Since synthesia is taking my pressed note velocity for my own playback, depending on how the midi was created the velocity is always maximum value. Is there a way to scale that on the fly so I can hear myself and not be drowned out by the other tracks? In my particular instance, I'm trying to play a right hand part and have the software play the left so I can get the tune in my ear and the movement in my hand. My playing gets drowned out by the maxed out velocity of the original midi track.
A percentile scale of the midi volume would be nice.
scaling volume of midi playback
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Have you changed the Settings → Gameplay → Note Loudness option away from its default? That usually keeps things relatively even. Or, at least until you play a note that Synthesia can't match with one from the song.
A better solution would be to keep track of a running average volume in the user-played part notes, and dynamically adjust input to be closer to that. Keeping any dynamic range available to the user (when they play softly it should be softer than the current average and vice-versa for playing loudly) will get tricky. Everyone has a different "normal" velocity. (Digital keyboard players that have never touched a real piano almost universally play far too softly.) So, it would have to be a double-adaptive kind of thing that watches both the song's notes and your own to try and match the two volume ranges together.
It definitely sounds like a cool feature, but it's a little ways down the to-do list.
A better solution would be to keep track of a running average volume in the user-played part notes, and dynamically adjust input to be closer to that. Keeping any dynamic range available to the user (when they play softly it should be softer than the current average and vice-versa for playing loudly) will get tricky. Everyone has a different "normal" velocity. (Digital keyboard players that have never touched a real piano almost universally play far too softly.) So, it would have to be a double-adaptive kind of thing that watches both the song's notes and your own to try and match the two volume ranges together.
It definitely sounds like a cool feature, but it's a little ways down the to-do list.
I have the loudness set to mimic my input, but it's very difficult to hear my playing over what was input in the midi file when it was created. In my experience every midi I've opened has the note velocities very high on the 0-127 scale, almost maxed out. As hard as I would hit the notes, there's no way I can consistently match what the midi velocities are outputting and still make my playing sound good. When I first started I would use software to edit the midis for use in synthesia but at the moment I can't be bothered to find a software package to do it manually since that was a few windows versions ago.
Very much like playing with a real band!sirknight wrote:As hard as I would hit the notes, there's no way I can consistently match what the midi velocities are outputting and still make my playing sound good.
One alternative if you're using the local output from your keyboard (that is, it has its own built-in synth and you aren't using the "Local Off" feature in Synthesia) is to just adjust the velocity scale of your output device down. Go to Settings → Music Output (choose your keyboard or whatever) → Volume Scale, and adjust to to less than 100%.sirknight wrote:As hard as I would hit the notes, there's no way I can consistently match what the midi velocities are outputting...
Assuming you're using the local output from your keyboard, it should stay the same. But all of Synthesia's background notes should now be quieter. If it's as uniformly loud as you say, that should be a good way to offset things so they match more closely.