# MidiBro 2 Changelog ## [2.1.0] (2026-09-29) ### Linux (new) - New: Linux installer (.deb) for Ubuntu 24.04 or newer, with the VST3 plugins and the standalone app. ### Rhythm Transform (new tab) - Lays another rhythmic style over a 4/4 drum file: your kit and your dynamics stay. - Rework rows change the existing beat: half time, double time, simpler, busier or syncopated, most of them with a slider that the preview follows while you drag it. - Polymeter: one drum walks against the beat and the loop only comes back together after 2, 4 or 8 bars. - Arabic Pop (thanks for your support, Mohamed!), Cuban Pop and Brazilian Pop offer a second row per rhythm with matching accompaniment lines, which you can switch off. - Keep my beat (on by default): a style replaces only your kick and snare, every other note stays as you played it. Turn it off to hear the pure pattern. - Two more options: fill empty steps with quiet notes from the original (while Keep my beat is off), and protect the new accents. - Choose the MIDI channel of the results; Auto keeps a melody on its own channel and sends drums to channel 10. - Preview any result and switch between Result and Original right under its name, open it in the big note view, save it to your library, send it to the MidiStack or drag it into your DAW. - Playing a row also selects it, and the MidiStack button shows a green check once the result has landed, just like in Split. - Click anywhere in a row preview to start playing from that spot, and a file dragged into your DAW is named after your own file plus the transform. - Rows and style filters that cannot handle your file are greyed out and say why when you hover them. - The tab remembers what you collapsed, filtered and set until next time. ### Groove tab - Each note now has its own strength bar in the section 'Moves': swing the hats, leave the kick where it was. (Great idea, Randy) - Each row shares a colour with its notes in the preview, and a row lights up while you drag its bar. - The tab scrolls now, so the donor card and the library stay reachable. - Swing no longer adds an empty bar at the end of the loop. ### Variations - New Mirror method: flip the pitches around an axis, play the file backwards, or both. (Great idea, Murat) - Mirror never rolls dice, so the types you pick are the number of files and the Amount buttons step aside. - Drum tracks keep their pitches, and In key holds the result to notes your file already uses. ### All Tool tabs - The tool tabs are now colour-coded by what they do. ### Settings: MIDI (new tab, thanks to Murat for pointing to more flexible MIDI-output) - Preview can play through any MIDI output device instead of the built-in sound. - The tab shows whether the device is connected, missing or could not be opened, and a test button plays a chord through it. - If the chosen device is gone, preview falls back to the built-in sound and the tab says so. - The output field in the main window now shows the device name while a device is in use. - On Windows the log no longer reports the built-in synth as missing when it was found but could not be opened. - Stop All now also clears a stuck note on your MIDI output device and on the built-in sound. (Thanks for the report, Murat) ### MidiStack - Choose the MIDI channel for each row with the Channel button under the output switch; the built-in sound keeps its fixed channels. (Thanks for the inspiration, Kai) - From browser: Rightclick -> send a multitrack file with "Split tracks automatically": Drums, Bass, Harmony and Melody land in one column and loop at the file's length. (Thanks for the inspiration, Kai) - If a file has more tracks than rows, a window lets you pick a row per track, preview each track and click into it to jump. - Drum variations no longer grow by one bar when the source file ends on a note that never stops. (Well spotted, Kai) - The buttons on a cell now use the colour of their row. - The file name no longer hides notes that all sit in the middle of a cell. ### Interface - The magnifier button (detail piano roll) that opens the big note view has a larger lens with a plus, so it is easier to spot. (Thanks for the inspiration, Kai) ### Preview (Thanks for the report, Frans) - With the Internal Synth on Auto, a drum file that carries no drum channel now plays on a drum kit instead of a piano. - Auto now follows the collection you opened and the file name, so hi-hat and percussion loops play on a kit and a Chord or Bass collection picks a matching instrument. ### Collections - Double-click a genre in the left panel to open the genre editor, just like a smart collection. ### AI Assistants (MCP) - AI assistants can now filter your library by time signature, length in bars, rating, genre and free text, and analyse up to 50 files in one step, so a detailed search takes seconds instead of minutes. (Thanks for testing, Wolfgang) ### Help - The manual is now one click away from the help card of every tool, the About window and Settings, and it opens in your PDF viewer because it is installed along with MidiBro. ## [2.0.2] (2026-08-29) ### Preview Loops (Thanks for the report, Doflow) - In the large preview window you can now drag a loop anywhere in the note area, not just in the ruler. - Dragging from a small preview frame ignored the loop region and exported the whole file. - Hooks tab: a loop set on the Motif, Hidden Gem or Loop suggestion preview was ignored on playback and did not snap to the beat. - An exported loop could be off by up to a bar on files that do not end on a full bar. - An exported loop that ended on silence arrived in your DAW too short. - Dragging a file out of the list now exports its loop region, and files without a loop are dragged whole as before. - Dropping a file into the MidiStack now keeps its loop region; a cell menu entry switches it back to the whole file. - Dragging a file from the Inspector now shows the note preview under the cursor, like dragging from the list. - Dropping a file from the Inspector into the MidiStack now keeps its library link, so the cell menu can switch the loop off. ### Browsing - Opening a very large folder no longer takes seconds before the file list appears. - Dragging a file into your DAW is instant again when the folders panel is open; it used to take about a second. (Thanks for the report, Kenji) - The drag handle in the file list is bigger and easier to grab. (Thanks for the nudge, Kenji) - Right-click a file and choose "Go to Folder": the folder tree opens the folder it sits in, selects it, and the list follows. (Good idea, Douglas) - The folders panel drags much wider now, and hovering a folder shows its full path. (Thanks for the screenshots, Douglas) ### Interface - UI Scale now goes up to 200%: 150%, 175% and 200% were added, and steps that would not fit your screen are hidden. (Thanks for asking, Kenji and Mathias) ### Filtering - Cmd-click a folder or a collection to filter by both at once, for example only the Bass files inside one folder. (Good idea, Doflow) - Pick several folders in the tree with Cmd/Ctrl and browse them together. - Remove several library folders at once: pick them with Cmd/Ctrl, then use the minus button or the folder menu and confirm once. (Well spotted usecase, jpverni) ### MidiStack - The "Replace cell?" question when dropping onto a filled cell can now be switched off with a "Don't ask again" box. ### Browsing and Types (Thanks for ideas and the screen recording, Frans) - Setting a type no longer rebuilds the whole list: the row stays in place, your selection is kept, and a playing file can still be stopped. - Shift-click a play button to hear the file through the drum kit, shift-click again to switch back. - Shift-click the Type column to pick a category right there, without the context menu. - Holding Shift or Cmd now shows what those keys do in the status line. ### Windows - The Windows installer and uninstaller are now digitally signed. ## [2.0.1] (2026-08-19) ### MidiStack (Good ideas to streamline this, Doflow) - MidiStack Chord Fit: choose Bass, Harmony or Melody as the chord anchor; rows without usable harmony are marked and bypassed. - With the DAW stopped, MidiStack clips started instantly instead of joining a browser clip already playing. - Starting a MidiStack clip silently cancelled a browser clip that was waiting for the DAW to start. - With the DAW stopped, Play on a MidiStack clip did nothing at all. - MidiStack clips playing with the DAW stopped fell silent when the DAW started; they now continue on the next bar. ### Collections and Drum Detection (Thanks for the hints, Frans) - Drum loops no longer show up when you filter the Type column for melody, chord, pad or arpeggios. - "Exclude drums" now also catches names like Kick2, 808Hat or Snare01, plus more percussion words. - Drum detection is more accurate: more drum loops are found, and far fewer basslines are wrongly treated as drums (after a rescan). - Types you set by hand are no longer overwritten when the library is rescanned. ### Drum Map (Thanks for spotting this, Randy) - Drum Map: mappings for toms, crash, ride and other higher notes had no effect at all. - Drum Map: the zoomed "Original" view showed the mapped result instead of your file. - Drum Map: a row that does map could be hidden by "Hide unused notes" and dragged out empty. - Drum Map: the two zoom windows now play and export exactly what they show. ### DAW Sync and Preview - Standalone: file preview now plays at the file's own tempo, switchable in Settings > Playback; the tempo box marks it with FILE. (Good idea, Michael) - Previews from the ChordFit, Variations, Split and Hooks tabs started instantly instead of on the next bar under DAW Sync. (Thanks, Doflow) ### Logic (Thanks, Frans) - Logic (AU): typing in the smart collection editor went to Logic, where Backspace could delete a track. ### Windows and REAPER (Hope that works, Uchmaniaa) - Fixed a freeze in REAPER on Windows when scripts scan plugin windows. ## [2.0.0] (2026-08-16) MidiBro 2 was rebuilt from the ground up. There are two ways to run it, and you can combine them: - Standalone app: browse and play MIDI files through the built-in General MIDI synth, or send them to a MidiBro Receiver plugin in your DAW (like MidiBro 1 - but this route does not give perfect sync with the DAW transport). - Plugin in your DAW (for perfect sync): run MidiBro as a VST3/AU plugin (MidiBro Master) inside your DAW. It stays in perfect sync with the host and can send notes either through the built-in General MIDI synth or via routing in the DAW. You can also send notes to other tracks through the Receiver plugins, so each track plays into its own instrument - your mixer and MPE stay intact. ### System & Architecture - Two Receiver versions for broad DAW compatibility: a MIDI effect and an instrument variant (the instrument version covers DAWs that won't place a MIDI effect before an instrument, e.g. Ableton, Cubase). - Output through the built-in General MIDI synthesizer (uses your operating system's GM sounds) - this now covers drums too - or through the Receiver plugins. - Smaller download and faster AI thanks to reworked algorithms. - Everything from MidiBro 1 was ported, except the old internal synth and the old drum kit - drums now play through the General MIDI synth. - Files with leftover data after the last MIDI track now load correctly everywhere (previously they could fail to import). - Pro Tools (macOS): no Receiver needed - the Master can sit directly in front of your instrument thanks to Pro Tools' extra insert slots. - MidiBro 2 uses its own database and installs alongside MidiBro 1 - both can run side by side, so nothing about your current v1 setup is touched. - On first launch MidiBro 2 offers to import your MidiBro 1 library (you can also run the import later from Settings). The import dialog explains the new license to anyone upgrading from MidiBro 1. ### Interface (fully redesigned) - More compact left panel with better navigation and favorite chips. - Inspector moved to the top of the center panel and can be collapsed. - Reworked, more compact browser table; folders and collections can live in separate tabs. - Drag one or more folders straight onto MidiBro to add them all to your library at once. - The home screen now names your DAWs and marks which one is running, and explains what to do when the Master has no Receiver yet. - A warning when two Masters run at the same time now explains exactly what you'd lose, and can be turned off. - Faster and more robust with very large libraries (tested into the millions of files). - Transform tools are now built into tabs instead of separate modal windows. - Tool tabs (Groove, Analysis, Hooks, ...) can be collapsed independently of the Inspector above them. - Nicer note thumbnails with a piano keyboard. - The piano-roll preview in the zoom window now shows note names and what's currently playing, lets you toggle Key Shift there, and saves octave/semitone changes back to your library. - "Similar files" and "duplicates" rows in the Analysis tab now match the Split Files look, and remember the sub-tab you had open. - UI scaling supported. - Settings window reopens on the tab you last used. - The close button now sits in the same place (bottom right) everywhere. - The status bar now has two zones: what's playing, and whether the output is silent. - Built-in help overlay: hit "?" for labelled hints on the current view. - Available in 9 languages: English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Polish, Portuguese, Japanese. ### Features & Algorithms - Reworked Variations with improved algorithms. - New "Groove" tab: humanize your MIDI, or pull grooves from existing MIDI files or Ableton .agr files. - New "Analysis" tab: look inside any MIDI file - notes and velocities, key, metadata, and a "find similar files" search. - New "Hooks" tab: automatically finds the catchiest motifs in a file, scores them, and lets you drag them straight into your DAW. - Time signatures beyond 4/4 are now fully supported (detection, browser column and filter, correct bar handling). - Stack cells now have a zoomable piano-roll preview with octave +/- buttons. - Key Shift: one switch now replaces the Quantize/Transpose choice - off snaps notes into the scale, on shifts them to the target key. - Rate a clip straight from the stack grid, not just by right-clicking it in the browser. - Stack cells now start on the bar even if the DAW transport is stopped. - Preview playback jumps to the right bar position when the DAW starts, and no longer stops after the first note. - MIDI controller input (learn) can be switched off, and the setting is remembered. - Collections with "Exclude drums" no longer swallow bass lines and other melodic files. - Drum loops on a normal MIDI channel are recognised as drums far more often, so fewer of them turn up in your Chord and Arpeggio collections. ### Connect AI Assistants (MCP) - MidiBro Master can now be driven by AI assistants like Claude through MCP (Model Context Protocol): search your library, load and play files, control the stack grid, generate variations, and adjust output, groove and key-shift. - Off by default - enable it under Settings > General. ### Support - Send a message directly to the developer from inside the plugin, under Settings > Support. ### Privacy - Optional anonymous usage data: MidiBro can send aggregated, anonymous feature-usage stats to help improve the app. Off by default - turn it on under Settings > Support. Never personal data, your license key, files, or MIDI content, and a preview button shows exactly what would be sent.