This release drops the alpha tag and moves to a normal versioning scheme: future versions will bump the major / minor / patch versions depending on the scope of the changes.

Thanks to the following contributors who worked on this release:

• @cameronwhite
• @adam-eldredge
• @Dj-Viking
• @DontBelieveMe

Added

• Unsaved modified files can now be automatically backed at a regular interval, controlled via the Preferences dialog. The backup folder can be opened via the File menu (#392)
• The preferred MIDI output device is now tracked by name rather than by port number, which is more robust if e.g. a new device is plugged in
• Chord names can now use a custom label instead of the auto-generated chord name. This is primarily used for chords imported from Guitar Pro files (#442)
• When attempting to insert a note at the end of a system, a space is now automatically inserted to allow the note to be added (#439)
• Extended the view filter menu to support filtering by a specific player without requiring a filter to be explicitly created (#301)
• Copying and pasting selections which include barlines is now supported (#416)
• Improved the smoothness of MIDI pitch wheel events (bends, slides, etc), which now use the full 14-bit resolution instead of 7-bit
• Translations
  • Added Turkish translation (#406)
  • Added Chinese (Simplified) translation (#476, #477, #482)
  • Updated French translation (#406, #440)
  • Updated German translation (#473, #474, #481, #482)
  • Updated Russian translation (#407, #409, #437, #438)
  • Updated Spanish translation (#445)

Changed

• Chord diagrams now display the fret number of the top fret instead of the next fret after it (#408)
• Removed the 32-bit Windows installers
• A C++20 compiler is now required
• Updated the minimum required version of RtMidi to 4.0
• Updated the minimum required version of boost to 1.74
• Updated the minimum required version of Qt to 6.2

Fixed

• Fixed a bug that caused some preferences such as custom shortcuts to not persist on macOS. Note that all other preferences (such as MIDI settings) are reset by this fix and will need to be manually changed to the desired values (#447)
• Fixed a frequent crash when the preference to play inserted notes while editing is enabled
• Fixed potential crashes when importing Guitar Pro files (#442, #444)
• Fixed a bug where the scroll bar's range did not update when the visible height of the score shrank (#443)
• Fixed a bug where the caret was rendered when printing or displaying a print preview (#441)
• Fixed issues where the top fret number of a chord diagram could be cut off in the chord name dialog (#408)
• Fixed a crash when an alternate ending was located on the last position of a system (#449)
• Fixed a crash during playback when a score contained a Fine symbol (#470)
• Fixed build errors with minizip-ng (#478)
• Fixed crashes due to menu items not being disabled correctly after switching tabs (#486)

Thanks to the following contributors who worked on this release:

• @cameronwhite
• @brunosilvano
• @aaly11

Installing

• For Windows and Mac users, download the installer from the Assets section at the bottom of the release notes.
• For Linux users, a Snap package and Flatpak package are available.

Added

• The spacing between systems can now be configured in the preferences (#239, #382)
• Added Japanese and Russian translations

Changed

• Rhythm slashes from .ptb files are now imported (as a regular staff for now, until full support for rhythm slashes is added) (#16, #389)
• Increased the upper limit for irregular grouping values (#376)
• The time signature dialog now enables the visibility checkbox by default (#356, #383)
• Improved rendering of slide outs from a note (#393)

Fixed

• Fixed several potential errors when importing .ptb and Guitar Pro files.
• Fixed a potential crash when exporting to Guitar Pro (#379)
• Fixed issues where non-ASCII characters from .ptb files were not loaded correctly (#379)
• Fixed an issue where some bars could be skipped when importing a Guitar Pro file with a small number of bars.
• Ties between notes in different systems are now supported by the Guitar Pro exporter.
• Fixed a regression from alpha 15 where the final barline in a system could not be edited.
• The snap package provides more helpful error messages when the MIDI device cannot be accessed (#386)
• Fixed a crash when editing multi-bar rests (#391)
• Fixed a potential crash when double-clicking to edit a bend (#390)
• Fixed a potential crash when using the Shift String Up / Down commands (#394)
• Fixed a potential crash when displaying imported .ptb files (#396)
• Fixed a MIDI playback issue where the pitch wheel could be incorrectly shifted when starting playback in the middle of the score (#395)

Installing

• For Windows and Mac users, download the installer from the Assets section at the bottom of the release notes.
• For Linux users, a Snap package and Flatpak package are available.

Added

• Added support for exporting to Guitar Pro 7 (.gp) files (#350)
• The Bulk Converter dialog can now export to MIDI files (and any export formats added in the future) instead of only .pt2 files (#69)

Changed

• Tuning dictionary changes (#367)
  • The tuning dictionary in the user prefs folder (tunings.json) now only stores custom tunings instead of the entire tuning dictionary
  • The user tuning dictionary is now combined with the default tuning dictionary when loaded, ensuring that updates to the default tunings take effect
  • Reordered the default tuning dictionary so that "Down 1/2 Step", "Down 1 Step" etc tunings are next to the standard tuning (#363)
• Several changes to the .pt2 JSON format to make it easier for other applications to parse (#368)
  • Note that older releases will likely be unable to open newly-saved .pt2 files

Fixed

• Fixed an error with importing .gpx or .gp files with artificial harmonics for which the harmonic type was set to Pinch
• Fixed a MIDI playback bug where let rings could ring forever in certain situations
• Added a b6 alteration for chord names (#370)

Installing

• For Windows and Mac users, download the installer from the Assets section at the bottom of the release notes.
• For Linux users, a Snap package and Flatpak package are available.

Credits

Thanks to the following contributors who worked on this release:

• @cameronwhite
• @danailbd
• @nbrunett
• @fitojb
• @NathanBnm

Added

• Added support for chord diagrams
  • Chord diagrams are displayed at the top of the score
  • Diagrams can be imported from v1.7 files and Guitar Pro 6 / 7 files
  • The Chord Name dialog allows for quick selection from existing chord names in the score (chord text items, or chord diagrams)
  • Use the Add Chord Diagram option in the text menu to add a new diagram
  • Double-clicking a chord diagram will open a dialog to edit it, and selecting a chord diagram and pressing Delete will remove it
• Added MIDI playback support for bends that stretch over multiple notes
• Improvements for adjusting the score's zoom (#315, #340, #50)
  • Added standard keyboard shortcuts for adjusting the zoom
  • The last zoom level is saved in the settings and used when opening new scores
• Added a button in the playback widget to toggle the count-in option
• Translations
  • Added Spanish translation (#348)
  • Added French translation (#355)

Changed

• Improved the visibility of some colors in the dark score theme (#357)

Fixed

• Fixed various playback issues with alternate endings (#306, #353, #354)
• Fixed a bug where alternate endings could be drawn too far if there were multiple repeat end bars in a system
• Fixed an issue where MIDI playback did not reset correctly if playback was interrupted during a pitch shift (e.g. bend or tremolo bar) (#361)
• When the Windows installer is run in silent mode, the option to launch the app after installing is now disabled
• Fixed a bug where editing the first system could cause it to shift up and overlap with the score information or chord diagrams

Installing

• For Windows and Mac users, download the installer from the Assets section at the bottom of the release notes.
• For Linux users, a Snap package and Flatpak package are now available.

Added

• Added support for tremolo bars (#8).
• .pt2 files are now 3-4x smaller in file size.
• The Windows installer has been revamped. It is recommended to first uninstall the existing version before upgrading.
• For Linux users, the application can now be easily installed as a Snap package (https://snapcraft.io/powertabeditor).
• The macOS installers are now signed and notarized. This resolves the "developer cannot be verified" warnings when running for the first time.
• The application can now be translated into other languages.

Changed

• Removed dependency on boost::filesystem. Instead, std::filesystem (C++17) is now used. See the README for updated build instructions.
• Removed dependency on RapidJSON with nlohmann-json. See the README for updated build instructions.

Fixed

• Fixed an issue where stopping MIDI playback while a "let ring" was active could incorrectly keep the "let ring" active when restarting playback from the beginning (#337).
• Fixed a bug where the mixer's volume settings could be ignored when starting MIDI playback partway through the score (#335).
• Fixed an issue where the score's title could be scaled incorrectly when printed (#338).
• Fixed potential crashes on exit when the tuning dictionary failed to load (#342).
• Fixed a bug that could cause player changes to be incorrect created from .ptb files. This could lead to later issues with MIDI playback.
• Fixed issues where .ptb files containing multiple text items at the same position did not import correctly.
• Fixed a bug in the score polisher that could multiple notes to end up at the same position. This could lead to later issues with editing and MIDI playback.
• Improvements for how the first barline in a system is rendered (#2).

Credits

Thanks to the following contributors who worked on this release:

• @cameronwhite

Installing

• For Windows and Mac users, download the installer from the Assets section at the bottom of the release notes.
• For Ubuntu users, this release can be installed from the stable builds PPA.

Added

• Many behavior changes to improve the workflow of editing symbols such as tempo markers (#23, #192, #220).
  • These items can now be clicked on and selected, and Delete can then be pressed to remove the selected item.
  • Double-clicking an item will now launch the edit dialog. Previously, it was required to remove and then re-create the item.
• New preferences option to enable playing notes as they are entered (#47).
• New menu item Help -> App Info which contains information about the installation. This can be useful to include when reporting bugs (#329)

Changed

• On macOS, the Delete key can now be used to remove notes rather than having to press Fn+Delete.
• The MIDI device is now initialized in the background, which should avoid some lag the first time playback is activated (#47).
• Qt 5.10 or higher is now required.

Fixed

• Fixed a MIDI playback bug where adjacent repeated sections resulted in an empty bar being played (#289).
• Fixed a bug where the score's existing subtitle did not show up when opening the file information dialog.
• Fixed a bug where multi-bar rests were not drawn as a filled rectangle.
• Fixed a bug where the pan controls in the mixer had no effect (#276).
• Fixed a rare error when importing .ptb files (#332).

Credits

Thanks to the following contributors who worked on this release:

• @cameronwhite
• @psyomn

Installing

• For Windows and Mac users, download the installer from the Assets section at the bottom of the release notes.
• For Ubuntu users, this release can be installed from the stable builds PPA.

Added

• Added a bulk file conversion tool (#288, #212).
• Added a 32-bit installer for Windows in addition to the default 64-bit build (#312).
• Added a preference to select a light or dark score theme, in addition to the system default colors (#307).

Fixed

• Fixed issues with adjusting player volumes during MIDI playback (#276, #303).
• Fixed an issue where starting MIDI playback later in the score could prevent bends from being played (#311).
• Closing a tab that has modifications and isn't the active tab now works correctly (#304).
• Fixed multiple issues that could cause the Windows installer to fail (#305).
• Fixed issues where scores without any song information (title, artist info, etc) would be printed incorrectly (#313).
• Fixed printing of the song information at the top of the score, which previously was extremely large when printed (#313).

Credits

Thanks to the following contributors who worked on this release:

• @cameronwhite
• @psyomn
• @mostafa-nabil

Added

• Added a toolbox panel with common commands (#188, #300, @nbrunett).
• Added support for volume swells (#17).
• Added MIDI playback support for alterations of pace (#18).
• Added new commands (Note -> Shift String Up and Note -> Shift String Down) to shift notes up or down by a string (#20).
• Ties, hammer ons, pull offs, and slides can now be created between notes in adjacent systems (#27).
• Added a dark theme for the score view, based on the user's system theme (#286, @mostafa-nabil).
• Left hand fingerings now support thumbs. This is also now supported by the Guitar Pro 6/7 importers (#292).
• The song information can now store a subtitle. This is also now supported by the Guitar Pro 6/7 importers (#297).
• Several improvements to the view filter dialog. In particular, it now displays a list of the players that will be displayed when the filter is used (#295).
• Several improvements to the Guitar Pro 3/4/5 importer:
  • It now shares most of its code for converting to the Power Tab format with the GP6/7 importers, fixing a variety of layout / conversion issues.
  • Artificial and tapped harmonics are now imported.
  • Bends are now imported (#30).
  • Musical directions are now imported.
  • The initial tempo marker's name and visibility is now imported.
  • Wide vibrato, left hand fingerings, and the song's subtitle are now imported.
  • Fixed issues where imported tied notes could incorrectly have a fret number of 0 instead of the previous note's fret.

Changed

• The Position -> Shift Forward and Position -> Shift Backward menu items have been renamed to Insert Space and Remove Space, to hopefully reduce confusion with the new string shifting commands (#20).
• Unit tests now depend on the doctest library instead of Catch2. This is more lightweight (while still providing all of the necessary features) and is more widely available on Linux distros.

Fixed

• Improved the size and alignment of the treble and bass clef glyphs.
• Improved standard notation layout when a note is staccato and also has an accent.
• Improved alignment of accents in the standard notation staff.
• Improved vertical positioning of trills and dynamics symbols.
• Fixed a bug where editing the zoom text caused it to turn black, making it unreadable with a dark system theme.
• Fixed a potential crash in the Edit View Filters dialog when a string pattern was invalid (#295).

Credits

Thanks to the following contributors who worked on this release:

• @cameronwhite
• @mostafa-nabil
• @nbrunett

This release brings support for Guitar Pro 7 (.gp) files and improved support for Guitar Pro 6 (.gpx) files. There are also several important MIDI-related bug fixes.

Installing

• For Windows and Mac users, download the installer from the Assets section at the bottom of the release notes.
• For Ubuntu users, this release can be installed from the stable builds PPA.

Added

• Added support for Guitar Pro 7 (.gp) files (#290).
• The Guitar Pro 6 (.gpx) importer has been rewritten and shares most of its code with the GP7 importer. It now has much more complete support for .gpx files, and a variety of bugs and missing features have been addressed (#290).
• Improved the Rest menu's behaviour to be more consistent with the Notes menu (#135).
• Beginning with this release, .pt2 files with an unknown newer file format version (e.g. from a future release that adds additional data to the score format) will now be loaded to the best degree possible instead of refusing to load. (#294).
• File -> Open now allows selecting and opening multiple files.

Changed

• Removed dependency on the Boost program_options library.
• Added dependency on the minizip library.

Fixed

• Fixed a crash when the player assigned to a staff did not have enough strings (#243).
• Fixed issues that could cause notes to be held forever after interrupting MIDI playback.
• The .pt2 importer is now more robust, and should better handle JSON data generated by other software (#294).
• Fixed an issue on Windows where the Stop button could cause playback to restart again (#296).
• Fixed an issue where slides and bends could lead to tempo drift during playback (#214).
• Fixed an issue where double-clicking to open a file could fail to open it in an existing instance of the program (#236).
• Fixed a potential crash during MIDI playback when musical directions were present.

A long overdue release!

Thanks to the following contributors who worked on this release:

• @cameronwhite
• @DontBelieveMe
• @iceseyes
• @jcranney
• @jlearman
• @Kadabash

Added

• File information is now displayed at the top of the score (#49).
• The Delete key will now remove rests - previously, Ctrl+Delete was required (#202).
• Added support for left hand fingering hints (#261, #65).

Fixed

• Fixed tempo drift issues during playback (#269).
• Fixed errors when loading or saving files that had non-ASCII characters in their path (#244).
• Fixed a bug in the score polisher when there were grace notes at the start of a bar.
• Fixed issues where the pause and stop buttons did not reliably respond to clicks during playback (#237).
• Fixed a bug where dots could be hidden when a note had an accidental (#242).
• Fixed a bug with the MIDI exporter that caused the file header to be invalid (#241).
• Fixed incorrect key signature position for the bass clef (#275).
• Fixed a bug where it was impossible to edit the number of repeats at the final barline in the score.
• Improved how the MIDI output on OSX is implemented (#285).
• The dark theme on Mac OSX is now supported for all widgets except the score view.
• Fixed many build system issues (e.g. #255, #282) and updated the required compiler and library versions.
  • A C++17 compiler is now required.
  • Third-party dependencies are no longer bundled as submodules, and instead are expected to be provided by the system package manager or a tool such as vcpkg. The README has been updated with the recommended build steps.
  • Moved to Github Actions for CI builds. See .github/workflows/build.yml.
  • Fixed errors when loading .pt2 files with newer versions of RapidJSON.
  • Various improvements to the OSX installer.

(edit 06/01/20 - updated the Windows installer with the MIDI playback fixes from #246)

Ubuntu users can install this release from https://launchpad.net/~powertab-developers/+archive/ubuntu/powertabeditor-stable