GR-MEGA firmware 1.3.0 release notes

Mainly audio input improvements, the GR-MEGA is more suitable as a live granular effect, and GUI improvements

date 17 apr 2025

new features:

- #1345 recording - sampling menu -> play follows rec: this syncs play head with record head. use horizontal fader to change play position. Operator encoder [PlaySyncRec] can be used to sync play head with record head
- clocked record - record your samples in bars instead of seconds.
-   #20 various modulation side panels in main screen. use [Shift] + [View] to step through, or hold [View] + turn (Op Enc) to browse
- system menu - USB C mode - ability to disable/enable USB C device features for maximum compatibility with windows, mac, and linux
-  #234 tooltips (popup help) in menus. hold [Feel] to try
- polarity display (as "+" "-" "±") in LFO side panel
- #1306 LFO RATE, LFO PHASE, LFO AMT, now also shown in OSD
- #1072 phase vocoder engine now displays spectrum instead of grain window
- robust against forbidden MIDI data (may arise from bad connections or strange MIDI devices)
- #1017 file chooser - show data type PATCH, SAMPLE, MULTISPL, etc for every file (instead of just icons like ♪♪)
- #1284 midi/pot activity icons in the bottom left of the screen
- #1346 patch menu - toggle for uni/bipolar spray
- #1283 when layer mix is active, layer volumes are visualized in the envelope display area
-  #914 slice mode - filter can now be used globally instead of per slice : use the toggle in patch menu -> "filter per slice"
- #1365 keep zoom and pan when pressing [View] button
- #1295 display notes when recording a chord
- #1359 file chooser - shift + up -> go up one folder
- progress bar - show file names when copying data
- #1354 hold [Mode] and turn (Operator) encoder to quickly cycle through the synth engines
- #1381 better looking four lfo side panel, also showing key sync
-  #914/#1375 slice mode - patch menu - toggle filters per slice or global 
- "Rec stop" message when recording reached end of buffer, or when refused 
- #1348 op encoder menu - sync play head with rec
- #1373 anti-boot loop self-diagnostic.

changes:

- #1344, #1335 - when same preset open in multiple layers - now initializes all those layers, instead of just 1  
- #1387 physical modulation section now remembers last selected source, when using amount. press [LFO Select] to jump back to LFO 1,2,3,4.
- file chooser - multisample, multipatch have single icon prefix instead of dual.. since their type is now displayed in another column
- save popup - 100% vertical navigation
- #1372 fx always in alphabetical order: in mod destinations list, and in fx screen

bugfixes:

- #1344, #1335 - opening same preset in multiple layers and then load sample or init one of the layers - display of other part was not updated 
- #1223 file manager - copying files to usb and quickly pulling out the usb stick could result in 0 byte files! 
- usb c audio playback and capture (to pc/mac) now cracklefree
- audio record, sampling menu -> Audio source = NONE - avoid undo buffer problems where user may lose his preset.
- #1384 project load - a broken presets resulted in all the following presets getting skipped! 
- #1386 init sample to smaller size while recording could cause crash
- #1313 file chooser - file size moved off screen with long file names.. long names are now truncated
- amp / amp env amount was not factored in amplitude calculations correctly. this was especially noticeable with low velocity sensitivity 
- #1339 fixed midi crashes on exotic NRPN's, CC76, CC78 (modulation row settings), CC117, CC119 (FX assignments)
- took measures against LEDs staying on when shutting down (harmless, but looks bad.)
- #1330 sequencer - button combos (shift + op enc, shift + horizontal fader) were not implemented for some rows
- #1363 init preset ([Shift] + [Delete] in main screen) - sound engine and view mode were not updated
- init sample - 1 sample frame went missing (8 seconds turned into 7.999 making it harder to have synced loops)
- corrected audition popup text

known issues:

- pot pickups not implemented for a lot of controls
- various MIDI CC's to still be implemented: glide, arp mode, scan mode, recording/sampling levels, window settings 
- output counterpart to MIDI CC's can have different function. most notably on the envelopes.  
- high cpu load when connected to Macs via USB C, and using USB audio + MIDI + file sharing