Synthesia 0.8.3

Archived development update discussion from past versions
Archived development updates.
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Nicholas
Posts: 13135

Post by Nicholas »

Alright, 0.8.2 is now available on the front page and it's great. Easily my favorite release ever. Took longer than I was expecting though. ;)

The 0.8.3 release is going to be necessarily shorter. (EDIT, April-2012: Ha! :lol: )

URL Handler

The URL handler thing will be so you can click a synthesia:// link in a webpage and it will open Synthesia, download the file automatically, and have you playing in just a few seconds. If people really embrace that method, you could almost ignore the idea of a song library and just choose your music from a web page directly. Gives lots more flexibility. It's not especially well-defined yet, but I want to be able to specify some light song options right in the URL like "play the left hand" kind of things so you could have a link for an exercise that will jump immediately into play.

Interface Flexibility

The interface stuff will be nice for computer users but it's largely a step to make Synthesia more effective on smaller screens like, say, an iPad screen. ;) It will be things like being able to collapse the toolbar/score/timeline area to conserve space. Hide the keyboard altogether. There will also be a little simplification going on. Vicentefer's favorite clock will be going away, for example. He won't need those Post-It notes anymore. ;)

Goals

The "goal stuff" is sort of going to be an alternate Song Library view. It will be driven by metadata files, allow for subcategories, and most importantly it will emphasize a new "progress" metric. Progress will be this notion of how much of a song you have "learned" using something like the idea of "objectives".

The first objective for any song might simply be to listen to it. Just watching it all the way through might give you 5% (total) progress on the song. Though, if you decide to jump right in and play it immediately, you'll technically be listening to it at the same time, so that progress will tag along automatically. The next objectives might be to practice the melody of each hand separately (two separate objectives). Though, again if you jump in with both hands and practice that way, you can knock them both out (along with the "listen to it" one) at the same time.

The objectives will continue to progress in difficulty and eventually reach things like melody practice with no mistakes, rhythm practice at 50% speed, both hands at 100% speed with few mistakes. Once you hit all of them you reach 100% progress for the song.

Imagine that metric being super-emphasized in the UI. The color of each song box will change as you reach each progress bracket. So as you hit 80%+ on songs, they'll be all the way lit up or something. So, at a glance, from your goals list you could click the "Electrode's Scales" section (marked with an average 47% progress), be presented with two (hypothetical) choices: "Standard Scales (85%)" and "Chromatic Scales (9%)", choose the first one and have a list pop up with most of the scales marked as "Complete" but a last few you haven't gotten to yet still in the low percentages.

That hierarchical nature (where the progress is allowed to trickle up to the whole set) seems like it can give some cool direction and structured play. You'll be able to work on something like "finishing" the G Major songs. It would not be unlike a pseudo-achievement system that you see in other video games.

What do you guys think? (This probably makes the left/right hand selection thing that went in 0.8.2's last preview make more sense. That was necessary to be able to have goals regarding individual hands.)
aria1121
Posts: 1505

Post by aria1121 »

Nicholas wrote:The interface stuff will be nice [...] Vicentefer's favorite clock will be going away
Why can't you conserve space for other things if you have a bigger screen? People who don't have an iPad should have a nicely aligned screen like it is now, but if you try to conserve more space then you'll have to chop some pieces out; here an idea: (click here to see whole image) (The menu is cut out but if you hover with your mouse over it it will magnify (sort of))
SpaceconservingIdea.png
SpaceconservingIdea.png (110.1 KiB) Viewed 27457 times
Nicholas wrote:The URL handler thing will be so you can click a synthesia:// link in a webpage and it will open Synthesia, download the file automatically, and have you playing in just a few seconds.
:?: This is what I tried to do with a Firefox addon in SynMIDQP, but if anyone can make it awesome it's you.
TieDyeGuy
Posts: 68

Post by TieDyeGuy »

Nicholas wrote:What do you guys think?
Hey Nicholas,
Really liking your goals conception. I just got Rocksmith for my son a couple of weeks ago. He has been playing guitar and taking lessons for 18 months. It is similar to Guitar Hero, but for real guitars, not the midi-hybrid that Rock Band 3 tried. I bring it up for two reasons.

As it relates to your goals scenario, my son really gets into practicing more than ever. He was doing well before, but most days he would phone in 30 minutes of practice because we told him to. Now he gets home, buzzes through homework, so he can start playing. He really enjoys practicing and seeing the progress that he makes. The instant feed back and clearly defined goals is an amazing incentive.

The other reason that I wanted to mention Rocksmith here is that I had not seen it mentioned yet in the forums. I know that I came to Synthesia after thinking that there should be a Guitar Hero like game for keyboards and doing a little Googling. I also know that you started a big push after the RB3 announcement about including a ‘keyboard’. So I wanted to draw your attention to another game out there that is trying to help people make the leap from gaming to learning an instrument. Hopefully any success that they have will also translate into more people finding their way to Synthesia.

Loving what you have done in 8.2 and looking forward to the goals in 8.3.
tdg
Thanks - tdg
Information is not knowledge. Knowledge is not wisdom. Wisdom is not truth. Truth is not beauty. Beauty is not love. Love is not music. Music is the best. - FRANK ZAPPA
Nicholas
Posts: 13135

Post by Nicholas »

aria1121 wrote:(The menu is cut out but if you hover with your mouse over it it will magnify (sort of))
That mock-up actually touches on a number of things I was going to attempt. And that bit about the mouse moving close to the menu auto-exposing it was almost exactly what I had in mind.
Antomas
Posts: 1

Post by Antomas »

Hi Nicholas,

I am a newcomer here (and to the piano world too), but really liked what Synthesia is, but reading your plans makes me even more excited. I especially love the goals idea - it touches on the greatest need of somebody learning - to help them (us!) stay motivated and directed.

Can't wait for this to materialize!
aria1121
Posts: 1505

Post by aria1121 »

Nicholas wrote:Vicentefer's favorite clock will be going away, for example.
But can we please keep the clock? :lol: sorry vicentefer
Raymond
Posts: 528

Post by Raymond »

Sounds good!

Will the Goals be per user? (Just making sure because currently the user is just a name on the score board.)
Nicholas
Posts: 13135

Post by Nicholas »

Raymond wrote:Will the Goals be per user?
Yes, that is the plan. I'm actually still trying to figure out how much more record keeping I'm going to need for the whole concept because scores.xml has nearly everything already. If I am able to go that route without introducing some new .xml file in the data directory, you might start up the Goals dev preview for the first time and see that you have substantial progress on the G Major set if you happened to have played it a lot previously.

It already discerns between melody/rhythm/(and since 0.8.1 I think, recital), and it already holds onto the left/right/both hand config hash thing. And all of those are associated with a user. Even the "watch the song" objective could pull from songInfo.xml and just look at the number of plays. (Though that one is not user specific. Hrm.)

Anyway, still working all that out. Instead of doing database join-type things with scores.xml to mine the information, it would be simpler to just start fresh with some new data file that just marks off objective progress in a direct way. And starting from scratch I could guarantee it would all be user-focused. And it would open the doors to more interesting/granular objectives later.

We'll see. :D
Raymond
Posts: 528

Post by Raymond »

I like the idea of using the scores.xml. But a new file would be a lot cleaner.
Maybe you could use both? Keep the scores in the scores then place the other stuff in some goal.xml file.
Nicholas wrote: config hash thing.
When do you think you'll get it in the metadata-gui? (so I can use it for matching score hashes with song names.)
Nicholas
Posts: 13135

Post by Nicholas »

Raymond wrote:
Nicholas wrote: config hash thing.
When do you think you'll get it in the metadata-gui? (so I can use it for matching score hashes with song names.)
It's in there now. I just posted about it a couple days ago. Whenever you look at a song (as of 0.8.2) it will write the hands you've selected (or that have been auto-detected) into songInfo.xml. And you can use the new-and-improved import feature in the metadata editor to extract those config hashes to your .synthesia files.
Raymond
Posts: 528

Post by Raymond »

What about other tracks?
Like some songs I play, I'll just play the soprano other times the alto or bass. All I can find is for 'default' songs. (or any song that would easily be split in two hands.)
Nicholas
Posts: 13135

Post by Nicholas »

Use the new hand-assignment thing in the track settings interface to set which hands are left and right (or just both if they aren't split). Then when you import in the metadata editor, those settings will come along. (And you'll be able to use the simple settings screen from there on out!)
Raymond
Posts: 528

Post by Raymond »

The problem with that, is for symphony or choir arrangements where there is more than two parts. And at times I play different parts.

But at lest there is a around about way for me to get the config hash. ;)
skyhawko450
Posts: 18

Post by skyhawko450 »

Hi Nicholas. I am having fun with release 1504 and I really like the changes! Just one question though. When I downloaded and updated to this release some of my "set ups" for songs in my library disappeared. Specifically, all the tracks that I had been playing were now all marked as being played by Synthesia. Maybe I checked a box that I wasn't supposed to, or perhaps it just resets things when you upgrade versions. Not a big deal, just wanted to let you know.

Thanks,
Bob
Nicholas
Posts: 13135

Post by Nicholas »

Hmm, that is a surprise to me. None of those settings should have been reset. Strange. I'll keep an ear out for others reporting the same thing.
GDM
Posts: 1

Post by GDM »

So... i have the free version of synthesia... and i was trying to download a song to add to my song list... and it said that i need quicktime 7 pro... i have quicktime 7, but not pro... so, do i need quicktime 7 pro for the $25 version of synthesia? or do i have to buy quicktime 7 pro also? :?:
Nicholas
Posts: 13135

Post by Nicholas »

You don't need either.

Instead of clicking on a MIDI file in your browser (which brings up the integrated QuickTime player), you can right-click it (before you even get to the little QuickTime play bar thing) and choose "Save Target As..." or "Save Link As..." depending on your browser. That will save the MIDI file to your computer.

After that, you can just drop it in the "Synthesia Music" folder in your Documents folder and it should show up the next time you open Synthesia, in the song library.
Lemo
Posts: 313

Post by Lemo »

Nicholas (or aria?), how about a browser extension, that applies to every .mid link a right-click > Play with Synthesia ?
It would open the synthesia:// handler to every single link on the web, even if it's not already there :)
That seems to be possible, and probably easier than before, now the handler is live
Stuff & experiments for Synthesia: Gramp v0.2SkinboxFireSynthVideoWebradio
Nicholas
Posts: 13135

Post by Nicholas »

A URL handler takes some one-time registry changes.

A right-click "View in Synthesia" extension requires writing add-on code for all popular browsers on all supported platforms, and updating/testing/debugging them each time a major version update is released (hint: every month ;) ). That so sounds like the kind of thing the community could do though. :D

Also, the URL handler can be installed automatically by Synthesia. Those add-ons require external links and (much, much worse) external user education to know why they should click those add-on installers.
Lemo
Posts: 313

Post by Lemo »

Yeah okay, maybe I'll try something for firefox someday, when I would have less work than I have atm
Maybe the right-click feature is simple enough not to be much updated at each release
No idea what extension coding is all about right now tho :]
Stuff & experiments for Synthesia: Gramp v0.2SkinboxFireSynthVideoWebradio
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