Nicholas wrote:The sound delay is an unfortunate property of Android. There are very, very few tablets (like 7 models) that take advantage of the new "low latency audio" features added in Android 4. On all the rest, you end up with something like 1/4 second minimum.
I understand. So how about the ability to "offset" or "delay" the audio by a variable number of milliseconds so I can get the tablet metronome in line with MIDI / what I'm seeing on screen?
Or offset the visuals somehow, but I would think the former solution would be the easiest.
Oh, and the "pinch to zoom" the staff worked great.
In the case of a constantly-playing song (like Guitar Hero or Synthesia in rhythm practice), allowing for an audio offset can improve things. But in the case of completely user-driven feedback (like Synthesia's melody practice or new Free Play area)... unless your delay feature can predict the future, you'll always be stuck with the full round-trip time from note input to sound output.
In other games with latency compensation features, they're controlling for something else like display lag. When the round trip from Synthesia requesting a sound be played to it actually being sent out the speakers is so long, there is less that can be done about it.
The best answer (in all cases) is to use a keyboard with an on-board synth. It's not the MIDI messages that are slow... just the sound synthesis on Android (and Windows). Keyboard synths are usually super fast, given that's basically a keyboard's whole job to play sounds the moment you strike a key. So ideally sending output to a keyboard will get you near-instant feedback no matter which platform you're running Synthesia on.
Going forward, that's the way the unlock is going to work on all platforms. The initial download lets you play about 20 songs and the unlock opens it up to any MIDI (and eventually MusicXML) song. The iPad version has worked that way since day 1. The desktop is switching over to that model in the upcoming Synthesia 10 release. And Android is going to follow the same model.
There is some discussion about why this should help clear up confusion and make things easier for everyone, over here.
So the very short answer is "no", but the beta build with in-app unlock is coming soon. Our goal is sometime in the next few days.
For some reason the app won't go fullscreen. Is there a way to hide the soft keys bar at the bottom without root. At the moment it's quite difficult to play the white keys without touching the back, home or recent app button.
Spoiler:
Last edited by chrisrak11 on 12-01-14 4:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.
chrisrak11 wrote:For some reason the app won't go fullscreen. Is there a way to hide the soft keys bar at the bottom without root. At the moment it's quite difficult to play the white keys without touching the back, home or recent app button.
Which Android tablet are you using? Also do you know what version of Android you're running?
Hey!
I'm using Asus Memopad FHL 10 LTE (ME302KL - NOT the Intel one) and the version of Android is 4.2.2.
I just noticed that when I open the app the soft buttons disappear and everything is on fullscreen, but as I touch the screen, the bar appeares again and coveres the whole blue bar at the bottom of the screen (the one with the language button and version numbers).
Just installed. On a Motorolla Xoom running 4.1.2 the graphics are not working so good. Seems like some transparencies?? are not functioning or something. The main menus are just rectangles with no text. Basically unusable. Let me know if I can help.
chrisrak11 wrote:Hey!
I just noticed that when I open the app the soft buttons disappear and everything is on fullscreen, but as I touch the screen, the bar appeares again and coveres the whole blue bar at the bottom of the screen (the one with the language button and version numbers).
If you adjust the volume, do the soft buttons disappear again (temporarily until you touch the screen another time)?
klaypigeon wrote:Just installed. On a Motorolla Xoom running 4.1.2 the graphics are not working so good. Seems like some transparencies?? are not functioning or something. The main menus are just rectangles with no text. Basically unusable. Let me know if I can help.
This is currently a known issue we're having with Tegra 2 devices, thanks for letting us know the Xoom is affected too.
Timothy wrote:If you adjust the volume, do the soft buttons disappear again (temporarily until you touch the screen another time)?
Yeah, that's exactly what's happening.
Also I just got an OTG cable and when I connect my Casio CTK-800 absolutely nothing happens... I've been using the same keyboard with desktop version for at least 2 years and everything has always worked neatly.
Other devices work fine with the same cable so what can I do to fix the problem? .
I'm getting a Casio Privia PX-850 in Jan or Feb and now I'm starting to worry if I may not get Synthesia to work with that one either.
EDIT: Just installed the USB Device Info app from the Play Store. Seems that the tablet does recognize the keyboard but for some reason Synthesia can't see it. Don't know if it's any help but here's the screenshot from the app:
Spoiler:
(The picture is pretty large, didn't know how to make it smaller on my tab. You can open it in a new tab.)
It looks like the "Device Class: Vendor Specific (0xff)" line from the USB Device Info might be the culprit. Instead of reporting itself as a MIDI device, it's saying "I'm a Casio... thing". When you used your keyboard with the desktop version, did you need to install a driver from Casio to get things working?
Nicholas wrote:It looks like the "Device Class: Vendor Specific (0xff)" line from the USB Device Info might be the culprit. Instead of reporting itself as a MIDI device, it's saying "I'm a Casio... thing". When you used your keyboard with the desktop version, did you need to install a driver from Casio to get things working?
Yeah. I thought It was a common thing to do. I even remember installing drivers for another digital piano Roland HP305 when I tried Synthesia with it just for fun. Do keyboards and digital pianos usually work without drivers?
It depends on the keyboard. Some have an optional driver to access some of the more advanced features on the keyboard. But they'll still usually have a fall-back to a generic MIDI device if you plug it into something that can't use drivers (like iPads or Android devices).
The older Casio models tend to follow what you're running into now: driver required, no fallback. I suppose in their defense, back when the CTK-800 was created, there was no such thing as being plugged into something that can't use drivers. iPads and Android devices didn't exist yet. It was PC, Mac, or nothing.
A good workaround is to use the MIDI ports if a keyboard has them. That's a "universal" language that works everywhere. But glancing at the manual, it doesn't look like the CTK-800 has MIDI ports.
If that particular model uses anything like the generic MIDI standard, we could white-list it to also be detected as a MIDI device in the Android version of Synthesia. (No such luck on iPad.) I wonder how close their protocol is to the generic one.
Well. Thank you for answering all those long questions and helping to identify the problem.
I assume it's the Class Compliant USB MIDI what you're talking about. Reading a bit on the Internet I found out that the new PX-850 does use it so I should be fine.
Hi Nicholas,
i try the Beta Synthesia on a ASUS TF700T with KeyDock Device and with connected Yamaha EZ-220 per USB-Cable and at moment EVERYTHING work very fine. I hope you will finish it next time and my wife will get her IPad back
I bought your Synthesia more than 4 years ago for PC ans later too for IPad Air and if i must i will buy it too for Android because your work is GREAT!!!!! So many fun with it, it is worth every cent.
Fixed scaling on some very high resolution devices.
Fixed graphical corruption on Tegra 2 devices.
Fixed overlapping navigation buttons with devices running Android 4.3 and below.
chrisrak11 wrote:For some reason the app won't go fullscreen. Is there a way to hide the soft keys bar at the bottom without root.
The navigation buttons on devices running 4.3 and below are now faded out but never completely hidden. They should no longer be overlapping anything on the screen or make it difficult to play.
klaypigeon wrote:On a Motorolla Xoom running 4.1.2 the graphics are not working so good. Seems like some transparencies?? are not functioning or something. The main menus are just rectangles with no text.
Hi,i've an LG G3 (32 GB version with 3 GB RAM) with Android L,but i can't install the app beacuse the play store says that the app is not compatible with my device.How can i do?