AudioTheory Guitars News

Okay, I wasn't totally sure what to call this update as it adds in a few different features and all of them are new and exciting. But first, a quick announcement, AudioTheory Piano Keys will be launching on the 24th September 2021.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1513510/AudioTheory_Piano_Keys

This new piece of music theory software takes all the features you know and love form AudioTheory Guitars but reworks them it into a piano-focused package. If you haven't already, now is a great time to add it to your Wishlist as this way you'll get an email from Steam next month when it's available.

Anyway, back to AudioTheory Guitars...




[h3]Improved Chord Selector[/h3]

The first new feature is an improved chord selector for open chords. This mirrors the layout already in place for power and barre chords, where you select a cord as a combination of a root note and position. It's easier to use as there are less buttons than before, you can see from the selector itself which chord is currently loaded, and I've added a set of open chords for the sharp/ flat notes so there's a whole bunch of new chord shapes to choose from too.

This view is now also used on the fullscreen selector page.



[h3]24 Fret View[/h3]

This is the option to select a full 24 fretboard diagram as an alternative to the default 15 fret diagram. This lets you see two octaves at once, and comes in handy for a few obscure chord/ capo combinations that go past fret 15.



You can choose the desired fretboard size from the options popup.



[h3]Relative shape/ exact note selection options for chords[/h3]

When you have a capo applied on the fretboard, you will see an additional tab for choosing between a 'relative shape' and 'exact root note', which are two different ways to think about the chord you are selecting.



'Relative shape' was the only selection method previously. This is what you typically see on online tabs for songs played with a capo. For example, a C cord 'shape' will always be the same, but the actual root note of the chord increases with the capo. So at capo position 3, the actual chord being played is a D# (C+3).

It will depend on the context, but working with shapes is often the easiest way to understand what you're playing. However, for the times where you want to see the exact chord for the selected root note, you've now got the option to identify a chord this way too.



[h3]Clear Highlighting Delay[/h3]

There's another new option in the settings too, this is three different time durations for which the keyboard colour highlighting will clear once input is no longer received. By default this is turned off, which means as soon as you unpress a note then it stops being highlighted – what you see on screen directly matches up to the input.

The two alternatives are a short (roughly .2 seconds) and a long (roughly 1 second) delay before the highlighting is cleared. These are primarily designed for fast piano players – if you're quickly sending input via a connected MIDI device then real-time highlighting means that the notes are sometimes only highlighted for a very small amount of time, and this is a great way to keep them emphasised for longer.



One more change, I've moved the per-string tuning into the options popup. This makes the fullscreen fretboard view look a bit neater.

That's all for today. Thanks for reading, and please look forward to the release of AudioTheory Piano Keys next month.

AudioTheory Guitars version 1.17.0 includes several new features and improvements. Let's have a look at what's new:

[h3]Chord Reordering[/h3]

Whilst some of the updates have predominantly focused around a single big feature, this one is more of a collection of smaller improvements. Still, chord reordering is perhaps the most exciting new addition. It's simple but useful, when hovering over chords in the main application 'chord box' you will see a new arrow icon. You can click and drag the chord using this icon, allowing you to quickly reorder the selection of chords.



[h3]Relative Note Naming[/h3]

Back in the 1.13.0 update, Fixed do solfège was added in as an alternate format for displaying the note names. As an extension of this I have now added in two further options for the names to display using relative values. These are movable do solfège (Do Re Mi...) and relative Roman numerals (I II III...). Both display the notes relative to the selected scale preset, making them useful for understanding or learning a new scale.



When using relative names you will notice a combination of uppercase and lowercase characters. These can be used to quickly see the pattern of major/ minor and diminished chords within the scale. For example, a major scale goes For example a major scale goes...

I – major
ii – minor
iii – minor
IV – major
V – major
vi° – dim




[h3]DSP Latency Settings[/h3]

I've added in some new optimisations to the app's latency settings (this is the fractional delay between input and playback). The DSP buffer size can now be configured (between 1024 and 32 samples) in the settings, with the idea being that a lower buffer size will result in less latency, but as this requires more CPU power you may incur audio distortions if it's reduced too much.

The buffer also now starts out at a platform-optimised size, meaning latency has been reduced without the need to adjust the settings, however full control is now available to tweak this further.

[h3]Hotkeys[/h3]

Some hotkeys are now in place to optimise control of the app:

Num keys 1–4: quickly swamp note languages
1 – English
2 – Fixed Do solfège
3 – Relative Roman numerals
4 – Movable Do solfège

Ctrl (Windows)/Cmd (Mac) –O: Open preset from file
Ctrl (Windows)/Cmd (Mac) –S: Save preset to file
Ctrl (Windows)/Cmd (Mac) Shift –O: Toggle keyboard overlay view
Ctrl (Windows)/Cmd (Mac) Shift –M: Toggle mute
Ctrl (Windows)/Cmd (Mac) –K: Toggle QWERTY keyboard input
Ctrl (Windows)/Cmd (Mac) –L: Toggle lock to scale




[h3]And the rest...[/h3]

Here's a quick round-up of everything else that's changed:

• Improved MIDI response for highlighting. This works alongside the latency settings to improve MIDI input support for the app.
  
• Optimisations have been made to how note presses are handled as well as how the app buttons work. This results in a slight performance boost.
  
• The saved file name is no longer displayed if the save dialogue box is cancelled
  
• Fix for scale highlighting overlapping with note selection box at reduced application widths
  
• The 'set from chords' button now updates to a specific scale preset if a match is found
  
• Fixed a bug where one of the Grapefruit synth high C notes played at the wrong octave
  
• App now launches in windowed mode as default (once it's been run once it will continue to load using the last used resolution settings)
  

That's all for today, thanks for reading.

Fraser

Today's update to AudioTheory Guitars is more exiting than it initially sounds. It's a reworking of the application settings, and this is (in fact!) very exciting because it improves the ways you can customise and control the software.

[h3]The new settings popup[/h3]

For the longest time I had been reluctant to swap out the existing settings menu as I liked how it could sit open alongside the main application view. The downside to this was a limit to the available space, and as new features have been updated and adding it, things were starting to get a little cramped in there.

Anyway, swapping over to new, much larger popup, has solved a whole bunch of problems. There is now a lot more space, giving room for the current settings to breath and making it easy to add in some extra stuff there wasn't previously room for.



[h3]So let's have a look at what's changed...[/h3]

• The options for saving and loading a preset now come complete with some cool icons (the same as those used in AudioTheory Grids!)
  
  
• Guitar config. now sits as part of the single popup view (rather than in its own separate tab).
  
  
• The keyboard overlay type (previously indicated by a button next to the keyboard icon) now has its own dedicated settings toggle, with options for the full and partial overlay.
  

[h3]And here's what's new...[/h3]

• There is now an option to turn off the feature where chords are auto loaded with a scale preset (introduced in version 1.15.0).
  
  
• The way that MIDI input is handled has been reworked and there are now new settings in place to support this. The main octave (the one just above the piano keys), was previously sensitive to MIDI input, essentially requiring the MIDI device's own octave range to match whatever was set here. This is now no longer the case and the octave here is purely for playback.
  

What this last point means is that he MIDI input range is now configured separately (in the new settings popup). The big advantage of doing things this way is that you can ensure everything is synced correctly in the settings and then adjust the main piano octave without the need to also change octave on the MIDI device.

There is a new plus/ minus selector you will find in the settings under the name 'MIDI input mod'. If your MIDI device is not registering at the correct octave you can adjust this value (and/ or the octave settings on your device itself) to get the two in sync. Plus, if you are ever experiencing issues with MIDI input, there is also a message here that will log any MIDI input that the application receives.



This displays as both a raw input value as well as the target note to play, and you can use this info to easily debug any issues with MIDI playback. The note on the far left of the piano is C1, so if the note on the far left of your MIDI device is returning C(-1) you won't receive any output as you're playing two octaves too low! This can be fixed by either increasing the MIDI input mod. by +2, or also by increasing the octave on the device itself by +2.

You might be wondering if these more comprehensive MIDI options are in part due to the fact that MIDI input is a key component of the upcoming AudioTheory Piano Keys. The answer is yes, it's been the excuse I needed to add all this in and I'm very please to also bring it back into AudioTheory Guitars!




There's also a couple more miscellaneous features that have made their way into this update too:

• The current scale is now highlighted on the mini selector when it's open.
  
• The scale tab selector now remembers its last used position
  

Thanks for reading and keep practicing.

Fraser

The AudioTheory software library is expanding with the upcoming release of AudioTheory Piano Keys. This new piece of music theory software takes all the cool features you know and love form AudioTheory Guitars but reworks them it into a piano-focused package.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
[h3]AudioTheory Guitars... but with a piano?[/h3]

Yes, the idea for AudioTheory Piano Keys started a while back as an obvious expansion of the series – AudioTheory Guitars has an extensive library of interactive chords and providing the same thing for piano chords makes a lot of sense.

However, with AudioTheory Guitars you've also got the fretboard component and other tools optimised for transposition. My goal has been to provide piano-specific tools along these lines, so AudioTheory Piano Keys will be launching with a couple of brand new innovative features designed for visually explaining how the music you're playing works:



[h3]The Scale Wheel[/h3]

The first of these I call the Scale Wheel. This is a circular diagram that visually shows how notes fit into scales. This works by locking the root note of the scale to the 12 o'clock position allowing the focus to be on the relationship between the notes.

It's a really useful way to understand how all scales of the same type follow the same pattern. The root note meanwhile is interchangeable and can be adjusted by spinning the wheel around as desired.



[h3]Real-time scale highlighting[/h3]

The idea here is to show how a note that's played fits into two scales at the same time. And also in real time! This is one of the application's more advanced features, but once you've got your head around the concept, it's an extremely powerful tool for helping write new songs or playing captivating progressions when improvising.

This works by having a second row of notes above the main piano. You can load the song key to the main display and then this second row shows the scale for the note that is currently being pressed. By default this filters against both scales, essentially meaning that the second row is showing you the subsection of notes that are both in the main song key and also in the key of the current note being played.



Of course alongside this you have all the useful features for note highlighting, viewing and playing scales and chords, and customising the application view as with AudioTheory Guitars. The store page for AudioTheory Piano Keys is now live which means now is the perfect time to add it to your wishlist:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1513510/AudioTheory_Piano_Keys

Currently there is no fixed released date as I'm still implementing the finishing touches, however I would anticipate the release date being approx. 3–6 months away.

The newest update to AudioTheory Guitars is here. This update is not so much focused on bug fixes (perhaps I fixed them all... just maybe) but rather an important new feature that has been frequently requested. This is the ability to automatically load chords when selecting a scale preset.



[h3]So how this works[/h3]

The major and minor scales (as well as the modal variants) all contain seven notes. Each of these notes is also the root for a chord that can be played as part of this scale. However, as we go through the scale from positions 1 through to 7 we swap between a pattern of major/ minor and 1x diminished chords at a fixed interval defined by the scale type.

For example a major scale goes...
I – major
ii – minor
iii – minor
IV – major
V – major
vi – dim

The good news is that with this new update to AudioTheory Guitars you don't have to worry too much about how this is constructed or the variations between scale types and modes. All you need to do is choose a desired scale from the selector and the rest will take care of itself!

These chords are of course not the only chords that will be compatible with your scale (and AudioTheory Guitars also includes many alternate shapes that can be swapped in) but it should be a great starting point when learning scales and finding compatible chords.

––

[h3]One more thing![/h3]

Another quick note before I go. As well as making music theory software I'm also here in the world of Steam as a game developer, and today I'm launching Lion Quest Infinity, a title I've spent the last five years working on.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
It's a story driven adventure game where you steal a magic grandfather clock and travel through time and space on an adventure to save the universe. By night that is, by day you're working an office job.

Oh, and there's even a piano-based special game directly inspired by AudioTheory.



If you're looking for an original game full of twists, surprises and wild ideas, this is one to check out!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1384530/Lion_Quest_Infinity