Changelog

10/10/2022 -- SW build 221010

• Implemented a new full screen mode that fills the whole screen, with no window title bar and no Windows Taskbar. The mode can be (de)activated by pressing F11, clicking on a touchscreen area (very useful for those with no keyboard attached), or by command line switch (to permanently enabling it at every startup).

11/04/2022 -- SW build 220411

• Released new style Expansion Pack (06 Pop) for MODX/Montage.

• New binding FILL CUR TOGGLE to simultaneusly trigger a fill in AND change the OTS (toggling the lead voices). On MODX/Montage this binding is assigned by default to "Scene 4" button.

• Improved (more seamless) switching of slow/fast rotary organ samples in style tracks that use 2 similar voices (sampled with slow and fast rotary effect) and switch back and forth between them. This improvement (MODX/Montage) has been implemented both in code and in editing the factory styles. XG version did not need this improvement.

• The full body of preset styles (MODX/Montage) has been tweaked with significant improvements of OTSes.

• Tweaked conversion from Yamaha SFF2 styles.

• Tweaked/improved all the acoustic pianos and acoustic/electric guitars preset voices (MODX/Montage).

27/01/2022 -- SW build 220127

• Released new style Expansion Pack (05 Latin 1) for MODX/Montage.

• Now the software can load and play all Yamaha SFF2 styles (MODX Platinum edition only).

• Sometimes a F6 chord on guitar strummed parts played incorrectly as E6 (other parts were fine). Now this is fixed.

• Internal improvements and bug fixes.

16/11/2021 -- SW build 211116

This is a maintenance only release.

• Released new style Expansion Packs (03 Ballad 1, 04 Ballad 2) for MODX/Montage.

• Improved algorithm used to send sysex messages for drumkit selection in MODX/Montage (eliminates some glitches that could sometimes happen).

• Tweaks to the algorithm used to overlap resources at OTS change (better use of free DSPs).

• Tweaks to MODX/Montage preset and expansion packs styles (mainly improved OTSes).

19/10/2021 -- SW build 211019

This is a maintenance only release that applies to MODX/Montage version.

• Tweaks to many drumkit voices to improve them. Corrected a bug where note mapping for PopLatin and HipHop drumkits was wrong and hence those drumkits did not sound correctly.

• Tweaks to the arranger engine internal parameters.

• Tweaks to many preset and expansion packs styles.

• Typos corrected on some effect parameter labels.

24/8/2021

• Totally new website (actually two: one for GBL for XG keyboards and one for GBL for MODX/Montage synths). Now it has a cute modern look, it is blazingly fast across the globe (it is static and deployed "on the edge" on ~200 Cloudflare servers) and it is fully responsive (it adapts to every screen size, from mobile phones to desktop, being always fully usable and taking best advantage of the real estate available).

• Totally rewritten User Manual, with more accurate and eye catching content, new annotated screenshots. We have two separate versions (for XG and for MODX/Montage). The user manual is responsive too! You can productively read it even on a mobile phone.

• New automated (server side) backend now provides immediate email with download links as soon as you purchase a product.

• Groovyband Live! for Yamaha MODX/Montage available for purchase to the general public.

3/5/2021 -- SW build 210503

• Initial release of Groovyband Live! for Yamaha MODX/Montage. This edition stands on the shoulders of giants, but also contributes back some improvements and bug fixes that arose during its development.

• Midi input channel can now be set to “any”, so that all channels (1÷16) are accepted. Useful in most situations, when you actually do not know (and do not care checking) what channel a given connected midi device is using. Just accept everything it sends!

• For drumkits the midi comp/expander voice edit setting has been split in two: for drums and for cymbals. Additionally the compression/expansion mapping curves have been tweaked. Now you can better customise each drumkit behavior. The whole body of styles has been updated to take advantage of this. Now everything sounds more sparkling and live.

• Now the Syncro Start function can be optionally set to be “persistent”. When persistent it will automatically re-engage each time the sequencer is stopped, so that as soon as you play a chord the whole band will kick in!

• The registration now record also the OTS link (on/off) state.

• Bug fixes, extensive code refactoring and behind the scenes improvements.

8/1/2021 -- SW build 210108

• Added 46 new styles, bringing the grand total to 906 styles.

• Added programmability of the “Toggle Lead Voices” button. Each of the 8 OTSes can now be programmed to have two different configurations of enabled/disabled voices, giving to your performances much more variety and customization capabilities. All the 906 preset styles have been updated with a full set of “programmed” OTSes.

• The BEAT RESET function (previously accessible only through a binding) can now be activated from the main screen. There is a TAP TEMPO / BEAT RESET button that change its function according to the style running status (“tap tempo” when the style is stopped, “beat reset” while it is running).

• The Voice Edit parameters lists have been reorganized.

• The “pedal wah” component of the MULTI FX effect, can now be operated in real time through a midi pedal (or other physical controller). As it was already true for the other effects with a “pedal wah” parameter.

• The timing of all events in real time accompaniment tracks is now subtly continuously randomized, giving even more variation and liveliness to the accompaniment.

• The program is now compiled only for 64 bits CPUs. 32 bits CPUs are no longer supported.

• Changed authorization scheme. License files need to be reissued.

• Bug fixes and code refactoring.

1/2/2020 -- SW build 20014

• Added new bindings to load in a headless way the next/previous style or registration in the last opened folder. Useful to automate playlists. New FILL INLINE binding.

• All the bound actions can be triggered also by left hand key press velocity (= how hard you play chords). This is particularly handy to trigger a fill without even leaving the hands from the keyboard.

• The registration now also loads the binding slot. So that you can have a different set of bindings for each each registration, loaded automatically.

• Revised behaviour of Master Transpose function.

• Seamless support for keyboard specific/expansion packs voices, through unbounded addition of VCE files.

• Minor bug fixes.

2/12/2019 -- SW build 19120

• Added 240 new styles, bringing the grand total to 860. Most styles have been revised and improved. The fresh high quality new content, as well as the massive cohesive body of styles provided, will bring an incredible firepower to your music making. And endless hours of pleasure.

• Now you can stack up to 2 series connected insert DSPs per part. This significantly broadens the sonic power of your arranger. This nicely builds upon the freedom to assign all the available DSPs to whatever part you like.

• The smooth voice and DSP change feature when switching OTSes has been significantly improved. Now all the possibly unused available hardware resources (DSP and midi channels) are brought to work: we dynamically and transparently (= behind the scenes) assign 2 instances of midi channel and DSPs to a single part so that when you switch OTSes you can overlap the old and the new sound. And you can hear both at the same time!!

• Added the “Beat Reset” functionality to the binding page. This will allow to seamlessly reset the arranger engine to the start of the measure as soon as you activate the functionality (typically with a foot switch). Extremely useful to gracefully cope with an odd signature measure or a false off-beat start while performing.

• You can now adjust the style parts’ volume sliders all at once, while preserving the relative balance. To rise or lower the whole style volume, while preserving the mix (that used to be a long, boring and error prone operation), is now only one click away! With the same procedure you can also adjust all the Aux and Lead parts volume faders, as independent blocks.

• Added MasterEQ effect that applies to the global mix just before the audio out. This effect is customisable like each other in the DSP Editor and is saved with each registration.

• Reduction of sequencer jitter.

• Bug fix: Tempo synced DSP effects now always work correctly.

• Other minor bug fixes and code improvements.

26/3/2019 -- SW build 19030

• Fixed a bug regarding incorrectly detected lead left hand voice velocity.

• Fixed a thread synchronization issue that in some rare circumstances could cause a missed sound generator reset at startup.

1/3/2019 -- SW build 19021

• The whole process priority is raised at startup “above normal”, so that even in an heavy loaded system (CPU ~100%) the sequencer maintains the tempo without glitches.

• Tweaked the DSP management code to eliminate audio artifacts that could sometimes happen in a few corner cases.

22/2/2019 -- SW build 19020

• Added 70 new styles, bringing the total to 620. All the styles are perfectly integrated and supports all the advanced features Groovyband Live! offers. We have also further tweaked the whole body of styles. Everything is balanced and sounds good out of the box, to give you immediate gratification.

• Added support for a pedalboard, in addition to the two manuals. Now Groovyband Live! Is perfectly suited to build a home organ setup around it, complete with state of the art automatic arrangements and registrations. You can also use a midified existing organ console as the source of both manuals and pedalboard (as well as pistons and other physical controls).

  Alternatively, you can hook a second keyboard controller and/or a pedalboard to your Yamaha arranger. The pedalboard can be substituted with a third keyboard if desired.

  As usual, a fourth midi input is available for additional control surfaces / midi equipment to add physical controls to your setup.

• Virtual round robin on all drumkits (enabled by default, can be selectively disabled wherever desired). Groovyband Live! subtly randomly varies the pitch, ADSR envelope and filter cutoff of every stroke of every kit piece every time a note is played (as well as the velocity, see later). No two hits are identical, and the whole drum track sounds livelier, as played by a human (who never repeat himself) and not by a sequencer.

• The velocity of every played note (both melody and drum tracks) can be varied randomly to humanize the execution (intensity freely adjustable). The randomization is smart and takes into account the spatial/temporal position of played notes. Closely played notes are not allowed to be randomized independently, to mimic the fact that, for example, a strummed guitar can be strummed with varying intensity, but all the strings within a given strum (hand movement) are either all played softly or loudly. You cannot play softly a string and loudly the string immediately below it stroked a few milliseconds after the first one!

• The noises of mega voices are randomly selected from a pool of similar sounding noises, when available, every time one is played. A looping track never repeats identical, as it is the case in the real world.

• The volume of “noises” in mega voices can be adjusted independently of the track volume. You can therefore (de)emphasize at will this effect, as well as disable it completely.

• A mega voice can be substituted with another (similar, i.e.: a guitar with another guitar) mega voice, or with a regular voice. Groovyband Live! knows every articulation mapping and makes the necessary adjustments in real time to select the best match among the articulations and noises available in the destination voice. You can therefore broadly expand the choices available when revoicing the parts to suits your needs.

• To further tweak the final result when revoicing parts (or to match your taste), there is a single knob comp/expander control. With this control you can compress or expand the velocity of the notes of a track to match the built-in dynamics of a particular voice (which might be different than the original voice dynamics the track was sequenced for).

By playing with virtual round robin, velocity humanization, randomization and volume of noises, dynamics compression-expansion, you can impart to every track the right amount of “imperfection” and dynamics to credibly emulate a real human player. All these settings are part of the voice parameters and, as all voice parameters, these can be independently customized (if desired) for every section of each style.

This flexibility further compounds with the availability of 8 main sections to play with, easily duplicable and movable at the touch of a button, editable in depth from the main screen with a native touch interface and real time swapping of the played pattern. You can completely change the feeling of a playing track/section while the sequencer is playing so that you immediately hear what every edit sounds like. And to preserve your edits while experimenting, you can quickly save/recall the playing style in/from temporary scratch memory slots or disk. This is seamless and, as everything in Groovyband Live!, does NOT stop the sequencer.

• You can now edit/replace all the voices in a multi voice track (blue background) as you are used to do with ordinary single voiced tracks (white/green background).

• We have added scratchpad voice memory slots also in the Acmp Voices panel. You can therefore easily and faster experiment variations or exchange voices with other parts (aux/lead) or styles without forcibly saving a voice to disk.

6/12/2018 -- SW build 18120

• Improved style rendering engine on some corner cases.

• Tweaked chord recognition algorithm.

• Partially changed “Invert RH Vce” button logic to improve smoothness while performing.

• Increased multi-threading (up to 4 cores) on previously single threaded code paths.

• Reduced style file size on disk (-33%, from ~18 to ~12 kb) thanks to a more efficient encoding.

• Corrected a couple of bugs.

14/11/2018 -- SW build 18113

Initial public release of Groovyband Live! for XG keyboards.