I'm mentioning the next major update here on the blog rather than in the news, on purpose. In short, it's MIDI CC support. Quite a few people have asked for it, so it will definitely happen. But this is IMFMSynth, so supporting it raises a lot of questions I'm still working through, such as how to design the colors around it. Announcing it as news before the spec is even settled felt dishonest as a business, so I'm writing about it as a blog post instead.
Since my local government issued me a disability certificate, I've become especially conscious of accessibility. The challenge IMFMSynth faces is designing for color vision diversity. Modulation currently uses hues from cyan to purple, the main color is a golden yellow, and the filter uses a yellow-green. I chose these colors so that they are easy to tell apart for people whose color vision is not trichromatic. I actually put a fair amount of thought into that. What I'm planning now is MIDI CC support, which again means telling several things apart by color. For the first release I'm planning 8 CC lanes. I can't share the details yet, but this part of the design is hard.
As for the feature itself, MIDI Learn takes more than simply implementing it. I also have to think about setting the minimum and maximum values, and how easily you can get there. That part is tricky too, and I'm still thinking it over.
I've been busy lately with a move from Kashiwa to Niigata City. This move also came from my chronic conditions getting worse. The first reason is that the sleep and psychiatric hospital I went to while I was in the master's program at Niigata University is in Niigata, and I wanted to be in the care of my doctor there again. The second reason was to lower my rent, since I've gone from an 8-hour to a 6-hour workday.
I live with a developmental disability, depression and a sleep disorder all at once, and doctors who know these fields well enough to treat me are quite rare. If I go to an ordinary small clinic, they either turn me away or write me a referral to a large hospital on the spot. There are of course knowledgeable doctors in the Tokyo area too, but from around Kashiwa I would have had to go into central Tokyo or out toward Tsukuba. Crowded trains are also hard for me and make me nauseous, so I chose Niigata, where getting to appointments is easy. By the way, Niigata has wonderful water, rice and seafood.
This is the first post I've written from my new home. Either way, I'm not about to let go of IMFMSynth and give up on it, and I'll keep supporting it. In fact, the major update, MIDI CC support included, is currently planned in two stages. For now, look forward to v1.2.0.