It's pretty much a solo mode experience at present.
At this point you should be able to play one of the included MIDI files, and click on the virtual piano to see notes added to the sonf. Then repeat and add additional layers of notes.
I'm not sure if the MIDI input is working right now or not (it WAS working the last time I had my keyboard attached (two computers ago, and I am waiting for a new cable to come to try it again)
The microphone input is 'fun' but not really music-quality (works better with high notes than low ones)
All the UI is either on the toy options dialog, or in some right-click popup menu here and there.
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posted
assuming you are not trying to play it on a server which is hard-wired to synSpace... um.. I dunno..
Well.. then again, I had an old graphic which was the synSpace graphic with synJame scribbled in the corner... but you would know if it was actually running synSpace..
Nope, I canna explain it. synJam is toy 12, and the 12ness of it all should be all that counts.
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posted
Just when I uploaded a .avi file of synjam opening synspace
Yeah, it works now.
-------------------- SoV: Exalted Devout Oracle | World Developer | The Black Guard Outside is just a prank older kids tell younger kids at Internet Camp Posts: 9482 | From: NY | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
Well here is a bit of irony.. apparently you have to open the Arcadia Options and DISABLE MUSIC or synJam can't get access to the sound card :-)
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posted
I can't seem to open any midi files except the ones in the toy's folder. Do I have to move the midi files there first?
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[yes, to avoid allowing people to grab any file they want from your computer, the starting midi's must actually be inside of your toy's MIDI folder.
And when I get around to implementing the SAVE feature, I am not sure if I want to save to that folder or a different one. I would like to use a different one, but then you can't use a saved session as a starting session... So I probably won't. But I think I will let you make subdirectories inside the toy's MIDI folder.
And MAAAAAAAYBE I should make it copy the selected MIDI to the toy's midi folder, if you select one outside that folder. Instead of just ignoring you.
Basically, other players will ultimately be able to fetch anything you have in your toy's MIDI folder.
I just spent a pleasant hour polishing a few things:
* The Options Dialog is resizable and a little more powerful (and up to date with player names, etc)
* The main sheet music window now has the primary control buttons for load/save/stop/play so you don't need to open the options dialog (except to change your instrument and delay, and use fancy muting)
* The player list now colors each musician a different color, and their notes on the sheet music are in that color (so as to better see who is playing what)
* right-click on player list menu now includes a mute-instrument option.
* the bass and treble cleff markers which have always been there except I forgot to include the bitmap in the release.. now appear :-)
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Hopefully next weekend I can add the 'fetch midi from someone else' and 'save modified midi back to disk' functionality.
Then I guess it's just whatever I feel like... probably more microphone work and maybe an auto-chorder.
Of course, once my midi cable arrives, I have to see if MIDI-in actually works. It worked before, but had the side effect that it would switch MIDI in and out at the same time (so I couldn't JUST use the midi keyboard as a controller, it would ALSO want to use it as the midi output device, and that was actually crappier than the PC.) Hopefully that won't be the case this time around..
oh, and I guess I have to beef up arcadia so that a toy can tell it "please let ME own the midi channel" so you dont *have* to disable music in arcadia.
posted
Is there any chance of getting the "open midi" dialog box changed to a drop-down menu a la WoS Link Editor BKGND Selector? The browseable open dialog confused me at first, and I assumed I wasn't doing something right when it wouldn't let me open the MIDIs I had in other folders.
-------------------- Constantinople! We shall never forget your zany barge poles! Posts: 4232 | From: Gresham, OR | Registered: Nov 2003
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-------------------- SoV: Exalted Devout Oracle | World Developer | The Black Guard Outside is just a prank older kids tell younger kids at Internet Camp Posts: 9482 | From: NY | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
This might be the kind of error only I would be bothered by, and at first I assumed you had accounted for the concert tuning of instruments (as irrational as that is). However, using a piano I still get the same results.
In short, your wave sheet is flawed. When it gets to high C it jumps up an extra step for apparently ever note on up. From the B down it works brilliantly. Here's a low quality screenshot I took.
As you really ought to know, the yellow line should be drawn in the space below the line that it's actually being drawn on.
[All I can say is that the people who designed music notation in the first place seem to have been completely ignorant of its mathematical underpinnings . Anyway this was a side effect of my sharp/flat handling (further weirded out by most midi files lacking a key signature. ANYWAY, in .0005 I believe I have it right, and I have added a simple indication of sharps (+) and flats (-) which only the truly eagle-eyed will have a chance of seeing.
* New column on player list 'Song' shows what version of the selected midi everyone has (says 'same' if the same as you, otherwise a short checksum value).
* New right-click player command to "fetch song from X" which fetches the current moderator-selected MIDI file from that player (can only fetch from files in the players 'toy12\midi' folder and below)
* New right-click command in Piano window shows list of your 25 favorite instruments. (Always starts with my favorites, at the moment). When you use the OPTIONs dialog to pick an instrument, it causes it to be added to the bottom of this menu (so you can pre-load your favorites). This is most useful if the menu opens 'up' instead of 'down'
Someday I will hopefully save these for you.
My real hope is that newbs won't discover the OPTIONS dialog until AFTER they have learned to stop picking novelty instruments 20 times a second
* New option "Decorate Piano with Hints" which highlights all the keys used in the originally loaded MIDI file. Sort of a layman's "These are the legal keys for this key signature"
And speaking of key signatures. I am disappointed that every MIDI file does NOT include the key sig info, and I am reluctantly aiming to figure it out 'from notes in the file' which is a pain and inaccurate.
But I need it to progress on phase II -- automatically make your key pounding sound 'nice' (if you enable 'easy mode')
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* Supports input from a MIDI controller (I hooked up my USB to MIDI cable and voila!)
* Handles the situation where someone else is using midi when it starts up (like Arcadia). Just wait for them to finish, then try to play the song again.
* cleaned up the save midi feature, to prune empty tracks
* Miscellaneous niceties like showing you instrument name on the main screen, and letting you click on a name on the player list to highlight their notes.
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and no, Soul 66033182, YOU'RE the 'ass'
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* added new option "auto-save" which automatically saves (when stopped) any jam session that looks 'interesting' (added more than a certain number of notes from the previous pass)... mainly so I can lurk on the channel and then later review what was played in my absence
* Added right-click menu in main sheet music section for convenience functions like "delete this song." Mainly so I could easily delete the crap I got on auto-save
* Added a little 'reticle' to the centerline to make it easier to see staff position of notes above or below the staves.
* Fixes the oddly-long note problems (notes shown lasting much longer than they really are).
* Added a little horizontal scroll bar which shows you a 'thumb' which relates to how much of the score you can see right now, and which then moves along to show you how much of the song has gone by.
* Changed the click-on-window-to-resize-score so it goes up in smaller increments.
* Added a 'status bar' with helpful hints as to what is going on, and error messages to lead you through the initial learning curve.
* Added metrics (it counts bunch of stuff you do in the game, to get a feel for how active you are, what you like to do, etc.)
* Awards "Bravo Points" for use of the game (use it more, get more points. It doesn't tell you how many bravo points you HAVE because I am not in the business of making it easy to hack the game :-)
* Allows you to give "Bravos" to other players (applaud them). (and receiving Bravos is the first tier of 'game value') You only have a limited supply to hand out, so you can't just hand out thousands. And you can't hand them out to yourself. (to rephrase, you 'earn' bravo POINTS for doing things, then you 'give' Bravos (not bravo points) to other players. Your goal is to have received a bunch of Bravos.
* Updated the Web Pages.
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SOMEDAY, when I figure out how to SET the midiBeatCounter (it always starts at 0 when you open the midi output device), I will maybe add the ability to drag the thumb back and forth and maybe some other nudges to let you find 'interesting' sections. Someday when I want to turn it into a general MIDI editor (which I don't reeeeeaally plan to do).
But the other reason to set a starting beat is so spectators can enter the channel in mid song and get synced up close to real time.
Though, right now, the fact that the newcomer is not going to hear you in real time, is something of a good thing. I find I don't feel as intimidated knowing they can't hear my mistakes immediately :-)
Another thing I need to do is make it so on a subsequent pass you can choose to get assigned to a new channel number. This is important if you want to play a different instrument in a later pass, as each channel is only set to a single instrument at a time. So if on a second pass you change the instrument, it affects all the notes after that in the first pass. Which is usually not what you want (but MIGHT be what you want)
Problem is that there are not a huge number of channels available (and even less if the original MIDI used a bunch). PLus the UI is escaping me at the moment... It feels like something only the mod should be able to do (one newb switching betweeh bottle blow and helicopter repeatedly would blow the budget )
BTW, I'm a newb, too
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Also, someday, perhaps a robot accompanist when there is no one else around..
And perhaps some game modes, like "Simon" (Bot plays a riff, you play it back).
And, the "Play Along Challenge" where you get scored for matching the original MIDI to some degree.
And, the "Harmony Challenge" where you must play notes at 'pleasant' intervals to the MIDI.
posted
synJam is going to give another fun game that takes no skill to join in on (the other being collaboration) and have fun with, when it's finished
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posted
Tested out the toy today. Ran into one problem, I could hear myself play fine, and so could the other guy, but all his notes sounded like the 'seashore' instrument (he was using piano at the time). =/
posted
I beefed up the toy's web page again (I need to be doing work-work today, so I am delaying that by documenting :-)
Please note that each player is assigned an available MIDI channel (and that some MIDI files don't actually HAVE an available MIDI channel which can result in several players being assigned to the SAME channel)
Then note that a channel can only be set to one instrument at a time. And if you change the instrument 25% of the way into the song, then there is an instrument change event at that spot of the song on that channel.. forever.
So if you take a second pass through the song, the instrument is still going to change there. Likewise, if you change the instrument in the second pass, then it will affect all subsequent notes from the first pass.
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I am not saying this is what happened with the seashore deal... (that's probably more of a "I only send the instrument info when it changes, so if you stay on the default piano and get assigned a channel that other people have been using some other instrument on, then the older people on the server might hear you play the last instrument they saw assigned to that channel"
Something like that, I imagine.
-------------------- He knows when you are sleeping. Posts: 10641 | From: California | Registered: Dec 1998
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* [fixed in next release] If you don't pick an instrument after being mad a member of the band, other people might not agree as to what instrument you are playing.
* [feature, not bug] Changing instruments doesn't work except in the first pass, or in subsequent passes only after all old notes have been played. Officially this is a bug, but I think it is actually a feature (since changing instrument in second pass would otherwise alter the notes from previous passes. I need to come up with a way for a single musician to be able to record to different channels on different passes.
* [fixed in next release] if you organize your MIDIs into lots of subfolders, people cannot fetch them from you unless they manually recreate your folder hierarchy first. (everyone has "midi" and "Midi/jams" but nothing else by default)
* If you or someone else disconnects, you can be left with their last note(s) stuck playing.. I need to auto-terminate notes if I see someone exit. You can manually stop a nasty sound by pressing the STOP button, but that interrupts your current session. You can MUTE the player in question by right-clicking on their name in the player list and finding the Mute Instrument command
* [fixed in next release] If the moderator wants to restart the current midi with no player notes added, he should just open the MIDI file again. Unfortunately, this will not cause the other players to reload unless he opens some OTHER midi in between.
I totally redid the microphone stuff using a much simpler algorithm and am very pleased with the results (which is to say, it still sucks, but it sometimes gets it right now)
The mic analysis window now shows a histogram along the top of which note (in a 3 octave range) it thinks it is hearing. Assuming you have the mic pre-amp gain set appropriately this is very accurate if you whistle, or play a 'recorder' (the instrument, I mean).
For voice, you have to hold the note for a long time, and then it will match it (in some octave). As before, it works best if you sing in a falsetto (try to be as 'sinusoidal' as possible)
I think it's pretty cool, but it's not like a magical tape recorder, it's more like your voice is 'influencing' the music. You have to hold each note long enough for it to register, so no 'scat'.
* Re-did the "do I have a matching MIDI" section.
The column is now titled ".MID" and says "OK" if you have the same version AS THE MODERATOR. I found that with "same" I was constantly confusing the Toy Version column with the .MID (pka "Song") column. Also, it used to do peer to peer checking, but now reports only matches with the moderator. (if two peers have the same version, but diff from the mod, it will just show the check digits for each, which will match)
* New Instrument Changing Rules
During the first recording pass of a song (assuming you were assigned to a midi channel of your own), you have complete control of the instrument changes (and should probably select the instrument before your first note of the song, to get that on record)
On subsequent passes, you can NOT change the instrument. And the instrument shown just above the virtual piano will indicate which instrument is currently selected on your midi channel. So on passes 2+, you should KNOW what instrument is selected (and it will be whatever you had selected at that time during the first pass.. more or less... the vagueness comes from when you actually played a NOTE with that instrument.)
ANYWAY, so the point is: set your instruments on the first pass, and live with them.
NOTE: I still plan to someday let you change your midi channel. Today you would do that by saving the jam, then loading it again (your original track now being part of the saved jam and not available for new musicians)
* Added support for TEMPO changes
Personally, I find tempo changes a little irritating, but there are enough MIDI files out there that depend on them to make it worth supporting.
You will notice the music scrolling speed may now slow down on occasion. This reflects a tempo change. It was quite difficult handling this in my multiplayer+with+time_travel environment, so I don't want to hear any negative feedback about it!
posted
I would love to give a special thanks to Hesacon for helping Dan out on SynJam. I'd like to take this time also to thank Dan for making such a great game and website. So thank you guys I don't know what I would of done without Synthetic Reality.
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posted
I haven't done anything to help Dan with synJam besides bump the devlopement notes every few months...
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And Spades, you don't know how mp3s work, there is no way, for the purpose of the game of synJam, that mp3 files could be used.
-------------------- SoV: Exalted Devout Oracle | World Developer | The Black Guard Outside is just a prank older kids tell younger kids at Internet Camp Posts: 9482 | From: NY | Registered: Apr 2003
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3.) feed it into a MIDI to MP3 converter to make it 50 trillion times larger.
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Given the quality of midi instruments these days, I'm not sure what that would buy you, other than to make the file bigger (oh, and it would play on your ipod) :-)
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People HAVE made MP3 -> MIDI converters but.. well.. they suck more than the synJam mic :-)
-------------------- He knows when you are sleeping. Posts: 10641 | From: California | Registered: Dec 1998
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posted
I recall a format with extension .mod that had the advantages of MIDI and MP3. It could contain unique sounds, but also worked like a MIDI file in that it could play that sound multiple times without wasting space. I guess once audio compression got decent the hassle of programming a song like that was outweighed by the ease of downloading a 3-meg MP3 file.
-------------------- SK Fan #1 Posts: 3111 | From: Surrey B.C. | Registered: Jun 2001
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posted
I'd much rather play midi files on my mp3 player than mp3 files themselves! I could fit several hundred midi files in instead of one mp3 file.
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