slopsmith-desktop v0.2.9-alpha.4

This is the fourth testing pre-release of the 0.2.9 cycle. It bundles the latest slopsmith core, all first-party plugins, and selected community plugins as of 2026-05-23.

Pre-release / alpha quality. This build is for testing only. Expect rough edges. Do not use in a production or performance context.

🎯 What to test

• NEW BUNDLED PLUGIN — Song Preview (DeathlySin/slopsmith-plugin-song-preview): hover any song card in the library; a short clip should auto-play. This plugin is newly included in the desktop bundle as of this alpha — please confirm it loads, previews trigger reliably, and the plugin is listed in the plugin panel.
• Backing playback speed control under JUCE routing: the speed slider in the player should now respond correctly when the JUCE audio engine is active. Try both slow-down and speed-up values and verify the audio tracks the slider.
• TONEX sandbox pre-seed: TONEX-class VST3 plugins should load via the out-of-process sandbox without a manual first-time allow prompt. Confirm in Settings → Audio → VST Sandbox.
• Drums vocabulary expanded to 18 lanes: drum-tab import now covers more note types; unmapped percussion notes surface a visible warning rather than silently dropping. Import a dense GP drum tab and check the editor's warning indicator.
• Stems analyser → 3D Highway on sloppaks: open a sloppak that has stem data, run the Stems plugin, then open the Drum Highway 3D view — the visualiser should respond to the stems analyser signal.
• GP→RS tied-note handling: tied notes in Guitar Pro files are now treated as sustain extensions rather than new note events. Import a GP file with tied notes and confirm the resulting chart has smooth sustains rather than note re-triggers.

slopsmith-desktop

Features

• feat(audio): backing playback speed control for JUCE — speed slider wired to the JUCE transport; multiple review-cycle commits grouped under this feature (#209 by @mariolopjr)

Fixes

• fix(sandbox): pre-seed TONEX into the out-of-process sandbox list — TONEX-class VST3 plugins no longer require a manual first-run allow prompt (#204)
• fix: mark audio_engine + plugin_manager manifests as "bundled" — resolves manifest-lookup warnings (#87, #141) that appeared in desktop logs (#212)

Build

• build: bundle the song-preview plugin — adds DeathlySin/slopsmith-plugin-song-preview to clone_slopsmith() in build-common.sh; this is the mechanism that makes the plugin available in all desktop builds from this alpha onwards (#198)
• chore: bump version to 0.2.9-alpha.4 (#213)

slopsmith (core)

Features

• feat(drums): expand vocab to 18 + surface unmapped notes on import — drum-tab importer now maps 18 standard MIDI percussion lanes; notes outside the vocab produce an import warning instead of silently dropping (#365)

Fixes

• fix(player): speed slider works under JUCE routing — companion core-side fix for the desktop JUCE speed-control feature (#368 by @mariolopjr)
• fix(gp2rs): treat tied notes as sustain extension, not new events — GP→RS conversion now correctly extends the sustain of the base note rather than emitting a re-trigger (#370)
• fix(highway_3d): consume the stems plugin's analyser on sloppaks — core routing fix that enables the Stems → 3D Highway visualiser connection on sloppak content (#364)
• fix(plugins): read plugin.json as UTF-8 — prevents a crash on Windows when a plugin's manifest contains non-ASCII characters (#371)

slopsmith-plugin-editor

Features

• feat(editor): 18 drum lanes + unmapped-percussion warning on import — editor lane layout extended to match the expanded core vocab; an amber warning badge appears when an imported tab contains unmapped notes (#31)
• feat(editor): unified "New…" entry + new-Sloppak modal — the File menu now has a single "New…" item that opens a modal for choosing the arrangement type, including Sloppak (#32)

Fixes

• fix: drum-edit selection halo is a thin amber ring — replaces the previous over-thick highlight that obscured note content when a drum cell was selected (#33)

slopsmith-plugin-drum-highway-3d

Features

• feat: render stack + bell drum pieces — stack cymbals and bell/ride fragments now render as distinct visual elements in the 3D highway (#2)
• feat: scroll-speed setting + kick renders beneath hits — per-user scroll-speed preference added; kick drum now renders on the floor plane beneath note hit-points (#3)
• feat: scroll-speed cap 5x + Beat-spacing slider — maximum scroll speed capped at 5x; new Beat-spacing slider controls the vertical density of the note grid (#4)
• feat: lane flash on hit + per-lane drum icons — lanes now flash on a successful hit; each lane has a small icon indicating its drum piece type (#5)

slopsmith-plugin-stems (topkoa)

Fixes

• Sample-locked stem playback (AudioBufferSourceNode rearchitect) — stem audio is now locked to the playback clock via AudioBufferSourceNode; removes the drift that caused stems to fall out of sync with the highway on longer tracks (#17)

slopsmith-plugin-song-preview (DeathlySin) — NEW BUNDLED PLUGIN

This plugin is newly included in the slopsmith-desktop bundle as of this alpha. Prior alphas in the 0.2.9 cycle required a manual install.

Fixes

• fix: idempotent screen.js hooks + guard against missing audio decoders — prevents a double-hook crash when the plugin is re-mounted, and gracefully skips preview playback when the browser reports no audio decoder for the clip format (#1)

Contributors

@byrongamatos, @DeathlySin, @mariolopjr

Full changelog: v0.2.9-alpha.3...v0.2.9-alpha.4