Audio cues
- Cues for send/receive on-off, minimise/restore, checkbox tick/untick, and tab switch
- Soft keyboard clicks while typing, with a distinct passkey sound on password fields
- Per-cue "Choose sound" variant picker; "(none)" silences a cue; front-most missing-sound warning
- Send/receive cues take priority over the generic checkbox sound; programmatic ticks stay silent
Preferences
- Redesigned into four tabs (General, Audio cues, Startup behaviour, Update settings)
- Startup behaviour moved in from the Options menu
- NVDA now announces the dialog on open (focus a real named control, not the quiet tab control)
Auto-tune
- Cause-aware: tells device render-callback stalls (more buffer can't fix) apart from genuine
network/buffer starvation, so it no longer pins latency high on chunky onboard cards
- Lowering the target eases the buffer down (glide) instead of trimming it, so no clicks while tuning
Sounds layout
- Shipped defaults moved out of the per-user folder into an install-side "default sounds" folder,
so updates can refresh them; user customs are Browse-picked file paths and are left untouched
- Startup migration removes both legacy sound folders; verified from oldest (v1.0-v3.3) and v3.4 layouts
Quiet automated launches
- New --silent launch flag mutes all cue sounds and suppresses the startup dialogs (migration notice,
update check, Realtek/mic/missing-sound warnings) so test launches never disturb the user
- run-tests / build-release / SelfTest repointed to the new "default sounds" layout
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Part 1 - "Uncheck all inputs and outputs" button now also resets the ASIO driver to "(none)":
renamed to say so, and UncheckAllDevices sets asioDriverBox to row 0 for a full clean
WASAPI-only, nothing-selected state.
Part 2 - checkbox tick/untick sounds: every checkbox toggle anywhere in RemSound now plays a
short cue (check.wav on tick, uncheck.wav on untick) - instant feedback on which way a box
went, especially in the inputs/outputs lists. New CheckSoundService + two machine-wide cues
(CheckboxOn/Off) with the usual numbered-variant + Preferences treatment. Hooked from
AccessibleCheckBox.OnCheckedChanged and the device lists' WireCheckedListAccessibility, both
gated on the control being Focused so a genuine user toggle clicks but bulk programmatic
(un)checking (profile load, "uncheck all") stays silent. Reloaded at startup and on cue change.
Tests + manual updated; .sfk byproducts cleared.
Remaining for the overhaul (next): tabbed Preferences (General / Audio cues / Startup behaviour /
Update settings), the cue-list redesign with a "none" option replacing per-cue checkboxes, moving
Startup behaviour out of the Options menu, and a front-most "missing sound file" error.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Cue sounds now ship as numbered variants ("connect 1.wav", "connect 2.wav", ...); the
count is never hard-coded so more can be added with no code change.
- CueSounds.cs: discovers a cue's "<base> <n>.wav" variants (case-insensitive) and
resolves the active default: per-profile custom WAV > machine-wide chosen variant >
first variant > silent. Wired into MainForm.TryLoadCueSound, the startup cue in
Program.cs, and PreferencesDialog.ResolveCueFilePath.
- AppConfig: DefaultCueSounds (machine-wide cueId -> chosen filename) and
EnableKeyboardClicks (on by default).
- Preferences: a "Choose default sound" listbox under the cue checklist - it lists the
selected cue's variants, arrowing it previews each sound and makes it that cue's
default. Plus a "Play keyboard clicks when typing into any edit field" checkbox.
- KeyClickService.cs: an app-wide WM_CHAR message filter + a low-latency NAudio mixer.
Typing into any edit field plays a random key click (key 1..N.wav); password fields
also play passkey.wav at the same instant. On/off live from the Preferences toggle.
Inert if the sounds are missing or the device won't open; never consumes the keystroke.
- csproj: ship every sounds\*.wav via a wildcard (variants, key clicks, passkey, future
additions) instead of stale per-file canonical names.
- Tests: resource checks (self-test + run-tests.ps1) now verify each cue has >=1 variant
and that key 1.wav / passkey.wav are present. Accessibility audit still green with the
new Preferences controls (Alt+D, Alt+K - no mnemonic clashes).
- Manual: variant picker, keyboard clicks, and the new sound-file naming documented.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Adopted from Andre's RemSound-smoke-test-agent-brief.md - the gaps our pack didn't
already cover:
- --config-dir <folder>: redirect ALL user state (config, profiles, logs, cue
sounds) to an explicit folder for this process only, applied at the very start of
Program.Main before the layout migration runs. Lets a test exercise a real build
without touching the user's live settings (the brief's safety rule 1). Works with
every command. AppConfig gains SetUserDataDirectoryOverride / an override on
UserDataDirectory; CommandLine.TryGetConfigDir parses it early.
- --smoke-test / --smoketest: alias for --selftest, matching the brief's vocabulary.
- run-tests.ps1: a cold-start + clean-close smoke (brief baseline steps 3-4) -
launches the GUI minimized against an isolated --config-dir, confirms it stays up,
that it used the isolated folder (real settings untouched), and that --close shuts
it down with no orphan process. SKIPs cleanly if a RemSound instance is already
running (machine-wide single-instance lock).
Manual + --help updated for both switches.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
- Receiver: a plain (Mixed) stream now renders on an active lane when the
receiver is in two-lane (ASIO) mode, instead of being decoded into a ring
nothing reads. Fixes one-way silence ("my mic works for me but not for them").
- Receiver: drift resampler gains a buffer-depth correction term so a bloated
standing buffer eases back to the latency target over a long session.
- App: don't send audio until a peer is genuinely reachable (issue #8); status
no longer shows phantom send traffic with nobody connected.
- App: start-up cue sound (machine-wide toggle + custom path in Preferences).
- App: command-line options (CommandLine.cs) -- --devices, --selftest,
--diagnostics, --log, --close, --profile, --connect, --minimized, --version,
--help. New "Command-line options" manual section (readme.html + MANUAL.md).
- Version 3.9; About-dialog and RELEASE_NOTES updated.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Receiver: a Mixed (plain) session is rendered on an active lane in BothIndependent mode instead of being skipped, so a WASAPI-only sender is no longer silent to a receiver that has an ASIO driver selected. Also port the per-session buffer depth-drain (stops the receive jitter buffer bloating).
Sender: add sndAudFr meter (audio frames actually sent) to localise capture vs send.
App: startup sound cue (machine-wide, Preferences); stop sending audio when no peer is reachable (issue #8). Version 3.9.1.
Server (relay): fix updater version-compare for multi-dot tags, guard the main loop against crashes, reject spoofed BYE from a mismatched endpoint.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
New profile: a File-menu item + Ctrl+N that loads a fresh blank template as a
new unsaved session via a LoadBlankTemplateNext handoff to Program.cs's relaunch
loop — reachable even when "start with a specific profile" boots past the picker
(issue #6). Offers to save the current profile first if dirty; deliberately
silent (no profile-switch cue).
Renamed the user-facing "blank template" to "New profile": the picker's synthetic
entry (now a distinct marker TYPE, collision-safe against a real profile named
"New profile"), the window title ("RemSound — New profile"), and the manual.
Fixed the password-mismatch warning flashing away: it's raised from the 1 Hz
statusTimer, which kept firing into the modal loop and rebuilt the peer lists
(SyncAllPeerLists) under the dialog, knocking it out of the foreground. Now the
tick is frozen while it's up, it's routed through ForegroundDialog, and a
re-entry guard ensures one warning that stays put. Audited: it was the only
popup raised from a recurring timer.
Docs: manual section "Connecting to one specific IP address (and only that one)"
explaining by-name vs by-fixed-IP and that a profile saves the exact address
(issue #7 — functionality already existed); About box + RELEASE_NOTES for v3.8;
MANUAL.md regenerated.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Replace the generated cmd.exe + robocopy update helper — which silently
failed on some machines — with an in-app C# installer:
* Stage the new version to a per-user temp folder off the install and run
the new RemSound.exe from there, so nothing in the install is locked by
the updater itself.
* Wait for the old process to fully exit (real WaitForExit), then
back-up-and-swap files in C# with retry + rename-aside; roll the install
back to the previous version on any failure, so a failed update can never
leave a half-installed RemSound.
* Log every step to updater.log; clean up old stages and legacy batch
artefacts on launch. Removed the old BuildInstallScript batch generator.
Route the "RemSound is already running" dialog and its follow-up message
through ForegroundDialog so they surface in front from a background-relaunched
copy, matching the earlier post-update fix.
Docs: rewrite the readme update sections for the new mechanism, regenerate
MANUAL.md, refresh the About-box changelog and RELEASE_NOTES.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
- Recover an unplugged/replugged output sound card automatically (issue #5):
detect the dead WASAPI device and remember the receive-output selection so it
re-ticks and re-opens when the card returns.
- Adaptive per-card WASAPI buffer target sized to each card's pull chunk, held
stable so it never flits about under CPU/network load.
- Consolidate all per-user data (config, profiles, logs, sounds) into one
"user settings and logs" folder; migrate every older layout; exclude it from
the updater so custom cue sounds now survive updates.
- Mic-privacy detector: warn once when a Windows-blocked mic is switched on, or a
profile loads with one already on.
- All warning/notice dialogs now come to the foreground even when minimised.
- Apply volume + mute on profile load (were saved but not restored).
- Crash-safe (atomic) profile/config saves.
- Fix two resource leaks (push-mode capture MMDevice; UPnP DeviceFound handler).
- Remove dead code (baseline-diff machinery, dead ASIO probes, no-op stubs).
- Docs: readme.html, MANUAL.md, About-box changelog and release notes for v3.5.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Builds on the v3.4 freeze (dd70613) with the fixes and tuning from live testing,
plus the v3.4 documentation pass.
Audio (receiver):
- Per-device WASAPI drift correction in MultiOutputPlayout. A pull-side resampler
(mirroring SessionPlayout's proven corrector) holds each output device's buffer at
a fixed low depth, cancelling the slow clock drift that made WASAPI peers "lag
apart" over long sessions. Feed-forward clock-ratio measurement plus a gentle
depth-restoring term; the first measurement window is discarded because WASAPI
start-up priming poisons it. ASIO already self-corrected; this brings WASAPI level.
- Output device buffer requested at 5 ms (WASAPI clamps it up to the device's minimum
period, ~10 ms) instead of 15 ms, since the corrector keeps it fed — a free saving.
UI / accessibility (MainForm, Program):
- Startup notices (what's-new About box, Realtek warning) now run one at a time via a
single sequence instead of separate BeginInvokes, so they no longer stack into
nested modals that couldn't be closed. The loading splash is skipped for a
tray-bound quick switch.
- Quick profile switch keeps RemSound in the tray if it was there, and plays the
switch cue immediately on click.
- Profile-switch cue now plays on click for every switch path (recent menu, quick
switch, File > Open) and no longer on a fresh start into the first profile. It was
also previously dead on the rebuilt form (pendingProfile was nulled first).
- Realtek ASIO toggle's accessible name now reads "Enable"/"Disable" to match the
visible text, instead of "Toggle" (screen reader read the wrong word).
Docs (plain English):
- RELEASE_NOTES.md: v3.4 entry.
- About dialog: v3.4 "what's new".
- readme.html (the canonical bundled manual): quick switch, the hotkey read-outs, the
new profile-menu-open cue, Realtek auto-detect/disable, and the config-folder path.
- MANUAL.md regenerated from readme.html via sync-manual.py so the two stay in sync.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Freezes the v3.4 feature set (everything since the v3.3 public release):
- Fix the receiver handle leak: the 3-second device-refresh timer reopened the
configured ASIO driver every tick, and Realtek's ASIO driver leaks Event+Mutant
handles on every open. Cache the ASIO probe per driver so it is opened once.
- Realtek ASIO block: detect a Realtek ASIO driver, offer once to disable it, and
never touch it again if disabled; Options-menu toggle to reverse. Global config.
- Device hot-plug is event-driven (AudioDeviceChangeNotifier) instead of a 3s poll;
debounced refresh, falls back to polling if registration fails.
- Quick profile switch: new global hotkey opens an NVDA-friendly popup of all
profiles (current marked); Enter/click switches; plays a new "profile menu open"
cue with Preferences mute + custom-sound.
- Announce assigned global hotkeys on the controls/menu items they drive (NVDA reads
"press X anywhere"). File > Open already had Ctrl+O.
- Held-back changes folded in: config-folder migration, codec-column fix, Tailscale
endpoint network-prune, empty-password guard, and the handle-leak diagnostics
(ProcessSelfMeter, HandleTypeProbe).
Version bumped to 3.4.0.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Fixes the chained-fault runaway Andre hit after an update (multiple copies
stacking, audio climbing to deafening, terminal kill to recover).
- Single-instance lock (SingleInstanceCoordinator + SingleInstanceDialog,
wired in Program.Main). A named mutex makes two copies impossible. A second
launch offers: switch to the running copy (default; surfaces it from the
tray via a named activation event), or force the running copy closed and
start fresh (Process.Kill, retried elevated if the target is elevated).
This is the structural fix that makes the stacking runaway impossible.
- Prompt-free update exit. InstallUpdateAsync sets updatingInProgress before
Application.Exit(); the close path's skipPrompt now honours it, so no
unsaved-changes dialog (whose default button is Cancel) can abort the
update's restart.
- Read-only persistence fix. BuildCurrentProfile now carries
currentProfileReadOnly into the saved snapshot. Previously a deliberate
save of a locked profile wrote ReadOnly=false, silently unlocking it on
disk — which re-armed the save prompt that then blocked the update.
- In-process double-install guard. updateInstallStarted stops the ~4 s
startup check and the background poll both staging an install + helper.
- Docs: About box, RELEASE_NOTES.md, readme.html + MANUAL.md ("Only one copy
of RemSound runs at a time").
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
* New "Opus, live latency" codec mode: 2.5 ms frames (120 samples/ch at 48 kHz)
via the float-input encode path. End-to-end codec delay drops to ~5 ms (vs
~12.5 ms at standard 10 ms Opus). Test on LAN: 400 pps/lane, zero missed /
reordered / duplicate packets, ~15 ms one-way saved end-to-end.
* Wire-format change: AudioFormatInfo.FrameDurationMilliseconds renamed to
FrameSamplesPerChannel (int sample-count at announced sample rate). Removes
the lossy 48000*ms/1000 conversion that couldn't represent 2.5 ms. v3 <-> v3
exact; v3 <-> v2 still passes audio (Opus decoder is self-describing from
packet TOC) but v2 side over-sizes its buffer wildly. v2.x profiles auto-
migrate via <120 sentinel rule in RemSoundSettingsStore (anything below 120
is treated as legacy ms and multiplied by 48). Profile JSON key kept as
OpusFrameMilliseconds via [JsonPropertyName] so old profile files still load.
* Codec dropdown rebuilt with use-case names: "PCM 48K 24 bit - uncompressed",
"Opus, broadcast quality - loss tolerant", "Opus, live latency - for jamming
and monitoring". Middle 10 ms option retired; saved 480-sample profiles
collapse to broadcast quality (safer-side default).
* Profile auto-resume after self-update: RemSoundUpdater writes a one-shot
_resume-after-update.txt sentinel containing the active profile title before
exit; Program.Main reads + deletes it on next start and silently loads that
profile, skipping the picker. Helper batch's robocopy /XF excludes the
sentinel and the failure-branch cleans it up if the install aborts. Falls
through to normal startup behaviour (StartWithProfileTitle or picker) if the
sentinel is missing, empty, or names a profile that no longer exists.
* Read-only profile saves now go through on explicit Ctrl+S / File -> Save
with a one-time TaskDialog warning ("Save anyway" / "Cancel" + Do-not-show-
again). Lock continues to suppress the automatic unsaved-changes prompt on
close / profile switch (its main job). AppConfig.SaveOnReadOnlyMessageSuppressed
renamed to SaveOnReadOnlyWarningSuppressed; v2.x suppression flag is silently
discarded since the behaviour changed and the user needs to see the warning
once on each machine.
* Manual (readme.html) updated: codec table rewritten with the three new
choices and corrected bandwidth figures, send-rate description updated, new
sections "The same profile picks up automatically after an update" and
"Saving on purpose while a profile is locked".
* Subsumes the never-separately-released v2.2 work: native Opus encoder
(~97% less per-second memory churn on Opus send path via Concentus.Native),
efficiency tidy-ups (item 4 ASIO probe rate, item 6 WaitHandle, item 7
snapshot cache, items 14/16 heartbeat + discovery), legacy cleanup
(items 30/34/35/36: KeepAlive infrastructure, drift drop/repeat/accumulator
fields, fan-out cache stat). New diagnostic columns cpu/memMB/wsMB/
allocKBps/captureMs/sendMs/recvMs/renderMs gated on Enable-logs.
About dialog updated with v3.0 block at top; v2.2 block retained for the
subsumed work.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Opening an ASIO driver takes 1-3 seconds, synchronously, during MainForm
construction — confirmed in logs as a ~2.8s dead gap on an ASIO-profile
launch (a WASAPI-only launch is ~131ms for the same stretch). During that
gap the main window is blank / "Not Responding" and looks hung.
New AsioLoadingSplash shows a small "Loading audio driver, please wait..."
window on its OWN dedicated STA thread with its own message loop, so it
stays painted while the main thread is blocked opening the driver.
Program.cs starts it before new MainForm() and dismisses it after.
Deliberately, the ASIO driver open stays on the main UI thread — that
STA/message-pump thread is what ASIO/COM drivers are most compatible with,
and moving the open off it risks breaking drivers that can't be tested.
Only the cosmetic splash moved to a side thread; no ASIO/driver code is
touched. Splash shows only for profiles with an ASIO driver selected;
WASAPI-only profiles build fast and get no splash.
Version bumped to 2.0.0 to mark the milestone.
No wire-format or audio-pipeline changes — v1.5 through v2.0 interoperate.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <noreply@anthropic.com>
EdnunpandClaude Opus 4.8