Progress of the Melys project
High level change log
9 Feb 2000. v0.1.17
Only minor changes from 0.1.16. The sequencer API changed yet again in ALSA 0.5.2 and so changes made in Melys to compile. Minor fix so grid re-displays correctly when it is re-sized.
7 Jan 2000. v0.1.16
This is just like 0.1.15 except that it compiles with ALSA version 0.4.1. You do not need to upgrage if you are using the 0.5.0 development version of ALSA.
6 Jan 2000. v0.1.15
The first relase for 2000, happy new year. Hopefully now works correctly with the latest ALSA CVS versions (I know I say this each release...) Problems occurred if you had more than one file open.
Added a grid widget. All views now have a grid to show bar lines. This will be configurable of course, but at present just shows bar lines.
20 Dec 1999. v0.1.14
You can now go to any point in the song by shift-clicking on the ruler at the required point. This is an initial implementation and there are various limitations that will be removed in later versions.
Fixed major bug that only occasionally showed up. If you have seen flakiness while use the mute and solo functions this is probably it.
Fixed use of 'error' which is reported to cause compile errors on some systems. Fixed hopefully final bug with using the sequencer API - mute only worked while playing the first open file.
16 Dec 1999. v0.1.13
Modified for the new sequencer API. If you are on the latest CVS version of ALSA, then you need this version, but it should still compile if you are not.
14 Dec 1999. v0.1.12
Can now delete notes (and anything else) by selecting them and hitting delete. Better feedback while moving the mouse around and during drag operations. The status bar is temporarilly being used to display this position information.
7 Dec 1999. v0.1.11
Bug fixed: when joining two parts together, every other note (or event) in the second part was lost. Snap to grid routines are implemented, although you can't change the defaults from the interface yet. The defaults are now 1/4 note on the part display and 1/16th note on the piano roll display. Much smoother ruler, double buffering employed to get rid of the annoying flicker. Some documentation on the keybindings begun. Bug fixed when closing a window with the window manager.
2 Dec 1999. v0.1.10
Adds time-signature and key-signature displays to the tempo view. These are not yet editible from within Melys but will display if present in a Midi file. An examples directory is created with some test input files for Melys including the file used to create the screenshots.
29 Nov 1999. v0.1.9
Going for a record 4 releases in a single day... This one shouldn't occasionally crash when opening a file.
29 Nov 1999. v0.1.8
A bug fixed release. Most things should be working again after the big internal changes in v0.1.7.
29 Nov 1999. v0.1.7
Some consolidation of the widgets that reduces the code size. There is no need to upgrade to this release, and it is not well tested.
29 Nov 1999. v0.1.6
Improvements to the piano roll view. A new tempo view for editing the tempo changes, see the screenshots. Bug fixes for program changes when reading from midi files and when ALSA_{INPUT|OUTPUT}_PORTS are not set.
24 Nov 1999. v0.1.5
Added the keyboard part of the piano roll. Fixed a bug that caused the bottom few notes to be not displayed.
24 Nov 1999. v0.1.4
Changes to deal with reading in from GM/GS/XG midi files. Should be able to read in an XG Midi file and it should play correctly again. Mostly internal changes that do not yet have an interface. Some bug fixes, nothing very exciting.
15 Nov 1999. v0.1.3
Some more piano roll code. You can select, move and copy notes now. It works just like the parts display. There is no way to delete notes or to change their duration just yet.
13 Nov 1999 v0.1.2
File reading bug fixed. There is now the beginning of a piano-roll view.
- Access it from button 3 on the track information pane.
- You can have multiple views open, even on the same track.
- If you record notes or delete them in the track view, all affected piano roll views will be updated.
- Don't forget that you can drag notebook pages out of the main window by dragging the tab. This way you can have several windows showing different (or the same!) tracks playing at the same time.
- Its view only at present, and there is no keyboard part or grid.
8 Nov 1999 v0.1.1
There are no interesting changes since 0.1.0. Mainly internal work that will make adding the new views easier. This version had a file reading bug, that would read multi part mdml files incorrectly.
26 Oct 1999 v0.1.0
This is release v0.1.0 of Melys. It is technically identical to v0.0.20.
25 Oct 1999 v0.0.20
Loads of small details changed. This version will become version 0.1.0 if all goes well. Most important things are that when you read in a type 0 midi file it will be split into tracks, and you can set initial pan and volume setting for each track. There is now a status bar which shows help for each menu item and shows the current song position which is constantly updated during play.
16 Oct 1999 v0.0.19
There are now zoom buttons. Click to zoom in or out, hold the button down to zoom continuously. Now snaps to a beat boundary when cutting a part, or moving/copying it.
14 Oct 1999 v0.0.18
Now you can copy parts as well as move them. As you drag them, outlines are displayed to show where they will be dropped.
13 Oct 1999 v0.0.17
Added outlines that move as the parts are being dragged. This makes it much easier to see what is going on. A couple of bugs in the track display fixed.
12 Oct 1999 v0.0.16
This release has a major increase in functionality. You can now edit the parts in the track view.
- Parts can be sliced, joined and deleted.
- Parts can be dragged to change their time within the track.
- Parts can be dragged to change which track they are on.
- Parts can be dragged into different windows.
- A number of selected parts can be dragged as a unit, preserving their relative locations, including the case where they are on different tracks.
- Part can have their own name.
- Files can be opened by dragging them from a file manager onto the track view.
The drag and drop only operates for move; copy and link are not yet implemented. There is no indication of where the drop will land and drops are all free-landing; you can't yet snap to the nearest bar or beat. These things will be in the next release or so and when they are basically working the version number will be changed to 0.1.0.
3rd Oct 1999 version 0.0.15
This release replaces the MDML read routine with a SAX based parser. The result of this is that reading in MDML files is now twice as fast and uses much less memory.
The other major addition is that the ruler across the top of the part display now shows real bar boundaries. Changes of time signature are handled (although you can't yet change the time signature from within Melys).
29 Sep 1999
There is now a position pointer that moves across the track display while playing or recording. Tidied up the file dialog code somewhat. Many general bug fixes.
23 Sep 1999
This is the first stage of the track parts display. You can see the recorded parts. The parts can have names, although there is no way of setting them yet apart from editing the MDML file.
22 Sep 1999
The MIDI read/writing was completely broken in the previous release, so this release has been made. There is a half implemented part display view as well.
19 Sep 1999
There is now the beginnings of a dialogue to change the properties of a track such as name, instrument and channel number. Melys now works when there is no sequencer device, you can read in, edit and write files. Many minor improvements and fixes.
15 Sep 1999
Record buttons to select which track(s) to record to. Recorded events are merged into existing tracks (other options will be available later). Can add and delete tracks. Context menu for track information view.
19 Aug 1999
Solo is now working. Requires a patch to ALSA.
16 Aug 1999
Buttons can now be placed on the track view. Mute buttons are working, solo is ready to work.
11 Aug 1999
The file handling has been rewritten. Simpler to program with and errors are reported to the user with message boxes instead of a program exit...
9 Aug 1999
Beginnings of a track based view are working. The first step is an information pane showing the track name and the patch that it uses. Currently only the track name is shown and then only if reading from a mdml file that has name attributes on the tracks.
29 July 1999
Tracks can be recorded and saved to either midi or mdml.
20 July 99
The following can be done from a gui menu interface: .AL 1 "" 0 None Read in files in either midi or the native Melys xml based format mdml . None Play one of the files and stop playing in the middle of the song. None Close each file.
As you can see a simple goal but achievable within a week or so. The next step will be to record a track and save to either midi or mdml. Following that editable views of the songs will be developed.
16 July 1999
Beginning of the project as Melys. There was a previous project pmidi to play midi files and also the MDML language had been defined and re-implemented in C.