3.11.0

Additions

• Added a button on the greeting window to open Note Block World, our brand new website for browsing and sharing note block songs!

• Added a sound import assistant to help you use sounds from Minecraft: Java Edition in your songs!

  • Accessible from Settings > Import sounds from Minecraft.
  • Make sure to launch the version you want from the Launcher before importing its sounds. Set your Minecraft installation path and game version, click the button to get sounds and watch them get imported automagically!
  • The sounds from the selected version will be copied to the 'minecraft' folder in your Sounds folder.

• It is now possible to save a song with its custom sound files attached.

  • Reach over to File > Save song with instruments... to find this option.
  • This makes sharing songs with custom instruments easier than ever!
  • The saved file is a regular ZIP file containing the song, as well as the sound files used in it.
  • This feature replaces the 'Export sounds' option, previously accessible from the Instruments window.

• The behavior for clicking layer buttons has been changed:

  • You can now click and drag over consecutive buttons to trigger them without needing to click each one.
  • This should make it much easier to add, remove, select, lock and solo multiple layers!
  • Selected layers can now be deselected by pressing the 'Select all blocks in this layer' button a second time. [#476]
  • Holding Ctrl is no longer necessary to select multiple layers.

• The fade in and fade out macros now work relatively to each note's velocity, multiplying it by the decay factor. [#484]

  • Previously, only the first note block in each selected column would be taken into account for determining all velocity values in that column.
  • Notes at each end of the selection will no longer go down to velocity 0, or into negative values.

• Added Minecraft version setting to data pack export.

  • You can choose between 1.13-1.20 and 1.21+.
  • This was necessary due to a change in the internal structure of data packs, in order to not break compatibility with older versions.

• Added a new auto-recovery system which takes multiple open instances into account:

  • Songs with unsaved changes are saved to a backup directory every minute.
  • When NBS quits abnormally (due to a crash, power loss or system restart), you'll be prompted to recover the files the next time you open the program.
  • Clicking 'Yes' will copy the files to a restore directory so you can move them somewhere else.
  • Clicking 'No' will leave the unsaved files in the backup directory so you can recover them later.
  • You can also open the backup directory by going to File > 'Restore unsaved files'.
  • This mechanic is experimental, so make sure to leave your feedback so we can improve it further!

• Note Block Studio now registers itself as a handler for the nbs:// URL protocol on startup.

  • This can be used to download and open NBS files directly from an external application, such as a blog or website.
  • By default, the program will launch in the player mode when handling the protocol.
  • To prevent security risks, the file won't be opened if it can't be detected as a valid song, or if it's over a certain size.

• Added a 'Loop end tick' option in the song properties.

  • Setting it to a tick greater than the song length will add a silent note at that tick to move the loop end point further.

• Removed the 'Loop to bar end' option from Preferences.

  • This option was misleading in that it 'masked' the true loop point of the song, which is after the last tick - causing playback behavior to vary across different NBS installations.
  • To make sure your songs loop at the right point, change the 'Loop end tick' in the song properties, or manually add a note block with velocity 0 at the last tick before the intended looping point.
  • This setting may be re-added in the future as a property stored in each song file.

• Blackout mode is now available in Player Mode, including the shortcut (F10)! [#404]

• If present, the song author and original author are now displayed in the Player Mode's main view.

• Added new OpenNBS social links to the greeting window, the Help menu and the About window.

• Added donation links! If NBS is useful to you and you'd like to support its development, feel free to check out this option in the greeting window or the Help menu.

• Added a small banner to the greeting window which lets you buy us a coffee via our Open Collective. Thank you!

Bugfixes and improvements

• All operations involving selections are now much, much faster - including loading a song, moving, selecting, placing and deleting notes, changing note properties, applying macros, and undoing or redoing actions. (thanks @IoeCmcomc!) (#448)
• All macro operations can now be properly undone. (thanks @IoeCmcomc!) [#448]
• The 'Max loop count' option is now respected during playback. (thanks @IoeCmcomc!) [#406, #448]
• The MIDI import instrument mappings have been tweaked to be more accurate to General MIDI (GM) instruments. (thanks @u3002!) [#488, #491]
• The 'Show note chart' option now shows flat notes if the 'Use flat notes' option is enabled. (thanks @zhuangy47!) [#412, #418]
• The Chorus macro now better handles selections with more than three layers. (thanks @chenxi050402!)
• Fixed an error that would cause note blocks/command blocks in the track export to be missing. (thanks @chenxi050402!)
• The extra notes resource pack can now be saved from the Compatibility window.
• The popup shown when the data pack export is complete now shows the syntax to play the song from a command block. [#334]
• Added 'Schematic' and 'Structure Block' labels to the different Minecraft version options in schematic export.
• Fixed changing auto-save preferences marking the song as unsaved.
• Fixed a softlock caused by an auto-save triggering while a window is open. [#442]
• Fixed audio export failing with a "list index out of range" error message. [#362]
• The song is now marked as unsaved when changing the tempo. [#433]
• The song is now marked as unsaved when toggling a layer's solo setting.
• Solo layers are now loaded properly from songs.
• The 'Check for development releases' option is now enabled by default when installing a development release.
• Fixed the initial value of the tempo input box not following the current tempo.
• Fixed song author and original author fields in the Song info window not using the Fluent theme's accent color.
• Fixed previous data pack exported contents not being deleted from the temp folder, causing them to reappear on subsequent exports.
• Updated bundled resource packs to Minecraft: Java Edition 1.21. [#429]
• Fixed the demo songs using wrong custom instrument paths.
• Silent notes have been added at the end of the demo songs to make sure they loop at the proper point.
• The link for the OpenNBS QQ group will be displayed instead of Discord when the language is set to Chinese. (thanks @chenxi050402!)
• Macro windows are now closed immediately if no note blocks are selected, which should prevent certain softlock cases. (thanks @IoeCmcomc!)
• Fixed a crash when compressing a selection with some particular note arrangements. (thanks @IoeCmcomc!)
• Loading and saving songs have been made much faster. (thanks @IoeCmcomc!)
• Fixed layer names below the workspace's visible area getting deleted when adding a new layer. (thanks @chenxi050402!)
• Fixed solo button states not moving together with the layers when adding a new layer above a solo layer. (thanks @chenxi050402!)
• Fixed a crash that could happen after moving the selection under all layers.
• Fixed the volume slider number popup going past the intended range. (thanks @chenxi050402!)
• Transparency effects are now disabled if setting them up failed in the last session. (thanks @chenxi050402!)
• Fixed the piano keybind flashing faster while being edited according to your FPS setting. (thanks @chenxi050402!)
• Reduced the maximum channel count with the 'Use more audio sounds' option enabled from 32,768 to 1,024, the largest value effectively allowed by GameMaker. (thanks @chenxi050402!)
• Removed the button to watch tutorial videos from the greeting window.
• Lag compensation is now cancelled if too much time has elapsed (for example, when moving the window around). Playback will resume from the previous point instead of skipping a large section.
• Lag compensation is now applied to more internal timers, which should be more accurate to wall-clock time:
  • Auto-save and backup saving timers;
  • Flash animation when editing piano keyboard shortcuts;
  • Time tracker for minutes spent in a song;
  • Scrollbar appear animation for fullscreen mode.
• Ticks behind the playback marker will no longer play when dragging it around.
• Fixed pointer cursor not appearing when hovering keys at the edges of the piano in Player Mode. [#486]
• Fixed the Player Mode playback progress bar going past its intended length at the end of a song.
• Fixed blurry appearance of the Player Mode's central area when at least one of the window's dimensions are an odd number.
• Fixed dropdown menu for MIDI devices not displaying text properly in the English language.
• Fixed incorrect sounds.json entries for the bass drum sounds in the extra notes resource pack. [#479]
• Fixed uninstall function of exported data packs not loading correctly. [#454]
• Fixed a crash when playing an instrument that was assigned to a MIDI device. [#473]
• Fixed swapped arrows for the instrument selection box when using high-resolution textures. [#485]
• Fixed original author not displaying in the accent color in the song stats window when using the Fluent theme.
• Fixed the note count in the Discord Rich Presence activity indicator having ...

v3.11.0 Release Candidate 1

Additions

• Added a 'Loop end tick' option in the song properties.

  • Setting it to a tick greater than the song length will add a silent note at that tick to move the loop point further.

• The MIDI import instrument mappings have been tweaked to be more accurate to General MIDI (GM) instruments. (thanks @u3002!) (#488)

Bugfixes and Improvements

• Fixed layer buttons triggering inconsistently when dragging from bottom to top.
• Fixed window animations not working after opening the 'Import sounds' window.
• Fixed uninstall function of exported data packs not loading correctly. (#454)
• Updated the NBS icon to a flat version. The previous icon can still be used with the 'Old icon' setting.
• Changed all instances of 'Minecraft Note Block Studio' and 'Open Note Block Studio' to Note Block Studio, as part of an ongoing rebrand.
• Replaced the icon for the 'Browse songs' button in the greeting window with the Note Block World icon.
• Improved wording across various places.

v3.11.0 Beta 5

Additions

• The behavior for clicking layer buttons has been changed:

  • You can now click and drag over consecutive buttons to trigger them without needing to click each one.
  • This should make it much easier to add, remove, select, lock and solo multiple layers!

• Holding Ctrl is no longer necessary to select multiple layers.

• Selected layers can now be deselected by pressing the 'Select all blocks in this layer' button a second time. (#476)

• Removed the 'Loop to bar end' option.

  • This option was misleading in that it 'masked' the true loop point of the song, which is after the last tick - causing playback behavior to vary across different NBS installations.
  • To make sure your songs loop at the right point, add a note block with velocity 0 at the last tick before the intended looping point.
  • This setting may be re-added in the future as a property stored in each song file.

• Added an option in the File menu for restoring unsaved files.

• If present, song author and original author are now displayed in the main view for the Player Mode.

Bugfixes and Improvements

• Fixed songs not loading when opened externally (e.g. from Windows Explorer).
• Fixed backup file for packed songs being saved with the .zip extension, despite them being .nbs files.
• Lag compensation is now cancelled if too much time has elapsed (for example, when moving the window around). Playback will resume from the previous point instead of skipping a large section.
• Lag compensation is now applied to more timers, which should be more accurate:
  • Auto-save and backup saving timers;
  • Flash animation when editing piano keyboard shortcuts;
  • Time tracker for minutes spent in a song;
  • Scrollbar appear animation for fullscreen mode.
• Ticks behind the playback marker will no longer play when dragging it around.
• Silent notes have been added at the end of the demo songs to make sure they loop at the proper point.
• Songs opened via the nbs:// URL protocol have the file extension removed from their display name.
• Fixed pointer cursor not appearing when hovering keys at the edges of the piano in Player Mode. (#486)
• Fixed the Player Mode playback progress bar going past its intended length at the end of a song.
• Fixed blurry appearance of the Player Mode's central area with odd window dimensions.
• Fixed dropdown menu for MIDI devices not displaying text properly in the English language.
• Fixed incorrect sounds.json entries for the bass drum sounds in the extra notes resource pack. (#479)
• Fixed the Stereo macro being referred to as 'delay' in the tooltip for the 'Reversed' checkbox.
• Fixed a crash when playing an instrument that was assigned to a MIDI device. (#473)
• Fixed swapped arrows for the instrument selection box when using high-resolution textures. (#485)
• Fixed original author not displaying in the accent color in the song stats window when using the Fluent theme.
• Added a debug launch option to get additional logs for bug reporting.
• Updated the asset index version names for Minecraft: Java Edition 1.21.2 and 1.21.4 (18 and 19).
• Removed the 'Experimental' label from the max. frame rate setting.

Hidden changes

• Tempo can no longer be set to under 0.25 ticks per second with tempo changers. (thanks @chenxi050402!)
• Added tempo change indicators to the timeline. (thanks @chenxi050402!)

3.11.0 Beta 4

• Fixed note panning taking the value of velocity when loading a song.
• The 'Check for development releases' option is now enabled by default when installing a development release.

3.11.0 Beta 3

Caution

This release contains a critical bug where note panning is set to note velocity when loading a song.

This has been fixed in 3.11.0 Beta 4 - it's advised that you upgrade as soon as possible to avoid song corruption!

Additions

• Added a new auto-recovery system which takes multiple open instances into account:
  • Songs with unsaved changes are saved to a backup directory every minute.
  • When NBS quits abnormally (due to a crash, power loss or system restart), you'll be prompted to recover the files the next time you open the program.
  • Clicking 'Yes' will copy the files to a restore directory so you can move them somewhere else.
  • Clicking 'No' will leave the unsaved files in the backup directory so you can recover them later.
  • This mechanic is experimental, so make sure to leave your feedback so we can improve it further!
• The fade in and fade out macros now work relatively to each note's velocity, multiplying it by the decay factor. (#484)
  • Previously, only the first note block in each selected column would be taken into account for determining all velocity values in that column.
  • Notes at each end of the selection will no longer go down to velocity 0, or into negative values.
• Blackout mode is now available in Player Mode, including the shortcut (F10)!
• Added a button on the greeting window to open Note Block World, our brand new website for browsing and sharing note block songs!

Bugfixes and improvements

• The link for the OpenNBS QQ group will be displayed instead of Discord when the language is set to Chinese. (thanks @chenxi050402!)
• Added a small banner to the greeting window which lets you buy us a coffee via our Open Collective. Thank you!
• Macro windows are now closed immediately if no note blocks are selected, which should prevent certain softlock cases. (thanks @IoeCmcomc!)
• Fixed auto-save ticking down into negatives and saving the song every frame once the timer reaches zero.
• Fixed the greeting window appearing briefly when opening a song via URL protocol.
• Fixed opening songs with the nbs:// URL protocol not working in some cases.
• Fixed a crash when compressing a selection with some particular note arrangements. (thanks @IoeCmcomc!)
• Loading and saving songs have been made much faster. (thanks @IoeCmcomc!)
• Fixed the application name in Task Manager, Programs and Resources etc. being incorrectly set to a description.
• Fixed solo button states not moving together with the layers when adding a new layer above a solo layer. (thanks @chenxi050402!)
• Fixed the volume slider number popup going past the intended range. (thanks @chenxi050402!)
• Transparency effects are now disabled if setting them up failed in the last session. (thanks @chenxi050402!)
• Fixed the piano keybind flashing faster while being edited according to your FPS setting. (thanks @chenxi050402!)
• Reduced the maximum channel count with 'Use more audio sounds enabled' from 32,768 to 1,024, the largest possible value. (thanks @chenxi050402!)
• Removed the button to watch tutorial videos from the greeting window.
• Fixed offset of vertical bars (|) in the greeting window links while using the classic themes due to their wider font.
• Replaced the opennbs.org url with noteblock.studio.
• Updated credits in the About window.

3.11.0 Beta 2

• Correctly applied the new audio export additions announced in Beta 1.
• Added Chinese translations to the new features from Beta 1.
• Fixed the vertical separators in the greeting window links being scaled incorrectly when using high-resolution textures.
• The social buttons in the About window no longer use the primary button style.

3.11.0 Beta 1

Additions

• Added a sound import assistant to help you use sounds from Minecraft: Java Edition in your songs!
  • Accessible from Settings > Import sounds from Minecraft.
  • Make sure to launch the version you want from the Launcher before importing its sounds. Set your Minecraft installation path and game version, click the button to get sounds and watch them magically appear!
  • The sounds from the selected version will be copied to the 'minecraft' folder in your Sounds folder.
• It is now possible to save a song with its custom sound files attached.
  • Reach over to File > Save song with instruments... to find this option.
  • This makes sharing songs with custom instruments easier than ever!
  • The saved file is a regular ZIP file containing the song, as well as the sound files used in it.
  • This feature replaces the 'Export sounds' option, previously accessible from the Instruments window.
• Note Block Studio now registers itself as a handler for the nbs:// URL protocol on startup.
  • This can be used to download and open NBS files directly from an external application, such as a blog or website.
  • By default, the program will launch in the player mode when handling the protocol.
  • To prevent security risks, the file won't be opened if it can't be detected as a valid song, or if it's over a certain size.
• Added Minecraft version setting to data pack export.
  • You can choose between 1.13-1.20 and 1.21+.
  • This was necessary due to a change in the internal structure of data packs, in order to not break compatibility with older versions.
• Added new OpenNBS social links to the greeting window, the Help menu and the About window.
• Added donation links! If NBS is useful to you and you'd like to support its development, feel free to check out these options.

Bugfixes and improvements

• All operations involving selections are now much, much faster - including loading a song, moving, selecting, placing and deleting notes, changing note properties, applying macros, and undoing or redoing actions. (thanks @IoeCmcomc!) (#448)
• All macro operations can now be properly undone. (thanks @IoeCmcomc!) (#448)
• The 'Max loop count' option is now respected during playback. (thanks @IoeCmcomc!) (#406 #448)
• The 'Show note chart' option now shows flat notes if the 'Use flat notes' option is enabled. (thanks @zhuangy47!) (#412 #418)
• The Chorus macro now better handles selections with more than three layers. (thanks @chenxi050402!)
• Fixed an error that would cause note blocks/command blocks in the track export to be missing. (thanks @chenxi050402!)
• The resource pack used to play notes outside the 2-octave range can now be saved from the Compatibility window.
• Blackout mode is now available in player mode. (#404)
• The popup shown when the data pack export is complete now shows the syntax to play the song from a command block. (#334)
• Added 'Schematic' and 'Structure Block' labels to the different Minecraft version options in schematic export.
• Fixed changing auto-save preferences marking song as unsaved.
• Fixed a softlock caused by an auto-save triggering while a window is open. (#442)
• Fixed audio export failing with a "list index out of range" error message. (#362)
• The song is now marked as unsaved when changing the tempo. (#433)
• The song is now marked as unsaved when toggling a layer's solo setting.
• Solo layers are now loaded properly from songs.
• Fixed the initial value of the tempo input box not following the current tempo.
• Fixed layer names below the workspace visible area getting deleted when adding a new layer. (thanks @chenxi050402!)
• Fixed the note count in the Discord Rich Presence activity indicator having an extra thousands separator at the start.
• Fixed song author and original author fields in the Song info window not using the Fluent theme's accent color.
• Fixed previous data pack exported contents not being deleted from the temp folder, causing them to reappear on subsequent exports.
• Updated bundled resource packs to Minecraft: Java Edition 1.21.0. (#429)
• Fixed a crash when clicking links in the About window credits box.
• Fixed the demo songs using wrong custom instrument paths.

Hidden changes

• Added tempo changer support to audio export.
• Added tempo changer support to MIDI import. (thanks @chenxi050402!)
• Fix tempo changer not working when starting playback at its own tick. (thanks @chenxi050402!)

3.10.0

Additions

• The MP3 export functionality has been reworked from scratch:
  • Renamed to 'Audio export', and added more output formats: WAV, AIFF, FLAC.
  • Added stereo support! Panning on notes and layers will now be rendered correctly.
  • Added smart clipping detection! Clipping will no longer occur on louder parts of the song, which is now normalized to 0 dBFS.
  • Added an option to choose the sampling rate of the exported track.
  • Added an option to choose between mono and stereo.
  • Fixed exported notes getting out-of-tune as they moved away from their original key.
  • The export time has been cut down by about 60%.
• Added drop mode! In this mode, instead of their usual grid arrangement, notes will scroll vertically and follow their corresponding key on the piano. This mode is only accessible in the player mode.
• The player mode can now be accessed from the greeting window, through a new button in the bottom-right corner, or by pressing F12.
• Added smooth scrolling! The workspace no longer clips to the grid while the song is playing. This behavior can be enabled in Preferences > Playback.
• Added a track export option, to create schematics in a straight line.
• Added a setting to show flat symbols (b) instead of sharp symbols (#) on the piano.
• Added a fading border effect when removing a note block by right-clicking, or deleting a selection. This effect can be toggled in the Preferences.
• Added Ctrl + middle-click to copy note velocity, panning and pitch values.
• Added custom block selections for structure block export.
• Added an option to place command blocks instead of note blocks in schematic export.
• Added the ability to drag and drop pattern files into the window.
• The 'Set velocity' macro can now be set above 100% in percentage mode.

Bugfixes and improvements

• Note Block Studio is now compiled to a native executable with YYC, which should lead to a significant performance boost.
• Added a preference to optimize the window scale for high resolutions.
  • With this option enabled, setting the window scale larger than 100% will no longer cause blurriness. (Only available in the Fluent theme).
• The icon details in the Fluent theme will now reflect the accent color.
• The Note Block Studio icon has been updated. It's possible to return to the previous icon in Preferences.
• The color of the window title bar will now match the program's theme.
• The master volume bar can now be changed with the mouse wheel.
• Fixed a rounding error in the global pitch calculation, which caused all played notes to gradually drift out of tune the more they moved away from their original key.
• Fixed text boxes not registering key presses about half of the time.
• Fixed the 'Get extra notes resource pack' button not working.
• Fixed the mouse cursor flashing when dragging the edges of the window.
• Fixed allowing the window to be resized too small.
• Fixed the master volume bar being changeable while a window is open.
• Fixed popups in the main area appearing while a window is open.
• Fixed crashes under various circumstances.

3.10.0-beta.3

Additions

• Added 'Track export' to export schematics with note blocks in a straight line.
• Added an option to generate command blocks instead of note blocks in schematics.
• Added a setting to show flat symbols (♭) instead of sharp symbols (♯) on key names.
• Added Ctrl + middle-click to copy note velocity, panning and pitch values.
• Added custom block selections for structure block export.
• Added an outline effect when deleting selected blocks.
• Added the ability to drag and drop pattern files into the window.

Bugfixes and improvements

• Fixed pitch of custom instruments not working correctly in the audio export.
• Fixed issues when audio-exporting NBS files with non-English characters.
• Removed OGG from the audio export (temporarily).
• Removed MP3 reference from the audio export sprites.
• The mouse cursor no longer flashes when resizing the window.
• This is the first version compiled with YYC, which should give a significant performance boost.
• Fixed missing key presses while typing in text boxes.
• Fixed crashes under various circumstances.

3.10.0-beta.2

This update brings further improvements to the audio export feature:

• MP3 export was renamed to 'Audio export'.
• Added more output formats: MP3, WAV, OGG, AIFF & FLAC!
• Added an option to choose the sampling rate of the exported track.
• Added an option to choose between mono and stereo.
• There will now be a prompt if custom sounds are missing prior to exporting.
• The "Include locked layers" option now works again.
• Dramatically decreased memory usage while exporting a song.
• Fixed NBS possibly running out of memory on songs with lots of notes.