Release Notes

This section includes release notes for the Syntoniq software. See also docs/TODO.md for the latest roadmap.

v1.0.0 - May 17, 2026

There are no changes from version 0.4.2. With the release of version 1.0.0, we are now enforcing the compatibility contract for the Syntoniq language as described in the language reference.
HexBoard firmware 1.3 was released on May 11, 2026. That version and later work out of the box with syntoniq-kbd, so it is no longer necessary to build custom firmware.

Accept pitch literals in syntoniq-kbd prompt mode, in addition to note names, for playing notes, saving into variables, and on the left-hand side of transpose operations. This makes it easier to work with ad hoc pitches without figuring out what note name to use.
Add a syntoniq-kbd csound-text subcommand to show the Csound file that the keyboard sends commands to
Add the --csound-file option to syntoniq-kbd subcommands to enable specification of a different Csound file

This release includes fixes to issues I encountered while actively creating music with the Syntoniq language for the first time.

Add the csound_global_instrument directive for enabling global effect instruments, such as reverb, when using custom Csound templates.
Add the csound_template directive, which takes a relative path, for specifying a Csound template. This can still be overridden from the command line.
Add prompt syntax for saving pitches to and restoring pitches from variables.
Add human-readable text output as a choice for syntoniq generate
Add --skip-end-beats to syntoniq generate

Remove false "unknown part" error in Csound processor dynamics lines that appear in parts that don't otherwise appear in the region.
Fix bugs in MIDI generator for gradual changes in pitch or dynamics in the negative direction.
Properly handle boundary conditions around start/end mark and beat skipping when they occur in the middle of an actively changing pitch, dynamic, or tempo.

A generated note with a !n override that specified only a number of divisions, not an interval, was interpreted to divide the scale's default interval rather than dividing the octave. This was inconsistent with documented behavior and also resulted in the ! override creating a context-dependent pitch, which defeats the purpose.

This version introduces syntoniq-kbd prompt, an interactive chord builder that allows you to construct chords by typing generated note names at a command prompt.

The transpose directive takes note names, which may now include octave/cycle markers, rather than strings for its written and pitch_from parameters. All examples have been updated.
All directives that take part now take a raw identifier.

Directives parameter values can now be note names and identifiers (such as part names) in addition to strings, pitches, and numbers. This paves the way for future semantic checks on note and part options.
New directives added: save_pitch, restore_pitch, and check_pitch

Upgrade manual to Zola version 0.22. The syntax highlighting was simple enough for a successful AI conversion.
Refactor Csound instrument to be more future proof. New parameters are varied through channels instead of arguments to the instrument.
Drop support for MTS MIDI. The previous implementation was incompatible with glide, and writing MTS SysEx codes into a MIDI file is not the usual way of MTS. I have also not found any tool that supports MTS and MPE together. This means we also drop TiMidity++, which doesn't support MPE. We can use FluidSynth instead for simple SoundFont-based rendering, or use Csound's SoundFont opcodes.
Implement pitch glide.
Rework MPE channel allocation to use a pair of channels per note line so we can properly avoid immediate channel reuse. This means we only get 7 simultaneous notes per track, but we still allocate as many ports and tracks as required.
Initialize volume and instruments for each channel unconditionally. This makes it easier to work with sending multiple outputs to the same MIDI device.

This is the initial release of Syntoniq.