.

After this, when the application loads it will automatically use the ASIO driver if available, or revert to the built-in driver if it's not. You can see which driver is currently in use from the settings popup.



If the ASIO driver is in use, you will also see a 'config.' button that lets you open up the ASIO4ALL settings. Here is where you configure your output device as well as the DSP buffer size. If you are not receiving any audio, the likely cause is that the correct output has not been selected here.



[h3]Changes to the Mac and Linux versions of AudioTheory Guitars[/h3]

These still use the DSP latency settings that were previously in place. As above, the built-in drivers are able to support low latency without the need for an external driver. However I have swapped over the selector to a new dropdown which makes it a bit quicker and easier to select the value you're after.



[h3]More stuff under the hood[/h3]

You may notice that in terms of download size, this update is a little larger than usual. This isn't specifically the ASIO driver, but rather a change to how the application stores and accesses audio data.

The files required for audio playback were previously supplied in a compressed format, however this meant they needed to be decompressed at the point they were played. The uncompressed files can be played right away and this, combined with low latency support, greatly improves the usability of the application as a software instrument.

[h3]Velocity playback[/h3]

Oh, and one more change along the same lines. MIDI input playback now registered the note press velocity, meaning the playback volume is controlled by how hard you are pressing the notes. This helps better simulate the effect of a real instrument.



That's all for today. Updates will be arriving very soon for both AudioTheory Piano Keys and AudioTheory Grids, there are a few additional changes I need to make to support these, but I'll be getting them up as soon as possible in the upcoming few days.

This is a quick patch to resolve an octave playback issue introduced in version 2.0.1.

It also bundles together some 'under the hood' changes, notably an engine upgrade (hence the size of the patch) as well as a reworking of the input system. This improves the highlighting response time of the application and replaces the MIDI input plugin with a new solution that provides improved functionality and better 64 bit compatibility. It means that MIDI support is available on Linux for the first time, although please note that this requires ALSA (libasound2) to be installed on the system.

However, there is a trade off which is that the new MIDI input system does not work with the 32 bit version of Windows. Judging by the Steam hardware data I have access to, I'm hoping this isn't going to be too much of an issue as everyone seems to be on 64 bit these days.

Due to OS and Unity upgrades, 32 bit support is no longer available for either Mac or Linux, with Windows being the final hold out. So yes, the best course of action I can see is for this to be the end of 32 bit Windows support (with this being the final update, which continues to use the old MIDI input system only in the Windows 32 build). This will continue to work and be available, but future updates will be 64 bit only.

The alternative would be to continue to supply patches for the 32 bit Windows version, but for this to no longer support MIDI input. Let me know if you have any strong thoughts on this.

A quick patch arrives to address the following:

• Display fix for sus2 chord sheets (Drop D)
  
• Mini chord popup selector correctly refreshes if a chord from the full library is selected
  
• Mini chord popup selector now clears if 'no chord' is selected
  
• Notes now play for the correct duration when pressed directly on the fretboard and the sustain feature is turned off
  
• User Guide (link to page on AudioTheory website) and Quit Application buttons have been added to the settings
  

Today is launch day for AudioTheory Piano Keys. This is a brand new piece of software designed to give you real time visual and audio feedback when learning and practicing the piano. I'm super excited to finally be sharing this with you, and to coincide with the launch there is also a big new update for AudioTheory Guitars.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1513510/AudioTheory_Piano_Keys

[h3]A new look to celebrate[/h3]

AudioTheory Guitars now has two additional themes you can select in the options. The classic theme is still the default however, so if you like things as they currently are you don't need to worry, not everyone likes change and that's okay.



[h3]Minimalist mode[/h3]

You might notice something else different in the screenshots; they contain a lot less interface than usual. This is the new 'minimalist view' that can be toggled on or off using the eye icon on the right hand side of the screen. It's great for when you want to focus on practicing without the immediate need to change any settings. If you do need to adjust these, they're only ever a click away.



[h3]Chromatic highlighting[/h3]

This is the culmination of numerous highlighting enhancements that have been made over the last few updates. The new chromatic highlighting options mean there is full flexibility on how sharp and flat notes highlight not only within a scale preset but also in chromatic mode (using all notes) as well as any custom subsection.

I am confident that this is a much improved solution for how to display sharp and flats. Firstly, two changes to how this previously worked:

• Sharp and flat notes now display with coloured highlighting even when a scale preset is not being used
  
• The previous sharp and flat settings in the options cog are no more
  

Sharps and flats now display as default as sharps. To change this all you need to do is click on any sharp note in the bottom left and it will swap to a flat. This will automatically update so the display and highlighting on the keyboard and fretboard match.

If you load a scale preset, this will automatically update all the sharp and flat notes so that they display as appropriate for the specific scale, but then they can be changed if desired by clicking on the names.

What this means is that in the majority of situations, the sharp and flat notes will automatically display in the format you'll want. And if you do want to swap one, it's really easy to do so.



[h3]New scale selector[/h3]

The mini-scale selector has been neatened up, and there's a new look for the fullscreen selector. Minor scales have been split out into their own tab and there's now also a set of Dim scales available.

[h3]New octave selector[/h3]

The octave selector has been revised to better match that of a real-world device. It now starts at 0 and can be increased to +1 or decreased to -1. There is also a new option in the settings to show the MIDI input octave directly in the main view. I'd recommend turning this on if you are using a MIDI device and frequently change the octave directly on the device. This (now labelled as 'input octave') should match the device to ensure highlighting works as expected.

For example: if you increase the octave by +1 on your MIDI controller, then you should set the input octave as +1 too as this will ensure the device continues to highlight the correct octave. Meanwhile the output octave independently sets the pitch of the application software instruments.



This update also includes a whole bunch of miscellaneous bug fixes and tweaks designed to make it the best version of AudioTheory Guitars yet. Highlights include:

• A new button on the scale selector for playback looping
  
• Lock to scale now defaults to 'Yes'
  
• Modal scale backgrounds now correctly update in the mini popup
  
• Sustain state now correctly saves
  
• The preset name cross no longer shows in some scenarios when a preset was not loaded
  

And that concludes today's update. Thanks for reading.

Fraser

AudioTheory Guitars has been updated to version 1.18.1. This is a small patch to address the following:

–Reverted to the original set of default chords
–Sharpness on fret numbers fixed
–Click and drag chords now works with slide out menu expanded
–Application now properly checks to resize if swapping from a 16:9 windowed to 16:10 fullscreen view
–Dim chords no longer show the '(no capo)' label if their start position is higher than the capo
–Fix for incompatibility between exact root note option and power/ barre chords with capo