v1.2.0rc1

1.2.0rc1: packs from a game's own music

Release candidate for 1.2.0, for testing. The player's PACKS panel
imports a game's SPC set (a folder, a zip, an .rsn, .rar or .7z) into a
pack of its own sounds: each voice to hear, to see why it is where it
is, and to move; EXPORT and ADD carry packs as one zip. The SNES emulator
the import runs on comes from PyPI (bitcomposer[import], or GET THE
EMULATOR in the panel) and inside the Windows build. On Python 3.10 and
3.11, PySide6 6.12 is kept out: it crashed the player after some minutes
of playing.

A release player is offered this candidate when SET > PLAYER >
CANDIDATES is on, which arrives with this version: from 1.1.1, install
it once by hand.

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v1.1.1

1.1.1: the SPC import's developer preview, much closer

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v1.1.0

1.1.0: pack files, and SPC import as a developer preview

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v1.0.1

1.0.1: UPDATE on Linux past a stale version list

A fix for the Linux UPDATE button, found minutes after 1.0.0.

• Updating could fail right after a release: pip read its saved copy of PyPI's version list, made before the release went up, and said the new version does not exist. Now the update asks PyPI once more with pip's cache off, and if PyPI still does not list the version, the screen says so and to try again in a few minutes.
• Windows is unchanged: its update downloads the installer from this page.

The fix is in the updater of the version doing the updating, so it protects updates from 1.0.1 on. A 1.0.0 player that hits this updates on a later try, or with PIP_NO_CACHE_DIR=1 pipx install --force bitcomposer==1.0.1.

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v1.0.0

1.0.0: endless music, keep what moves you

The first official release of bitComposer: procedural 16-bit game music, and a player that composes the next song as the current one ends.

Install

• Linux: pipx install bitcomposer, then run bitcomposer-player once; it adds itself to your app menu.
• Windows: download bitComposer-setup.exe below and run it (per-user, no administrator prompt). The installer is not code-signed yet, so SmartScreen asks once: "More info", then "Run anyway".

The player

• Generates while you listen: auto-generate when a track ends, KEEP the songs you like, and the rest rotate out after ten.
• Compose settings and presets, a live mixer with the KIT and ECHO buses, gain with a soft limiter, shuffle, and a readout of what each song drew.
• Seven sounds: chip, Genesis and SNES palettes, and four style packs in the manner of Final Fantasy VI, Secret of Mana, Secret of Evermore and Mega Man X, every voice re-synthesised from measurements, nothing copied.
• Media keys and your desktop's media controls (MPRIS on Linux, global keys on Windows), start at login, a tray icon where there is one.
• An UPDATE button when a newer release is out, with a screen that shows the update as it happens.
• Tested on KDE Plasma, GNOME and Windows.

Underneath, the command line (bitcomposer) and the generator library are pure Python with no dependencies, writing Impulse Tracker .it modules any tracker player reads. The same seed on the same version is the same song.

Listen in your browser first: https://catdogbark.github.io/bitComposer/
What changed since 0.9.1: CHANGELOG.md

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v1.0.0rc6

1.0.0rc6: cleanup, and the update screen's first real run

Release candidate for 1.0.0, for testing. A player on rc5 is offered this one by its UPDATE button, on Linux and Windows: the update screen, start to finish.

• Dead code out, no song changed: about 170 lines and 200 unused imports gone; 72 songs across every sound are byte-identical before and after.
• The small tkinter generate window (bitcomposer-gui) is retired; the player does everything it did.
• CONTRIBUTING is up to date: the player's test needs, adding a pack, the byte-identical check, the listening page, --try-update.

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v1.0.0rc5

1.0.0rc5: UPDATE on Linux, and an update screen

Release candidate for 1.0.0, for testing. On Linux, a player on rc3 or rc4 cannot update itself to this one (the bug below): install it once with pipx install --force bitcomposer==1.0.0rc5. On Windows, rc4's UPDATE button takes you here.

• UPDATE works on a pipx install. The button did nothing on Linux: the player took its pipx venv's python for the system one and decided it was not a pipx install.
• UPDATE opens an update screen over the window: the versions and what will happen, then the update as it runs (pipx's own output on Linux; on Windows the download, then the installer's standard progress window), a failure kept on screen with what went wrong, and the player restarting on the new version.
• The README has a tagline, and the docs, the roadmap and ANALYSIS are brought up to 1.0.

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v1.0.0rc4

1.0.0rc4: fixes from the rc3 test, and GNOME

Release candidate for 1.0.0, for testing. A player on rc3 is offered this one by its UPDATE button.

• The playlist is newest first: a song just composed is at the top.
• Auto-generated songs are named (auto) <Title>.it, the mark in front, so a file browser sorts them together. Older … (auto).it files still count as auto-generated and rotate out.
• A launch while a player is already running puts the app-menu entry back before handing off to it.
• GNOME (tested on GNOME Shell 50): the window fits itself once its layout settles; the music folder is the desktop's own Music folder; without a system tray, start at login runs in the background (the media keys and GNOME's media card reach it) and opening bitComposer from the app grid shows the window; a second launch passes GNOME's activation token so the window comes forward instead of an "is ready" notification.

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v1.0.0rc3

1.0.0rc3: the Qt player, media keys, the bit look

Release candidate for 1.0.0, for testing.

• The player is a Qt window with the old widget's look, sized to the screen it opens on. Closing it keeps the music playing in the tray, and there is only ever one player window.
• Media keys: through the desktop's media controls on Linux (Plasma, GNOME, playerctl), as global keys on Windows. Start at login, in the tray: SET → PLAYER → LOGIN.
• Linux: pipx install bitcomposer==1.0.0rc3. The first launch adds bitComposer to the app menu.
• Windows: bitComposer-setup.exe installs for your user and shows up in Installed apps with an uninstaller. Still unsigned: code signing has been applied for.
• The bit tile icon and the [bit]Composer name. Enlightened Solutions LLC is the publisher and copyright holder.
• The Plasma widget and its daemon are retired.

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v1.0.0rc2

1.0.0rc2: the player and the Windows installer