This question has been burning like a bright flame inside me for months since I used the Windows version of Synthesia on my Mac with WINE. Why can't us, Mac users have the ability to load SF2 soundfonts like Windows can and change the MIDI soundset to whatever the soundset in the soundfont is? In the past, this was achievable through overwriting the gs_instruments DLS file, but Apple later stopped this somewhere up the line of macOS, so we have had to contend with a cheap, toy-like instrument soundset. If Windows and Android can have this feature of using Soundfonts, why can't macOS? Does iOS have it too?
It would be nice to port this feature over, which I am sure might be planned for Synthesia 11. It baffles me how a simple feature like this did not translate from the Windows version of Synthesia to the Mac version, since it works in WINE.
So anyway, will the Mac version ever get SF2 support just like in Windows? Or am I just stuck, and just should run Synthesia with WINE?
Is Synthesia 11 going to have SF2 support on macOS?
No explicit, hateful, or hurtful language. Nothing illegal.
Back when I purchased licenses for BASS, I included macOS as one of the platforms in anticipation that I might add the BASSMIDI-based synth to the Mac version of Synthesia someday. (At the time the same was true for iOS; the new "built-in synth" only went out to the Windows and Android versions initially.)
At some point just after one of Apple's major iOS updates went out, we started seeing a lot of crashes in Apple's own MIDI synth, so I was like "alright, let's ship the BASS-based synth over there, too, as a workaround". I was surprised to find that BASS is so pleasant and easy to use that the full "integration" (now that it had already been working in the PC and Android versions for a couple years) took something like two additional lines of code and about 10 minutes of testing. I don't think anything in the project's history has ever gone that smoothly before or since.
So, I've already got the software license and I'm pretty sure adding it to the Mac version will only take a few minutes.
I think the only missing piece is that I still need to pay VoiceCrystal for permission to include their sound set as the default SF2 in the Mac version. That is also a per-platform license.
At some point just after one of Apple's major iOS updates went out, we started seeing a lot of crashes in Apple's own MIDI synth, so I was like "alright, let's ship the BASS-based synth over there, too, as a workaround". I was surprised to find that BASS is so pleasant and easy to use that the full "integration" (now that it had already been working in the PC and Android versions for a couple years) took something like two additional lines of code and about 10 minutes of testing. I don't think anything in the project's history has ever gone that smoothly before or since.
So, I've already got the software license and I'm pretty sure adding it to the Mac version will only take a few minutes.
I think the only missing piece is that I still need to pay VoiceCrystal for permission to include their sound set as the default SF2 in the Mac version. That is also a per-platform license.
Really? It would be nice to see this. Would this launch with Synthesia 11, seeing that it's already on PC/Android? I wonder when this will come?
Since Synthesia is a piano practice tool, having A.I assisted hands would be useful not just for assisting learners, but for people with poor hand coordination/or muscle dexterity issues in the fingers and hands. Have you ever thought of this? Synthesia already can play a song itself - applying this to hands as an assistant can really help those who have poor muscle dexterity in their hands. This could be turned on and off, and would be more useful than the finger hints.
Adding a dark mode for Synthesia would be good for the eyes at night. Note colours (and UI and interface) would be darkened, and this could be coded so it would turn on/off with system settings or be dark at all times or just default. The background is already pretty dark.
Sorry if I got off-topic here.
Since Synthesia is a piano practice tool, having A.I assisted hands would be useful not just for assisting learners, but for people with poor hand coordination/or muscle dexterity issues in the fingers and hands. Have you ever thought of this? Synthesia already can play a song itself - applying this to hands as an assistant can really help those who have poor muscle dexterity in their hands. This could be turned on and off, and would be more useful than the finger hints.
Adding a dark mode for Synthesia would be good for the eyes at night. Note colours (and UI and interface) would be darkened, and this could be coded so it would turn on/off with system settings or be dark at all times or just default. The background is already pretty dark.
Sorry if I got off-topic here.
I still haven't scheduled when I was planning to add it. Because macOS's built-in synth is generally well-behaved and the sound set license fee for each platform is fairly expensive, it wasn't exactly at the top of my priority list. (You could argue that the synth could be added without the sound set--just leaving the macOS synth the default--but that feels like it would be a support email generating trap.)
Regarding 3D animated hands that demonstrate correct playing technique, that's kind of the holy grail. I've wanted that for years. Something close to a decade ago I nearly hired someone that was doing their PhD research on the subject, but those negotiations unfortunately fell through. Still, when I get a minute, it's something I would very seriously be interested in pursuing. Once the embarrassments are cleaned up, there is another list of these amazing features (score following is on there, too) that I aspire to get to someday.
Otherwise, there is already a dark mode: the "Synthesia Classic" color theme. It is picked automatically on iOS when you have dark mode enabled at the system level and the plan is to add similar behavior to the other platforms at some point.
Regarding 3D animated hands that demonstrate correct playing technique, that's kind of the holy grail. I've wanted that for years. Something close to a decade ago I nearly hired someone that was doing their PhD research on the subject, but those negotiations unfortunately fell through. Still, when I get a minute, it's something I would very seriously be interested in pursuing. Once the embarrassments are cleaned up, there is another list of these amazing features (score following is on there, too) that I aspire to get to someday.
Otherwise, there is already a dark mode: the "Synthesia Classic" color theme. It is picked automatically on iOS when you have dark mode enabled at the system level and the plan is to add similar behavior to the other platforms at some point.
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harpsichordplayer
- Posts: 2
Hello everyone!
I got redirected to this thread after I posted a similar question.
Is there any followup on this? When can we macOS users expect to get custom soundfonts on our Synthesia?
On iOS there's a VoiceCrystal plugin available by default, but there's as far as I can see no option for loading specific MIDI files/Soundfonts... Does anyone know why this is so?
Thank you!
I got redirected to this thread after I posted a similar question.
Is there any followup on this? When can we macOS users expect to get custom soundfonts on our Synthesia?
On iOS there's a VoiceCrystal plugin available by default, but there's as far as I can see no option for loading specific MIDI files/Soundfonts... Does anyone know why this is so?
Thank you!