Preparing MIDI files
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No explicit, hateful, or hurtful language. Nothing illegal.
No explicit, hateful, or hurtful language. Nothing illegal.
Although I'm having great fun trying to 100% Green Hill Zone, what I'm actually playing is the right hand part of a piano arrangement, rather than the melody. In general it means that I'm playing a load of extra notes in addition to the melody, and at the start of the piece it means I'm playing an accompaniment figure while the melody is in the left hand. The melody is the bit people want to play, and in most cases just playing the melody would be much more suitable for an inexperienced keyboardist anyway.
I think it would be good fanservice to prepare the odd MIDI file for Synthesia, by which I mean create one track containing the entire melody and nothing else. (And then call that track something like "Play This One!") For a piano arrangement like GHZ this would take 1 minute, for something with more than one instrument it could require reassigning MIDI channels to different patches (instruments) mid-track.
If you want I'll do you an example or two, show you what I mean.
I think it would be good fanservice to prepare the odd MIDI file for Synthesia, by which I mean create one track containing the entire melody and nothing else. (And then call that track something like "Play This One!") For a piano arrangement like GHZ this would take 1 minute, for something with more than one instrument it could require reassigning MIDI channels to different patches (instruments) mid-track.
If you want I'll do you an example or two, show you what I mean.
______________________________
Goals:
100% Green Hill Zone [x]
Goals:
100% Green Hill Zone [x]
Yeah, the "I want to have fun playing this melody that I'm familiar with" was one of the original drives for the game. That was one of the bigger reasons I chose MIDI -- so you could choose individual tracks and play just the melody while the game handled the rest. MIDI does get it most of the way there, but you're right that it is still up to the arranger to separate things the right way.
Unfortunately, I'm not much of an arranger at all. (In fact, I've been working very hard trying to arrange my first bit of music from a recording I found at the DS Final Fantasy IV site. It's taken hours longer than I thought it would, and I'm only about halfway done.) So, if anything like your suggestion is possible, it's going to be entirely up to the community.
I will do my best to encourage it though. (I have some features planned just past the end of the posted roadmap that will almost build support for the community to do that type of thing right into the game.
Unfortunately, I'm not much of an arranger at all. (In fact, I've been working very hard trying to arrange my first bit of music from a recording I found at the DS Final Fantasy IV site. It's taken hours longer than I thought it would, and I'm only about halfway done.) So, if anything like your suggestion is possible, it's going to be entirely up to the community.
I will do my best to encourage it though. (I have some features planned just past the end of the posted roadmap that will almost build support for the community to do that type of thing right into the game.
If you're working from a recording, then what you're doing is transcribing, and yes, it's a pain in the ass. For someone who has the ability to transcribe music at all, even if it takes hours, taking a pre-existing MIDI file and distilling the melody into one track should be a piece of cake. Which MIDI editing software are you using? I'm using Cakewalk Express Gold 6 (released in 1997, now free on the net) and it really is just a case of drawing a box around some notes and copy/pasting.
I've prepped that Green Hill Zone track, and will email the result to you. Your first community-contributed track! Alright, it took 15 minutes rather than 1, but several of those minutes were spent on YouTube reminding myself how the damn thing sounded in the game.
I've prepped that Green Hill Zone track, and will email the result to you. Your first community-contributed track! Alright, it took 15 minutes rather than 1, but several of those minutes were spent on YouTube reminding myself how the damn thing sounded in the game.
______________________________
Goals:
100% Green Hill Zone [x]
Goals:
100% Green Hill Zone [x]
Ha! I use a copy of Cakewalk Express Gold 8 (from 1999) that came with an old sound card.
You're right. I guess I am only transcribing. I got the words mixed up.
Making the distilled tracks wouldn't be too bad. In Cakewalk, it is as easy as copy-paste like you described. There is the tricky issue of copyright though. It has been discussed here previously, and from my understanding, while in this case, Sega still holds the copyright to the song, I would somehow have to additionally credit both Gori Fater (arranger of the GHZ MIDI) and the person who did the melody extraction process.
That aside, I'm wondering how I should handle community content before I get the "in game online song library, with user submissions" feature in the game in version post-0.7.0. (That's one of the features I spoke of before.) Maybe I could make a page on the site for them.
You're right. I guess I am only transcribing. I got the words mixed up.
Making the distilled tracks wouldn't be too bad. In Cakewalk, it is as easy as copy-paste like you described. There is the tricky issue of copyright though. It has been discussed here previously, and from my understanding, while in this case, Sega still holds the copyright to the song, I would somehow have to additionally credit both Gori Fater (arranger of the GHZ MIDI) and the person who did the melody extraction process.
That aside, I'm wondering how I should handle community content before I get the "in game online song library, with user submissions" feature in the game in version post-0.7.0. (That's one of the features I spoke of before.) Maybe I could make a page on the site for them.
Progress report:
I wrote the most insane keyboard solo especially for the game. It lasted a minute and 48 seconds, travelled through far too many keys, and had a top speed approaching 12 notes a second. I tried to write a verse and chorus to go with this solo, just to keep it company. So I did... and I thought the verse would probably need repeating to flesh out the track a bit... then I found I had to repeat the chorus too... but slightly change it at the end...
...
...and so in the end I left the solo out, turned it into a synth rock track and stuck it on Garageband.com, hopefully to become a number 1 hit. http://www.garageband.com/song?|pe1|S8LTM0LdsaSiaFa-amA
My second attempt at turning this solo into a usable track is underway.
<The Future>
"This solid debut album from British keyboardist Hazyshade apparently consists entirely of tracks he wrote accidentally while trying, ultimately unsuccessfully, to compose some music for the PC hit Synthesia..."
I wrote the most insane keyboard solo especially for the game. It lasted a minute and 48 seconds, travelled through far too many keys, and had a top speed approaching 12 notes a second. I tried to write a verse and chorus to go with this solo, just to keep it company. So I did... and I thought the verse would probably need repeating to flesh out the track a bit... then I found I had to repeat the chorus too... but slightly change it at the end...
...
...and so in the end I left the solo out, turned it into a synth rock track and stuck it on Garageband.com, hopefully to become a number 1 hit. http://www.garageband.com/song?|pe1|S8LTM0LdsaSiaFa-amA
My second attempt at turning this solo into a usable track is underway.
<The Future>
"This solid debut album from British keyboardist Hazyshade apparently consists entirely of tracks he wrote accidentally while trying, ultimately unsuccessfully, to compose some music for the PC hit Synthesia..."
______________________________
Goals:
100% Green Hill Zone [x]
Goals:
100% Green Hill Zone [x]
It's done!
(Zipping MIDI files is a waste of time, they're tiny. How come the forum won't allow the .mid extension?)
You shouldn't have any difficulty with the solo in that, I mean, there is only one place in it where you have to play two notes at once...
If it sounds weird, or any of the tracks are too loud or quiet, remember our output devices are different. At some point I'll record my version as a reference to what it's meant to sound like. But it should be OK as long as you're playing it through a keyboard and not an onboard soundcard with "Wavetable Synth"...
(Zipping MIDI files is a waste of time, they're tiny. How come the forum won't allow the .mid extension?)
You shouldn't have any difficulty with the solo in that, I mean, there is only one place in it where you have to play two notes at once...
If it sounds weird, or any of the tracks are too loud or quiet, remember our output devices are different. At some point I'll record my version as a reference to what it's meant to sound like. But it should be OK as long as you're playing it through a keyboard and not an onboard soundcard with "Wavetable Synth"...
______________________________
Goals:
100% Green Hill Zone [x]
Goals:
100% Green Hill Zone [x]
That's great! You wrote that yourself? The solo really is as crazy as you made it out to be. I don't suppose you can 100% your own song...
It doesn't sound too bad in the built-in "Wavetable Synth", though comparing it to the garageband.com link you posted before, I see what you mean.
So, if you were still interested, I would certainly like to include this in the game. (Though, it would probably be lonely as the sole track in the "User Submitted Songs" category.) If so, let me know all the gory details: copyright, author name (Hazyshade?), song title (just "Watershed"?), etc.
(Oh yeah, I fixed the attachment restrictions. MP3s weren't allowed either. Now they are.)
It doesn't sound too bad in the built-in "Wavetable Synth", though comparing it to the garageband.com link you posted before, I see what you mean.
So, if you were still interested, I would certainly like to include this in the game. (Though, it would probably be lonely as the sole track in the "User Submitted Songs" category.) If so, let me know all the gory details: copyright, author name (Hazyshade?), song title (just "Watershed"?), etc.
(Oh yeah, I fixed the attachment restrictions. MP3s weren't allowed either. Now they are.)
I certainly can't 100% it! I can get a B+. But I can feel it improving my right hand speed so I shall press on. Are you willing to tell us the formula you use to calculate the letter grades, so I know what score I'm aiming at?
By all means stick it in the free version. I would of course charge you royalties to bundle it with Synthesia Pro if such a thing comes into being.
Title: Watershed
Artist: Hazyshade
Copyright ¬ Chris Wardle 2007
(I think in Britain I can just declare it copyrighted and it is. Is that the case in the US?)
In future are you planning to build some file-opening buttons into the game, pointing to the Synthesia directory, to replace the standard Windows "browse" function? People could still play their own files by adding them to a sub-folder or something. In that case you could have them sorted by difficulty, rather than by source, so that it's not the only song in "user submissions".
(If it ends up being the only song in the "Insane" folder, I can live with that.)
By all means stick it in the free version. I would of course charge you royalties to bundle it with Synthesia Pro if such a thing comes into being.
Title: Watershed
Artist: Hazyshade
Copyright ¬ Chris Wardle 2007
(I think in Britain I can just declare it copyrighted and it is. Is that the case in the US?)
In future are you planning to build some file-opening buttons into the game, pointing to the Synthesia directory, to replace the standard Windows "browse" function? People could still play their own files by adding them to a sub-folder or something. In that case you could have them sorted by difficulty, rather than by source, so that it's not the only song in "user submissions".
(If it ends up being the only song in the "Insane" folder, I can live with that.)
______________________________
Goals:
100% Green Hill Zone [x]
Goals:
100% Green Hill Zone [x]
Sure. The calculation is much simpler than scoring. It uses percentage of notes hit exclusively.Hazyshade wrote:Are you willing to tell us the formula you use to calculate the letter grades, so I know what score I'm aiming at?
< 50% notes hit: F
>= 50%, D-
>= 55%, D
>= 63%, D+
>= 70%, C-
>= 73%, C
>= 77%, C+
>= 80%, B-
>= 83%, B
>= 87%, B+
>= 90%, A-
>= 93%, A
>= 97%, A+
>= 99%, A++
>= 100%, A+++
This keeps grade independent of speed, so beginners can still get good grades even if the scores aren't great.
I'm happy you noticed that post. It's been a little quiet over there, so it's hard to tell what everyone is thinking. Of course, all user content would stay on the free side. The whole pretenses of a "Pro" version are to charge for the features that took a lot of time and hard work so that I might get a chance to spend more time and hard work making more. It certainly takes neither of those to include (really good) content that someone else created.Hazyshade wrote:I would of course charge you royalties to bundle it with Synthesia Pro if such a thing comes into being.
Yeah.Hazyshade wrote:I think in Britain I can just declare it copyrighted and it is. Is that the case in the US?
So, I think most of this is going into 0.6.3, but the initial "file open" dialog will be going away, and instead there will be a "choose a song on my hard drive" button that will show it instead. Otherwise, for convenience (both for the "stand-alone exe" crowd and the "I don't want programs creating their own directories in My Documents" crowd) I was going to bundle the MIDI files directly in the game executable. (There will be a "save as..." button that will let you pop it out of the game in case you want to mess around with it in a different program.) Having them built-in will accelerate at least one of the steps to jumping in the game quickly.Hazyshade wrote:In future are you planning to build some file-opening buttons into the game
Also, sorting by difficulty is my goal, but right now I don't really have a reliable method to assign difficulties to songs. (It wouldn't even do to try and play them myself. I originally made the game to teach myself starting from no background, if that implies my skill level...)
For now it probably would be. Although, I could eventually see some classical pieces in that area.Hazyshade wrote:If it ends up being the only song in the "Insane" folder, I can live with that.
Hmm, my website host apparently had to replace the database server this forum lives on and restore from a backup made earlier in the day.
I saw that you had posted here while I was at work, but I didn't get a chance to read it. If it's not too much trouble, could you try to reconstruct your original response?
Sorry about that. That stuff is sort of out of my hands.
I saw that you had posted here while I was at work, but I didn't get a chance to read it. If it's not too much trouble, could you try to reconstruct your original response?
Sorry about that. That stuff is sort of out of my hands.
I don't understand how files can 'stay on the free side'. If you're planning to bundle any files at all with the commercial version, regardless of whether they're also in the free version, you need either a commercial applications licence or a copyright waiver from their creators, to protect your ass from being sued.
As I understand it your policy with the free version has been: if the composers don't look like they're going to get pissed off about the copyright issue, their work can be used in the game. I reckon if you do press ahead with Synthesia Pro, you're going to find your options more limited in that respect, because people's pissed-off factor is always greater when you're making money from their work.
As I understand it your policy with the free version has been: if the composers don't look like they're going to get pissed off about the copyright issue, their work can be used in the game. I reckon if you do press ahead with Synthesia Pro, you're going to find your options more limited in that respect, because people's pissed-off factor is always greater when you're making money from their work.
______________________________
Goals:
100% Green Hill Zone [x]
Goals:
100% Green Hill Zone [x]
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- Posts: 766
To Hazyshade:
That midi music, Watershed, sounded very similar to the rhythmic background music of MegaMan Z series, with a mix of MegaMan EXE Battle Network Series.
Either that, or else go try make a midi music for gaming uses. That would show you how some musical pieces sound like.
I'm keeping it as a safekeeping, for I will conquer the gaming worlds.
That midi music, Watershed, sounded very similar to the rhythmic background music of MegaMan Z series, with a mix of MegaMan EXE Battle Network Series.
Either that, or else go try make a midi music for gaming uses. That would show you how some musical pieces sound like.
I'm keeping it as a safekeeping, for I will conquer the gaming worlds.
Hardware Information: Dell Alienware 15 R4, Intel Core i7-8750H @ 2.20GHz / 2.21 GHz, 16GB RAM, Nvidia RTX 2070 / Nvidia GTX 1060 dual-GPU, Roland FP-10, MIDI-OX + LoopMIDI combo.
So, I think I can help make the distinction clearer now that it's been a while and I've gotten a lot of feedback and had some time to think about the "Pro" idea.
Rather than the idea of a free "Synthesia" and a for-pay "Synthesia Pro", I've settled more along the lines of a free "Synthesia" and an unlockable "Learning Pack". I think that wording makes my intentions clearer.
The free game comes with free music. The learning pack lets you use a few additional tools on whatever MIDI files you happen to load up in the game. And again, this assumes a single executable that contains everything, where you enter your key on a particular option screen.
You're right that it would be strange to have music available in the (free) game that is then removed when you unlock a handful more features with a key. And it wouldn't make sense either: the music files add no value to the for-pay content, because the music is already available in the original (still-locked) free game.
Regarding angry music providers, I plan to avoid the whole issue. If someone doesn't want their work in the free game, it's easiest not to include it at all. No additional music will ever be unlocked through the use of any key. The project isn't large enough to support those kinds of things, and my stated goal for charging for unlock keys is specifically to develop the content that will be available in the learning pack itself -- not for other business or growth purposes. It's essentially a not-for-profit goal where I just need to cover my food and rent while I'm taking time off my day-job.
Does that description help?
Rather than the idea of a free "Synthesia" and a for-pay "Synthesia Pro", I've settled more along the lines of a free "Synthesia" and an unlockable "Learning Pack". I think that wording makes my intentions clearer.
The free game comes with free music. The learning pack lets you use a few additional tools on whatever MIDI files you happen to load up in the game. And again, this assumes a single executable that contains everything, where you enter your key on a particular option screen.
You're right that it would be strange to have music available in the (free) game that is then removed when you unlock a handful more features with a key. And it wouldn't make sense either: the music files add no value to the for-pay content, because the music is already available in the original (still-locked) free game.
Regarding angry music providers, I plan to avoid the whole issue. If someone doesn't want their work in the free game, it's easiest not to include it at all. No additional music will ever be unlocked through the use of any key. The project isn't large enough to support those kinds of things, and my stated goal for charging for unlock keys is specifically to develop the content that will be available in the learning pack itself -- not for other business or growth purposes. It's essentially a not-for-profit goal where I just need to cover my food and rent while I'm taking time off my day-job.
Does that description help?