The changes include:
Major
- Different compatibility, reliability and performance improvements (more below).
- Added TTS (Window -> Text to speech [Ctrl+T]).
- Added a web import interface, which is not exclusive to Meowpad, but available for all websites to provide their own Add to Soundpad links.
- Added Arabic and Hebrew translations.
Remote control interface
- Updated the remote control interface to version 1.1.2.
- Added commands: DoPlayRandomSound, DoPlayRandomSoundFromCategory and IsTrial. See reference implementation for details.
- The remote control interface is now available in the free version of Soundpad.
- Fixed command DoScrollTo to be able to scroll to the first line.
- Fixed crash, that could occur when multiple commands were simultaneously received while the playback had a hang.
Hotkeys and Auto Keys
- Hotkeys and Auto Keys now work in user mode as reliable as if Soundpad is run as administrator. There was a similar fix in previous versions, but it didn't work for everyone.
- Auto Keys are now pressed after the configured Push-to-Talk delay is over.
- Added troubleshooting mode to the Auto Keys (right-click the A-icon in the statusbar -> Troubleshooting).
Hotbar
- Increased maximum elements to 20x10.
- Added special hotkeys to switch hotbar pages.
- Added option to set a page title.
- Added option to lock the hotbar to prevent accidental drag and drop actions.
- Added option to automatically select the sound in its category when a hotbar entry is left-clicked.
- Added option to show the pagination above the hotbar.
- Added format options to change the style and the amount of displayed text lines.
- Format changes are done immediately rather than after confirming the dialog.
- The hotbar is immediately updated when the window is resized instead of in an idle moment after resizing.
- Fixed last hotbar entries not being clickable at their last pixels if using many columns in fullscreen.
Sound Editor
- Added option to use another editor (File -> Preferences -> Editor -> Use external sound editor).
- Added shortcut Ctrl+E to edit the selected file. Added shortcuts to save as Ctrl+Alt+S and crop Ctrl+T.
- Added save and close option (in the Sound Editor at File -> Close window after saving).
- Added option to save files as mp3 (only if an mp3 encoder is available).
- Added a Reverse effect.
- Show selected range as tooltip (toggleable at File -> Show selected range).
- Added context menu to sound editor.
Drivers and compatibility
- Reworked the setup, which increases the compatibility with all kinds of different systems and audio drivers.
- Fixed specific compatibility issues with Lenovo notebooks models 81 and 82, Focusrite Scarlet Solo, different virtual audio drivers and many other devices.
- Improved overall compatibility with Windows 11.
- The setup status is now more precise, particularly when Soundpad is used with multiple devices.
- Updated driver extension. It will now consume even less CPU.
- Added mic boost option to amplify the volume of your microphone (File -> Preferences -> Devices -> Right-click a recording device -> Set boost).
- Got rid of the reoccurring restart required error. A system restart isn't necessary anymore, except in rare occasions.
- Users, who experienced the error code 2 or error code 5 when selecting devices, will be greeted with a new dialog with an instruction how to fix it.
- Reworked core thread components, reduced timeouts and improved handling of improperly dropped instances of the driver extension. Beyond fixing different issues and improving performance and responsiveness, this fixes an often reported bug, where it begins to hang at the end of a playback for up to a few seconds and no other sound can be played until the hang is over.
Others: New
- Added option to adjust the speaker volume with a logistic function. It allows to adjust the volume more precisely in low and high volume ranges (right-click the volume slider to toggle).
- Added m3u support. Drag & drop an m3u file onto categories to create a category for that m3u. It will automatically load the first image from the m3u folder as category icon.
- Allows more image formats to be dropped on categories.
- Added more tray options.
- Added option Pass hotkeys to hotkey context menu (H-icon in status bar).
- Added color column to allow sorting by color.
- Allow sorting by index.
- Added menu to restore backups of the sound list (File -> Restore sound list).
- Added navy theme.
- Added Set hotkey context menu to categories to play random files from that category.
- Added option: Typing prefers TTS rather than search (File -> Preferences -> Interface -> Misc).
- Allow .opus file ending.
- Added option to Edit tag text (right-click a sound -> Edit tag text).
- Added option to find and remove missing sound files (Edit -> Find dead entries).
- If a sound file is not found and struck through, then you may edit its location by right-clicking it -> Edit file location.
- If you enabled File -> Preferences -> Interface -> Toolbar -> Display microphone level on toolbar, then you can add a dynamic marker to it by right-clicking that panel on the toolbar. It will mark the measured voice volume.
- Added icons to special hotkeys.
- Added some stock icons.
Others: Changes
- Slightly reordered the context menus of the sound list and hotbar to have a similar structure.
- Hotbar now ignores continuous playback options. Played sounds are always stopped after playback.
- Special hotkeys to select the next or previous category won't select hidden categories anymore.
- Hidden categories can't be selected as destination for recordings anymore.
- The hotkey overview shows the filename instead of the Tag if the Tag column is hidden in the main window.
- Only import playlists (.spl, .m3u) if no sound files or directories are selected along with them.
- Select the next hotbar page instead of the previous one when removing pages.
- The theme is set to dark by default on first start, except Windows (10 or newer) is configured to use the light theme.
- Right-click on a sound file -> Rename file is now available for all file types.
- Focus the sound list after the search, the recorder or other windows are closed.
- The progress bar of a file import isn't immediately shown, but only if the import takes some time.
- Redesigned category options dialog.
- Set min sizes in all windows. Removed resize option from certain dialogs.
- Added notification panel for File not found.
- Show trial limit message as notification panel when loading lists, otherwise it is too unobtrusive.
- Added launch parameter --version.
- Many changes in troubleshooting report. Added launch parameter -t, with which a report can be created from command line.
Others: Fixes
- Windows won't be restored in an invisible state anymore, e.g. being too small or hidden behind the taskbar. Windows are restored on one monitor in multi monitor setups if the window is closed while being shown on two or more monitors.
- Fixed context menus opening in the wrong location if a new monitor connected.
- The width of table columns cannot be decreased until they disappear.
- Fixed app hang when quickly pressing different hotkeys.
- Fixed Aero docking in non-native themes. Fixed some visual glitches when resizing windows. Fixed border shadows in sub windows.
- The sound recorder now locks its buffer file to avoid manipulations. It fixes a rare issue when recordings failed to be read after the recording has finished.
- The tag reader supports more file types and correctly reads multiple artists.
- Updated list of forbidden characters, that could make a sound list unreadable. Also improved sound list save speed.
- Fixed undo/redo not working properly when sounds were removed from the All sounds category.
- Fixed Select in explorer not always selecting the target file inside a directory on Windows 11.
- Fixed incorrect seek position of certain m4a files.
- Fixed decoding bug of certain flac files, which were decoded with a lower volume than they actually should have.
- Having the same sound multiple times in one category won't increase the play count multiple times.
- Write protected directories can't be selected for recording anymore. The encoder will return an error if a write operation to a protected directory fails instead of getting stuck in a loop.
- Fixed menu items being executed although a text control had focus.
- Fixed menu items being executed by hotkey on disabled menu items in non-native themes.
- Fixed delayed scrolling behavior in text components in non-native themes.
- Fixed plenty of different other UI problems.
- Updated Restart Win-Audio to wait until all dependent services are completely running. It increases the reliability of that function on Windows 11.
- Fixed crash when no recording device is used with Soundpad, the voice measurement is running and the Win-Audio service is restarted.
- Fixed crash when the Win-Audio service was stopped and then the preferences were opened.
