[LAU] PianoBooster 0.6.2 - See if you are playing ahead or behind the beat.

Louis B. louisjbarman at googlemail.com
Thu Apr 2 19:15:01 EDT 2009 

Hi David,

Thanks for your helpful comments and suggestions.

The assignable left and right hand midi channels are on my to do list
for the next release.


There are admittedly issues with the timing (made worse by soft synths
which also eats up cpu time). I do not know how to fix myself but
hopefully others on this list can help.

1. How do I give P.B. some sort of real-time status so that the timer
ticks arrive with out any jitter IN MY APP? (Yes I have tried 'sudo
nice' it did not make much difference and also it is not suitable for
the end user). I am currently using the QT4 QBasicTimer for the timer
ticks. Will switching to using the ALSA timer result in ticks arriving
with low jitter IN MY APP?  (Thanks to Pedro I have the code ready to
switch use the ALSA timer which I will integrate soon). But what I
really want to know is will switching to the alsa timer fix all my
real-time jitter problems or do I need to do something else as well? I
have already tried hard to minimise the CPU load by offloading as much
as possible to the OpenGL GPU processor.

Regarding the scrolling note display, yes it eats up some CPU time but
I am trying to do something a bit different here by doing a version of
guitar hero but with notes that scrolls sideways along a real musical
stave. Adding more gaming/fun features is also on my todo list. For
the serious musician is was always intended that they read the notes
from the printed musical score. I am fairly confident that it is
possible to get the scrolling horizontal musical stave working
successfully but with some help from others.

2. If the are any OpenGl whiz kids on this list. I have a very high
frame rate (83 hz) to prevent the "openGL tearing" problem. But I
cannot sync the frame rate to the screen refresh rate. using QT
QGLFormat::setSwapInterval(0) as it does not work any ideas?. (I have
set   setSwapInterval(100) in my code just to test it type
"./pianoboster -X2" to enable this test)


Finally, I am not quite sure what you mean in point 2. Do you mean
that when you play a different part eg the string part that your piano
playing should automatically switch to use the string sound rather
than sticking with the piano sound. Also I do not know what you are
refering to by "the combination confuses the program"



Please remember that is this a very new Open Source software project
all help is appreciated.

Thanks


L o u i s



On Thu, Apr 2, 2009 at 12:11 PM, David Baron <d_baron at 012.net.il> wrote:
> This looks like a nice program. Problems with it are:
>
> 1. MUST piano be on 3 and 4. Let me choose so I can use any files I want. I
> think I suggested this on the first version I tried.
>
> 2. I could presumably play with other instruments as well so an option to use
> the "program" of the chosen tracks is certainly in order. (Now, the
> combination confuses the program, it seems.) Ditto.
>
> 3. It is not playing a tempo, especially with larger multitrack MIDIs. OK, for
> learning purposes, a two or three track MIDI is adequate, maybe even
> preferable, but it should be possible for the program to play anything.
>
> 4. Video, with or without whatever "optimization" being offered, may be the
> stumbling block. Scrolling a vertical bar over the music may be less demanding
> than continuously scrolling the whole picture--this is how the vast majority
> of these programs do this. Scroll the score with ONE redraw at end of current
> view or one measure short of this is several are shown. Use hw-acceleration if
> available.
>
> 5. To that end, a zoom in or out is in order.
>> Hi All,
>>
>>   Piano Booster version 0.6.2 has just been released.  The most
>>   interesting and innovative thing in this release are timing markers
>>   which drawn in real-time as you play on the piano keyboard. They
>>   appear as white crosses that are drawn over each note and they show
>>   if you are playing ahead or behind the beat. See this screen shot:
>>
>>     http://pianobooster.sourceforge.net/images/timingmarkers.jpeg
>>
>>   Piano Booster is a new way to learn the piano and is the best way
>>   to play along with a musical accompaniment. It suitable for both
>>   the beginner and an advanced player.
>>
>>   If you have not seen PianoBooster before then look at the screen shot.
>>
>>     http://pianobooster.sourceforge.net/images/LinuxScreenShot.png
>>
>>
>>   Watch the video of PianoBooster in action on You Tube.
>>
>>
>>      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGbfm8Tv-20
>>
>>
>> == Features - new to this release ==
>>
>>   * Change the start bar to start playing from any bar in the music.
>>   * Repeat bars allows you to practice just a few difficult bars
>>     continuously.
>>   * Timing markers are white crosses that are drawn over each note
>>     and show if you are playing ahead or behind the beat.
>>   * Adjust the volume of the current part or the volume your piano
>>     part.
>>   * Latency fix has been added for sound generators that do not work
>>     in real-time.
>>   * Mute or un-mute the current part that you are following.
>>   * A Mac universal binary now available.
>>
>>
>> == Features - in all versions ==
>>
>>   * Piano Booster follows your playing when playing along to a
>>     musical accompaniment. (If you stop then so does the music).
>>   * Play a single hand and Piano Booster will play the other hand
>>     in time with you (and will also play the violins, the bass,
>>     the drums etc. in time with you).
>>   * Change the speed of playback to match your playing ability.
>>   * Transpose +/- 12 semitones without stopping the play back.
>>   * Change the Key Signature of the piece.
>>   * Plays any standard midi or kar file.
>>   * Play along to any instrument in the midi file.
>>   * See the accuracy of you playing.
>>
>>
>> == PianoBooster Web Site ==
>>
>>   PianoBooster is a GPL v3 program available for both Linux and
>>   Windows and now a universal binary for the Mac. Piano Booster is
>>   hosted on sourceforge and can be downloaded from this page.
>>
>>     http://pianobooster.sourceforge.net/
>>
>>
>> L o u i s   J a m e s   B a r m a n
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