How does a D5 end up in the bass clef?

Have questions? Just saying hello? This is the place.
No explicit, hateful, or hurtful language. Nothing illegal.
Post Reply
User avatar
Emu
Posts: 5

Post by Emu »

With Version 11 there shall come a correct representation for sheet music, and a correct seperation of the left and right hand as displayed in the sheet music is not possible (unless the left hand part is all below middle C).

E.g.
NonMagicalSheet.png
NonMagicalSheet.png (2.24 KiB) Viewed 2409 times
That C♭ should be in the bass clef and I doubt anyone would have big enough hands to play it with the right hand 😅

But, when I was looking through the sheet music of Megalovania (as provided by Synthesia) I found this:
MagicalSheet.png
MagicalSheet.png (14.27 KiB) Viewed 2409 times


What magic is this🙈? How does that D5 end up in the bass clef? How is this even possible 🤔? And can I prepare a midi file the same way?
User avatar
jimhenry
Posts: 1899

Post by jimhenry »

The sheet music for a MIDI file is all "reverse engineered" because MIDI files only contain information about note on/off at a time. Synthesia has been improving its reverse engineering but there will always be MIDI examples that produce weird results. The only right way to do sheet music will come when Synthesia can read MusicXML files that include the information to draw the sheet music as dictated by a human who prepared the MusicXML.
Jim Henry
Author of the Miditzer, a free virtual theatre pipe organ
http://www.Miditzer.org/
User avatar
Emu
Posts: 5

Post by Emu »

And there I was hoping I could do something :lol:
Ah well, here is to patently waiting for the MusicXML update. Megalovania should be done by then 8-)
Bavi_H
Posts: 116

Post by Bavi_H »

For tips about how to make MIDI files that work well with Synthesia, go to the Synthesia website, click on Support and then click on Creating great content for Synthesia.

This page says:
  • "Hands should be split using a different track, channel, or instrument."
  • "If your song only has one or two tracks (along with any amount of percussion), Synthesia should already be able to guess which hand is which."
The Megalovania MIDI file* has a track for drums, a track for right hand piano, and a track for left hand piano. Since there are only two tracks with melodic pitches (the only other track with notes is drums), I assume Synthesia can easily determine the track with the higher pitches is the right hand part and the track with the lower pitches is the left hand part and so it can display them on appropriate staves.

(*For the technically curious, The MIDI files embedded in Synthesia can be extracted with a resource editor. Synthesia.exe contains a resource called "MUSIC" that is a zip file of all of the embedded MIDI files.)
User avatar
Emu
Posts: 5

Post by Emu »

Thank you for the link.

The thing is, I couldn't find any other example of what is happening in Megalovania, even if the tracks were differen. I think this is the case in my example, the C♭ should therefor be in the bass clef, it is in a different track, after all? That's what is confusing me the most 🤪

Very interesting point about the internal midis, I was wondering where they were hiding. Gonna check them out ;)
Bavi_H
Posts: 116

Post by Bavi_H »

I apologize. I didn't see anything special in the Megalovania MIDI file, so I mistakenly thought that putting the left hand and right hand parts on separate tracks in the MIDI file was all that Synthesia needed to decide which staff to put the note on in the sheet music view.

Now I understand that even if the left hand and right hand parts are on separate tracks in the MIDI file, Synthesia might still put left hand notes on the treble clef staff.
User avatar
jimhenry
Posts: 1899

Post by jimhenry »

Bavi_H wrote: 02-15-21 7:52 pmNow I understand that even if the left hand and right hand parts are on separate tracks in the MIDI file, Synthesia might still put left hand notes on the treble clef staff.
That actually makes sense because the bass clef is not the left hand clef nor is the treble clef the right hand clef. It often works out that way, especially with music beginners play, so it is easy to think of the clefs that way. But there is plenty of music where the hands have to play notes that appear on the "other" clef. Trying to decide where notes should be placed for best readability can be tricky sometimes.
Jim Henry
Author of the Miditzer, a free virtual theatre pipe organ
http://www.Miditzer.org/
Post Reply