Version 7.1

• Added support for writing RealAudio (.RA) files. To use it, you also have to install a whole bunch external DLL's from RealNetworks (you can download them from our web site as 'awrapack.zip').
• The 'Auto tune' button in the waveform property dialog now has a new option - to change the sample rate so that the dominant frequency matches the currently set root key and fine tune. This is the opposite to the previously only choice, i.e. to set the root key and fine tune according to the dominant frequency.
• Added an 'Auto tune' command to the Audio processing wizard that does the same as the 'Auto tune' button in the waveform properties - but can work on multiple waveforms in one go!
• In the Batch Converter's input dialog there's now an 'Scan dir' button which will scan a directory (and subdirectories) for files to add to the batch job.
• Added a 'Save as 8-bit' checkbox in the 'DLS options' box in the waveform properties. This will force a waveform to be saved as 8-bit in a DLS file even though you have selected 16-bit as the output format when saving the file. Note that this is only supported for DLS files - i.e. it wont let you create 'mixed 8 and 16-bit files for instrument formats than DLS.
• Added an 'Automatically split stereo waveforms into dual mono when loading' option (set in setup dialog).
• Added a 'Format text in names' option to the 'Instrument processing wizard' which you can e.g. use to convert all names to upper case or to replace all characters that can not be used in file names.
• Added a 'Set copyright text' command to the 'Audio processing wizard' to allow you to set the copyright notice for a lot of waveforms in one go.
• Added support for reading and writing Ensoniq PARIS files (.PAF).
• Added MTU/IRCAM SF file export support.
• Added support for reading and writing Sony Playstation MIDI Sequences (.SEQ)
• Added Cakewalk instrument definition files export (.INS) for collections.
• Korg KMP files now are have their associated KSF files in a sub directory with the same name as the KMP file (minus the extension).
• Added read support for Korg T-series file images (.KFT).
• Added a 'rewind' button (|<<) to the Audio and MIDI Players.
• Added the short-cut key Ctrl-A for selecting all waveforms.
• Fixed a bug with the 'remove silence' feature not working.
• Fixed a bug with property pages sometimes crashing in the unregistered version.
• Fixed a few other smaller bugs here and there...

Version 7.0

• Added support for true clipboard copy & paste of instruments, layers, regions, and (multiple) waveforms! The great thing with this compared to drag'n'drop (as is also supported since earlier versions) is that you can open multiple instances of Awave Studio and copy and paste things between them! You can also copy something from one file, then close it, open up a new one, and still be able to paste the data.
• The file open/merge/save toolbar buttons looks a little bit different now, plus there's a new 'Save collection' entry in the file menu and a corresponding tool bar button. This will save the currently loaded collection to the file it was opened from without asking for a file name or output format - i.e. if that file format is supported for saving collections. Else it will prompt for a new file type but present a default name (and save directory) that matches the file it was opened from.
• Added a slight 'texture' to all windows.
• Added a splash screen and new logo (check it out in the About dialog too!).
• Added recording support in the form of a 'Waveform recording wizard'.
• Added SMDI transfer protocol support for transferring samples over a SCSI connection. To use it, you need to have an 'ASPI for Win32' driver installed (WNASPI32.DLL) as well as a SMDI capable synthesizer hooked up to your SCSI chain. The new 'SMDI receive' and 'SMDI transmit' commands on the new Tool menu works much like the corresponding MIDI SDS commands.
• Added an 'Instrument Processing Wizard'. It is accessed by right clicking on a region, layer, instrument, or a collection and selecting 'Process...' from the context menu. You can also select it from the Tools menu - if no instrument item is selected then it will default to the entire collection. Here are the functions that it currently provides (not all available for all item types):
  • Modify region velocity ranges.
  • Move articulation level.
  • Move instruments between banks.
  • Move region waveform overrides to waveform.
  • Merge non-colliding layers.
  • Remove items not used by any midi song.
  • Search and replace text in names.
  • Split multi-layered instruments.
  • Split stereo waveforms to dual layers.
  • Transpose region key ranges.
• The 'Remove items not used by any midi song' is worth special mention. It removes all instruments, regions, and/or waveforms that is not used by the loaded midi song(s). This can be a great way to 'minimize' the size of RMI file (that contains a midi song plus a DLS collection to play it with) that you want to distribute!
• The 'Audio Processing Wizard' can now work on multiple waveforms at once! Not all the functions are available in this mode - but many are! To use it select the waveforms you want in the waveforms pane, then right click on them and select 'Process...'. You can also select it from the 'Tools' menu. In case no waveform is selected (and in focus), then it will default to all loaded waveforms!
• Added a 'Search and replace text in names' function to the Audio Processing Wizard (multi waveform mode only).
• Added a 'Trim data after loop end point' function to the Audio Processing Wizard.
• The old 'Process all wizard' has been retired since it is in it's entirety superceded by the new and improved instrument and audio processing wizards.
• Added a 'midi editor' helper app. You launch it from the midi song context menu or by 'Tools'->'Run midi editor'. This allows you to use your favorite midi editor to edit midi songs while Awave Studio 'freezes' until you exit the midi editor, and then 'unfreezes' and reloads the edited song.
• Added Akai S5000/S6000 .AKP program file read and write support. This have not been tested properly and is to be considered to be in beta form.
• Added 'Old VOC format' write support.
• Added an 'Auto create' button to the drum kit editor tab. Clicking on this will very quickly let you assign all waveforms to keys in a drum kit either based on their root keys, or consecutively starting with a key of your choice.
• In the envelope editor, you now edit the absolute decay and release times rater than 'decay and release rates' as was the case before. Plus, the part of the envelope currently selected for editing is now drawn in a different color for 'visual feedback'.
• Added a small blue 'w' to the region symbols when 'override waveforms parameters is turned on.
• Added a 'transfer' drop down menu to the tool-bar for quickly initiating clipboard, SDS, or SMDI transfers.
• Instruments now always show up in bank-program-number sorted order after loading a collection file (previously they just turned up in the order that they were read from the file).
• Added a small button to the loop editor that attempts to 're-center' the fine position sliders by moving the coarse position sliders (which usually will not exactly 'center' them but at least help you out in the situation where you want to move a fine position slider 'further' in any given direction and have already reached the end of the slider).
• There is now a small button in the region properties dialog for copying the value of the low key to the high key, i.e. setting a single key range.
• You can now save DLS level 1 files with more regions/instrument than what the standard allows - but you'll have to click OK in a warning dialog first.
• It is now possible to save a midi song directly to MP3 format and not only WAV - though you still need an external MP3 encoder helper application.
• Added a File->Statistics command that shows how many instruments, waveforms, et c that are loaded.
• Fixed problem with stereo data in MAT files - which are now handled as 2 column matrices.
• Fixed a bug with DirectSound playback not working with pre-v7 DirectX.
• Fixed a few minor bugs and/or annoyances.

Version 6.0 - 1/1/00

• We have finally added one of the top-three requested features: A 'Midi to WAV' converter. This uses a software synthesizer to render a midi song to a wave file. You use it by 'saving' the midi song and selecting .WAV as output format (8, 11, 22 and 44 kHz mono or stereo output is selectable). There's no longer a need for any separate program to do this, or for recording the output of a sound card et c. As it uses the Microsoft Software Synth from DirectX v7 or later (v8 req. for DLS level 2 support) it will not only let you use your own custom DLS instruments, but also give you access to the standard Roland GM set that is installed with DirectX. An obvious example of a use for this new feature is if you have made a song that you want to distribute in MPEG format (and keep the 'midi source' to yourself).
• Added a 'Calculate tuning' option to the audio processing wizard. Also added an 'Auto-tune' button the waveform properties 'general' tab - just hit it to set the root key and fine tune values! Note that there's no guarantee that this always gets it right (especially the octave can be difficult to determine correctly for instruments with funny 'overtones' or 'undertones'). But it works surprisingly well!
• Added support for reading and writing Native Instruments Reaktor format (.MAP).
• Added support for reading and writing Aureal bank files (.ARL). This is to be considered as a beta implementation, especially the writing support (note that the 'Download' button on the Midi tab in the current Vortex II control panel should only be used with 'complete' general midi banks - selecting an instrument that is not defined in a bank will mess up the midi synth).
• Added Rockwell 2, 3, and 4 bit ADPCM audio format support (you need to give the files the extensions .rockwell for Awave Studio to recognize them - there is no standard extension and no way to 'auto-detect' them).
• Added support for reading Dialogic ADPCM and Rockwell ADPCM subformat WAV files.
• When running the Batch Converter Wizard in midi mode and selecting RMI or MSS as output format, you will now be asked if you'd like Awave Studio to check for DLS and SF2 files with the same names as the input files and automatically merge them with the input midi songs during the conversion. This is great if you have a lot of MID's making use of e.g. custom SF2 instruments that you want to convert to RMI format!
• When operating the batch converter in 'instrument mode', you can now open not only instrument and collection files, but also waveform files. An instrument (with a single layer, region and waveform) will then automatically be created from the waveform and saved.
• Instrument name labels in the collection pane can now displayed as "bbb:ppp : name" where bbb is the midi CC0 bank number, ppp the program number, and name the actual instrument name. When editing a label, you can easily change the bank and program number as easily as the name! Or if you want to retain the number but enter a completely new name, then just type over the whole text (incl. the numbers) with the new name and the old numbers will be retained. This feature can be turned off in the options->program setup dialog.
• Property windows are now automatically closed when opening a new file - avoiding the situation that they 'lock' the old data and preventing the load.
• Added a 'LFO ramp time' parameter for formats that supports that.
• Added a 'zoom to selected' button in the waveform edit page.
• Fixed a bug that could cause MIDI SDS transmissions to hang.
• Fixed a bug with reading WavMaker .PRG files.
• Fixed a bug with 'native auditioning' not working for several older synthesizer options (because they didn't handle long file names).
• Fixed a bug with saving DLS level 2 files with *really* many regions and articulation settings.
• Fixed reading of stereo instruments in .GIG files.

Version 6.0 - 1/1/00

• Name changed from "Awave" to "Awave Studio"
• Added support for two new data types: 'midi song' representing a midi composition consisting of one or more 'midi tracks'.
• Added support for reading and writing midi songs to and from .MID and .RMID files. The .RMID files can also contain some extra text information plus (optionally) a DLS level 1 or level 2 collection. This means that there is finally a way for you to bundle a midi song with a custom instrument set in one file. These files can be played by anyone that has installed DirectX v7 or later using our free 'dmAmp' WinAmp plug-in.
• Added an internal Midi Player that uses DirectMusic to play back midi songs complete with custom instruments (or the default DirectMusic Roland GM set, for instruments which do not have an instrument defined in the currently loaded collection).
• Added support for reading song data from MOD tracker files and converting it into MIDI format. Together with the translation of the samples this means that you can now play the modules using a midi synth.
• Added .XMI song data (Miles Sound Studio Extended Midi IFF) as well as .MSS (XMI + DLS level 1 in the same file) read and write support.
• Added support for up to 4 DirectShow 'effect' filters (a.k.a. DirectX plug-ins) to be applied to waveforms in the Batch Conversion Wizard.
• The Batch Conversion Wizard now both reads and writes all supported file types, not just 'single waveform' files. There is a new 'first step' where you select if you want to convert waveforms, instruments, collections or midi songs.
• An ‘Awave Studio Batch Converter’ selection are now added to Windows Start menu to launch the Batch Conversion Wizard directly.
• Added a 'Create Instrument' wizard.
• Added Windows Media Audio (.WMA) read and write support. To use this you must also install the WMA 4.0 encoder/decoder runtime (wmaudsdk.dll).
• Added limited SoundFont 2.1 support. More specifically those modulation routings that are also supported by DLS level 2 are now supported for SF 2.1 files. The only card that currently supports SF 2.1 is the Emu APS card, but it should be followed by the SB Live! cards in the future. Note that SF 2.0 capable cards are not affected - they should still be able to load the new SF 2.1 files written by Awave Studio (they just ignore the new parameters). Also added a SoundFont 2.1 selection to the synthesizer parameter set quick select list in the program setup dialog.
• Added support for reading and writing 'phase link' information for stereo support in SoundFont 2.x files.
• The Process all wizard's 'split stereo' function now also sets phase group and phase master settings for the 'split' regions and layers that it creates.
• Added DLS level 2 auditioning support for DirectMusic. Note that the DirectX 7 version of the Microsoft software synth currently only supports level 1. So you need to wait for DirectX 8 (which it is said will update it to level 2) or for some 3rd party to release a DirectMusic compatible synth with DLS level 2 support to be able to actually use this...
• Added support for several Akai S1000 articulation parameters.
• Added support for reading and writing the .s3p Akai program files used by Mesa II/PC.
• Added exponential fade in / logarithmic fade out options to the Audio Processing Wizard.
• Added an 'Append/Combine waveforms' function to the Audio Processing Wizard which lets you append up to 4 waveforms to make a new longer waveform.
• When creating new instruments, they now gets assigned a 'new' program number, i.e. they no longer can 'steal' already occupied numbers.
• The comment fields now supports up to 400 characters of multi-line text.
• Added 'sorting buttons' on top of the instrument pane - this let's you sort instruments by: name, bank:program, or program
• Added a ‘recent’ list to the open file and file save file dialogs for quick selection of recently used directories.
• Added a 'New collection' command to the File menu.
• Added a toggle to the tool-bar for that 'Auto Property sheet' option. Added 'Clone instrument' and 'Clone waveform' commands to the appropriate context menus.
• Improved the ‘recent files’ list operation.

Version 5.4 - 10/18/99

• MPEG audio: Added support for reading song title, artist name, and comment from MP3 files with 'ID3v1' tags. Fixed a problem with some MPEG-2 LSF files. And finally, fixed a problem with layer III files where only the first opened file where decoded correctly.
• The layer keymap editor now has two buttons that you can use to select the displayed keyboard size between 61, 76, 88 and 128 key layouts.
• Added support for reading the new "Extensible" subformat of .WAV files used for new high bit-resolution and multi-channel files. Awave still only use 16-bits and 2 channels but it will read files with more: Bit depths > 16 will be converted to 16 bits. For multi-channel files, the front left and front right channels will be read (if present, otherwise the 'first' two channels whatever they may be will be used).
• Added Akai MPC-series stereo support for 16-bit samples.
• Added support for reading DLS collections embedded in RMID (.RMI) files.
• Added support for reading and writing Akai S1000 program and sample files (.P and .S respectively). This only works with files already transferred to the PC using some other application - you can not read Akai CD-ROMs or floppy disks directly. Right now, there's not that many such applications - there's a DOS program called ADISK which can read and write Akai files to and from Akai floppy disks. And I think that Creamware's Pulsar comes with one that reads and writes CD-ROM's.
• Envelope and lfo data conversion is not yet implemented but may perhaps be added in a future release.
• You can now change the play position in the waveform edit page by clicking on the waveform while playing.
• Added a 'select loop' option to the audio processing wizard.
• Fixed problem with the loop editor not working properly on very large waveforms.
• Fixed a bug with some audio processing wizard commands hanging if you managed to execute them without the waveform data not already having been loaded from disk.
• Changed the routines that ensure that all waveforms have unique names. Previously it 'modified' the first letter in the names of any duplicates found. Now it adds a number to the end instead. This looks nicer - but, users with synths that requires unique waveform names and have short maximum name lengths (e.g. WaveFront synths) must now keep a closer eye on possible name conflicts.

Version 5.3

• Added support for Korg Triton .KMP files.
• Added support for reading and writing raw A-law and U-law files with 'reversed bit ordering'.
• Added recognition of the DLP extension used by DirectMusic Producer when composing DLS files.
• Changed the interpretation of the 'key num to decay', 'key num to hold' and 'velocity to attack' envelope parameters to better fit with how they are presented by Microsoft's 'DirectMusic Producer'.
• Fixed bug with the LFO1 to pitch parameter getting set to 0 for instrument global articulation under certain circumstances.
• Fixed problem with writing USR type GSM files with header.
• Fixed (hopefully) the problem with incorrectly reading key-maps from .GIG files created by the S-Convert software.
• Fixed bug with the waveform editor's display not drawing the end(s) of larger sound clips.
• Fixed the problem with the program setup dialog not opening for some people with the original release of Windows 95.

Version 5.2

• Added DLS level 2 file format support! This new file format encompasses nearly all of the parameters available in Awave (including a whole lot of new ones that was added only for the sole benefit of DLS 2!). Now you only have to start nagging your favorite sound card maker to add support for this exciting new standard too!
• Handling of very large collections (large numbers of instruments, layers and regions) is now considerably faster.
• Added support for calling an 'external' MPEG audio encoder - see the 'program setup'->'helper apps' dialog. (Note: 'internal' support will probably never be added because of patent licensing issues).
• Added Aureal 8830 'Vortex II' native auditioning. Tested with Aureal's reference drivers and with TB/V's Montego II drivers.
• Added a 'Drum kit' page to the layer properties! (check the 'drum mode' box in the layer keymap tab to bring up a drum kit tab). This should make creating and editing drum kits a lot easier!
• The 'recent files list' is now remembered between Awave sessions.
• Added a 'Confirm before losing data' option to the options dialog.
• Added a 'Names: Search and replace' function to the 'Process all' dialog.
• Finally fixed the compatibility problem with Awave's EFE and the Ensoniq ASR-10.
• There's now separate Dialogic VOX 6KHz and VOX 8Khz output format in the save dialog.
• Added CCITT G.721/723 ADPCM compression (3,4,5 bit) as subformats for saving WAV files.
• Fixed miscellaneous minor bugs...
• And finally, improved the Setup program...