Particle effects aren't too huge anymore when zoomed in.
Groups now show how many songs they contain in the song library.
Increased the time window you're allowed to hit notes by quite a bit (+80%)
Disable "System.DragPanning" if you don't want to allow "flicking" in scroll menus, the (paused) song, or panning the keyboard. Works best with a touch-screen or tablet.
On-screen clicked notes would sometimes not match up with the displayed keyboard after changing the zoom.
colors.xml includes many more comments that should be useful to modders.
Mac: Improved MIDI device re-establishing after a device is lost.
Don't crash when starting Synthesia right at play (via command line).
Double-click in falling note area to toggle pause.
Removed "Keyboard Height" option. It's now always bound.
Replaced Middle-C marker with octave labels (when no other key labels are present).
Removed "Do Nothing" choice for "Notes Outside my Range", default is now "Play them for me".
Swapped in/out device ordering on settings screen.
Stats are reset if you rewind to the beginning of the song (using '1' or the |< button)
Flattened the song groups a little (your first startup may put you in a group that doesn't exist anymore)
Don't crash on Pg Up/Down on song setup screen.
KNOWN ISSUE: The zoom menu mentions pinching. That isn't a thing that is implemented in the desktop version.
This preview catches desktop users back up with the iPad beta builds. There are some useful crash-fixes in here and the keyboard art is pretty cool. Desktop users will still be getting at least one more feature before 8.4 goes final: a smooth-scrolling song library (again, only this time backed by the song database instead of loading the entire thing at once!)
Replaced Middle-C marker with octave labels (when no other key labels are present).
That's nice except that there is no universally accepted octave label for middle-C (261.63 Hz, MIDI note 60). You'll find plenty of authorities for either C3 or C4. Your choice of C3 for middle C is probably best since it is consistent with Garage Band, although I think that C3 is less common than C4.
I'd suggest marking middle C with a distinctive mark regardless of the octave labels, which are helpful. Maybe make the middle C octave label darker or a different color.
I'd suggest adding the octave labels to the settings keyboards as well. Things can get confusing with smaller keyboards that have an octave shifting capability.
I have no skin in this game and it's all of course totally up to Nicholas.
But as a learned man, I urge you to fight the good fight, don't be evil, and all that stuffs.
But then, my opinion is that the STANDARD is wrong, too.
It should be 4c, not C4.
Ok, I'm done. Show's over. You may now go on about your day.
stephenhazel wrote:Ok, I'm done. Show's over. You may now go on about your day.
For what it's worth (if it makes you cringe any harder), I was able to get GarageBand to just show "C-2" by tapping the octave keys all the way to the bottom. (Though, for some reason, I can't reproduce the feat. It will only show C-1 now. Hmm.)
Anyway, yeah, it hurts a little. But if I don't follow Apple's lead I am nearly 100% certain I would (hilariously) receive bug reports from iPad users claiming my numbering is wrong. Doing it this way, I'll only receive those bug reports from purists like you. My gamble is that there are fewer purists than there are people that don't have an opinion one way or the other.
Nicholas wrote:For what it's worth (if it makes you cringe any harder), I was able to get GarageBand to just show "C-2" by tapping the octave keys all the way to the bottom. (Though, for some reason, I can't reproduce the feat. It will only show C-1 now. Hmm.)
You used some negative octave transposition setting on your keyboard? -12, -24 or try next time also -36.
As there is no real beautiful standard I would just call it C, behind in paranthesis, optional, 60 and 261.6 hertz. A mouseover could display additionally the text "middle C".
Thanks, the command line works nicely again. I like the new keyboard, great! Also the zoom setting is just right, seeing one bar into the future is enough in my opinion, probably professional pianists look even two bars into the future but they do not use Synthesia anyway. I also like the always visible timeline and settings at the top, however the green bar is a little too thick, but it does not matter, as I wrote above, I can see one bar into the future which is enough, for me. My brain has not more capacity.
I totally like the 'keyboard physics'; the reflection of the notes on the black keys and the height of the shadow of the black keys on the white keys is notably different than when it is stroken. It is very well detailed.
TonE wrote:I hope the iPad version will bring you at least one more million $!
There needs to be a first million before there can be any more millions!
Otherwise, thanks for all the positive feedback everyone! The new keyboard graphics are quite the facelift. That's the biggest visible change the play screen has seen since 2007!
Thank you very much for the new revision, Nicholas! I especially like the off-note markers because I sometimes listen to MIDIs containing many of them.
For example: At the beginning of the second movement of Saint-Saens third symphony, the organ has to play the Ab below C0 and later even down to G!
By the way, how is this octave called then? Is it the -1 octave?
Another question: Are changes for automatic device switching planed for 0.8.4 (like discussed at last build)? I hope so, because this is really annoying now .
PS: Any plans to support Win8 as metro app? This apps can be written in C++ and you have already a touch friendly UI, so it could be possible (don't know if C++-Apps can run on WinRT). And Win8 has some nice improvements in background (see e.g. here and here) - could be usefull e.g. if switching away from Synthesia if you receive a call, message or so . And if you are playing music (with an metro-app) and switching to Synthesia Win8 will stop music .
(And yeah, WinRT can run native code. They claim that was the plan all along and that Windows Phone 7 only running .NET apps was just to get things started.)
EDIT: Er... this might be a deal-breaker though. There is a ton of bad news in that thread.
