Version 1.20.2

2026-09-01

Changed

• Clearer control labels. The master knobs now read Volume and Velocity in full (they were "Vol" and "Vel", a letter apart and easy to mix up), the Modern engine's per-voice filter is labeled "Voice Filter" with a spelled-out envelope, and the step sequencer's buttons now show tooltips.

Fixed

• Minor internal stability and thread-safety improvements.

Version 1.20.1

2026-08-26

Fixed

• Modern engine panel layout. On shorter windows the filter section's labels could overlap the envelope section and the global controls could spill past their area, and some knob labels and values were clipped. Each section now keeps its controls within its own space and the labels read in full.

Version 1.20.0

2026-08-26

Added

• A resonant filter on every Modern voice. Each note runs through its own low-pass, high-pass, or band-pass filter with a dedicated envelope, so cutoff sweeps, plucks, and slow pad swells happen per note instead of through one shared tone control. Keytracking, velocity, and MPE slide can each open the cutoff, and three new presets (Acid Bass, Filter Sweep Pad, Filter Pluck) put it to work. Existing presets sound exactly as before.

Version 1.19.0

2026-08-25

Changed

• New brand identity across the app, installers, and website. The synth engine, its sound, and the factory presets are unchanged.

Version 1.18.2

2026-08-23

Security

• Update hardening. The in-app updater now trusts a list of signing keys rather than a single one, and the release-signing key was rotated to a freshly generated, backed-up key. If you're on 1.18.1, download 1.18.2 once from this site to update; every update after that is automatic again, and future key rotations no longer interrupt anyone.

Version 1.18.1

2026-08-21

Added

• Linux packages: a .deb (Debian, Ubuntu, Mint, Pop!_OS), a .rpm (Fedora, openSUSE), and a portable tarball with an install script for everything else. VST3, CLAP and the standalone, x86-64.

Changed

• A refreshed brand mark across the app and site, and the interface now renders the same typeface on every platform — Windows and Linux previously fell back to a default font.

Fixed

• Changing presets no longer steals keyboard focus from note entry.
• A too-small window no longer collapses the panels, and held notes no longer stick when a menu opens.
• The two Split presets are now labelled (Multitrack).

Security

• The in-app updater now verifies a signed release manifest and only accepts installer downloads from the official location, so a tampered update cannot redirect it elsewhere.

Version 1.18.0

2026-08-19

Added

• Free 14-day trial. Open the license window and start a trial with your email — the full plugin unlocks for 14 days, then returns to demo mode. The trial is tied to your machine and email, and the badge shows the days left.
• A first-run guided tour of the interface: presets, the two engines, effects, modulation, the step sequencer and the keyboard. Skippable anytime, and re-runnable from Help.
• Warpzone checks for updates on launch and offers the newest build when one exists, and shows the changelog the first time you run a new version.
• The standalone reopens with the preset you were on — name and sound both.

Changed

• The demo-mode static is quieter, and it pauses while the license window is open so it never plays over you mid-activation.
• The license window no longer resizes as you switch options, the “Buy a license” link is now a prominent button, and the trial has its own form.

Version 1.17.1

2026-08-14

Changed

• Preset lists are alphabetical everywhere you browse. The preset browser sorts every folder view A to Z, including "All presets" and search results, and every submenu of the preset menu is sorted the same way, so a preset is found by name instead of by remembering where the factory order keeps it.
• The preset menu gains an "All" entry at the top: the entire library, factory and user presets together, as one flat alphabetical list, for when you know the name but not the category.
• Unchanged on purpose: the arrow buttons still step through presets in category order, so auditioning the library front to back keeps its guided-tour grouping.

Version 1.17.0

2026-08-14

Added

• Configurable Split-mode MIDI routing. A new "Ch" button beside the MIDI-mode menu opens a per-voice channel map, so any voice can be driven by any MIDI channel (1 to 16), and two voices can share a channel to stack. Save a map two ways: "Set as default" keeps it as your global routing across preset changes, or tick "Include channel routing" when saving a preset to store the map with that patch so it loads with the sound.

Version 1.16.5

2026-08-12

Changed

• The license window is cleaner: the "Buy a license" link renders at the right size, the activation-success screen lays out properly, and once licensed you can copy your own key. Opening Warpzone unlicensed now shows the license prompt so you can enter a key or continue in demo.

Fixed

• Demo mode no longer interrupts the instant it loads; it waits a little before the first reminder.

Version 1.16.4

2026-08-11

Fixed

• VGM/VGZ import now recovers the vast majority of real-world files. Imports were silently discarding most of a track: stopping at the loop point, dropping notes from drivers that set volume just after triggering a note, and sampling PAL rips a fifth too fast. Importing a chip tune now captures the whole piece, at the right speed.

Changed

• Licensing internals were refreshed under the hood. The synth sounds and plays exactly the same, and licensed users need do nothing. Beta testers will receive updated keys by email.

Version 1.16.3

2026-08-10

Changed

• A/B compare is now two explicit slots. The old single button silently snapshotted on each flip, so it looked like it did nothing. There are now A and B buttons plus a copy arrow: click a slot to load it (the slot you leave keeps your edits), and copy the shown slot into the other to start them from the same sound and diverge.

Version 1.16.2

2026-08-09

Fixed

• macOS installer: the standalone app now installs (and updates) into Applications. It shares an identifier with the plugins, and the installer was relocating past it on any machine that already had a Warpzone plugin, so upgrades silently skipped the app. It is now installed at its own location unconditionally.
• Windows: the Updates → Upgrade button now actually runs the downloaded installer. It was quitting the app without launching it, so the update appeared to do nothing (the window just closed). A helper now waits for the app to close, runs the installer, and relaunches, matching macOS.

Version 1.16.1

2026-08-09

Fixed

• Windows: the app and plugins now launch on a clean machine. Every previous Windows build required the Visual C++ runtime to be installed separately; without it the app failed to open with no error at all. The runtime is now built in.
• The window no longer opens oversized with a black gutter on the right, and resizes correctly, when the display forces the UI below 100%: a small laptop or a low-resolution machine (a 1280x800 VM reproduced it). The resize limits were fixed in unscaled pixels, so a scaled-down editor had its window padded back out past the content. This was cross-platform; it was just most visible on small Windows displays.
• The Upgrade button's quit-and-install flow now actually works end to end in the standalone. Three stacked bugs: the app quit immediately after handing the installer to the system (which could silently drop the launch), shutdown deleted the verified installer file before it could open, and the relaunch watcher checked for the installer before it had appeared. The installer launch is now owned by a detached watcher that outlives the app, the download survives shutdown, and cancelling the installer returns you to the app you were running, even on a first-ever install.

Version 1.16.0

2026-08-09

Added

• The Updates dialog can now install an update for you: Upgrade downloads the installer for your platform, verifies its checksum against the published manifest, and launches it. No more hunting for the download page mid-session.
• Crash reporting in the standalone app. If Warpzone crashes, the next launch offers to send the report: plugin version, OS version, and a stack trace; no audio, no files, nothing personal. Nothing is ever sent without asking, "never send" is remembered, and reports always stay readable on disk either way. Plugin formats deliberately don't install a crash handler (that would interfere with your DAW's own crash reporting); the standalone is where a crash would otherwise vanish.
• MPE slide and pressure now shape the sound: slide (CC74) morphs oscillator B's level per note (from silent, through the knob setting, to doubled), and pressure drives per-note volume expression. Notes from a non-MPE keyboard are completely unaffected.
• PAL chiptune files import correctly: the VGM importer now reads the file's region clock and frame rate, so PAL tunes land at their true pitch and their instrument macros play at 50 Hz instead of being run 20% fast.

Changed

• Factory presets are now organised under two engine parents, Classic and Modern, in both the preset menu and the browser, each with its own category folders. The Modern bank's single 34-preset list is gone: those presets now live in real categories (Basics, Bass, Lead, Pad, Pluck/Key, Texture, Arp). Four Modern-engine presets that were filed under Classic categories (and unreachable from Modern mode) now appear in the right place.
• The license dialog's machine-code caption now names the offline activation page.

Fixed

• Velocity-to-filter (the Modern panel's VEL>FLT knob) now actually opens the filter with velocity. It was displayed, saved, and referenced by two factory presets, but wired to nothing.

Version 1.15.0

2026-08-06

Added

• The Help button now opens a searchable in-plugin manual: thirteen chapters styled after the web operator's manual, with type-to-filter search across everything: both engines, wheels and the CC map, the step sequencer, effects, presets, VGM import, and shortcuts.
• 17 new Modern factory presets, doubling the Modern bank to 34. They lean on what the polyphonic engine does best: dual-oscillator beating, wide unison stacks, portamento leads, and make real use of the effects chain. All level-matched against the existing library.
• The Modern panel has been redesigned: controls scale with the window, the envelope is now a draggable curve editor (grab the attack, decay, sustain and release nodes directly), and each oscillator shows its waveform in a live display: click it to cycle waveforms, right-click for the list.
• The oscilloscope plays a full-width launch animation on open, then hands over to the live signal.

Changed

• The mod wheel now works with no setup: push it for classic vibrato, up to ±50 cents, on both engines. This is independent of the LFO section; the LFO remains a sound-design layer, the wheel is performance. CC 1 no longer writes to the LFO vibrato depth parameter; use MIDI Learn on CC 1 if you relied on the old routing.
• The master Vol / Tune / Vel / Bend sliders are now knobs, clustered in a restyled top bar row with the Warpzone badge.

Fixed

• The pitch wheel bends notes that are already sounding. Previously a bend only landed on the next note played, and landed on it twice. Per-note MPE bend responds live now too.
• When vibrato ended mid-note (wheel released, or the LFO switched off), the pitch could stick slightly off-centre until the next note. It now returns exactly to base.

Version 1.14.2

2026-08-04

Fixed

• The two pulse channels now sound below G#2. A hardware-accurate sweep quirk muted them for the whole bass register at default settings; chip-era sound drivers worked around it, and a keyboard player shouldn't have to.
• Pulse channel loudness now falls smoothly with volume. It previously dropped ~9.5 dB in a single step in the middle of the range, and the pulse waveform was inverted relative to the other channels, so a pulse doubling the triangle partially cancelled instead of reinforcing.
• Sustain pedal behaviour: lifting the pedal no longer cuts notes whose keys are still held; a quick pedal tap can no longer leave a note stuck on; and Hold or Sustain now latch the arpeggiator, which is the point of using them together.
• Portamento glides are no longer cut short the moment vibrato or a step-sequencer pitch change touches the same note.
• Modern engine: releasing one note of a chord no longer drops step-sequencer modulation for the notes still sounding, and lowering the voice count while notes were held no longer leaves silent stuck voices that blare back when it is raised again.
• Tempo-synced delay stays musically in time at slow tempos; times past the delay's 2-second line now halve to the nearest division that fits.
• The filter can no longer go unstable when the host runs at a low sample rate.
• The final movement of a MIDI-learned controller gesture could occasionally be dropped, leaving the parameter just short of where you left it.
• Importing a preset or bank no longer overwrites your own presets when names collide, a single imported preset returns to the folder it was exported from, and a preset that fails to write (full disk, read-only folder) now says so instead of reporting success.
• VGM import: instruments captured from different channels are no longer merged into one, decaying envelopes are no longer mistaken for loops (which re-attacked audibly on playback), and malformed or oversized files can no longer freeze the plugin during import.
• License robustness: a computer whose clock had once jumped far into the future could permanently report a valid beta key as expired with no way to recover; re-activating with the key now clears it. Escape now cancels a hung activation request, several misleading error messages are accurate, and a briefly unreadable disk no longer drops a licensed plugin into demo mode mid-session.
• Assorted hardening under the hood: audio-thread safety in the arpeggiator and sample loader, clean network teardown when the editor closes during activation, and bounds-hardened file parsing throughout.

Changed

• Mid-volume pulse levels differ slightly as a consequence of the volume-law fix above; full-volume balance is unchanged.

Version 1.14.1

2026-08-03

Fixed

• License keys that were wrapped onto several lines in transit are now accepted. A key is long enough that email and chat clients break it across lines, and a pasted key that contained a line break was rejected as "not recognised" even though it was perfectly valid.

Changed

• The preset browser can now be reached and operated by screen readers and other assistive technology. Its folders and presets previously existed only as painted graphics with nothing behind them.
• The step sequencer is now keyboard-editable, and reachable by assistive technology. Arrow keys move between steps and change values, shift moves in larger increments, home and end jump to either end, and drawing past the last step extends the lane the same way dragging does.

Version 1.14.0

2026-08-02

Added

• Preset browser (the Browse button, or "Browse Library..." at the foot of the preset menu): folders, search, envelope previews, a detail form for renaming and moving, drag and drop including folder nesting, New Folder, Duplicate, folder export as a bank, and one-click backup of all your presets.
• Importing from a VGM/VGZ file now shows a review first: every instrument it found, with its envelope drawn, so you choose what to keep before anything is written. Imports land in their own folder per game.
• Step sequences can now run up to 64 steps (previously 16). The editor still shows the familiar 16-step page and widens only when a lane needs more.

Changed

• The preset menu is a compact list of categories with fly-out submenus instead of a wall of columns.
• VGM import keeps plain sustained tones (previously discarded) and folds near-duplicate captures of the same instrument into one preset, keeping the longest take. Re-import your files to get full envelope tails and the cleaned-up instrument lists.
• Saving a preset now offers the current preset's name (or "<name> copy" for factory presets) and saves into the folder you are working in.

Fixed

• Saving a tweaked preset that lives in a folder no longer creates a duplicate at the top level instead of overwriting.
• Importing a preset or bank now selects what was imported instead of an unrelated preset.

Version 1.13.2

2026-08-01

Fixed

• The bit crusher's RATE control now affects both channels. It previously applied sample-rate reduction to the left channel only, so any patch with RATE turned up sounded lopsided: gritty on one side, smooth on the other.

Changed

• The Warpzone mark now appears in the top bar next to the version.

Version 1.13.1

2026-08-01

Added

• Windows installer covering the VST3, CLAP and standalone builds, so the plugin formats no longer have to be copied into place by hand. It is not code signed yet, so Windows shows a warning the first time you run it; choose More info, then Run anyway.
• A "Buy a license" link in the license dialog, shown only when the plugin is unlicensed.

Changed

• Instruments imported from a VGM file now land in their own folder per game instead of being mixed in with your own presets, and the preset list shows each import as its own section.
• Beta license keys now activate online and bind to a single machine, so a key that gets passed around no longer unlocks the plugin everywhere.

Fixed

• macOS builds are now a universal binary (Apple Silicon + Intel). 1.13.0 shipped arm64-only and would not launch on Intel Macs; the build now compiles both slices (CMAKE_OSX_ARCHITECTURES).
• Deleting a user preset now removes the file it was loaded from. Two presets whose names reduced to the same filename could previously delete each other's file.

Version 1.13.0

2026-07-31

First public release of the licensing line; 1.12.0 existed only as a private beta (proprietary relicense, purchase watermarking, distribution hardening).

Added

• Demo mode: unlicensed instances overlay a short noise burst every ~45s of audio; everything else works, so the full plugin is the demo.
• Licensing: retail keys activate online once and bind to a machine (3 machines per order, self-serve deactivation from the license badge); after activation the license validates fully offline, forever. Beta keys carry an expiry date and never contact a server.
• License badge in the top bar (DEMO / BETA / LICENSE) opening a themed in-editor dialog: paste-a-key activation with inline progress and errors, copyable machine code for offline activation, licensee info, deactivation.
• Purchase watermarking and per-buyer license emails (fulfilment via the store's license server).

Changed

• Relicensed as proprietary (from the 1.11 source-available line); see LICENSE and the EULA.
• Support contact is [email protected] throughout.