Disable highlighting of wrong note on sheet note

Synthesia is a living project. You can help by sharing your ideas.
Search the forum before posting your idea. :D

No explicit, hateful, or hurtful language. Nothing illegal.
Post Reply
say_yes
Posts: 3

Post by say_yes »

Hi!
I use synthesia app with connected Midi keyboard on Android. And I'm tried to find an option in settings to disable highlighting of currently pressed note.

Why do I need such option? Because this highlighting helps me find the right key based on simple calculation, instead of thinking about the name of the note that I should press.
Screenshot_20220609-215626.png
Screenshot_20220609-215626.png (240 KiB) Viewed 4946 times

I suggest to change such behavior, and for me it's very difficult to explain my suggestion in English, so I will try to show it by illustration :)
Suggestion:
Feature_request.png
Feature_request.png (45.57 KiB) Viewed 4946 times
Instead of showing currently pressed key, only notify user that some of notes weren't correctly pressed.
Nicholas
Posts: 13135

Post by Nicholas »

say_yes wrote: 06-10-22 9:20 amBecause this highlighting helps me find the right key based on simple calculation, instead of thinking about the name of the note that I should press.
This is a very interesting observation. By trying to be helpful, Synthesia is actually being harmful. :?

There's an advanced setting ("Notation.ShowUserNotes") that can be changed on the PC/Mac version of Synthesia to hide those markers, but unfortunately the configuration window isn't available in the Android or iPad versions of the app. I've been trying to eventually migrate most of those unavailable settings into the app over time. Your reasoning seems strong enough to prioritize this one.

I like the idea of having three settings: Off, "show the note I played" (today's behavior), and "show the note I should have played" (your suggestion). Then we could make your suggestion the default and anyone that was unhappy would have an easy way to get back to the old behavior.

(This could get a little tricky though. Having the context to know which notes the song is waiting on that haven't been pressed yet is something that Synthesia only has when you're playing in Melody Practice mode. In Rhythm or Recital, it might have to fall back on the current behavior.)
say_yes
Posts: 3

Post by say_yes »

"Notation.ShowUserNotes"
Thank you for this, I will continue using Synthesia with my laptop for now :)
I like the idea of having three settings: Off, "show the note I played" (today's behavior), and "show the note I should have played" (your suggestion).
Unfortunately I didn't understand the idea of the first option "Off" :( It means that highlighting on the screen will be absent at all? Application will wait for right key without any visual notification (green or red circle)?
Nicholas
Posts: 13135

Post by Nicholas »

"Off" is the behavior you'll see today if you disable the "Notation.ShowUserNotes" setting. There won't be any visual feedback at all... which, now that I've said that out loud, it doesn't seem like a very good option. :?
User avatar
jimhenry
Posts: 1899

Post by jimhenry »

Nicholas wrote: 06-16-22 9:15 am "Off" is the behavior you'll see today ... it doesn't seem like a very good option. :?
Isn't this the "as close to paper sheet music as you'll get" mode? Being able to read and play from sheet music without any visual aids is a useful skill. Essential for professional musicians.
Jim Henry
Author of the Miditzer, a free virtual theatre pipe organ
http://www.Miditzer.org/
say_yes
Posts: 3

Post by say_yes »

jimhenry wrote: 06-16-22 2:24 pm "as close to paper sheet music as you'll get"
It's exactly want I wanted to describe in my first post, but didn't find right words in English :)
Nicholas
Posts: 13135

Post by Nicholas »

jimhenry wrote: 06-16-22 2:24 pmIsn't this the "as close to paper sheet music as you'll get" mode?
Sort of... except sheet music is an impassive observer. If you keep playing the song (despite a mistake), you'll end up further in the song.

If Synthesia didn't show any error feedback in Melody Practice, well... I suppose the blue current time indicator on the sheet music wouldn't advance so you'd know something was wrong, but it'd be like the paper sheet music could halt your ability to continue.

I wonder if the "don't show anything" mode wouldn't pair better with Score Following, where Synthesia would lose the ability to rein the player in?
Post Reply