Change in digital piano sound when synthesia running?

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LesterBurnham
Posts: 9

Post by LesterBurnham »

Just thought I'd ask this question - it's not a complaint, just something I'm curious about...

Can't say I noticed it with Synthesia 9, but something I've noticed with Synthesia 10. My digital piano is always plugged in (via USB) to my laptop I run synthesia on. And if I've turned it on, and I'm playing / noodling, or just doing some drills or scales or something, then I open synthesia - the sound changes slightly - it's more echo-y and distant. When I close synthesia, it returns to normal - so it is repeatable.

The digital piano is a Casio Celviano AP-250, if it's of any relevance, and as I said, it's not something that's a problem - just more something I noticed / am curious about.
Pianotehead
Posts: 325

Post by Pianotehead »

Lester, does Synthesia change the voice on your AP-250. I have a Casio PX-5S and Synthesia always changed the voice, but then I found out I could filter out program and control changes. I don't know how the settings are changed on the Celvianos, but you should check if possible, if the voice has been changed. Then again, it's strange that it returns to normal when exiting.
LesterBurnham
Posts: 9

Post by LesterBurnham »

Pianotehead wrote:Lester, does Synthesia change the voice on your AP-250. I have a Casio PX-5S and Synthesia always changed the voice, but then I found out I could filter out program and control changes. I don't know how the settings are changed on the Celvianos, but you should check if possible, if the voice has been changed. Then again, it's strange that it returns to normal when exiting.
I think the voice stays the same - it's not even with a song loaded / started in synthesia - just when the program is run / open.

Truth be told, I only ever play it in the main concert grand mode, it was just something I noticed one day, whilst doing a drill and then opening synthesia - as it started on my desktop, the sound altered slightly and became as I mentioned - a little more echo-y, and distant, close the program, and it returns to normal.

Upstairs, I have a PX-150, which I occasionally use with synthesia, too - but these days I've got an Android tablet setup so I can use synthesia on that, so I don't have to cart my laptop upstairs. Haven't noticed whether the sound changes on that, but as the PX-150 and AP-250 are, to all intents and purposes, identical, just packaged a little differently, I'd kind of expect it to behave the same.

In terms of voice changing, I have noticed in the past, the odd weird occurence where the voice changed whilst switching between songs in synthesia, but closing it, then opening again always seemed to cure it, and it was very occasional. This recent thing I've noticed - which, as I've said, it's not really a complaint, it's not really causing me any problems, it's more in curiosity - is repeatable all the time.
Nicholas
Posts: 13135

Post by Nicholas »

You might be hearing doubled-up notes in Synthesia:
  1. The note your keyboard plays when you hit a key, and...
  2. The (same) note caused when Synthesia sees you hit a key and echoes it back out to your output devices (i.e., the same keyboard).
That can cause a weird effect like the one you described.

In Synthesia 10 you can disable one or the other by using the new "Prevent 'local' notes" setting on your Music Output device screen. That actually turns off #1 above.

Alternatively, just turn off "My Notes" for your output device, which disables #2 above.

Does trying either of those fix it? (Trying both will mute your notes altogether while still playing background notes. A weird effect!)
LesterBurnham
Posts: 9

Post by LesterBurnham »

Hi, sorry it's been a day or so since I've been able to respond.

I've just looked, now, and by default (I assume) Prevent "local" notes is off, but My Notes is enabled.

I tried it with that reversed - ie enabled Prevent "local"notes, but turned off My Notes, and it sounds like it's cured the phenomenon.

Wasn't really a problem, because when I use synthesia I'm practicing something reasonably complex, over and over, as opposed to playing something to hear it, but nice to perhaps understand the settings that appear to have influence.

Thanks for your comments and assistance.
Firewalker1980
Posts: 5

Post by Firewalker1980 »

I have been experiencing this 'sound change' too and luckily found this thread for the fix :-)
I also had the issue that I could not use the sustain pedal for the background part, which was fixed by changing the midi from all channels to channel 1 only as was suggested in another thread about that issue.
But now I have noticed something else. I cannot have both things fixed because after disabling my notes, the sustain pedal is not working again for the background part (part I'm not playing myself). The prevent local notes option doesn't seem to do anything for my specific piano (Kawai MP11).
Any idea how to fix both problems at the same time?
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