Farrago Release Notes

Add New Audio Directly from Freesound
Farrago can now optionally search the wonderful Freesound.org database, to help you locate new sound files for your use. Results can be previewed, then downloaded to your set for immediate use.

A Built-In Editor to Edit Sounds Within Farrago
Farrago now includes a simple editor, built right in to each tile. After you add a sound, you can edit it by trimming it down, adding fades, and even cutting out portions. Get exactly the sound you want, right within Farrago.

Preview Audio Ahead of Standard Playback
Configure the new Preview device setting in the Settings window, so you can use a secondary device for previewing before sending audio to your main output. Once configured, you can use the “Preview” option in the “Tile” menu to test your audio, or simply press the Shift key when triggering playback anywhere in the app.

Farrago Now Offers Shortcuts Actions
On MacOS 12 (Monterey) and higher, Farrago now provides a slew of actions in the Shortcuts app. Use them to automate your usage of Farrago, including setting volumes, fading between sounds, and controlling playback.

Trigger Shortcuts Right From Farrago As Well
You can also now trigger any action in the Shortcuts app, right from Farrago. Run any Shortcut when a tile plays or stops, when a set is selected, or even on app launch.

Powerful Tile Search
Farrago’s Sets list now provides a helpful search field, which will highlight matching tiles in the current set and show results from other sets as well. Search among all of your tiles to find the exact sound you need.

Smart Sets
Create dynamically updating sets controlled by powerful rules. Organize based on tile titles, settings, play count, and more.

Open Sets in Secondary Windows
Sets can now be popped opened in separate windows within Farrago. Keyboard shortcuts will be applied to the front-most window.

Favorite Tiles and Favorites Set
Mark tiles as Favorites, then find them in the automatically created “Favorites” smart set, and use them in custom smart sets as well.

Lockable Sets
You can now lock sets to prevent accidental edits and changes. For even stronger protection in shared environments, set a password to prevent unauthorized changes.

Add Audio from GarageBand and Logic Pro
Farrago can now optionally offer up both GarageBand and Logic Pro musical loops in its search results, for use right in Farrago.

Stream Deck Support
You can now use Stream Deck hardware from Elgato to directly control Farrago.

OSC Support
OSC support is now built into Farrago, offering more controls and capabilities than previously supported via MIDI. With OSC it’s now possible to create advanced controller layouts with programs such as TouchOSC on the iPhone and iPad.

MIDI Improvements
Farrago now offers dedicated mappings for “Volume A”, “Volume B”. “Switch to A”, and “Switch to B”. It also works better with MIDI toggle buttons. MIDI commands will no longer incorrectly trigger playback across multiple sets. The behavior of MIDI commands has also been adjusted. If a MIDI command is assigned to multiple sets, it will only apply to the current set. If it's assigned to just one set, it will apply even if that set is not in the foreground.

Escape (esc) Key Protector
The Escape key (esc) is used to stop all playback. To avoid accidental playback stoppage, this now requires a press-and-hold of 300 milliseconds. When the Escape key is tapped and not held, a message will show to indicate the need to hold the key to stop playback.

New Sample Sets
Farrago 2 now includes updated sample sets, featuring brand-new music, an updated collection of sound effects, and a new example List Mode story.

Import Improvements
Farrago can now import multiple sets at once via the “Import Set” menu option as well as drag and drop from the Finder.

Export Improvements, Too
Hold Option when the “Sound Set” menu is open to access a new “Export All Sets” option. As well, exported Farrago 2 sets will now provide a more useful error in Farrago 1.

On-Tile Emoji
Add emoji to your tiles, to identify them at a glance.

Interface Enhancements
Many improvements have been made to Farrago’s interface:

    • Tile height will now adjust based on window size, tile controls grow when space is available, and automatic sizing of tile titles has been made more intelligent.

    • The LCD area’s “Now Playing” bubbles are now both more functional and attractive.

    • Farrago’s Settings window has been overhauled.

    • On-tile keyboard shortcuts are now larger and easier to read.

    • The semi-colon shortcut now draws better.

    • The Inspector area for each tile has been redesigned.

Immediate Solo
To stop all other playback and start a new sound, press Control+Shift when you trigger a tile.

Full VoiceOver Support
VoiceOver users, we're ready for you! We work hard to ensure our apps are accessible to users with vision impairments, and Farrago 2 is no exception.

Helpful Level Meters
Level meters can now be found throughout the app, including in the main window’s LCD, as well as each tile’s Inspector and Editor window.

Set Renaming Improvements
Double-clicking a set in the Sets list now automatically selects the “Set Name” field, enabling fast renaming. As well, the control-click menu in the Sets list now includes a “Rename” option.

It's now possible to re-sort the Sets list using keyboard commands. Press Option-up or Option-down to move a highlighted set up or down in the list.

The “Control” menu has been renamed to the more accurate “Playback”.

Sets can now be exported by dragging and dropping them out of the Sets list and into the Finder.

Farrago’s volume sliders have been improved with a more visually compact UI. As well, the slider now unmutes when the thumb is moved.

Audio devices in Farrago’s preferences can now be set to use specific channels for stereo playback, rather than just the device’s default stereo pair.

The existing per-tile contextual menu, accessible by control-clicking, now includes useful playback controls. New “Duplicate” options have also been added to multiple contextual menus.

A new contextual menu has also been added for sets, with handy controls accessible by Control-clicking.

To prevent digital distortion when playing multiple tiles, Farrago now includes a digital limiter to keep levels in check.

Several updates have been made to fading in Farrago:

    • Per-tile fade controls have been replaced by the new fade options in the editor, which permit all manner of fades.

    • Clicking the global “Stop All” control now stops immediately, regardless of fades included in the tile.

    • Clicking the global “Fade All” fades out all audio in 2 seconds.

Inspector controls now feature helpful tooltips.

The shortcut for Farrago’s main window (Command-0) now intelligently toggles visibility. If the window is in the background, the shortcut pulls it forward. If it’s in the foreground, it simply toggles visibility.

Farrago now confirms the deletion of sets, to prevent inadvertant data loss.

Farrago’s minimum size has been modified, to fit on the smallest Mac screens.

Farrago now provides better metadata to other Rogue Amoeba apps.

The contrast of on-tile keyboard shortcuts has been improved.

“Undo” and “Redo” actions now detail what action will occur.

It’s now possible to drag files from Voice Memos (and other apps) directly into Farrago to create a tile.

Double-clicking the sidebar separator will now expand the Sets list to an optimal width for the current sets.

Farrago now features a “Jumbo sets” hidden preference, which allows for up to 1000 tiles in a set. This option is accessible from the “Debugging” window.

A new “Scream on delete” hidden preference has been added, with thanks to Aaron, Chris, and Private Wilhelm.

Support for M Chip-Based Macs
Farrago is now a Universal app, offering support for the new M1 chip-based Macs.

Full MacOS 11 (Big Sur) Compatibility
Farrago now has full compatibility with MacOS 11 (Big Sur), with no known issues.

The tab icons in Farrago's preferences have been updated to fit new sizing requirements on MacOS 11 (Big Sur).

Farrago now respects the user-specified system-wide “Accent” color on MacOS 10.14 (Mojave) and up. It also supports Big Sur's new “Multicolor” option, with an appropriate, app-specific purple.

Massive New List Mode Functionality
Farrago's List Mode has been dramatically overhauled, with many new capabilities to make it great for staged events, well-planned podcasts, and other linear events. It features both Queued and Continuous playback modes, new Next and Previous playback controls, optional fading between tiles, an improved Notes field, and much more.

Major Now Playing Improvements
The LCD display at the top of Farrago's main window has been updated and improved, to better show information on what's currently playing. Farrago now displays colored bubbles to show what audio is being played, with the playback status of that audio shown visually within the bubbles. This “Now Playing” info is also now properly accessible via VoiceOver, for our visually impaired users.

App-Wide Volume Ducking
With the new Master Volume control, it's now possible to duck all audio being played by Farrago, fading between two distinct Master Volume levels with a single click or keyboard shortcut. You can also now mute Farrago from the volume control.

Per-Tile Output Controls
Each individual tile now has its own optional output selector, as well as channel selectors, for total control of audio playback.

New and Improved MIDI Controls, With Support for MIDI Sliders
Four new MIDI shortcut controls have been added. It's now possible to control the Master Volume Slider via MIDI, and to toggle between Master Volume A and Master Volume B. It's also possible to control a selected tile's volume slider, and to toggle between its Volume A and Volume B.

A New “Tile” Menu
The new “Tile” menu provides control over selected Tiles, and simplifies the “Control” menu as well.

Temporarily Disable Tiles
Want to temporarily prevent playback of a tile in Grid Mode, or skip it in List Mode? Highlight it, then disable it from the Control menu, or via the tile's contextual menu.

Share Track Title Information With Airfoil and Audio Hijack
Farrago now provides track titles to Airfoil and Audio Hijack. See the support articles for Airfoil and Audio Hijack for more details.

A New “Alerts” Window
Farrago's new “Alerts” window puts all errors and notices in one place for easy reference and to keep your playback working smoothly.

You can now drag and drop a tile to copy it across sets. To move a tile from one set to another, just hold the command key while dragging and dropping.

Tiles now have a contextual menu, for fast access to many useful controls. Just right-click (or control-click) a tile to access its contextual menu.

Sets can now be manually sorted, by dragging and dropping in the Sets list.

Tiles in List Mode are also now properly re-sortable, by dragging and dropping to adjust their order.

Hyperlinks are now clickable in the Notes field, for easy access to relevant links.

Tiles now feature an on-face Looping indicator in the upper right corner.

Farrago's minimum main window size is now 135 pixels narrower, enabling it to optionally use much less screen space.

Both the Sets list on the left, and the Inspector on the right, can now be re-sized individually.

Tile names now use variable text sizing on the tile face, so the full title stays visible longer as you shrink the window size.

Hovering over a tile will now show its full name in a tooltip, perfect for tiles with long titles.

Many other small improvements have been made to Farrago's appearance, including darkening some labels and controls, and much more.

Farrago's file importing has been overhauled and greatly improved. It will now better handle importing large files, and large numbers of files at once as well.

The Preferences window has been updated, to provide easier configuration of MIDI devices in the new “MIDI Controllers” and “MIDI Shortcuts” tabs.

Improvements have been made to importing sound sets from Ambrosia's defunct “Soundboard” app.

Switching between very large sets is now much faster, thanks to backend optimizations.

Farrago now has full MIDI support! It's now possible to control playback of audio in Farrago with an external MIDI device. MIDI control is also available for playback shortcuts, set switching, and more! See the new MIDI tab in the Preferences window, as well as the MIDI menu in the menu bar.

Editing settings for multiple tiles is now possible! Just select two (or more) tiles, then edit in the Inspector to update the settings for all of them.

The master volume control can now be controlled via keyboard shortcuts.

Sets now have their own Notes area in the Inspector, perfect for adding details on how your set is used, or anything else.

Set titles can now be edited more easily, from the Set Inspector.

Farrago now offers a Dark theme, providing a great interface for use in theaters and other darkened spaces.

Farrago now provides full Undo support, enabling you to revert settings changes, tile deletions, and even the removal of entire sets.

A “Now Playing” indicator now shows in the Sets list next to any set in which audio is currently playing. With this, you can easily determine where audio is coming from.

The “Stop Playing” menu item now becomes “Reset All” when the Shift key is held. This resets all tiles to their default unplayed state, including paused tiles.

Set titles now enter edit mode immediately upon the creation of a new set.

Performance improvements have been made for libraries containing large numbers of tiles or sets.

Audio which Farrago imports (that is, any file in a non-MP3, AAC, ALAC, AIFF, WAV format) is now saved in the Apple Lossless format, rather than as raw audio. This saves space, with no quality loss.

Keyboard shortcuts have been added to toggle the visibility of the Sets and Inspector sidebars.

The “Fade Out All” keyboard shortcut has been updated to "-", available on all known keyboard layouts.

Initial public release