Slopsmith Desktop v0.2.9-alpha.1

This is the first testing pre-release of the 0.2.9 cycle. It packages
everything merged since v0.2.8 across slopsmith-desktop, slopsmith core, and
all bundled plugins — a substantial batch covering the new auto-update
infrastructure, polyphonic ML note detection, Tone Polish EQ, the 3D Drum
Highway, async VST loading, and a wave of audio-engine stability fixes.

Pre-release warning — alpha quality. This build is for app testers only.
Expect rough edges. Do not use in a production setup or as your primary
Slopsmith installation.

What to test

• Velopack auto-update with channels (slopsmith-desktop #176) — open
  Settings > Updates, confirm you can see and switch between stable / rc /
  beta / alpha channels, and that an update check completes without error.
• Tone Polish 3-band EQ (slopsmith-desktop #169) — enable Tone Polish on
  the guitar bus in the audio settings panel; verify the three band faders
  move gain independently and take effect in real time while a song plays.
• Async VST loading (slopsmith-desktop #173) — open the VST manager with
  a collection of plugins; confirm the app window stays responsive and
  re-paints during scan (no frozen UI) and that any crashy VST auto-sandboxes
  without taking down the app (slopsmith-desktop #133).
• Multichannel audio input (slopsmith-desktop #134) — if you have a
  multi-input audio interface, open Audio Settings and verify you can pick a
  specific input channel rather than being locked to channel 1.
• Orphaned Python backend cleanup (slopsmith-desktop #180) — quit and
  re-open Slopsmith Desktop several times in quick succession; confirm no
  stale Python backend processes accumulate in your process list.
• 3D Drum Highway (slopsmith-desktop #179, slopsmith-plugin-drum-highway-3d
  #1, slopsmith-plugin-drums #11, slopsmith #344) — open a CDLC that has a
  drums arrangement; verify the 3D highway renders the drum lane correctly and
  scoring responds to MIDI input.

slopsmith-desktop

Features

• Velopack auto-update with selectable channel (stable / rc / beta / alpha) (#176)
• Polyphonic ML note detection via Basic Pitch + ONNX Runtime (#130)
• Auto-sandbox VST3s that crash the app and embed sandboxed editors inline (#133)
• Tone Polish — fixed 3-band mastering EQ on the guitar bus (#169)
• Async VST load so the message thread stays responsive during plugin init (#173)
• Engine-side note verification for note_detect plugin (#158)
• Out-of-process VST plugin scan on Windows (#95)
• Opt-in debug logging to a single file (#105)
• Bundle the 3D Drum Highway plugin into desktop builds (#179)

Fixes

• Kill the Python server's process group on exit so the port is freed (#159)
• Fix orphaned Python backends accumulating on startup (#180)
• Support multichannel device input selection (#134)
• Restore VST state when the tone-switcher rebuilds a chain (#144)
• Keep a hand-built chain across song start (#143)
• MP3 backing support and monitor-mute suppression (#142)
• Tone output gain no longer moves the song volume (#116)
• Chord scorer FFT must be out-of-place (#132)
• Route synchronous NAPI handlers through engine/vstHost snapshots (#182)
• Fix low-note detection on Bass (#102)
• Make debug stderr redirect work without a console (#115)
• Allow same-origin window.open so plugin pop-outs sync state (#171)
• Enable LV2 plugin scanning on multilib Linux (#120)
• Disable LV2 plugin host on Windows and macOS (#80)
• Bundle ffmpeg/ffprobe shared libs (fixes Fedora/Arch runtime failures, #77)
• Build RsCli from slopsmith source so Mac PSARCs decode (#147)
• Rename vgmstream-cli asset to track upstream r2117 release — Linux (#165) and macOS (#174)
• Flexible Slopsmith path, ffmpeg/vgmstream checks, plugin dir docs in dev setup (#91)

Chore / CI

• Relicense to AGPL-3.0-only (#149)
• Build matrix runs on demand instead of every PR commit (#181)
• Use vpk --notaryProfile for macOS Velopack notarization (#184)
• Drop --keychain from notarytool store-credentials (#187)
• Add install section with prebuilt download links to README (#84)
• Bump version to 0.2.9-alpha.1 (#183)

slopsmith (core)

Features

• Bundled Library and Settings guided tours (#290)
• drum_tab.json support — core library, GP/MIDI import, and WebSocket streaming (#344)
• 3D Highway: frethand-mute chord strum indicator, sustain bloom, technique marker overhaul v3.17.0 (#329)
• 3D Highway: chord/power-chord frame verdict tint and dark miss core (#338)
• 3D Highway: chord-frame verdict tint and skip per-note sparkle on chord constituents (#316)
• 3D Highway: 3D bend and hammer-on/pull-off markers (#304)
• 3D Highway: visual improvements, render order fixes and speed tuning (#303)
• Add Simplify Chords plugin to the collection (#295)
• Sloppak: sweep orphaned s2p_* temp dirs on startup (#292)

Fixes

• Scroll plugins navbar dropdown when list exceeds viewport (#283)
• Sloppak: atomic write in convert_psarc_to_sloppak (#291)
• Sloppak: carry guitar tones through PSARC→sloppak conversion (#308)
• Audio mixer: Song fader drives the stems master gain (#324)
• Audio mixer: guard the JUCE setGain call against a synchronous throw (#326)
• Audio: re-route song audio when the JUCE engine starts/stops (#325)
• Highway: await native-audio barrier before backing-track load (#310)
• 3D Highway: single sustain trail for open strings inside a chord shape (#327)
• Reduce Docker image CVEs (#320)

slopsmith-plugin-drum-highway-3d

Features

• Wire 3D drum highway to song data, MIDI input, scoring, and user-configurable drum kit (#1)

slopsmith-plugin-drums

Features

• Drums plugin v4 — drum_tab consumer, lane preset, and visual tuning (#11)

slopsmith-plugin-editor

Features

• drum_tab import from GP/MIDI and in-editor drum tab editor (#26)

slopsmith-plugin-nam-tone

Features

• Expose window.slopsmithAudioBarrier for song-entry sequencing (#10)

Fixes

• Amp fader drives guitar-only chain gain, not master (#11)

slopsmith-plugin-notedetect

Features

• Polyphonic ML note detection (detectNotes) and chord-timing fixes (#44)
• Arm-for-training and auto-upload to curated pCloud dataset (#45)
• Engine-side chart verification on the desktop bridge (#46)
• Chord-frame green/red support, silence gate, and song:ready re-push (#48)

slopsmith-plugin-tones

Features

• Read tone data from converted sloppaks (#13)

slopsmith-plugin-guitar-theory (topkoa)

Fixes

• Default fretboard to flipped orientation — low E at the bottom (#9)

slopsmith-plugin-sloppak-converter (topkoa)

Features

• Persist conversion jobs across server restarts (#22)

Fixes

• Scroll progress panel when many conversions are queued (#21)

slopsmith-plugin-splitscreen (topkoa)

Fixes

• Repopulate the viz picker as late-loading factories arrive (1.9.2) (#56)

slopsmith-plugin-stems (topkoa)

Fixes

• Stop guitar.ogg double-load that caused comb filtering (#16)

Contributors

Thank you to everyone who contributed to this release:

@barlind, @bkranendonk, @byrongamatos, @DeathlySin, @hjaeger-reporic,
@hoblin, @Johnnycyan, @mellow-jacket, @rodsakuramoto, @sakrafd, @topkoa

Full changelog: v0.2.8...v0.2.9-alpha.1