# MidiBro Changelog

## [1.2.0] (2025-12-31)

### NEW: Audio Ouput "System Synth"
- Apple's built-in MIDISynth (macOS) or Microsoft's GS Wavetable Synth (Windows) to play MIDI files
- 128 instruments
- Play multitrack/multichannel files, e.g. full songs with different instruments for better audition

### NEW: Key Shift Function
- Transform MIDI playback to any musical scale (Major, Minor, Dorian, Mixolydian, etc.)
- Mode 'Filter': Remove notes that don't belong to the selected scale
- Mode 'Constrain': Snap out-of-scale notes to the nearest scale degree
- Drag export applies Key Shift to exported MIDI files
- Piano Roll and thumbnails show transformed notes in real-time

### Smart Collections
- New: Smart Collection Editor with AI Classification cards (Bass, Drums, Pad, etc. without search terms)
- Improved: Reduced false positives for Bass, Drums, Melody, Pad, and Pluck (users after update from v1.0/v1.1: run a full scan)
- Fix: View no longer gets replaced by background scan results
- Fix: Collections with only AI classification now show matching files
- Fix: Multi-collection search (Ctrl/CMD+Click) shows correct file counts
- Fix: Clicking collection after folder filters correctly

### Generate Variations
- New: "Recycle" button - use a generated variation as the new source for iterative generations
- New: "Amount" dropdown (1-8) to control how many variations each algorithm produces
- New: "Extract Bass from Chords" expanded to 8 patterns: root, walking, lowest, syncopated, octave jump, arpeggio, pedal, chromatic
- Improved: Variation card thumbnails now have landscape aspect ratio matching the original file thumbnail
- Improved: "Melody Variation (Y)" chord variations now always consonant (removed chromatic alterations that broke chord structure)
- Fix: "Melody Variation (Y)" now handles MIDI files with non-standard PPQ correctly (was hardcoded to 480)
- Fix: Playhead now stays synchronized with notes for variations with non-standard bar counts

### Drum Mapping
- New: 1:n mapping visualization in thumbnails and zoom window
- Improved: Editor button turns orange when active (consistent with Key Shift)
- Fix: Mapping persists when navigating files with arrow keys
- Fix: 1:n mapping shows all target notes in piano roll and drag files

### UI Improvements
- New: Thumbnail flash animation when toggling drum mapping or recycling variations
- New: "Remove Folder" option in folder context menu (root folders only)
- Improved: Audio Output button labels
- Improved: Styled message dialogs throughout the app
- Fix: Folder view no longer gets replaced by background scan results

### Stability
- Fix: Rare crash during idle (heap corruption in text rendering)
- Fix: Crash when scrolling fast during playback
- Fix: Rare crashes during scan completion
- Fix: Rare CoreGraphics crash during System Synth playback
- Fix: Missing thumbnails during playback now load progressively
- Fix: Playhead cursor better synchronized with notes (30Hz updates)
- Fix: Folder view no longer gets replaced by background scan results
- Fix: Setting star rating no longer auto-selects first file

------------------------------

## [1.1.4] (2025-12-22)
- Fix: Plugin sync now starts immediately when DAW is at beat/bar boundary (was delayed to next beat/bar)
- Fix: Loop duration corruption causing loops sometimes to play only once
- Fix: DAW transport now starts MidiBro playback on first click (was requiring manual play first)
- Fix: Resolved crash that could occur when closing the app while plugin is connected
- Improved: "DAW controls MidiBro" toggle now only visible when "Sync to DAW" is enabled 


## [1.1.3] (2025-12-21)
- New: Toggle "Follow DAW transport" in main window (in sync with same toggle in 'Audio Settings' window)
- New: Octave display in piano roll window
- Fix: Bar count now matches DAW display
- Fix: Zoom window: close button added, window no longer closes when clicking near edges, shows proper file name when drum mapping active
- Fix: Truncated or corrupted MIDI files now recover automatically
- Fix: Support for MIDI files with up to 24 tracks (was 12)
- Fix: Quoted phrase search (e.g. "kick C minor") now works correctly with path search enabled
- Fix: Rare crash when closing app while large library tip dialog is visible
- Fix: Rare crash during fast scrolling with large thumbnail cache
- Improved: Search term persists when switching folders, X button to clear
- Improved: Windows installer checks if DAW is running before updating plugin


## [1.1.2] (2025-12-19)
- Fix: App crash during thumbnail progress bar rendering
- Fix: Shrink Database progress bar and duplicate removal moved from app startup to Shrink Database menu for faster startup with large libraries
- Improved: On startup a large library tip dialog is shown when >1M files 


## [1.1.1] (2025-12-18)

### Plugin & DAW Sync
- Fix: Playback cursor no longer drifts in Plugin mode
- Fix: Bar quantization now starts immediately when DAW is at a bar boundary
- Fix: Auto-follow playback no longer freezes
- New: Position-aware playback - start playing at DAW position, not always from beginning
- New: Sample-accurate beat sync for precise timing at any tempo, seek function (click in thumbnail) works 
- New: Plugin has better look and feel (black gradient background)

### Main Window
- Central table, column "Tracks" renamed to "Parts" to show combined count of channels & tracks (aligned with Multitrack Splitter)
- Right panel when drum mapping enabled: top thumbnail pulsating drum icon (every 10s) and orange circle in button "Drum map editor"

### Drum Mapping
- Fix: Drum presets did not show up on Windows
- New: Save/Save As buttons with confirmation dialog
- New: Prev/Next navigation in keyboard picker
- UI: Cleaner button layout with checkboxes and actions in separate rows

### Multitrack Splitter
- Improved: Now shows "Parts" instead of only "Channels" (groups by track+channel) - shows more results

### Generate Variations
- Fix: Variations now produce truly distinct results (seed generation fix)
- Fix: Algorithm "Melody Variation Y", first output ("subtle") was generating too short notes

### Misc
- New: Lemon Squeezy license key validation
- Fix: Improvement of stability 

## [1.1.0] (2025-12-12)

### Major New Features
- **Drum Mapping** - Full n:1/1:n mapping, 16 bundled presets, keyboard picker with note preview, sequencer visualization, CSV import/export
- **Multitrack Splitter** - Extract channels from multi-channel MIDI files, piano roll per channel, drag individual channels to DAW
- **Smart Collection Editor** - Visual editor with search term cards, OR logic (up to 20 terms), gear button access

### Improvements
- **UI**: Icon buttons in right panel, redesigned About dialog, better window resizing, "Search in path" toggle
- **Background Scanning**: Quick Scan from right-click, background toggle, throttled extraction during playback

------------------------------

## [1.0.15] (2025-11-28)

- Fix: Plugin connection stability improved - eliminated crash risk during DAW audio reconfiguration (thanks Jae-an for the diagnostics)
- Fix: App crash when closing Generate Variations dialog during AI generation (especially AI Drums)


## [1.0.14] (2025-11-27)

- Fix: Musical Key detection improved - before key from MIDI metadata was prioritized; now filename pattern and Krumhansl-Kessler algorithm have higher priority (thanks for your eagle eyes, Simon)


## [1.0.13] (2025-11-24)

- Fix: Favorites and Unrated collections now update immediately when rating Files
- Fix: Musical Key now extracted and displayed again


## [1.0.12] (2025-11-22)

- Performance: Speed improvements for large libraries
  - GUI no longer freezes after importing large folders - eliminated blocking operations and redundant database queries
  - Smart collection updates now happen automatically in background - no more waiting for collections to populate after imports
  - Subfolder file counts can be toggled off for instant app startup with large libraries (toggle in Advanced menu 'Show subfolder counts')
  - Database operations significantly faster - batched transactions eliminate lock errors, GUI responsive within 2-3 seconds for large libraries
  - Smart collection updates paused during Quick/Full Scan - eliminates database contention and improves scan speed
- Fix: All smart collections now update correctly after imports - all 25 collections show accurate counts
- Fix: Playback no longer stutters during background scanning - playback treated as user activity
- Fix: Database WAL checkpoint after scan completion ensures data integrity
- Fix: Shrink/Expand algorithm exports now produce correct file lengths - drag-and-drop files match selected expansion/shrink factor


## [1.0.11] (2025-11-19)
- Performance: Speed improvements for large libraries (thanks Steve and Mike for log files and feedback):
  - Faster file list loading, startup time, and folder navigation
  - Collection clicks instant for subsequent clicks
  - Better concurrent query handling (increased connection pool to 6)
  - Automatic index optimization on shutdown
  - Fixed race condition causing unpredictable collection click delays
    - Note: First launch with this update takes longer due to index creation, but much faster afterwards
  - Fix: "Shrink Database" now works correctly with very large libraries (4M+ files) and preserves offline folders (thanks Steve)
  - Fix: Drum compatibility mode drag-and-drop now produces identical MIDI as plugin playback (thanks Wilhelm for screenshots)
  - Feature: Drum compatibility mode visual feedback in right panel - thumbnail shows drum-mapped pattern with drum icon indicator


## [1.0.10] (2025-11-16)

- Fix: Memory corruption crashes eliminated - app no longer crashes when closing during playback, after drag operations, or after waking Mac from sleep (CoreGraphics color context invalidation resolved across UI components)
- Fix: Drum compatibility mode now works correctly when dragging MIDI files to DAW and applies consistently during Plugin playback (happy you found this, Wilhelm)
- Fix: Piano Roll drum compatibility mode now shows correct note names in note pills (e.g., C2 instead of B0)
- Fix: DAW sync stop issue in FL Studio - plugin no longer auto-restarts after manual stop (I hope this helps, Scott)
- Fix: Vertical scrollbar clicks in central table no longer change row selection and dragging no longer triggers unwanted MIDI file drag (well spotted, Ira)


## [1.0.09] (2025-11-15)

- Fix: Drag & drop from search results in large libraries now correctly drags the displayed file instead of wrong file (good catch, Wilhelm)
- Fix: Playback from search results now plays the correct clicked file instead of wrong file
- Fix: Search returning zero results after upgrade from v1.0.1 to v1.0.7 (thanks for finding this hidden bug, Wilhelm)
- Fix: Collection counts resetting to "..." when playing files, re-enableing after scan completion, folder changes, and rating updates 
- "Full Scan" Improvements: Skips file counting, more robust database handling (danke, Wilhelm), better progress display with files and remaining time
- Improved: Compact debug logging for drum compatibility mappings (single-line output)


## [1.0.8] (2025-11-14)

- FL Studio Integration Fixes (thanks, Scott, for testing & spotting this in FL Studio)
  - Audio blocking - plugin no longer clears audio buffer, allowing downstream instruments to work
  - Infinite reconnection - plugin now reconnects indefinitely after app restart (was limited to 5 attempts)
  - Faster connection detection - reduced timer from 500ms to 250ms
  - Auto-follow first file bug - DAW play now triggers MidiBro playback immediately on first file selection
  - Plugin status shows "auto-reconnecting..." message when disconnected
- Fixed: stopPlaybackOnDrag configuration now works correctly in Plugin mode (DAW playback stops when dragging MIDI files)


## [1.0.7] (2025-11-12)

- Performance: Collection clicks now instant for large libraries (was 60+ seconds, now <1 second first click, instant after)
- UX: Badge counts update immediately when clicking collections


## [1.0.6] (2025-11-12)

- Performance: Collection clicks ca. 50% faster for large libraries (eliminated redundant filtering)
- Improved diagnostic logging for collection filtering operations


## [1.0.5] (2025-11-11)
- Feature: Auto-Follow:
  - "Sync to DAW" toggle in right panel now acts as master control for all DAW integration (auto-follow and quantization)
  - DAW 'play' will start play of selected MIDI file in MidiBro (DAW auto-follow function), also for DAW 'stop'; configurable via Audio Settings window
  - UI: Updated "Sync to DAW" tooltip to clarify it controls both auto-follow and quantization features
- UI: Added tooltip to "Plugin in DAW" button when plugin is disconnected


## [1.0.4] (2025-11-10)
- Plugin: compatibility and connection reliability, e.g. for FL Studio (thanks for checking this out, Scott)
  - Faster connection/reconnection (500ms interval instead of 2 seconds)
  - Extended logging: DAW name, plugin path & binary date for better version tracking; reduced verbose logging 


## [1.0.3] (2025-11-09)
- Performance (thanks for contiously testing with your massive library, Mike)
  - Faster Startup for large libraries (removed unnecessary search index rebuilds, fixed status bar file counting)
  - Status Bar shows correct file count and count query optimized
- Fixed: Table no longer re-sorts on first star rating assignment after folder click
- Feature: Playback now stops automatically when dragging MIDI files to your DAW (central table, piano rool) and is configurable in config.json (stopPlaybackOnDrag": true)

## [1.0.2] (2025-11-08)

- Performance for Smart Collections, better for large libraries:
  - Start of app is faster is not waiting for smart collections anymore, they are populized in background when user is not working. Collections show "..." badge and update on-demand when clicked
  - Search speed improved (30x faster), uses SQLite FTS5 full-text index now, FTS5 index automatically rebuilt on startup to ensure search functionality works correctly
  - Optimized reduced redundant search terms
  - Search result limit is 2000 files and displays "2000+ files" indicator when limit reached
- Fix: Central panel horizontal scrollbar - clicks no longer trigger spurious row selection changes 
- Fix: MIDI playback audio bug - eliminated dropped MIDI events at audio block boundaries (clamped sample position to valid range)
- Fix: Windows: Automatically converts 8.3 short paths (e.g., KLASS~39) to long paths (e.g., Klassische Musik)
- Feature: Quick Scan (in menu "Advanced") for incremental library updates - detects new, modified, and deleted files (much faster than deep & long "Full Scan")

## [1.0.1] (2025-11-06)

- Fix: Thumbnail generation from menu crashed on MIDI files with 15+ tracks (JUCE v8.0.8 parser limitation), rebuild hanging/stuck at incomplete progress, shows accurate counts (successful vs. skipped files)
- Technical: Added pre-validation for MIDI files (size, header, track count) to prevent JUCE parser crashes
- Improved: Registration reminder displays casual phrases
- Better UX for scanning progress of large libraries
- Windows installer: VST3 always to C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST; better logging and include install.log into diagnostic file; remove not needed icon files

## [1.0.0] (2025-10-31)

### Status 2025-10-31
- Fix: macOS crash 8 minutes after wake from sleep/standby (CoreGraphics corruption - window-level repaint)
- Database Size Optimization (Removed duplicate index definition)
- Improved Folder Expansion Speed (Removed immediate saveConfiguration() calls)
- Optimized Folder File Count Display (Database-first lookup: 50x faster for folders with 18K+ files)
- Fix: Windows 10 MSVCP140.dll crash with static runtime linking

### Status 2025-10-30
- Fix: On MacOS a rare crash after wakeup from standby
- Fix: For MacOS fixed signing DMG (MacOS 14 Sonoma: right click -> open for DMG and Installer is still needed due to Apple security paranoia)
- Fix: On Windows drumkit samples were not integrated in binary 
- Fix: After addition of folders scan showed not up reliably and collection numbers were not updated
- Added registration with Gumroad license key
- Fix: Collection icon validation error for 'Arpeggios & Sequences' (changed § to > ASCII)

### Status 2025-10-26
- Fixed app crash when scanning a 'special' 3K file folder (UTF-8 issue on Windows)
- Improved performance for adding folders, display progress and removing folders
- Fix: Periodic GUI freezes when single folders with 10K+ files were added
- Added AU plugin for Logic (use it as MIDI FX in your DAW)

### Status 2025-10-23
- Optimized usage of NAS folders (especially for MacOS). Fix: Full Scan does not remove "offline" folders anymore
- Optimized database storage handling with checkpoints, truncation on startup

### Status 2025-10-21
- Plugin playback starts now with quantization to stay in sync with DAW (bar or beat - configurable in Audio Settings)
- Manual updated
- Fix: Multiple collections highlight had issues when playing from central table
- Fix: Drumkit Loop had a pause at the end
- Fix: On Windows, algorithm "Shuffle" cause app crash  

### Status 2025-10-17
- Improved detail piano roll window to deal with drum patterns:
   - Transpose up/down buttons, drum compatibility mode toggle, drag into DAW button
   - Vertical Scrollbar
   - Display transpose value or audio output on change (shortcuts A, S, D) - as temporarily overlay
   - Dragging notes vertically with hover effect (single notes with CMD/CTRL or whole note layer without any key) 
   - Display of GM drum instruments (or drum instruments/samples from Drumkit)
   - Save modified files (shortcut CMD/CTRL + S) to folder after change (in save window use shortcuts S, D or C)   
   - Help window to explain functionalities and shortcuts 
- Added drag n drop of MIDI folders into left panel 'Folder View'

### Status 2025-10-14
- Improved looping (with MIDI-padding which rounds up length to next bar)
- Better stability when switching audio output (Plugin in DAW <->Internal Synth<->Drumkit)
- Fixed app crash after scanning MIDI files with corrupt headers

### Status 2025-10-09
### Added
- **Folder Management Enhancements**
  - Remember last added folder location for improved workflow
  - Persistent folder collapsing status stored in config.json
  - (Empty) folders with no MIDI files are hidden (configurable in config.json)
  - More beautiful folder icons
  - Drag n drop to sort root folders

- **User Interface Refinements**
  - Enhanced Windows Audio Settings with detailed display of audio API and device information

- **Development & Distribution**
  - Apple certificate code signing and notarization support

### Fixes and Features
- **Performance Improvements**
  - Fixed slow NAS folder causing stuttering of progress bar in MIDI generations window
  - Enhanced handling of slow network drives for better responsiveness
  - Reduced excessive logging to improve performance
  - Improved playhead when plugin plays (no rewind animation)

- **Playback & UI Fixes**
  - Duration of MIDI files round to next full bar - improved looping for Drumkit
  - Fixed files with short notes at the end got stuck 
  - Fixed double-click on row not refreshing playback state of other played rows
  - Improved state synchronization during file playback
  - Better playback control state management
  - MIDI Panic button (shortcut F10) to stop any playback
  - Keyboard shortcuts A, S, D to switch between audio outputs plugin, synth and drumkit
  - Zoomed piano roll: keyboard shortcuts arrow up/down to go to next midi file
  - Fixed click sound in internal synth preset "Piano" at short notes

- **Misc**
  - Fixed some random threading crashes 

### Added
- **AI-powered MIDI note Generation based on provided MIDI file 
  - Markov Chain algorithm for pattern generation
  - "Generation Y" algorithm for chord-based compositions
  - "Shuffle Chords, Drums and Melodies" algorithm with enhanced shuffling logic
  - "Extract Bass from Chords" algorithm for bass line generation
  - "Shrink/Expand" algorithm with multiple time ratios (0.1x to 4.0x)
  - "Swing & Humanize" 
  - "AI: Melody Variation (basic)" based on Google Magenta AI (basic_rnn)
  - "AI: Melody Variation (from Chords)" based on Google Magenta AI (chord_pitches_improv)
  - "AI: Generate Piano/Bass/Drums" based on Google Magenta AI (MusicVAE Trio) creating 3-track arrangements with proper coloring
  - "AI: Generate Drums" based on Google Magenta AI (drum_kit_rnn)
  - AI Algorithms have "Creativity" slider to configure "temperature" value 
  - Drag and drop generated MIDI files directly into DAW with better naming
  - Help window with algorithm explanations and usage instructions

- **Enhanced DrumKit Support**
  - New Audio Output: DrumKit with auto-octave-shift functionality
  - Enhanced sample assignment with "drum compatibility mode" toggle
  - Drum compatibility support for plugin mode
  - Master volume slider for DrumKit in Audio Settings

- **Improved Piano Roll and Visual Features**
  - Detail Piano Roll view with zoom functionality
  - Piano Roll accessible in both right panel and MIDI Generation window
  - Space bar shortcut for play/stop in Detail Piano Roll
  - Optimized piano roll for single note patterns
  - Visual enhancements with horizontal separator lines

- **User Interface Improvements**
  - MidiBro-Generations folder entries displayed with blue tint
  - Collection "Arpeggios & Sequences" restored
  - Shortcut key 'cursor right' and 'cursor left' jump playback 10% forward or backward

- **Technical Enhancements**
  - Node.js integration for AI features with binaries (therefore package size is larger)
  - Threading safety improvements in Ableton Link integration
  - Windows build support and installer improvements
  - Enhanced file generation and database storage
  - Better error handling and crash prevention
  - Resilient browsing of folders and files from slow drives, e.g. NAS

### Fixed
- Threading safety issues in Ableton Link integration
- MIDI Generation window loop functionality for internal synth and drumkit
- Plugin playback issues in MIDI Generations window
- Generated files now properly stored in database
- Duration calculation errors in MIDI generation window
- DrumKit loop restart timing issues
- Switch between synth and drumkit during playback
- Various app crash causes eliminated

## [0.2.0]

### Added
- Simple internal synthesizer with improved tempo handling and octave changes: no need for plugin in DAW
- Ableton Link integration for bi-directional start/stop sync between MidiBro and DAW
- Progress bar animation improvements
- Timeseek in thumbnail/note pattern
- Seamless octave changes
- Enhanced detection of files for instrument 'flexible' collections
- New collection "Arpeggios & Sequencer"
- Performant and graceful handling of slow external drives like NAS
- Enhanced key detection with advanced filename analysis and fallback sophisticated algorithms
- Folder tree: shows tool tip with full folder path
- MIDI Input Pass-Through of plugin (if DAW allows)
- GUI right panel layout improvements:
  - Toggle button positioned closer to left separator
  - More compact spacing for play controls
  - Audio mode button renamed from "Plugin" to "Plugin in DAW"
  - Internal synth with presets (Bass, Piano, ...) - configurable via config.json file
- Menu entries:
  - "Debug logging" to toggle between log levels "INFO" and "DEBUG"
  - "Full scan" now reports corrupted files and creates a list
  - "Audio settings" to configure internal synth and Ableton Link
  - "Shrink Database" removes orphaned entries and optimizes indices
  - "Reveal folder w/ logfiles..." opens folder with logfiles, database and config.json

### Fixed
- Ghost entries showing after folder removal
- Removal of folders cleans up database
- More robust file scanning with two phases; first phase with progress bar, second phase async in background (see status bar)
- Rename or removed files can be updated using Full Scan (from menu)
- Star rating or octave change stopped playback
- Highlighted entry in central table now has orange font color (better readability)
- Menu entry names renamed to be more descriptive

### Know issues
- No codesigned app and plugin on MacOS (open installer & app with right click "open" first time); on older macOS plugins are maybe not showing
- AU plugin may not work (use internal synth instead)
- Sometimes you have to stop/click play after change plugin <-> internal synth
- "Reveal File" in Windows just opens folder, file not selected
- Thumbail pattern animation: changing tempo with Ableton Link enabled causes a transition phase until tempo is adjusted  (wordaround)


## [0.1.0] 

### Added
- **Core Features**
  - MIDI file browser with three-panel layout (25%-50%-25%)
  - SQLite database with connection pooling for concurrent access
  - Full-text search with < 50ms response time
  - Virtual scrolling for large datasets (10K+ files)
  - Thumbnail generation and caching system
  - Star rating system (0-5 stars)
  - Smart collections and flexible collections
  - Logging overhaul with two log levels: INFO and DEBUG

- **File Management**
  - Watched folders with automatic scanning
  - Background file scanning with progress indicators
  - Support for folders with 20K+ MIDI files
  - Metadata extraction from MIDI files (instruments, tempo, etc.)
  - Recursive subfolder search

- **Playback Features**
  - MIDI playback engine with transport controls
  - Visual progress bar synchronized with DAW tempo
  - Drag and drop support to DAW
  - Multi-file selection with Cmd+Click

- **Plugin Integration**
  - MidiBroConnector VST3/AU plugin for DAW communication
  - File-based IPC messaging between app and plugin
  - Automatic plugin detection
  - Support for Ableton Live and Bitwig Studio
  - Heartbeat mechanism for connection monitoring

- **User Interface**
  - Keyboard shortcuts (Space bar for play/stop, Cmd+Up/Down, 0-5 for ratings)
  - Resizable panels with separators
  - Status bar with file count and scan progress
  - About dialog with version information
  - Recent files collection
  - Collection counts display