Capo Mac — Release Notes

Enhancements

• When exporting Notes and Chords as MIDI, Capo now offers three different timing options: Follow Song Tempo, Fixed Tempo, and Free Time (the old behavior). The two new options use Capo's beat grid to generate the MIDI output, and they work better in a DAW. When you choose Follow Song Tempo, MIDI notes will stay synchronized with the original recording placed in an audio track.

Bug Fixes

• The metronome click no longer drifts in/out of time at certain playback speeds while a loop is active.

Enhancements

• Added C Standard to the list of tunings (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_tuning_(guitar))
• The "Welcome to Capo" window has been improved—it includes the "Drag Song Here" drop target, and a link to the tutorial

Bug Fixes

• In the Call & Response settings, the quiet playback level slider now applies its changes live, and no longer resets to full volume during the quiet period
• The "Drag Song Here" (untitled document) window now appears as it should when you activate Capo with no open projects

New Features

Lead Sheet Printing (macOS)

Capo can now generate professional, publication-quality lead sheets from your edited chords and sections—print them, export them as PDF, or share them with bandmates. Choose File > Print… from the main menu, then add your title and subheadings in print settings panel.

Call & Response Mode

Loop regions can now alternate between playback (the call) and silence (the response), giving you a built-in gap to play what you just heard. Select a region, then press and hold the loop button to open the settings.

Enhancements

• In the metronome settings, you can now mute the click track after the count-in is done.
• Count-in will now work when there is no active looping region. When the playhead isn't on the downbeat, count-in gives you fewer clicks to get you in on time. See the user guide for more details.
• The region is no longer deactivated when you click on note or chord entries. Now you can modify notes in the tabbing view while the loop continues to play—particularly useful with Call & Response.
• Custom tunings now appear in the chords song view as well—email support if you'd like help setting these up.
• The metronome icon in the toolbar now changes to include a little clock badge when count-in is enabled.
• You can now search the User Guide, and we unified its content for both platforms.

Bug Fixes

• Exported MIDI files are now transposed to match your key slider settings.
• Fixed a timing gap between the last count-in click and the downbeat.
• The changes you make to note entries in the tabbing view are now reflected during playback.
• The blue "focus ring" no longer appears around the "What's New" button in the project window's title bar.
• The last string in the guitar chord boxes no longer draws a shade darker than the rest.
• The tap beats window will no longer get locked up if you presented it during playback.
• The last-set instrument (e.g., Ukulele, Banjo) is now restored correctly from user defaults in new projects.

This maintenance update addresses bugs that were reported by our users over the holidays. Happy New Year, everyone!

Bug Fixes

• After dragging to adjust the size of a region, Capo once again ensures that the region remains selected. This regression was introduced in the 4.6.1 update, and we regret the error.
• When executing the resizeRegion() command from a keyboard or MIDI binding, Capo no longer interrupts the in-progress playback by seeking to the start or end of the region. However, this seek still happens while playback is stopped, so that the new boundary location is reflected in the position display.

This maintenance update addresses some minor issues reported by our users. Thanks everyone for providing your feedback!

Bug Fixes

• The mixer popover now appears correctly after pressing the toolbar button.
• When using the previous/next buttons in the Marker, Region, and Chords toolbar items, Capo will now move to the beginning/end of the song after the last item is selected. This matches the behavior of the buttons in the Control Strip on iOS.
• Capo now has improved selection management, where you can no longer have a Region, Marker, and Chord selected at the same time. This problematic state was characterized by three trash cans appearing at once in the toolbar, which is no longer possible.

Capo is now ready for macOS Tahoe, sporting an all-new control layout that feels right at home on your Mac.

New Features

Goodbye, Control Strip. Hello, Toolbar!

• We moved all of Capo's controls from the Control Strip to a standard toolbar that looks and feels very familiar on the Mac.
• If you right-click on the toolbar, you can now customize the layout to rearrange controls however you want.
• Each song view has its own toolbar layout, so you can tailor your selections to fit how you work with Capo.

Capo has an all-new icon!

• We were ahead of the curve in 2020 with our glassy icon design, but we tweaked it for macOS Tahoe—it appears more vibrant, and works great with the dark, clear, and tinted icon styles.

Enhancements

• Under the hood, we cleaned up and modernized our code to work best with the latest OS releases.
• We also improved the scrolling and layout performance, so Capo should feel as glassy and smooth as the new look of macOS!
• If you set a custom colour theme in your System Appearance Settings, Capo now reflects that colour in more places in the UI.
• Improved scroll behavior at the song boundaries - Capo now consistently bounces the whole content area of the Practice and Tabbing song views together as a single unit.

Bug Fixes

• Capo no longer gets stuck in certain scenarios when you trigger a selectPrevious(.region) command from a MIDI or keyboard binding.
• When Capo is scrolled to the end of the song, playback now runs more smoothly, without the major CPU usage spike that may have impacted audio quality on some machines.

This update contains bug fixes and improvements based on user feedback and crash submissions.

Bug Fixes

• Guitar chords for 7(#9) now correctly include the "Hendrix style" shape (e.g., E7(#9) should have x7678x in the list)
• In the Practice and Tabbing song views, you should no longer see chords, regions, or time labels disappearing at random
• The chord settings now appears with the correct popover animation in the Chords song view

We love hearing from our customers, so please leave a review on the App Store to share your positive experiences with others, or send us a support email if you have any questions for us. We're listening, and appreciate all your bug reports and feedback!

This update contains bug fixes and improvements based on user feedback and crash submissions.

New Features

New Chord Layout Options: The Chords song view now includes three layout styles: Compact (the original), Full-Width, and Grid-Aligned. Choose your preferred look in the chord display settings.

Manually Set the Song Key: You can now override the automatically detected key by selecting Notes > Change Song Key from the main menu.

Enhancements

• Further improved performance across the Structure and Chords views.

We love hearing from our customers, so please leave a review on the App Store to share your positive experiences with others, or send us a support email if you have any questions for us. We're listening, and appreciate all your bug reports and feedback!

This update contains bug fixes and improvements based on user feedback and crash submissions.

Enhancements

• The Chords song view should now load more quickly than it did in previous releases.

Bug Fixes

• When dragging songs to the "Drag Song Here" window, Capo no longer displays an error message.
• Capo now correctly applies the capo value that is set from the chord settings within the Chords song view.
• When changing the instrument type or tuning in the Chords song view, Capo no longer crashes.

We love hearing from our customers, so please leave a review on the App Store to share your positive experiences with others, or send us a support email if you have any questions for us. We're listening, and appreciate all your bug reports and feedback!

Bug Fixes

• Capo should no longer crash on launch for long-time users with legacy keyboard command definitions in their preferences.
• When Capo encounters unexpectedly formatted receipt data from the App Store, either at launch time or soon after a purchase is completed, it should no longer crash.

New Features

Remote Control: On macOS 14 and later, Capo now offers expanded integration with MIDI foot pedals, control surfaces, and keyboard controllers. You can now use continuous controls like knobs, sliders, and expression pedals to change playback speed or adjust Capo's built-in mixer in real time. Additionally, we've enhanced keyboard shortcut customization to distinguish between keyDown and keyUp events, allowing for more sophisticated control configurations. Consult the new chapter in the User Guide for more information about this exciting new feature.

While you try the Remote Control features for as long as you wish, a subscription or previous purchase is required to save all your command bindings. So we hope you’ll try it out, fall in love, and subscribe today!

Enhancements

• In the Structure Song View, you can now right-click on bars to create new sections.
• The Structure Song View now opens without an initial delay, and has been optimized to run quicker and use less energy.
• When subscribing, Capo now shows an improved “sales pitch” screen that provides much more information than before.
• In response to several user requests, Capo now offers a monthly Pro subscription tier.

This update contains bug fixes and improvements based on user feedback and crash submissions.

Bug Fixes

• On macOS Sonoma, Capo no longer experiences a considerable degradation in display refresh rate (a.k.a. a "choppy", or "jittery" playhead) as playback continues.

We love hearing from our customers, so please leave a review on the App Store to share your positive experiences with others, or send us a support email if you have any questions for us. We're listening, and appreciate all your bug reports and feedback!

This update contains bug fixes and improvements based on user feedback and crash submissions.

Bug Fixes

• Capo no longer crashes when interacting with the speed, key, and pitch sliders on macOS Sonoma 14.3.

We love hearing from our customers, so please leave a review on the App Store to share your positive experiences with others, or send us a support email if you have any questions for us. We're listening, and appreciate all your bug reports and feedback!

This update contains bug fixes and improvements based on user feedback and crash submissions.

Bug Fixes

• Capo no longer fails to play certain audio files on Intel Macs running macOS Sonoma.

We love hearing from our customers, so please leave a review on the App Store to share your positive experiences with others, or send us a support email if you have any questions for us. We're listening, and appreciate all your bug reports and feedback!

This update contains bug fixes and improvements based on user feedback and crash submissions.

Bug Fixes

• Capo no longer crashes when trying to display the settings sheet in the Chords Song View.
• When encountering certain inversions of Ukulele chords, Capo no longer crashes while it attempts to draw those chord boxes.

We love hearing from our customers, so please leave a review on the App Store to share your positive experiences with others, or send us a support email if you have any questions for us. We're listening, and appreciate all your bug reports and feedback!

This update contains bug fixes and improvements based on user feedback and crash submissions.

Maintenance

• Capo is now built against Apple's latest SDKs while still maintaining its compatibility window back to macOS 10.13. This was a delicate, and extremely difficult set of changes that slowed progress to a halt for far too long.

Bug Fixes

• Capo no longer crashes while zooming out on the timeline in certain circumstances.
• When using the keyboard to navigate chords in the PRACTICE song view, Capo no longer gets stuck on the first and last chords.
• Capo no longer loses changes made to MIDI commands in certain circumstances where no keyboard command is present.
• When Capo encounters inversions of diminished and augmented chords, it no longer crashes while rendering those guitar shapes.

We love hearing from our customers, so please leave a review on the App Store to share your positive experiences with others, or send us a support email if you have any questions for us. We're listening, and appreciate all your bug reports and feedback!

This update contains bug fixes and improvements based on user feedback and crash submissions.

Bug Fixes

• When editing the titles and colors of sections in the Structure song view on macOS 13 Ventura, Capo now correctly dismisses the editing popover.
• In the beat recording interface, Capo now shows the correct "Start Recording" button title when it first appears.

We love hearing from our customers, so please leave a review on the App Store to share your positive experiences with others, or send us a support email if you have any questions for us. We're listening, and appreciate all your bug reports and feedback!

This update contains bug fixes and improvements based on user feedback and crash submissions.

Bug Fixes

• Rolled back our developer tools to correct a crash-on-launch issue that was reported by users on macOS 10.13 and 10.14. We regret the error.

We love hearing from our customers, so please leave a review on the App Store to share your positive experiences with others, or send us a support email if you have any questions for us. We're listening, and appreciate all your bug reports and feedback!

This update contains bug fixes and improvements based on user feedback and crash submissions.

Bug Fixes

• Capo now (once again) spells detected chords using the correct accidental for the detected key of the song.
• Corrected some back-end errors that could lead to audio glitches in very rare circumstances while the system is under heavy load.

Maintenance

• Updated Capo's code base for the latest Xcode toolchain, which required us to bump the minimum supported version of macOS to 10.13. This was a larger job than it should have been, but at least it's finally done now!

We love hearing from our customers, so please leave a review on the App Store to share your positive experiences with others, or send us a support email if you have any questions for us. We're listening, and appreciate all your bug reports and feedback!

This update contains bug fixes and improvements based on user feedback and crash submissions.

Enhancements

• You can now replace chords with their enharmonic equivalent. For example, an Eb can now be replaced with a D#. Please note: Your changes may not apply when a project is transposed to another key. See the blog for a technical explanation of the issue.
• When in the CHORDS song view, the Tuning popup now lists note names alongside each tuning name while editing your chord display preferences. For example, you'll now see entries like "Standard (EADGBE)".

Bug Fixes

• Capo no longer allows you to make invalid adjustments to the song's key using keyboard shortcuts.
• We resolved a handful of reported crashes that were triggered by incorrect logic that led to excessive layout in the PRACTICE song view.

We love hearing from our customers, so please leave a review on the App Store to share your positive experiences with others, or send us a support email if you have any questions for us. We're listening, and appreciate all your bug reports and feedback!

New Features

Larger Chord Sizes

You can now choose to display chords with a larger size, making them easier to read in the PRACTICE, TABBING, and CHORDS song views.

Improved In-App Release Notes

Thanks to automatic updates, it's easy to miss out on the details of our ongoing work on Capo between larger releases. To keep you in the loop, we now ship Capo with a more comprehensive set of change history that goes all the way back to the 4.0 release that shipped in late 2019.

In future updates to Capo, you'll be prompted to view these release notes at your convenience, and you can revisit them at any time by selecting Help > What's New from the main menu.

Enhancements

• When using pinch zoom on a trackpad while the cursor is over the waveform area, the zoom gesture is no longer interrupted, and the display refresh rate has improved somewhat.
• Chord boxes for 4- and 5-stringed instruments are now rendered slightly more narrow than the standard 6-string diagrams, which looks a little closer to what folks might expect
• Added support for a few chords that have been requested in support: 6add9 (aka 6/9), 7sus2, maj7sus2, 7sus4, and maj7sus4. (Note: You have to specify "6add9" in your chord searches, because "6/9" throws off our support for recognizing inversions. We plan to address this issue soon!)

Bug Fixes

• When zooming in or out with keyboard shortcuts, Capo no longer loses your position when the playhead is close to the end of the song (#1807)
• Capo no longer shows truncated bar numbers in the PRACTICE song view on macOS 10.12
• You can no longer edit a project's filename from the window titlebar before saving it for the first time, causing Capo to crash (#1839, #1823)
• When switching your instrument to something other than a guitar in standard tuning, Capo now correctly remembers this selection for new projects (#1803)

This update contains bug fixes and improvements based on user feedback and crash submissions.

BUG FIXES

• Capo no longer renders and scrolls its spectrogram incorrectly on Macs with non-retina displays.

We love hearing from our customers, so please leave a review on the App Store to share your positive experiences with others, or send us a support email if you have any questions for us. We're listening, and appreciate all your bug reports and feedback!

This update required a significant time investment under the hood to help us ensure Capo's longevity, and some extra care in testing to make sure everything's still running as solid as always. We are looking forward to more featureful updates in the near future, so stay tuned!

ENHANCEMENTS

• Capo's spectrogram display (visible in the TABBING song view) has been modernized to use the Metal graphics framework instead of the legacy OpenGL APIs.

BUG FIXES

• Capo now allows you to learn MIDI commands when your Mac is attached to MIDI hardware that sends clock synchronization or other extended messages.

We love hearing from our customers, so please leave a review on the App Store to share your positive experiences with others, or send us a support email if you have any questions for us. We're listening, and appreciate all your bug reports and feedback!

This update contains bug fixes and improvements based on user feedback and crash submissions.

BUG FIXES

• Capo no longer fails to accept dragged songs from the Music app in some rare cases.
• When activating the song scrubbing feature with certain audio files, Capo no longer crashes.

We love hearing from our customers, so please leave a review on the App Store to share your positive experiences with others, or send us a support email if you have any questions for us. We're listening, and appreciate all your bug reports and feedback!

NEW FEATURES

• Using Handoff, you can easily continue your work on projects that are stored in iCloud when switching between your Mac, iPhone, and iPad.

ENHANCEMENTS

• You can now create projects from FLAC audio files by dragging & dropping them onto Capo.

BUG FIXES

• Capo now extracts album artwork from newly-imported song files that were not already indexed by the system.
• The Audio Freezer engine has been re-built to (finally!) end Capo's incompatibility with Aggregate audio devices on some macOS releases.
• The above fix also eliminates the sound quality issues that some users experienced when using Capo with AirPods.
• We addressed some of the crashes that were submitted by users since the last release. Please keep sending us your bug reports!

We love hearing from our customers, so please leave a review on the App Store to share your positive experiences with others, or send us a support email if you have any questions for us. We're listening, and appreciate all your bug reports and feedback!

BUG FIXES

• Capo no longer crashes when opening Project windows for users that have always-visible scroll bars enabled on their Mac.

We love hearing from our customers, so please leave a review on the App Store to share your positive experiences with others, or send us a support email if you have any questions for us. We're listening, and appreciate all your bug reports and feedback!

NEW FEATURES

4th Generation Chord Detection (macOS 10.14+ Only)

Capo's newest chord detection engine is faster, more accurate, and identifies a wider range of chords—including inversions! If you'd like to read more about the development of this new technology, visit our blog at supermegaultragroovy.com.

You can re-detect and replace all the chords in your existing Projects by choosing Notes > Detect All Chords from the main menu.

Structure Song View (Subscription Only)

You can now see and mark up your songs at a high level—bar by bar—to define the sections of the song. Mark the Verse, Chorus, A Section, B Section, or use whatever names you choose! You can also apply colors to the sections to help you identify similar ones.

Many users will be excited to learn that this all-new song view also allows you to edit Capo's beat grid that's used to power Capo's snapping and metronome features. By clicking along with the beat to mark the start of each bar, you can replace Capo's detected beats with your own. You can also change the number of beats in specific bars when you're working with songs that have mixed time signatures, and make fine adjustments to improve precision.

Chords Song View (Subscription Only)

An all-new, vertically-scrolling look at the chords in your song displays more chords on screen at the same time. It also uses the sections you define in the Structure song view to group the chords according to the section they belong in.

This is a massive improvement for chord-oriented musicians that are looking to analyze a song's overall harmony, or those that want a better view of what's coming ahead.

Trial Mode (Paid, Non-Subscribers)

If you are a paid user that has not yet subscribed to Capo Pro, you can try the new, subscription-only features as many times as you'd like, for as long as you'd like! Just select one of the song views that are marked TRIAL, and Capo will let you play with the feature with only one catch—your edits to the project will no longer be saved.

Don't see anything worth paying for? No problem! Close the project, and you'll be back to using Capo as usual. We will keep trying to earn your subscription in future releases, and hope you enjoy the massive improvements to the chord detection engine!

Improved Free Edition

The free version of Capo no longer has a playback timer! You now have full access to Capo's full feature set, but Capo will not save any of your edits to Projects without an active subscription.

This change results in a more useful product for a wider audience. Teachers, be sure to tell all your students!

ENHANCEMENTS

• We modified the Simple Piano chord display to make it easier to distinguish the bass note from the others.

BUG FIXES

• Capo no longer crashes in the chord chooser when searching for chord inversions
• We addressed a handful of crashes that were submitted by users since the last release. Please keep sending us your bug reports!

We love hearing from our customers, so please leave a review on the App Store to share your positive experiences with others, or send us a support email if you have any questions for us. We're listening, and appreciate all your bug reports and feedback!