Liqube Audio updates Resonic Player and Pro Audio Player and Sample Manager to v0.9b for Windows

Liqube Audio has updated Resonic, an audio player and sample manager for Windows, to v0.9b.

This release marks the beginning of the final stretch on the road to version 1.0. Audio device handling was reworked and allows for per-device options in future updates. Files and folders can be renamed, new folders can be created, directly in Resonic. Also, lots of new features and fixes.

New Features:

• Audio: Output device handling has been reworked, which includes load and save of the active devices. Previously used devices are stored in the order of their last use. If an audio device cannot be opened the next in the order of last used devices is tried. If Resonic plays through your current Windows default device and that default device changes to another device Resonic will try to follow and switch to the new one when the next file starts playing (applies to WASAPI output only.) For DirectSound use 'DS - System Default Device', which will do the switching automatically.
• Audio: When using a WASAPI output device (recommended) and the active device is disconnected, lost, or otherwise fails, Resonic will first shut down playback and then the device itself, if possible, and finally show a warning. If the device was the default device, the new default device will be used. If the original device is back online it will be used. In any case Resonic will show you a highly visible status message, and only restore a device when you start playing a file / a new file.
• Individual files in file list can now be renamed, either via the RIGHT-CLICK context menu, or with F2 when the file list is focused. When you rename a file the file extension is not shown, and is left untouched.
• Individual folders in browser can now be renamed, either via the RIGHT-CLICK context menu, or with F2 when the browser is focused.
• Folders in browser can now be created, either via the RIGHT-CLICK context menu, with F7, or with CTRL-SHIFT-N when the browser is focused.
• Pro: The new 'Shuffle list items' function randomizes the display order of all items in the current playlist. This works similar to the 'Random' playback mode which keeps the display order untouched. You can use the 'Item Order' column to display the items' actual positions, and to return back to the original order. 'Shuffle list items' and 'Random' playback mode can be combined.
• Faster and less blocking file list updates.
• Big parts of Drag & Drop have been reworked and improved. Dragging files and folders out of Resonic feels more modern and natural now on Windows 10, for example by showing drop tips ("Copy"/"Move"/"Open with"/etc.) More importantly is ensuring that files dragged out of Resonic's file list (e.g., to the Desktop), are _always_ copied by default, and not occasionally (and seemingly randomly) moved instead by the operating system. You can still move files by holding down SHIFT during drag, like anywhere else.
• Usability: You can now horizontally scroll the file list (e.g., when having lots of columns) by holding down SHIFT while you use the MOUSE WHEEL.
• Usability: You can now fast-scroll the file list and the browser (e.g., to go look through your files and folders faster) by holding down CTRL while using the MOUSE WHEEL.
• Resonic now distinguishes between audio-only and video .mp4 files by analyzing the file content in depth, and displays these video files in a different color (purple.) (#1245) Learn more: resonic.at/docs/file-list
• Added 'Export file list' item to file list popup menu to copy with full path names of selected files to the clipboard. (#1246) Resonic Pro can also copy the path names (without file names), or just the file names, and offers advanced clipboard quotation settings for developers in the 'Clipboard options' sub menu (double quotes, single quotes, escape backslashes in paths, Unicode prefix).
• New command-line options for basic remote control, and creating loop selections. Learn more: resonic.at/docs/command-line
• File list filter ('Show matching only' is default) now remembers last scroll position and restores it when you close or clear the filter. This ensures your workflow is not interrupted when you're using the filter often (e.g., via CTRL-F.).
• Pro: File list filter option 'Keep panel open' makes sure the panel does not automatically hide, but stays open.
• Pro: File list filter option 'Clear filter text on close' clears the entered filter text as soon as the panel is closed.
• When the file list filter panel is open (CTRL-F, or F3) the F3 key can now be used to cycle through the filtered results just like in a text editor. Use SHIFT-F3 to reverse the cycle order.
• Metadata scans can now more reliably be suspended until the next folder change using the animated activity button (...) in the status bar (only visible when metadata is being gathered.).
• Pro: It is now possible to scale the selection length via menu items, i.e. double, triple, quadruple, etc. as well as half, third, quarter, etc. Right click the A-B button to see the options, e.g., 'Selection length'.
• Pro: Global hotkeys 'Double waveform selection length' and 'Halve waveform selection length'.
• When the file list filter panel is open (CTRL-F, or F3) you can now use PAGEUP and PAGEDOWN directly to do page-wise jumps, CTRL-HOME and CTRL-END to jump to the top and bottom of the list, without the need to close the filter first.
• Pro: New meta options for file list filter. In addition to filename without path you can now also filter by file extension, path, and parent folder name (containing folder).
• New shortcut: CTRL-W closes and unloads the current audio file, and potentially unlocks a playing folder when needed.
• Pro: The shortcut CTRL-SHIFT-ALT-W closes and release the current audio output device, which will automatically be reinitialized when the next file is played. This is useful to manually 'switch off' the device when another application needs it, or to manually reinitialize a non-working device (e.g., after USB reconnect.).
• New stop button RIGHT-CLICK menu command: 'Close audio streams'.
• Pro: New stop button RIGHT-CLICK menu commands: 'Close audio streams' and 'Release audio output device', which are also available as assignable global shortcuts in Resonic Pro.
• Explorer file type icons for Advanced Audio Coding files (.aac) and Karaoke MIDI files (.kar).
• Pro: Added volume percentage presets (0..100%) from Resonic Player to volume popup menu, as an alternative to the decibel presets.
• Pro: Added pitch percentage presets (+/-) to pitch popup (always based on original speed.).
• Pro: Added 'Speed up' (x2) and 'Slow down' (x0.5) to pitch popup menu. Note that you can these items multiple times to double or halve the current speed multiple times, and that clicking these items will keep the popup open.
• Pro: Additional file list/browser font size ('XX Large') and row density ('Spacious') presets.
• To stop sorting by a specific column in file list you can now CTRL-CLICK any column header, or use the 'Unsorted' item from the file list columns menu.
• All versions of Resonic will now ask before deleting/recycling files and folders.
• Pro: There are several settings available in 'Menu | Advanced | Confirmations', which allow you to toggle confirmations for deleting a single file, a single folder, or multiple files, separately. Another setting lets you only show confirmations whenever keyboard shortcuts were used to trigger delete commands.
• Drag & Drop a file onto the visualization area (waveform) to load and play it (#1313).
• If Resonic is started without parameters, but an instance is already running (minimized or otherwise hidden), it is automatically brought to the front.
• Files passed into Resonic via command-line at runtime that do not exist will no longer change folders and interrupt playback, but cause an error message instead.

Improvements:

• Pro: Slower but much more accurate audio extraction from MP3/MP2/MP1 files.
• Pro: Moved some waveform selection features from marker button to the A-B button RIGHT-CLICK menu: 'Select all', 'Restore last selection', 'Randomize selection', and 'Selection for tempo/beats'.
• Usability: Further reduced the chance of accidentally creating folder copies in browser via Drag & Drop by introducing a Drag & Drop delay.
• Dim button is now correctly highlighted in orange, as orange in Resonic generally means that audio is being affected in one way or another, or uses lossy compression.
• Pro: Support for iTunes/APE/etc. initial key (shown in 'Musical Key' column, e.g. 'Am'.).
• Sorting by file extension ('Ext.' column) now uses the filename as a secondary sort key for Explorer-compatible groupings.
• Pro: Now using the root note read from ACID WAV and AIFF files as a fallback for 'Musical Key'. All your files will now show a musical key, if at least the root note is known.
• Pro: Now also detects tempo values (BPM) with 1-2 decimals in filenames (e.g. "Loop 140.5BPM.wav") as part of the set of meta-based tempo guessing algorithms, and in addition to the actual tempo information read from various metadata sources embedded in files. While the actual tempo from embedded metadata will be shown first in the 'Tempo' file list column, any guessed tempo will be shown in brackets, e.g. "120 (140.5) ".
• Pro: Now also detects (some) root keys and scale types (major, minor) in filenames (e.g. "Loop Ebmin.wav") in additional to the actual key and scale information read from various metadata sources embedded in files. While the actual key and scale from embedded metadata will be shown first in the 'Key' file list column, any guessed key and scale will be shown in brackets, e.g. "C# (Dbm) ". Not that some keys cannot be reliably detected from filename at this point (e.g. "Loop A.wav"), and will be ignored for the time being. Using "Amaj" instead would be recommended.
• The Resonic meta core will now attempt to correct RIFF WAVE files with broken headers and continue to read metadata from RIFF WAVE files. Note that future versions of Resonic Pro will start reporting metadata quality, which, in the case of broken files, would end up being very low.
• 'Show matching only' is now the default file list filter mode. which means when you open it (CTRL-F) and type something any files that do not match your filter pattern will be hidden from the file list, leaving the filtered ones. You can change this behavior to 'Show all, but dim non-matching' using the menu button in the filter bar, which will then disable any files that do not match your filter pattern and show little location indicators in the scroll bar.
• Refreshed light and dark themes.
• Improved file list style, file list filter style, and features.
• Greatly improved responsiveness when selecting files in file list with mouse and keyboard, i.e., CTRL-CLICK, SHIFT-CLICK, SHIFT and arrow keys, etc.
• More consistent PAGEUP and PAGEDOWN (page-wise jumping) in file list.
• Changed ENTER behavior in file list filter to be more consistent, does always restart the file now, but won't auto-start playing accidentally. Press DOWN to play the first filtered result instead.
• Improved new folder feature (F7, or CTRL-SHIFT-N in browser). You can now also create multiple levels at once (e.g. "Folder Name\Sub Folder\Another Folder" will create the whole structure in one go.).
• Stop button has now more than one function (using subsequent clicks): The first click stops audio playback, as expected. When playback is stopped another click closes and unloads the audio files.
• Pro: Stop button also has a third function (using subsequent clicks): When no files are loaded another click closes and releases the current audio output device, which will automatically be reinitialized when the next file is played.
• Header color contrast tweaks, played area overlay color tweaks, and some other color changes.
• Improved contrast for all Explorer file type icons (unavailable in Portable versions.).
• Checked menu items within a group are now clearly visible as such (radio buttons, instead of check marks.).
• Better handling of long paths and filenames.
• Browser and file list now default to a bigger font size on higher resolution screens.
• Improved tooltips and added support for large multi-line hints that show the full contents of cut-off file list columns (#1309).
• If 'Disable fade on stop' is enabled (see stop button context menu) Resonic will now not only stop playback immediately and without short fade out when the stop button is clicked, but also on right-click into the waveform, and in most of the other cases as well, making operation more instant. Fade on stop is disabled by default in Resonic Pro.

Corrections:

• Pro: Reduced white flashes when resizing the window while using the dark theme.
• When play/pause are combined into one button (RIGHT-CLICK play button for options) play will now properly reopen and restart previously unloaded files.
• Several smaller fixes throughout the program.
• Audio output device was not released properly when system goes into sleep or hibernation, is now reopened when needed on system resume.
• The notice that is shown when the file list's auto fit option cannot automatically fit all columns, because there is not enough room, has been killed with a shovel.
• Pro: Pitch semitones are now limited to a viable range.

Links:

• Official Liqube Audio Forum - here on KVR.
• Download
• What's New - a full list of changes.