Frequently Asked Questions
From Synthesia Help
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Frequently Asked Questions
What are the system requirements?
A Windows PC or Mac made in the last 5 years is usually plenty.
On the Windows side Synthesia supports Windows XP (SP2 or later), Vista, or Windows 7. On the Mac side, OS X 10.4 and above are supported.
As for system speed, the most important thing you need is 3D hardware acceleration. Otherwise, the game only uses about 20 MB of RAM and should run on anything about 1 GHz or faster.
If you are having trouble with speed, using the "Synthesia Configuration" tool to reduce the video resolution the game uses will often help. In Windows, sometimes switching to the OpenGL renderer (in the same tool) can help, too.
To use online features like the online recital scoreboards, you'll need an active Internet connection.
The built-in Windows synth is slow and doesn't sound great, see next.
Use your keyboard's synth or a free software driver.
If your keyboard has an on-board synth, that's usually your best bet. It will be the fastest and usually sounds pretty nice. Otherwise, one great (and free!) alternative is using a software MIDI driver and a "Sound Font" to go with it.
The BASSMIDI driver (by Kode54 and MudLord) along with the WeedsGM3 sound font (by Rich Nagel) are just such a combo. BASSMIDI improves latency and WeedsGM3 sounds great. Lots of information over here, but here are the short instructions:
1. Download the BASSMIDI driver and install it. 2. Download the WeedsGM3 sound font. 3. Extract the sound font archive and then run the WeedsGM3.sfArk.exe file to unpack the SF2 file. 4. Run the "Configure Driver" start menu item for BASSMIDI driver, click Add, point it at the WeedsGM3.SF2 file, and click Apply.
Once you've done that, a new output device will appear in Synthesia. It should be faster and sound better than the built-in Windows synth.
I found a bug. What can I do?
Tell Nicholas about it in the forums or email.
The goal is that Synthesia "just works" for every single user. If you find something out of the ordinary, please report it!
Head over to the bug reports section of the forum and make a post. Everyone there is friendly. In an emergency, email Nicholas directly.
High CPU Usage
High CPU utilization can cause heat problems with laptops. A temporary solution for it is a FPS limiter. This increases CPU idle time in expense of frame rate.
Mac: Sound stops playing
This is an old Apple bug that only affects the Quicktime synth. There are two workarounds. Either one should do the trick.
- Use a different output device.
- Turn off "Keep pedal events while using QuickTime synth." down in the advanced options section.
