chord / melody relationship

[alefoot]

Could you please point me in the direction of an explanation of the timing relationship between chords and melody notes  as entered either via Channel 41 or using the app editor. Rests, counts, any means to retain comments, my saved files appear to have had anything after // stripped....
Thanks!

[mario]

By default, the timing relation is 8 melody notes per 1 chord. For example the song that plays under #1 is encoded like this:

Code: [Select]

//song
a2c5e3,a3c5e4,a3c4e3,a3c5e4,d4f#4a4,e4g#4b4,a4c#5e5,a4c#5e6

//melody
a3.c4.e4.a3. c4.e4.a3.c4. e4.a4.c4.e4. a4.c5.e5.a5.
d4f#4a4d5.... e4g#4b4e5.... a5e5c#5.e5c#5.a4 .c#5a4e4a4e4c#4.
Some channels use different timing, for example #4114 needs to change chords twice as quick, so there is 4 melody notes per chord. This setting is not yet accessible - will try to get it into the next version, also there will be a setting to define if melody voice is played by resonant filter or sampled sound.

As for comments, good idea to make them persistent. They disappear now as when loading/saving, data is reformatted every time, I haven't realized user may want to write their own notes there - thanks!

Currently the "." denotes continuation of previous note (for the duration of one note), however a symbol for rest, turning the voice off, is indeed useful too - will add it. Maybe a minus sign will do?

[alefoot]

That's great, thanks for the rapid response! A minus sign would work as a rest symbol for me - it's easy to type Being able to rest the chords for a measure (as well as being able to rest the melody notes) would be good.
Opening up the ability to alter the chord / number of notes relationship would be really helpful - here's hoping you can find a means to do that.

I'm happy to see the editor and associated file upload/download evolve in to a superset of the facilites for composition available on the Gecho in 'stand alone' mode. There's only so much that can be squeezed into a limited number of buttons and LEDs before it all gets horribly confusing. Kudos on managing to make what's there now so intuitive

[alefoot]

Using the song [chord / melody] editor in the app, I downloaded the current 'user input file' from Gecho, and got over sixty chords!
Am I misunderstanding what the 8x4 maximum implies? Or did something change?

Not that I'm complaining 

[mario]

What probably happened was that there was some auto-generated content present in the memory, #222 or #314 and their variations. These can generate many more chords in sequence.

By the way that progression probably ends by some nonsense, that's why those channels previously stopped playing. It is fixed now but need to fix generating that gibberish too

Via Gecho app you can upload more than 8x4 chords, that limit is imposed merely for convenience of programming the progression via channels #41-44 (and displaying it with the amount of LEDs available), but the allocated memory is usually in few kB range... So, enough space for a lot of chords. I just didn't think someone might want longer song than 8x4 chords, but if yes, this can be changed easily. Harder part then is to figure out how to indicate the whole range and position (currently edited chord) on those 8+4 red/orange LEDs, without making it horribly confusing, as you commented previously - glad to hear you find the current interface intuitive enough - thanks!

The new version of App (and firmware too) should be released next week, it will have more elaborate options to upload custom content (e.g. creating new channels or overriding existing ones, and storing data permanently to FLASH memory)... and hope to incorporate your other suggestions too

[alefoot]

Playing channel 4121 from Gecho in the normal [stand-alone] manner currently returns a melody line which sounds as though rests have been implemented, to my ear at least; the melody notes occur, they do not inappropriately sustain into the next melody note. I guess I need to check this listening 'dry' - the echo may be confusing me

Downloading that channel into the editor to see how this is being done displays periods [the symbol previously used for sustained notes]
Trying to play the channel contents from within the preview facility in the editor appears to result in no activity at the Gecho.

Incidentally, the spacebar on my keyboard appears to insert periods when entering Melody in the app entry window, but spaces in the Edit window.

Am I just falling into an implementation / UI gap, or am I doing something wrong, or?

[mario]

You're right, the melody notes really do stop, and it was unintentional. Recently reworked most of the core (due to variable BPM) and this is a collateral damage. I quite like it, so it will become an option/setting

Also, that particular channel plays probably the longest song of them all - it looks like it overruns the receive buffer... thanks for the heads up!

The score editor in the app is currently undergoing major upgrades - there will be more than one keyboard layout, to make it easier for people who play something else than the piano...

Rests and pauses aren't there yet, I remember you suggested it. To make keyboard activity clear and more versatile, there will be a switch to either put text directly or to "play" on it with all the required extra notation put down automatically.

So, perhaps the implementation gap... hope to close it soon in the way that doesn't end up with two smaller gaps Thanks again for your great feedback.