The MusicWeaver— Revision History

In the fourth update, aside from a couple of bug fixes (to Splitter and Karaoke) the main enhancements were to MidiPlay and MidiFile. The former now preloads files in the queue so they are played without delay; the latter now allows setting a start event. Documentation was also updated a bit where necessary

Release 2.8.3 for HAIKU — July 2013

This is the third Haiku update. It mainly fixes a few bugs that turned up, and bad layout in some of the module panels (left over from BeOS). The main Weaver program and its Supported Types have gained new (vector) icons, a couple of modules have been upgraded, and one new one was added. See the README included in the package for details

Release 2.8.2 for HAIKU — January 2012

This is the second major update for use under Haiku. Just about all the modules have now been updated in one way or another to suit them for Haiku and remove the — mostly cosmetic — deficiencies in their control panels.

There is one major new module — Synth — that gives you control over Haiku's built-in synth library ('fluidsynth') to play instrument sounds directly, with no need for external synth hardware. It provides much more flexibility than, say, MidiPlayer, allowing you to choose your own soundfonts — several if you wish — and set all the Reverb and Chorus parameters that fluidsynth provides. The old BeOS-era 'WvrSynth' has been removed as superfluous.

Both the heavily-used Program and Controller modules have been extended to permit custom lists for their control panels, making things much more convenient for your own particular soundfonts, or even external sound sources. One other module is new here, though it really only has a specialized use or two — Polyphony. It restricts the number of notes that can sound at once, which can be necessary for some software synthesis schemes.

Release 2.8 — rebuild (Oct 2009, released August 2010)

Release 2.8

'RePlay' now saves System Exclusive sequences properly (a SysEx would corrupt the saved file), and 'DeGlitch' no longer has a crash under certain conditions.

'Transpose' now can be told not to transpose events on channel 10, so that percussion doesn't go weird. 'SysExGen' is now able to calculate checksums for sequences if required. 'Notator' is better at displaying closely spaced notes that previously might overlap, and will use "Melodic Minor" conventions if desired.

Release 2.6 and 2.7

2.7 fixes some glitches either added or not noticed in 2.6 (!) and has documentation that matches reality a bit better. The ChordSelect module has been improved, as have KeySig and Analyze.

Release 2.5

The other updated module is Replay, which has also had a bug or two fixed — it would crash if a loaded sequence had 'scaled' timing. There are a couple of added features as well. A sequence can now be sent out in 'steps' by successive external triggers, and a new Record mode lets you create sequences suitable for stepped output.

The downloadable archive is the full suite. (Simpler for me than trying to maintain update packages.) Unless you've moved things around in the folders, it should unpack over an already installed Weaver folder.

Release 2.4 (May 2006)

• SysExGen — At long last the MusicWeaver can generate arbitrary System Exclusive sequences. This element accepts text packets defining the desired output. (The initially-provided x86 copy of this module had a coding error that may cause it to fail to send on occasion. As of May 23 this is fixed.)
• MasterVolume — This sends the special System Exclusive "Master Volume" message to set the output level of all channels of a sound source.
• ValueAdjust — This is much like the old "VelAdjust" element, excepts that it adjusts the value byte of any MIDI event that has a value. It is intended, for example, to modify the response of a "D_Controller" to "GamePort" input.
• D_Aftertouch — (In the "Experimental" folder) This accepts e.g. "GamePort" element signals to generate Aftertouch ("Channel Pressure") events. (And of course has a slider to generate them directly.)
• RanDelay — Similar to "MidiDelay", except that the delay applied to each packet is random within the set maximum.
• ChordSelect — This is a rather complex module that extracts chords from a MIDI stream (with the help of 'KeyTrack') and separates the notes in some way — either to different channels or by MusicWeaver 'marks'. See the README for more.

• MidiMon — Now shows the MusicWeaver 'marks' attached to an event.
• Analyze — Fixed a typo in the sourcefile that prevented it seeing its Help file. [And apologies to those who would rather see it spelled with an 's'!]
• Controller and D_Controller — Have a fix to initialization message generation that was important to me but probably nobody else.

Release 2.3 (February 2006)

There are a couple of new (or newly released) modules. MidiLink provides connection to external MIDI producers and consumers via the R5 MidiKit. SysExMon lets you look at the contents of System Exclusive messages (as hex sequences).

RePlay has some enhancements, as does the Controller module. Others have had minor updates and/or bug fixes. Most of the StreamWeaver modules are now included too, for convenience.

Update 2.2

• Metronome — generates click events; will follow tempo changes in a midifile, and even attempt to track a rhythm.
• KeyTrack — adds chord and sounding-keys information to the stream.
• Analyze — keeps count of notes and chords in a sequence.
• KeySig — attempts to determine the key signature of a sequence.
• ChordPacker — adjusts closely-spaced events to have identical timestamps.
• MidiCounter — keeps count of all MIDI message types.

• MidiFile — Rewritten to avoid the MidiKit/MidiStore so it now handles tempo etc. properly. Generates and records tempo and metaevent packets.
• RePlay — Fixes to variable-speed playback.
• MidiMon — Text output format improved. Handles more kinds of packets.
• ChanMarker — Control Panel indicates channels with activity
• DeGlitch — Control Panel Reset added.
• SysReset and TimeSort — got minor fixes

All licensing restrictions introduced in 2.0 have now been removed. All modules are freely useable.

These modules were new in 2.1 and 2.0:

• SysReset — A convenient way to send MIDI System Reset
• Stepper — a 'Universal' module that accepts Switch events to generate a different sequence of Switch events.
• GamePort — generates 'Switch' and 'Parameter' type Director events from device activity.
• D_PitchBend — accepts Parameter events and generates MIDI Pitch Bend events.
• D_Controller — accepts Parameter events and generates MIDI Controller events.
• RePlay — Records and plays back MIDI sequences; also records MusicWeaver-unique stream control information.
  
• MidiFile — Simple standard Midifile recorder.
• AcceptMidi — Will import a MIDI stream from another application that uses the new R5 MidiKit.
• ProduceMidi — Exports a MIDI stream to another application that uses the new MidiKit.

The previous release to that (1.3) had a considerably upgraded Weaver main program ('v3.0'), with hierarchical diagrams ('Composite Elements'), on-line help, graphical routing and naming of paths, direct replacement of elements in a diagram, and so on. The MusicWeaver modules all had on-line help included as well, a few were been upgraded, and a couple of new ones were added.

The other modules supplied in the suite are:

• MidiConn — MIDI Hardware Interface
• Controller — Sends MIDI Controller Events
• SetRPN — Sends 'Registered Parameter Number' setting sequences
• ControlMarker — Marks events targeted at a specific Controller Number
• IndexRange — Marks all (2 or 3 byte) events according to their 2nd byte
• ValueRange — Marks all 3 byte events according to their 3rd byte
• UseIndex — Generates Director messages from MIDI index byte
• MidiPlay — Reads standard Midifiles
• WvrSynth — Drives internal BeOS Synth
• MidiChannel — Sets the channel of events passing through
• Transpose — Shifts notes up or down a set amount
• VelAdjust — Changes Note Velocity value
• NoteOff — Turns Note-Ons into Note-Offs (special purpose)
• NoteOffType — converts between the two types of Note Off
• OneNote — Reduces all Note events to a single set note (special purpose)
• Program — Sends Program-Change events
• PitchBend — Sends Pitch-Bend events
• KeyMarker — Marks selected notes of the scale
• KeyRange — Marks range of notes
• ChanMarker — Marks events on selected channels
• VelMarker — Marks Note-On events above selected velocity
• MsgMarker — Marks selected types of MIDI events
• ClearMarks — Removes unwanted marks
• Splitter — Diverts events onto second path according to marks
• MidiDelay — Advances time value of events by set amount
• TimeSort — Sorts and delivers events according to their time value
• DeGlitch — Prevents "re-triggering" of note events when streams are merged
• MidiMon — Outputs a text description of each event (StreamWeaver format). Must be passed to e.g. StreamView for viewing.
• StreamView — imported from the StreamWeaver suite for those who don't have it.

• JoinPaths — Null element for merging
• Switcher — Sends event streams to different paths as directed
• TriggerSwitch — Generates 'Director' messages for the Switcher
• BridgeIn — Connection into Composite Element sub-diagram
• BridgeOut — Connection out of Composite Element sub-diagram