Synthesia for Android Beta

Archived development update discussion from past versions
Archived development updates.
Katka
Posts: 8

Post by Katka »

The unlock worked fine for me, no problems at all. :D
elijahcruz
Posts: 8

Post by elijahcruz »

Working fine on my Ellipsis 7 and Nexus 9! They both seem to look the same.
Spoiler:
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jimhenry
Posts: 1899

Post by jimhenry »

The unlock button worked on the Nexus 7 on all paths up to actually entering payment information and backing out to the main screen.
Jim Henry
Author of the Miditzer, a free virtual theatre pipe organ
http://www.Miditzer.org/
Nicholas
Posts: 13135

Post by Nicholas »

Oh! I forgot to ask!

For people ordering in currencies other than USD, is the price shown on the green button correct for your currency? It looks like someone unlocked from Australia and Norway already. Did those show up as A$6.99 and 39.99 NOK, hopefully?

EDIT: Good, it sounds like they're showing correctly. Thanks everyone!
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jimhenry
Posts: 1899

Post by jimhenry »

jimhenry wrote:One issue is the action needed to cause the hidden Action bar and Navigation bar to appear. The Action bar doesn't seem to be an issue but the Navigation bar is because playing the on-screen keyboard can cause the Navigation bar to appear. I think this page may provide a solution in the form of requiring an inward swipe from the left or right edge to reveal the system bars:
https://developer.android.com/training/ ... rsive.html

The second issue is the size and placement of Synthesia's controls on the play screen. On a Nexus 7 the icons along the top edge are very close to the progress bar below the icons. If you tap finger hints, for example, it is easy to also tap the progress bar. Maybe you should give priority to the top icons so that if a top icon is tapped, touches of the progress bar are ignored until after the screen is not touched along the top. Another possibility would be to give up tap to position in the progress bar and require a swipe from the current position to change the playback position.
I only was able to spend a few minutes trying the update Android version. The Navigation bar still appears with an upward swipe. I think that it will appear based on use of the on-screen keyboard followed by unwanted navigation away from the program in the middle of playing a song. Does anyone else have a problem with this or do I just have terrible technique when playing the on-screen keyboard?

I didn't have a problem with the icons at the top in my quick test. Was there a change in the layout or the way taps are handled?
Jim Henry
Author of the Miditzer, a free virtual theatre pipe organ
http://www.Miditzer.org/
Piraya
Posts: 3

Post by Piraya »

Hi I am from Norway. When I unlocked Synthesia it said 39,99 Nok. But everything else is working fine.
Thorsongori
Posts: 2

Post by Thorsongori »

Unlocked and worked but my douther will not let me play on her keyboard :(
The Price was 4,99 € in Germany.
Nicholas
Posts: 13135

Post by Nicholas »

Alright, it sounds like in-app purchase is working, which means Synthesia for Android is complete! We just uploaded a release candidate build. If no one runs into trouble with that in about a day, it will be time to push the big "Release it!" button.
jimhenry wrote:Does anyone else have a problem with this or do I just have terrible technique when playing the on-screen keyboard?
So far I think we've only heard from you. It looks like that can't be disabled. Would an option to always show the navigation bar alleviate this at all? Then there wouldn't be any swipe-ups to interrupt. But you'd still have to avoid the buttons.

There are a few devices out there that always show the nav bar at the "bottom" of the screen as it would be in portrait mode, despite your orientation... which means that in Synthesia they'd be off to the left or right. I wonder if this can be configured. That'd be a neat fix. Vertical resolution is at a huge premium in Synthesia, but losing a little bit on one side (making the aspect ratio more square) would almost be an improvement.
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jimhenry
Posts: 1899

Post by jimhenry »

I'm not an on-screen keyboard player and the Nexus 7 is a small screen. I would wait to see if anyone else thinks there is a problem with having the navigation keys hidden just below the keyboard. I don't think always visible would help.
Jim Henry
Author of the Miditzer, a free virtual theatre pipe organ
http://www.Miditzer.org/
Bumpydog
Posts: 1

Post by Bumpydog »

Is it possible to sign up for Beta as I can't see the Play Store link at the top of the forum?
Katka
Posts: 8

Post by Katka »

EDIT: The update today fixed it.

Only thing I've noticed that seems odd is it forgets the usb keyboard each time I start the app, as in it asks if it's ok to use the keyboard every time (even though I chose the option to only ask once) and then I have to go into settings to make the usb keyboard the input/output (though it remembers that I switched off in/out for the inbuilt synth and touchscreen keyboard). I'm using android 4.1.2 on an asus fonepad and a yamaha PSR-275.
chrisrak11
Posts: 14

Post by chrisrak11 »

Hey
When will we be able to unlock the app with our Desktop Unlock Code? :)
Nicholas
Posts: 13135

Post by Nicholas »

You can unlock right now! :D

The first Android release has been made available and it's out of beta:

Image

I don't like soliciting them, but if anyone wanted to leave a (hopefully favorable :lol: ) review at Google Play, that would be very nice of you!
Nicholas
Posts: 13135

Post by Nicholas »

chrisrak11 wrote:... with our Desktop Unlock Code?
Oh! I missed that detail, sorry! Desktop unlocks in Android will still be in a future version. No estimate, yet.
Hrm. If you leave and return to that screen, is it always the same? A couple times during testing, it seemed to take more than one attempt before the store was talking to us correctly. We're still trying to figure out why.
Yasje
Posts: 23

Post by Yasje »

Yes i tried it many times, i wait when it works correctly.
thedealman
Posts: 25

Post by thedealman »

Sorry if this is a silly question, but why did you decide to make Synthesia cheaper on Android platforms?
And on a side note, do you ever put the app on sale for a super-low price to attract impulse buyers?
Nicholas
Posts: 13135

Post by Nicholas »

thedealman wrote:... why did you decide to make Synthesia cheaper on Android platforms?
Actually, now that you mention it... it's supposed to be the same price as the iPad unlock. But it looks like I set it $1 lower on the Android side. I'll fix that sometime after the holidays.

Beyond the culture of mobile pricing that forces app prices lower in-general, I just answered a similar question about the difference between the desktop and tablet versions of Synthesia over in this post.

(Regarding flash sales: historically we haven't done anything like that. The tablet unlock is already so low-priced that it's hard to push it any lower.)
johand
Posts: 18

Post by johand »

How do i connect my Nexus 7 tablat to a yamaha keybord and where do i set it inside synthesia, or is it set automatically as soon as i connect the calbe? What is the added value of connecting synthesa to a keybord?

what is the added value of buying the app for 4.99 instead of the free version?
Nicholas
Posts: 13135

Post by Nicholas »

You can connect your keyboard to your Android device with a "USB On-The-Go" cable which is usually just a couple dollars. (If the keyboard only has MIDI ports, you'll need a USB adapter like this one.)

Connecting a real keyboard is tremendously useful. While some people enjoy using the touch-screen to play, I would go so far as to say that connecting a keyboard is the "real" or "right" way to play Synthesia. You get to build playing skills and muscle memory on an actual instrument that way. Other reasons include most keyboards having better sounds than the built-in Android MIDI synth, and if your keyboard has lighted keys, Synthesia's ability to use them can help guide you to the right keys without doing the mental mapping from tiny screen keys to large real-life keys.

The added value for purchasing the unlock is that you can play any MIDI file. That even includes those that you can create yourself. The free version only lets you try 20 or so of the built-in songs.
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