[LAU] Yoshimi 1.4.0 Diamond Dove

About 18 months ago vector control became a 'thing' for Yoshimi and later, was
first demonstrated to a handful of people at LAC 2015. At that time it was only
accessible via NRPNs. Then about 6 months ago it became available to command
line users as well, and 3 months ago vector saving and loading became possible.

Now however, there is a shiny new window so the poor disadvantaged
pointer-pushers can also have full control. This is currently reached via the
'Yoshimi' tab, but we may move it to its own button. Also, saving and loading
vectors is now preserved in the recent histories file so you can quickly
restore these - the same as you can for saved patch sets, scales and states.

Vector entry via NRPNs and the CLI have also been upgraded slightly, so they
will now automatically set the right number of parts available, and enable the
required ones with the correct incoming channel number.

A new concept is shortform NRPNs. This is where instead of the NRPN setting up
for data entry of values, the NRPN is of itself the entire command. With a
suitable sequencer like Rosegarden, you start with a two byte MSB/LSB value,
then only need to enter single byte LSB CCs to change the setting. See
doc/Shortform_NRPN.txt

This came about through discussion after my demo of channel switching on
MiniLAC2016. The idea was liked, but having to mess about with multiple NRPNs
and their data settings was a fiddle.

Some other usability enhancements:

Some people don't like our splash window - Boo!
You can now disable it in settings {mutter}{mutter}

Many people didn't realise there were two types of resonance interpolation,
determined by whether you click the left or right mouse button. This has now
been split into two with better tooltips.

Jack audio autoconnect is now configurable in the GUI and stored so you don't
have to set it with a startup argument.

In MIDI settings you can now tell Yoshimi to ignore the 'reset all controllers'
message - various bits of hardware and software can send these at the most
inappropriate times.

A right click on a button for a child window now closes the parent and a right
click on that child's close button re-opens the parent. Use this a few times
and you'll wonder how you managed without. Actually, this has been possible for
a long time with Root/Bank/Instrument windows :)

A right click on the track of any slider, or on any rotary knob will return it
to its home position.

There has been some shuffling in the GUI to make the different windows more
consistent and easier to recognise. This has also enabled us to increase the
size of the smallest control knobs. Most sliders are now indented - it makes
them more obvious.

Scroll wheel behaviour on both knobs and sliders has also been adjusted to be
more consistent. By itself movement is pretty fast, but hold down the ctrl key,
and you'll get very fine resolution.

Other matters:

Yoshimi now has a build number, and this appears in the startup log. That's
probably only of interest to those building the master, or for reporting bugs -
whatever they are :P

Actually, there are the usual bugfixes (ancient and modern) and we've also made
a small improvement in the way we handle an all-jack environment.

The compatibility work we did for V1.3.8 ensured the all-important instrument
files were correct, but we didn't have time to implement all of the controls.
These are now in place.

There is more development on-going with considerable improvements pencilled in
for the next release.

-- 
Will J Godfrey
http://www.musically.me.uk
Say you have a poem and I have a tune.
Exchange them and we can both have a poem, a tune, and a song.
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