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JJazzLab Changelog

What's new in JJazzLab 4.0.2

Jan 7, 2024
  • Add a light theme in addition the default dark theme #402
  • Make Linux packages depend on FluidSynth 2.2.0 rather than libfluidsynth #401
  • Add possibility to export Midi file by dragging from the track overview component #398
  • Add possibility to Export to audio each song track in separate files #397
  • Notify user if FluidSynth not loaded upon fresh startup #386
  • When fresh start, replying NO to "import settings from old JJazzLab version xx" does not prevent import of some settings #410
  • Linux problems with FluidSynth 2.1, need to require 2.2 as min version #407
  • Wav/Mp3 file filter does not work well in Export to audio file chooser #405
  • Can't load homebrew-installed fluidsynth on intel Mac #403
  • Null Pointer Exception in PianoRollEditor:1169 #399
  • Null Pointer Exception in MixConsoleLayoutManager:78 #396
  • Null Pointer Exception in SptEditorImpl:451 #395
  • Some custom synth definition files not shown in the output synth drop-down list #394
  • Play regenerates music each time, even if song unchanged #392
  • Too long "Music preparation..." for specific song/style #391
  • JJazzLab MacOS package can only run on MacOS 11+ #388
  • Adding/removing a RP in SS_editor compact view settings does not have an immediate effect #384

New in JJazzLab 4.0.1 (Dec 23, 2023)

  • New features:
  • FluidSynth, the JJazzLab builtin synth
  • JJazzLab 4 now embeds a ready-to-use builtin synth based on FluidSynth.
  • Midi editor:
  • A full-featured “piano-roll” editor to edit user tracks or customize a rhythm phrase. Midi file drag & drop is supported.
  • Bar annotations:
  • Add lyrics or notes to any measure.
  • Easy reader window:
  • Easily follow which chords (and lyrics) are currently playing, even with complex songs.
  • Customize sections and chords colors:
  • E.g. make this C7M red to remember to try the Lydian scale on it.
  • Export to audio:
  • Easily create a .mp3 or .wav file for the current song.
  • And many more…
  • New “NC” chord which stops music, new score notation for chord inspector, new import from .csv/.txt file, etc.

New in JJazzLab 3.2.1 (Apr 11, 2022)

  • Latest new features:
  • Learn faster with tempo auto-increase
  • Select some measures you want to practice, JJazzLab plays them slowly then gradually increase the tempo at each loop.
  • Toggle compact/full view in song structure editor
  • Use the new button (or press V) to switch between the full view or the compact view which hides some rhythm parameters.
  • New Drums Transform rhythm parameter
  • For example make the hi-hat louder in the intro song part, or add a tambourine phrase in 1-click.
  • New Custom Phrase rhythm parameter
  • For example use your own bass line for the chorus song part.
  • Notes viewer
  • See notes of the selected chord symbol on a piano keyboard or using guitar diagrams. See real-time notes from the backing track.
  • User tracks
  • For example add a melody to your song.
  • (Pseudo) Arranger keyboard mode
  • Select a song part, press the Arranger Play button and JJazzLab will recognize the chords received on Midi input and update the backing track accordingly.
  • Improvisation help
  • JJazzLab generates guidelines in your chord leadsheet for selected improvisation exercises.
  • And many more…
  • Midi remote commands, Midi file export via drag & drop, adjust audio latency, new keyboard shortcuts, etc.

New in JJazzLab 3.1.0 (Mar 12, 2022)

  • Bug fixes.
  • Toggle compact/full view in song structure editor:
  • Use the new button (or press V) to switch between the full view or the compact view which hides some rhythm parameters.
  • Simplified usage of adapted rhythms:
  • If you change the time signature of a section, an adapted rhythm is automatically created with the new time signature.

New in JJazzLab 3.0.3 (Jan 30, 2022)

  • New features:
  • Dark Theme with improved graphics
  • The Light Theme is gone -it was too much work to maintain 2 themes.
  • Auto-update of the playing backing track
  • No more need to stop and restart the playback in order to take into account changes made while the song is playing.
  • New Drums Transform rhythm parameter
  • For example make the hi-hat louder in the intro song part, or add a tambourine phrase in 1-click.
  • New Custom Phrase rhythm parameter
  • For example use your own bass line for the chorus song part.
  • Notes viewer
  • See notes of the selected chord symbol on a piano keyboard or using guitar diagrams. See real-time notes from the backing track.
  • User tracks
  • For example add a melody to your song.
  • (Pseudo) Arranger keyboard mode
  • Select a song part, press the Arranger Play button and JJazzLab will recognize the chords received on Midi input and update the backing track accordingly.
  • Improvisation help
  • JJazzLab generates guidelines in your chord leadsheet for selected improvisation exercises.
  • Midi input and remote Midi commands
  • You can trigger music control actions (play, stop, …) from any Midi input sequence via Midi Learn.
  • New languages Spanish and Brazilian/Portugese
  • Plus the usual English, French, Chinese, German
  • And many more…
  • Adjust audio latency, new keyboard shortcuts, Midi file drag & drop support, jump playback to next/previous song part, etc

New in JJazzLab 3.0.2a (Jan 9, 2022)

  • New features:
  • Dark Theme with improved graphics:
  • The Light Theme is gone -it was too much work to maintain 2 themes.
  • Auto-update of the playing backing track:
  • No more need to stop and restart the playback in order to take into account changes made while the song is playing.
  • New Drums Transform rhythm parameter:
  • For example make the hi-hat louder in the intro song part, or add a tambourine phrase in 1-click.
  • New Custom Phrase rhythm parameter:
  • For example use your own bass line for the chorus song part.
  • Notes viewer:
  • See notes of the selected chord symbol on a piano keyboard or using guitar diagrams. See real-time notes from the backing track.
  • User tracks:
  • For example add a melody to your song.
  • (Pseudo) Arranger keyboard mode
  • Select a song part, press the Arranger Play button and JJazzLab will recognize the chords received on Midi input and update the backing track accordingly.
  • Improvisation help:
  • JJazzLab generates guidelines in your chord leadsheet for selected improvisation exercises.
  • Midi input and remote Midi commands:
  • You can trigger music control actions (play, stop, …) from any Midi input sequence via Midi Learn.
  • New languages Spanish and Brazilian/Portugese:
  • plus the usual English, French, Chinese, German
  • And many more:
  • Adjust audio latency, new keyboard shortcuts, Midi file drag & drop support, jump playback to next/previous song part, etc.

New in JJazzLab 3.0.1 (Dec 20, 2021)

  • Dark Theme with improved graphics:
  • Light Theme is gone, it was too much work to maintain 2 themes.
  • Auto-update of the playing backing track:
  • When a backing track is playing, changing chord symbols or rhythm parameters (e.g. change variation, add a drums fill, etc.) will immediately update the backing track (no more need to press Stop then Play again). You can turn this off via the toggle button shown below.
  • Improved rhythm selection dialog:
  • You can now preview the different variations of a rhythm, permanently delete a rhythm file, or open the directory of a rhythm in a file explorer.
  • New Drums Transform rhythm parameter:
  • For example, in just 1 click you can transform hi-hat notes into ride cymbal notes in the verses of your song, or add percussions in the chorus parts, etc.
  • New Custom Phrase rhythm parameter:
  • For example use your own bass line for the chorus song part. To add notes to your custom phrase, drag & drop a Midi file or open an external Midi editor from JJazzLab (you can configure one in the General panel of the Options, for Windows I recommend MidiEditor, a lightweight and free software).
  • Copy/Paste rhythm parameter values:
  • For example apply your custom percussion phrase to other song parts.
  • Jump to previous/next song part:
  • Use F1/F2 from the keyboard. These commands can also be used remotely via Midi, see “Midi input and Midi remote commands” below.
  • Notes viewer:
  • View notes of the selected chord symbol, or from a playing track.
  • Improvisation help:
  • JJazzLab generates guidelines in your chord leadsheet for selected improvisation exercises. JJazzLab 3.0 proposes 3 exercises from the great book “How To Improvise” by Hal Crook. Others will be added in future versions (your inputs are welcome!).
  • Midi input and remote Midi commands:
  • You can trigger music control actions (play, stop, …) from any Midi input sequence via Midi Learn.
  • (Pseudo) arranger keyboard mode:
  • Select a song part, press the Arranger Play button and JJazzLab will recognize the chords received on Midi input and update the backing track accordingly.
  • IMPORTANT: This is NOT a true realtime arranger mode, it’s more for educational purpose.
  • User tracks:
  • Add one or more user tracks to your backing track. To add notes to the user track drag & drop a Midi file to the user rectangle area, or open an external Midi editor from JJazzLab (you can configure one in the General panel of the Options, for Windows I recommend MidiEditor, a lightweight and free software).
  • IMPORTANT: JJazzLab does not support Midi input recording.
  • Export Midi files via drag & drop from the Mix Console:
  • You can easily export the whole backing track or just one instrument track using drag & drop from the Mix Console. This is convenient when working with a DAW (Cubase, Reaper, etc.) with JJazzLab.
  • Adjust audio latency:
  • Sometimes audio notes (the notes you hear) lag a bit behind the user interface changes. This depends on your hardware configuration. You can now fix this by adjusting the audio latency from the Output Synth Editor.
  • Miscellaneous:
  • New keyboard shortcut Shift-SPACE to stop a song (SPACE is play/pause)
  • New popup menu action “Insert section” in the chord leadsheet editor
  • API design improvements
  • Improved JavaDocs
  • Bug fixes

New in JJazzLab 2.3.1 (Mar 3, 2021)

  • Main new features:
  • Available in English, French, Chinese, German
  • JJazzLab in Chinese
  • We need your help to translate JJazzLab into other languages. We use the Crowdin platform which makes it easy.
  • Extended style creation wizard:
  • Make your own Yamaha extended styles using your preferred Midi editor or DAW (Cubase, Reaper, Ableton, etc.).
  • Extended style creation video tutorial:
  • Tempo can now be adjusted at song part level by 1% steps
  • Adjust tempo
  • External links in song memo:
  • Insert file or internet links in the memo, they will be automatically opened when loading the song.
  • Song memo links
  • Show varation length:
  • The tooltip of a song part shows the length of the source phrase (musical pattern) of the variation.
  • Display variation length:
  • Enable/Disable all Midi parameters
  • In some cases you might prefer to control the instrument selection and the mix outside of JJazzLab. In this case you can disable from the mix console menu the transmission of all Midi parameter messages.
  • Enable/Disable all Midi parameters
  • Details:
  • [enhancement] Complete internationalization #4
  • [enhancement] Add a wizard to create a .yjz extended style file ready to be customized #156
  • [enhancement] Make tempo factor adjustable by 1% steps (right now +/- 5%) #160
  • [enhancement] Add a way to easily switch off all non musical Midi messages when mix is done outside of JJazzLab #153
  • [enhancement] Show the source phrase bar length for a Yamaha-style rhythm variation #151
  • [enhancement] During playback of large leadsheet, auto scroll (to make playing bar visible) before reaching the last visible row #148
  • [enhancement] Add html links support in Song memo #147
  • [enhancement] Add feature usage analytics #177
  • [enhancement] Export to Midi file should take into account precount and click settings. #146
  • [enhancement] Rhythm selection dialog should show a convenient rhythm ordering by default #155
  • Bugs:
  • [bug] MixConsole disappears if song .mix file is not consistent with .sng file #182
  • [bug] Song structure editor lost if tab is closed but action is cancelled via the confirm dialog #181
  • [bug] 7M note should not be played on piano/guitar tracks for simple chord symbols like Am or C #180
  • [bug] Remove initial section make wrong song parts disappear #173
  • [bug] Toggle playback click on/off has no effect if song is not playing #157
  • [bug] Clear filter in rhythm selection dialog does not work when rhythm preview is ON #154
  • [bug] IndexOutOfBoundsException when using the GS standard bank in Output Synth #152
  • [bug] Export to Midi does not work well if song is playing #149
  • [bug] Force Section at New Line sometimes not enabled when bar is selected #108
  • [bug] In bar edit dialog, wrong erroneous chord symbol highlighted if multiple chord symbols #98
  • Known issues:
  • When using the Java Internal Synth on MacOS, the audio can lag sometimes 2 or 3 secondes behind.
  • Drums instrument selection with the JazzLab SoundFont and the Java Internal Synth does not work well.
  • Dark theme does not work on MacOS

New in JJazzLab 2.2.0 (Sep 25, 2020)

  • Enhancements:
  • Improve error report notification to user when rhythm files could not be read #141
  • In Rhythm selection dialog, automatically select Filter text when focused #140
  • Bug-fixes:
  • Stack overflow error in SptEditor #144
  • Special chars (é, è, ...) used in song memo are not correctly saved in .sng file #143

New in JJazzLab 2.2 Beta 3 (Sep 14, 2020)

  • Rhythm preview:
  • Helps you pick the right rhythm
  • Reduced startup time:
  • Your rhythm/style files are scanned only upon fresh install
  • Transposed playback:
  • For transposing instrument players such as sax or trumpet players
  • Print song:
  • Print the chord lead sheet and/or the song structure
  • More visible link between a song part and its parent section:
  • The song part reuses the color of its parent section, and time signature is shown
  • New dark graphics theme:
  • With many possible font/color customizations (Windows and Linux only)
  • Plus many various improvements and bug fixes:
  • Change tempo shortcuts, better handling of trackpad, …

New in JJazzLab 2.2 Beta 2 (Sep 7, 2020)

  • [enhancement] Add print leadsheet feature #61
  • [enhancement] Allow "previewing" styles directly in Rhythm selection dialog #54
  • [enhancement] Add a play transposed feature #111
  • [enhancement] Add a cache system to avoid rescanning all rhythm files upon startup #104
  • [enhancement] Add a new graphical dark theme, with possibility to switch between themes #123
  • [enhancement] Set the song part background to the color of its parent section #127
  • [enhancement] Improve consistency of fonts across platforms (Linux/Mac/Win) #134
  • [enhancement] Show typed chord symbol instead of official alias #115
  • [enhancement] Show the time signature changes in song part #114
  • [enhancement] Improve support of trackpad/touch-motion mouses (Apple Magic Mouse), with no unitary scroll capability #113
  • [enhancement] When transposing chord symbol, transpose up should only show sharp notes and transpose down flat notes #103
  • [enhancement] Add keyboard shortcut to increase/decrease tempo ('J' 'K', or '-' '+') #100
  • [enhancement] Automate "reset user settings" feature #132
  • [enhancement] Improve icons with transparent backgrounds to facilitate use of various look & feels #130
  • [enhancement] Add new defaut minor chord aliases using "-" instead of "m" #129
  • [enhancement] Make selected chord symbol background color customizable #128
  • [enhancement] Add a keyboard shortcut to toggle looping ('L') #124
  • [enhancement] Upon fresh start ask user confirmation to copy default rhythm files and example songs if dir. is not empty #120
  • [enhancement] When possible show Favorites Rhythms first when opening rhythm selection dialog #118
  • [enhancement] Dialogs such as Insert Bars not always usable via keyboard only #117
  • [enhancement] Add an action to select all chord symbols #102
  • [enhancement] Pedal bass option presence should be rendered in the chord symbol #101
  • [enhancement] Make song memo font customizable #99
  • [bug-fix] Space bar captured by tempo box #112
  • [bug-fix] Song tempo sometimes not right after startup #109
  • [bug-fix] Undo/Redo support should be local to the song memo editor #107
  • [bug-fix] Song part tab: some rhythm parameters editors not visible #106
  • [bug-fix] Error when trying to play a song which uses m2 #116
  • [bug-fix] Exception when duplicating a song whose 1st song part uses an adapted rhythm #110
  • [bug-fix] (Regression 2.2) Assertion error when opening a song file with a rhythm not available #135

New in JJazzLab 2.2 (Sep 7, 2020)

  • Main new features:
  • Rhythm preview:
  • You can now “preview” rhythms directly in the rhythm selection dialog. Just press space or right-click on a rhythm. The rhythm will play the current song part. You can also turn on the automatic preview button: each time you select a rhythm it’s played.
  • Reduced startup time:
  • Your rhythm/style files are scanned at startup only upon a fresh install, and the rhythm list is saved into a “cache” file. This cache file is then used to get the rhythm list upon next startups, which is much faster than the initial scanning -especially if you have many rhythm files. If you add or remove rhythm files you need to manually start a rescan in order to update the cache file. This can be done in the Rhythms panels of the Options/Preferences.
  • Play transposed:
  • If you’re a sax tenor player (Bb instrument) for example, you can ask JJazzLab to change the key of the chord symbols only for the playback: a C7 in the chord lead sheet will generate a backing track based on Bb7.
  • More visible link between each song part and its parent section:
  • The song part reuses the color of its parent section, and parent section time signature is shown (unless it’s unchanged).
  • Print song:
  • You can print a chord lead sheet or the song structure. The chord lead sheet can be adjusted for printing (e.g. use larger chord symbols).
  • New dark theme for Windows and Linux:
  • In addition to the default light theme, you can now switch to a darker theme. Both themes are customizable.

New in JJazzLab 2.0.1 (Mar 13, 2020)

  • Improve robustness of Yamaha style reading
  • Fix Null pointer exception if Play selection on a multi-rhythm song
  • Log the rhythm file processed
  • Fix null pointer exception when reading .cfg file
  • Fix slash chord bass note not rendered correctly in some cases
  • Fix Improvisor importer assertion error