AudioTheory Grids News

Very small update to fix a couple of minor display issues, including a situation where custom colours would inadvertently default to light blue for all notes apart from C.

All requests Friday. A new update is here and it's composed entirely of features requested by you, the users of AudioTheory Grids. Let's have a look at what's new:

[h2]Revised Keyboard Design[/h2]

Someone kindly pointed out that the piano keyboard had a few differences when compared to a real piano, specifically in the placement and size of the black keys. The keyboard layout has been revised to address this, and now the position and placement of the black keys has been adjusted to match a real piano with greater accuracy.

I've also added in a depth effect so the black keys now look like they sit above the white keys (also to better match the look of a real piano). This can however be turned off in the settings if you prefer a flat, more abstract look.



[h2]Custom colours for the black keys[/h2]

Iit's now possible to set unique custom colours for the black keys. The default option is still for the black keys to automatically match the natural note colours (so C♯ uses the colour for C, where as D♭ uses the colour for D), however this can be changed using a new dropdown in the settings. If the black keys display mode is changed over to use custom colours then you'll see an additional set of black key notes for which individual colours can be set.



A benefit of displaying notes this way is that an incremental colour hue can be used that matches the pitch increment between the notes.

Features, features, features. Lots of new things arrive today, let's take a look.

[h2]Extra Instrument Grids[/h2]

The main view now includes an extra instrument grid, so you can add in a bass part, or layer in whatever additional sounds you desire.

The instrument itself is now set independently from the main piano, meaning that each grid can have a different instrument and then the main piano can use something else too. E.g. you could play bass, keys and drums using the grid and then overlay a synth part in real-time using the main piano.

[h2]Export as MIDI[/h2]

Anything you create in AudioTheory Grids can now be exported as a MIDI file that can be imported into your DAW. These options can be found under the new MIDI item in the toolbar and they work as follows:

Export current grid as MIDI – this generates a MIDI file for the current on-screen view (either notes or drums depending on what's currently in focus).

Export all notes as MIDI – this cycles through all grid configurations on the number pad and exports them into one continuous MIDI file. A second file is then created for the second set of note grids.

Export all drums as MIDI – as above, this combines all configurations on the number pad into a single MIDI file. However it exports the drums grids, rather than the two sets of note grids.

[h2]Auto Save and Load[/h2]

The full notes grid now automatically saves and loads between sessions. All input across all grids across all number pads remains in place.

Under the 'Grid' option in the toolbar there are additional options to clear the view. It's possible to clear the current grid using the 'Clear Current' option, or to clear everything by selecting 'Clear All Grids'.

[h2]Undo[/h2]

Undo recent changes from the 'Edit' item in the toolbar, or by pressing Ctrl+Z.

[h2]Stopwatch Synchronised Grid[/h2]

Grid playback is now controlled using a new stopwatch mechanism. This ensures greater precision in playback time and accurate tempo speeds.

[h2]Bug fixes[/h2]

A couple of smaller changes are also included in this update:

• Input handling has been updated to better support keyboard input when used alongside the instrument grids
  
• Fixed a couple of issues with grids not muting correctly
  
• Muted grids no longer highlight across the keyboard. This made sense when there was only one note grid, but across two it became confusing to see what was going on.
  
• Grids-specific hotkeys no longer work when the file name input field is active.
  

AudioTheory Grids version 2.0 arrives today. This update includes features, bug fixes, and improvements designed to bring AudioTheory Grids up-to-date with various changes that have been made to AudioTheory Guitars and AudioTheory Piano Keys in the last year. An additional update, with new features specifically for AudioTheory Grids, is coming soon.

[h2]Fretboard Builder[/h2]

AudioTheory Grids now uses the fretboard component from AudioTheory Guitars, allowing for numerous customisations. It's now possible to set the number of strings, the number of notes and the start fret, as well as the per-string start note and octave. So if you have a seven string guitar tuned to open C, you can easily configure the diagram to match. But even if you're sticking to E standard, the options to configure the size and display of the fretboard still provide a significant boost to the amount customisations you can now make.



[h2]Additional Minor Scales[/h2]

Full sets of harmonic and melodic minor scales have made their way to the scale library. To find these, select the minor type first and then below you'll see the different subtypes – natural (the standard minor scales that were already available) as well as harmonic and melodic.

Changes have also been made to the labels within the scale library, both to give clarity now that there's multiple minor scales to choose from, and also to better differentiate between the diminished scales that are also available.

[h2]Locked & Unlocked mode[/h2]
Toggle the application between an unlocked 'edit' mode and a locked 'view' mode using the padlock icon in the top right. This consolidates the application options, with 'unlocked' mode providing the full set of display settings overlaid directly onto the main view, and locked mode allowing for them to be hidden at the press of a button.

[h2]New menu bar[/h2]

There's a new menu bar in the top left of the window. The scale libraries, grid and fretboard settings can all be accessed using the dropdowns.

[h2]Light theme[/h2]

A brand new look is here in the form of the light theme. AudioTheory Grids already has a couple of selectable backgrounds, but this is the first true alternative theme, as almost every colour within the application is changed.



[h2]Colour wheel[/h2]

The options screen has been rebuilt as a larger popup. It now includes a colour wheel so you can quickly change the per-note colours. This builds upon the custom colour functionality introduced in AudioTheory Grids 1.5.0, and the colours can still be modified directly in the .ini file if you'd prefer, but now you can easily update the colours at runtime using the new selector. This includes the option to set the colour by hex value, and two additional note colour presets.

[h2]Relative note names[/h2]

Numerous changes have been made to improve how the application handles relative note name formats (Degrees, Roman numerals and movable do). These now display relative to the last selected scale, rather than the current scale. This has the effect of allowing you to subtract notes from the scale and still see the relative intervals for what's left. So for example, if you started out with C major and removed D, F, A and B then you'd be left with C, E and G, which would be labelled as 1, 3 and 5 respectively (which is useful if you're learning arpeggios!).

Further to the above, auto scale matching now only checks the current scale set group, as well as and the regular major and minor scales. This prevents accidentally swapping to the pentatonic scale of another key (e.g. G A B D E can be viewed as a subsection of C major, and won't automatically swap to G major pentatonic in this situation).



[h2]And the rest...[/h2]

The following changes and have also made their way into this update:

• The loaded preset name is now an input field that can be edited directly
  
• Fixed Do: Option to set Si or Ti as the 7th note in the scale
  
• Movable Do: new option to set minor scale as 'La-based' or 'Do-based'
  
• The 'clear highlighting' delay time for the 'high' setting has been increased from 1 second to 2 seconds
  
• Relative Roman numerals review to ensure consistent sharp/ flat information across all scales
  
• Solfege standardisation – all notes now use Do Re Mi for fixed do
  
• Standardisation of default sharp/ flat display across all scale types
  
• B now displays as C♭ when appropriate in scales (e.g. G♭ major)
  
• Hotkeys for swapping note language (buttons 1 – 4) now also work when viewing scale and chord sheets
  
• Adjusted position of keyboard input overlay on black keys
  
• Adjusted highlighting display when dragging lines on the grid
  
• The note selector (bottom left) now has a highlight effect when you add in notes
  
• Custom sharp and flat states now save between sessions (where as previously it was only the scale as a whole that would save)
  
• A message has been added to the options popup to clarify that the buttons 1–4 can be used to swap the note display language from the main application view
  
• A message also appears on the main display when swapping note language via hotkey, just to clarify what change has been made
  
• Clicking on a sharp/ flat chord name in the main application view now adjusts the sharp/ flat display for that note globally
  
• You can now click on the scale name in the bottom left to swap between the major and relative minor scales
  
• Engine upgrade
  
• Removal of the splash screen
  

And the bug fixes:

• Fixed some issues with grids not saving or loading correctly
  
• Fixed an issue where out-of-range notes would still display on the grid
  
• Fixed an issue with the audio latency value not displaying correctly on MacOS
  
• A few corrections have been made to how notes display when using Solfege
  
• Note selector scale label is now appended with an asterisk when modified. This is to support some changes made in the last update to how relative note names display, and makes it clear what scale these labels are in reference to when the scale is modified.
  
• Fixed some issues with the sustain feature and some issues specific to using the mouse to play notes. You can now play notes on the keyboard by dragging the mouse, as was previously possible on the fretboard.
  
• 'Interval' label corrected to 'Degrees'
  
• Mode labels now correctly update to major or minor
  

A new update is here for AudioTheory Grids. This adds in the ability to change the note colours, and the application can now be customised to use any combination of colours you desire.



[h3]The new .ini file[/h3]

Once you've updated to AudioTheory Grids 1.5.0 then the first time you run the application it will create a new 'Data' folder inside the application's directory folder. The easiest way to get to this is to then right click on the app in your Steam library and select 'Manage --> Browse Local Files'. If you're on a Mac the location of the folder is a little different and it can be found in the Application Support folder. So just to clarify where this file lives:

Windows and Linux

 {path to steam app}/AudioTheory Grids/Data/

Mac

 ~Library/Application Support/com.DraculasCave.AudioTheoryGrids/Data/

Open up the Colour.ini file in the text or code editor of your choice and you can then override the default note colours by changing the hex codes to specify the colour for each note. Changes will then take place the next time the application is loaded.



If you want to revert back to the original colours then the easiest way is just to delete the Colours.ini file and then the application will make a new one automatically with the default values.



A few other bug fixes have also made it into this update, but nothing too wild.