Release Notes for Patch Maker (Lite)
====================================

v1.06 (beta)

1. Completed (I hope) on-line help.
2. Several minor cosmetic changes.
3. Fixed bug in panic button. Now writes working copy of patches to disk
   first, so that reloaded patch params will be in synch with in-memory
   versions.
4. Changed the icon for the panic button from "911" to a sort of emergency
   light thing.  (Alan pointed out quite correctly that 911 might be too
   culturally biased for our international market.)
5. Made size of opening screen smaller.  (Alan again.)

v1.05 (beta)

1. Some minor wording changes in dialogs for consistency.
2. A status meter will pop up for dropping files only if more than one file
   is dropped.
3. An info dialog pops up after the panic button is finished reloading 
   patches.

v1.04 (beta)

1. Added a status meter and Cancel button when multiple files are dropped.
   This prevents runaway addition of files if the user grabs too many files
   and drops them onto Patch Maker. (I've done it!)
2. Changed volume ramp for "Decay slowly" option to be slower, to avoid
   buzzes (zipper noise).  
3. Trap case where user is trying to run Patch Maker when the driver is 
   set up for Conserve Memory. It doesn't work very well in that mode for
   various reasons that are not worth working around.
4. Fixed problem with display of fractional part of loop length. It used
   to show a negative value sometimes.
5. Fixed bug in dropping .WAV file onto keyboard.  Sometimes the notes at
   the end of the range would not play.
6. Replaced the toolbar buttons to edit individual headers (patch, 
   instrument, layer, and sample) with two others. One displays the
   read-only information, the other displays editable info.  Several
   fields that are not used or are not informative to the casual user are
   now omitted.
7. If you turn sustaining off, looping is disabled too.  Otherwise the note
   plays forever.
8. Now deletes that pesky pmkrm000.pat from your temp directory on exit.
9. Added separate balance control.
10. Temp directory: if you don't have environment variable TEMP or TMP
    defined, it uses (and creates if necessary) a directory TEMP under
    your Windows directory.  This should be safe. It doesn't delete that
    directory when it's done, but I don't think that's much of a problem.
11. Enabled keyboard accelerators, so now the Del key has the same effect
    as the Edit | Delete menu item, etc.
12. Added a "panic button" to toolbar (labelled 911) which reloads all
    patches.  This is useful if another program has messed up the patch
    load and also serves as an "all notes off" button.  You would use it
    if either (i) you are not hearing any sounds or (ii) you can't get a
    note to stop playing.  (I've tried to make it so the latter can't
    happen, but you never know...)
13. F1 and Shift-F1 now bring up help in all dialogs.

v1.03 (beta)

1. Won't allow setting loop length to less than 2 samples.  This prevents
   the GUS from making horrible noises when the loop length is set too small.
2. Maximize Volume now fixes DC offset to 0 at the same time. This is usually
   what you want (especially if you don't know what you are doing).
3. Edit menu: items are grayed out unless there is a selected sample in the
   active window.
4. Changed "percussion" envelope so that there is no decay at all.

v1.02 (beta)

1. Fixed problems with dragging note ranges. It used to pick up two notes or
   zero notes or whatever, so you couldn't get the range precise to the note.
2. Now gives you the option of truncating a sample which is > 64K bytes long.
   It will always truncate a sample to no more than 256K bytes though.
3. Envelopes fixed up for percussion instruments. Sort of. Need to explore 
   with Forte ways to have an even longer flat part of an envelope. Current
   solution is a kludge.

93/10/19 (v1.01 beta)

1. Changed message in Maximize Volume, so percent increase reported makes 
   sense.  Now if there is no change, will report 0% increase, etc.
2. Fixed a bug that caused the program to crash when you tried to do loop
   editing on patch that was exactly 64K bytes long.

93/10/07

1. Zillions of small changes to get ready for beta release.
2. On-line help now 70% complete.  Help buttons on dialogs now work.

93/10/04

1. Suggest values: now subtracts mean from samples before analyzing.  Seems
   to be more robust.
2. Help: Tutorial completed.
3. Edit menu: all items are grayed out unless there is a currently selected 
   sample.
4. Edit | Delete: now confirms that you really want to delete.
5. Toolbar: now get information message if there is no active patch/sample.
   (It used to just do nothing.)
6. Edit Loop: When you use suggested value, puts the loop start point as 
   close to the end of the sample as possible. This is usually what you 
   want.
7. If you drop a wave file onto a keyboard, makes that patch's window active.

93/09/27

1. Remove Silence: preserves loop parameters now.
2. Added use of .INI file.  It expects the PMAKER.INI file to be found in the 
Windows directory.  If it is not, then a default file is created there and 
you are prompted for certain information (help file location, reference tone 
location) to fill it. This only happens once. (In the release version, the 
installation procedure should set up the .INI file for the user.) We may want 
to cripple this in the Lite version, but I like it for testing purposes.
3. Remove Silence: Fixed a fairly serious problem. If you drop a wave file 
onto the keyboard and later remove silence, it modified the original wave 
file!  This is probably not what you want.  Fixed so that it modifies a copy 
of the wave file.
4. Maximize Volume is now functional.
5. Just have to write the help and that's all folks!

93/09/24

1. Remove Silence is now functional. (There are still a few informational
   dialog boxes to clean up.)  Seems to work OK wiht the few samples I have
   tried it on.
2. Menu item "Maximize Volume" added, but not yet functional.

93/09/21

1. For Edit Tremolo and Edit Vibrato, made envelope flat so sound sustains
   while you are adjusting the parameters.

93/09/20

1. Finished new Lite version of Edit Loop.
2. Made exits from dialogs faster.  (No longer reloads all the patches
   every time.)
3. Remembers directories for patch and wave files within a session. (Pro
   version will remember between sessions.)
4. Work started on Remove Silence.  ** Not yet functional **

93/09/15

1. Clamps range of patches to be within the range of the keyboard.
2. Can drag and drop multiple files.
3. Created a workaround for driver weirdie that caused "Wave parameters
   differ" message. (Message to be sent to Jim about this.)
4. Balance is now set using a scrollbar (used to be set by number).
5. Some minor rewording in the Choose Envelope dialog. (Still needs work,
   in my opinion.)
6. Tuning is now accomplished via a scrollbar and a somewhat more intuitive 
   (I hope) interface.
7. When a patch is opened or a wave file is added to a patch, a sample is 
   selected by default, so user always has something to work with.
8. New loop edit dialog.  ** This is not functional yet. **  The old loop
   edit dialog is under the Pro Features menu.

93/09/08

1. Fixed a bug in the Edit Loop, Options dialog.  The "Loop enabled" now 
works properly.

2. Made edit envelope operational.

93/09/07

1. Changed to sliders for tremolo/vibrato editing.  Try it, you'll like it.
   Sometimes you have to start playing the note again before the changes
   take effect (seems to only happen if you started out with all values
   being 0).

2. Tried a new concept for editing the envelope.  Try the envelope button
   from the toolbar to see.  I haven't hooked much of it up yet, but it
   gives the general idea of where I'm headed.  Suggestions on how to change
   the wording to make it more understandable to the novice user would be
   welcomed.

Bruce