AudioTheory Grids 2.0.0

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