Revision history

This section is a reverse-chronological account of the significant changes made between prior builds of Doggiebox.

10 Sep 2009 - 1.4.3 (build 1F11)

• Fixed the lack of audio playback under Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard).
• Fixed a possible loss of audio data when re-saving a drum kit originally created with a pre-1.3 version of Doggiebox.
• Fixed a couple of crashes that could occur in specific circumstances.

21 May 2009 - 1.4.2 (build 1F10)

• Fixed a problem where exported MIDI files were corrupted under Mac OS 10.4.11.
• Fixed a hang that would occur when attempting to paste beats (not a whole bar) into a bar that's selected wholly (not just some beats). The drums will now be pasted at the corresponding place in which they were copied from the source bar.
• Removed some compressed file formats from the Export Audio dialog which Doggiebox did not properly support.

19 Mar 2008 - 1.4.1 (build 1F8)

• Fixed a bug that caused exporting audio to fail under Mac OS X 10.4.

21 Feb 2008 - 1.4 (build 1F7)

• Now compiled as a Universal Binary (native PowerPC and Intel).
• Fixed stuttering playback issues under Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard).
• Behaviour of "Insert Bar(s)" functions reversed for better usability.
• Audio file routines from Mac OS now used, in place of libsndfile.
• Mac OS X 10.4.11 (or later) is now required.

14 March 2006 - 1.3.1 (build 1E15)

• Added an Italian localization.
• Fixed an issue where the registration key would not install properly under some circumstances.

21 Feb 2006 - 1.3 (build 1E14)

New features and improvements:

• Velocity adjustment is now possible on a beat-by-beat basis. Right- or Control-clicking on a drum in the pattern editor will pop up an adjustment slider. Velocities will be preserved (but ignored) in older versions of Doggiebox.
• Editing operations can now be performed on a beat-subdivision granularity, in addition to whole bars as before. Cut and Paste behaviour is dependent on the context; e.g., when working with beats, drums can be moved while the song structure remains unaffected.
• A new floating inspector window provides control over time signature and tempo, default velocity, etc.
• New commands Insert Bar, Insert Beat and Delete Beat(s)/Bar(s).
• Changing time signature now preserves a bar's structure; e.g., in a 3|4 bar containing 3 quarter notes, changing to 4|4 will cause the notes to become triplets over 4 beats.
• Zooming is now adjustable for individual bars, and is persistent.
• Playback tempo is now adjustable in real time according to inbound MIDI Clock events.
• If a drum kit currently in use by an open song is modified, an alert sheet will be presented allowing you to immediately re-load the drum kit in the song to reflect any changes.
• New sections are now created containing a new empty bar.
• Cosmetic improvements have been made to the song window, including the ability to adjust widths of the Sections List and Playlist.
• Visual consistency in the pattern editor has been improved (e.g. 12|8 bars now appear like 4|4 bars at the same zoom).
• Added support for exporting to Apple CoreAudio File (CAF) and SoundDesigner II format.
• Icon handling in the drum kit editor has been improved to use the image's native file format to preserve quality.
• Values for MIDI properties (channel, note, velocity) in the kit editor can now be entered manually.

Bug fixes and miscellaneous:

• Export Audio now properly exports only the selection (as opposed to the whole song), if there is one.
• After changing drum kits, the pattern editor will now properly refresh with the new kit icons and key shortcuts.
• Two variants of the same drum type but with different key shortcuts can now be selected immediately one after another.
• Various other bug fixes.
• There is a new Preferences option "Create backward-compatible files". If enabled (default), songs will be openable in Doggiebox 1.1-1.2. Otherwise, Doggiebox 1.3 or newer will be required, but files will be smaller.
• Re-organized the Edit and Song menus; some key shortcuts have been re-assigned.
• Mac OS 10.3.9 (or later) is now required.

14 Sep 2004 - 1.2 (build 1C13)

• Songs can be played back in real time to MIDI devices or exported to standard MIDI files.
• Doggiebox and external devices can trigger each other remotely via MIDI Machine Control.
• Drum kit format has been revised to improve responsiveness when loading songs or changing kits.
• Externally-linked sound files are supported, making it possible to distribute smaller-sized kits.
• Text-based instrument summaries are copied to clipboard in kit editor to aid in drum management.
• A number of cosmetic improvements have been made to the song document window.
• Fixed a bug which occasionally caused garbage in the right channel when exporting an audio file.

05 Apr 2004 - 1.1.1 (build 1B8)

• Updated the Italian localization.
• Fixed some bugs which caused it to be impossible to change tempo or time signature under some circumstances.
• Added support for AVR sound file format.

15 Mar 2004 - 1.1 (build 1B6)

• A much improved section and playlist structuring model has been introduced, with corresponding menu commands and key shortcuts, as well as support for cut/copy/paste and drag 'n drop.
• The song editor window has been redesigned for better usability: a) the drum kit drawer has been moved into the main window and is much larger; b) the song name, details and kit are no longer accessed via a separate dialog sheet.
• The Preferences dialog has been simplified. The default drum kit picker is gone; instead, Doggiebox now automatically remembers the most recently chosen kit.
• Added a new preference for "begin new line at each section", which will create line breaks in the pattern editor for better visual navigation.
• Changes to the master tempo and master level sliders are now Undoable, and the master tempo slider can now be reset to 100% by double-clicking it.
• Using keyboard shortcuts for selecting drums in the song editor finally works.
• Cosmetic improvements to pattern editor.
• Fixed bug where the duration of exported audio would be truncated in some circumstances when "Allow final sounds to decay completely" was turned on.
• Other miscellaneous bug fixes and improvements.
• Mac OS X 10.2 is now required, and 10.3 is recommended.

18 Dec 2003 - 1.0.6 (build 1A26)

• Added an Italian language localization, courtesy of Vella Bruno.
• Fixed a bug where the Export progress dialog could not be canceled.
• Fixed a couple of other potential conflicts with earlier versions of Mac OS X.

10 Nov 2003 - 1.0.5 (build 1A25)

• Added a new preferences option, "Allow final sounds to decay completely". The default setting is on, which maintains the standard behaviour where Doggiebox intelligently lets sounds (e.g. crash cymbals) decay at the end of song. However, if you are exporting patterns for use as loops, you can now turn this off to achieve output of precise duration.
• Added support for cut/copy/pasting of drums (with all attributes, e.g. sound, name, and icon) in the drum kit editor.
• Improved the play/stop button so that response during playback is now instant, instead of sometimes briefly hanging.
• Improved handling of the licence registration key so that it is now automatically recognised for all user accounts on the computer.
• Fixed a bug that caused Doggiebox to truncate the last beat of each bar by a fraction of a second. While imperceivable under normal circumstances, this was causing problems for people exporting files to use as loops, etc.
• Fixed a bug where drum kit reconciliation did not work properly under Mac OS 10.3.
• Fixed a bug where the position indicator would sometimes stop moving in mid-song during playback.
• Fixed a bug where selecting a different drum kit while editing a song would sometimes affect only some of the drums.
• Fixed a font dependency that could cause mysterious non-behaviour under some circumstances.
• Other minor fixes for Mac OS 10.1 compatibility (the playback indicator now works instead of crashing; a hang after exporting should be eliminated).
• Changed the keyboard shortcut for Preferences from cmd-; to cmd-, in respect of Apple human interface guidelines.
• Added a few additional sounds to Ben's Premier Kit.

23 Sep 2003 - 1.0.4 (build 1A19)

New features in the drum kit editor:

• Support for dragging and dropping sound files to and from the Finder, as well as saving to disk in any chosen format.
• Volume slider control for adjusting the nominal level for each drum sound.
• Support for dragging and dropping drum images to and from the Finder, or directly from graphics applications, as well as copy/paste using the clipboard, and saving to disk in TIFF format.

Improvements to the song editor:

• Fixed a bug where some Undo functions would not work in a newly created song.
• Fixed a bug where importing or exporting sounds would fail when the filename contained non-standard characters.
• Fixed a bug where it was impossible to delete the first section marker in the list.
• Added a collapse-to-mono toggle button.
• Improved responsiveness of user interface and position indicator after stopping playback.
• Improved the alert messages when a drum kit is missing or unavailable -- no longer says "Cannot find '(null)'".

23 May 2003 - 1.0.3 (build 1A15)

• Added long-awaited Undo support for various song editing operations.
• Added new Erase functionality: hold the Option key while mousing over the pattern editor, and click (or drag) to immediately remove any drums beneath the cursor.
• File references (saved in preferences and song files) are now stored using alias records instead of absolute paths. As a result, Doggiebox should be less prone to lose track of drum kits that have been moved or renamed. (Song file format has been updated.)

11 April 2003 - 1.0.2 (build 1A12)

• Added a master volume slider for controlling the output level (useful to eliminate clipping on exported tracks).
• Considerably improved the accuracy and performance of the playback position indicator.
• Improved the export dialog to remember the most recently chosen file format.
• Added menu commands for playing and exporting the current selection.
• Added support for two new sound file formats: FastTracker 2 import and Portable Voice Format import/export.
• Fixed a bug where pops or clicks were sometimes heard when using custom drum kits.
• Fixed a bug where sometimes no sounds would be audible until a song was saved and re-opened (mostly occurred when creating new songs).
• Fixed a compatibility problem using exported files with BIAS Deck/Peak.
• Fixed a problem where sound files with uppercase filename extensions were not recognized.

02 March 2003 - 1.0.1 (build 1A9)

• Added command-H key equivalent to hide the application.
• Fixed bug where tempo icons were sometimes being drawn upside-down in the pattern properties sheet.
• Brought the user's guide up to date.
• Implemented registration incentives for non-licensed users.
• Made minor fix to a problem with broken Export Audio in build 1A8, and re-posted as build 1A9 several hours later

30 Jan 2003 - 1.0g (build 1A7)

• At long last, there are document icons! Many thanks to Scott Bremner for graphic design.
• The preferences dialog has been revamped, with several new options.
• There is now support for multi-line bar layout, with a user-specified number of bars per line.
• It is now possible to choose whether to create a new untitled song on startup.
• It is now possible to disable the playback position indicator.
• The behaviour of selection highlighting and the insertion point has been changed slightly, to more closely match the behaviour of a text editor: when one or more bars are selected, the insertion point disappears.
• Added recognition for AIFF sound files ending in ".aif" (in addition to ".aiff").
• The drum kit editor will now post an alert when trying to import a sound of an unsuitable sample rate.
• Drums are now assigned a default sound and icon in the absence of any being defined in the drum kit editor.
• Fixed bug where drum sounds would not play back when auditioned in the drum kit editor.
• Registration key system introduced, along with a revised About box and application icon.

28 Dec 2002 - 1.0f (build 1A6)

• Resolved incompatibility with Mac OS X 10.2.3.
• Introduction of a long-awaited playback position indicator.
• Fixed bug where drum sounds were not playing while editing the song.
• Fixed a crash that would occur when loading a song whose drum kit is not available, and the load is subsequently canceled or a substitute kit is not specified.
• Plus a handful of miscellaneous UI improvements (export audio dialog, zooming, remembering window positions).

16 Dec 2002 - 1.0e (build 1A5)

• New feature at long last: support for export the song to any of almost a dozen different audio file formats! Try out the new "Export Audio..." command in the File menu.
• Improved behaviour where some drum sounds should override others (e.g., a closed hi-hat following an open hi-hat, or a muted crash cymbal following an open crash).
• Fixed bug where saving a drum kit file would obliterate all of the drums' icons (resulting in no icons at all).

21 Nov 2002 - 1.0d (build 1A4)

• Fixed bug where a crash could occur if a bar were deleted when the insertion point was immediately after it.
• Fixed bug where song would continue to play after closing the window.
• Fixed bug where playback would skip over the last beat in the song (or selection) when looping.
• Fixed bug where extra noise (typically an annoying buzz) would sound repeatedly after playing a song until you quit the program.

30 Oct 2002 - 1.0c (build 1A3)

• Vastly optimized display mechanisms in the pattern editor, so that responsiveness to mouse tracking and clicking is markedly improved.
• Fixed problems using 3/8, 5/8 time signatures.
• Improved control over tempo specification; it is now possible to specify the tempo in terms of any base note value via a pop-up menu in the bar properties dialog.
• Improved zooming function so that it's now possible to add and modify triplets within individual beat positions simply by zooming in.
• Fixed bug where the drum info controls in the Drum Kit Editor would sometimes be greyed out, in particular after adding a new drum.
• Up and down cursor keys now move the insertion point to the beginning and end of song, respectively.
• Fixed cosmetic issue where bar numbers of 100 or greater were truncated (only the first two digits would appear).
• Fixed some major memory leaks which would sometimes result in memory used by drum kits and songs not to be deallocated when a song was closed.
• Improved error handling when opening corrupt files or those that are created with subsequent (too-new) versions of Doggiebox.

12 Sept 2002 - 1.0b (build 1A2)

• Project rebuilt with GCC 3.1 and PB 2.0 under OS 10.2.
• Stereo panning for drum sounds now supported, along with a wider range of input file formats (AIFF, WAV, VOC, AU, IFF, PAF, SF, W64). This comes as part of a significant re-implementation of the audio subsystem featuring ZygoatAudio and libsndfile. Requires re-implentation of sounds in drum kit files (see separate release notes accompanying the build).
• Playback no longer skips beats under Mac OS 10.2 (when using new-style drum kits).
• Bug fixed where preferences dialog would crash upon dismissal.
• Insertion point now follows pastes (moves to after the last pasted bar).

26 June 2002 - 1.0a (build 1A1)

• Initial public release for testing and feedback.