Altering Melody Practice Behavior for Fun

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jfmenard
Posts: 3

Post by jfmenard »

Hello,

First, thanks Nicholas (et al.) for making Synthesia! You have done an amazing work. It is really a great program that I have been supporting and talking about for more than 10 years now! I am really glad that it is still alive!

Now my question: Is it possible to alter the Melody practice mode so that it does not stop/wait for us to release a note (but only when we need to press a note)?
Because Synthesia is good if we want to reproduce an actual midi file. But what is missing is we often just want to have fun playing a song (with my kid for instance). Practically, I would like to be able to:
- play extra notes as wanted without blocking the song, when the midi file is too easy
- play a single chord for 4 beats, instead of repeating the same chord every beats, for some midi files
- play a single chord instead of arpeggiated notes, for complex midi files
In these cases, I really don't care about the score. I just want the program to assis us in having fun playing songs we like, while still waiting for us if we are stuck looking for which notes to play.
Another variant would be to play (and wait) for the right hand (played by a kid), while the parent plays the left hand (without interfering with the song flow) as extra notes.

Thanks,

J-F
Nicholas
Posts: 13135

Post by Nicholas »

I've considered a rhythm(-only) practice mode where you could play any key to make the song proceed, but I worry that a mode where you can just keep holding a note means you could simply hold all the keys on your keyboard and just have the thing play through automatically.

For a note you didn't press again, should Synthesia play it for you (so that you can sort of keep following along with where you are in the song)?
jfmenard
Posts: 3

Post by jfmenard »

Nicholas wrote:For a note you didn't press again, should Synthesia play it for you (so that you can sort of keep following along with where you are in the song)?
It could be an interresting option. This way the human would punch the chord and Synthesia would retrigger the start of repeating notes, giving a feedback on the rythm.
Nicholas wrote:I worry that a mode where you can just keep holding a note means you could simply hold all the keys on your keyboard and just have the thing play through automatically.
Interresting reaction... what is the worry about? Cheating the score? Then penalize the score for each extra note, but keep the song going ;-) Or maybe it could be another mode, like a "Custom" mode where we could pick and choose to enable/disalbe practice behavior for this specific song. Live thoughts:
[_] Pause for unplayed notes from left hand
[X] Pause for unplayed notes from right hand
[_] Pause if other notes are played
[X] Synthesia will replay a note if the key is already pressed when the same note is encountered

Best,
Nicholas
Posts: 13135

Post by Nicholas »

jfmenard wrote:what is the worry about?
Lots of development effort to reproduce something that isn't very far off from "Watch and Listen Only" mode! :D Every bit of extra complexity in the UI comes at a cost of educating (and not overwhelming) users. So, a new mode would have to provide something substantially different than what you can already get from the existing set to feel like a worthwhile addition.
jfmenard wrote:Or maybe it could be another mode, like a "Custom" mode where we could pick and choose to enable/disable practice behavior...
This is more like it! That would tuck the new complexity into a nice, small, easy to understand place and provide lots of power and variation.

That said, a planned change for Synthesia 12 is to allow hand selection at any time. The left/right/both option won't even appear on the song setup screen, and instead you'll get a couple hand icons at the top of the screen during play. Each time through a loop (or whatever), you'll be able to enable or disable whatever you like. So in a much tighter loop, you'll be able to try left-hand, then right-hand, then hands-together, all without interrupting your place.

And in the meantime, one of your other check boxes already exists at Settings --> Gameplay --> Incorrect Notes --> Stop the Song.
jfmenard
Posts: 3

Post by jfmenard »

Nicholas wrote:And in the meantime, one of your other check boxes already exists at Settings --> Gameplay --> Incorrect Notes --> Stop the Song.
Thanks for pointing out these global settings! I had forgotten about them and they do exactly what I want :D

BTW, most of my Synthesia usage recently is for 2 players, where one does the left hand and the other does the right hand. Family fun! This also explains the unusual timing issues that we observe between hands ;)

Best,
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