AudioTheory Piano Keys News

A small update to AudioTheory Piano Keys is here. This version includes:

• Support for the Steam overlay
  
• Fix for Roman numerals on scale wheel when no scale was selected
  
• Tick icon now only shows when chord is played from user input (and not from button press)
  
• Fix for tick icon not showing the first time a chord was played
  
• Engine upgrade
  

A small update to AudioTheory Piano Keys arrives today. This includes the following changes:

• Sharp and flat notes for pentatonic and blues scales now correctly display relative to the corresponding major scale
  
• Fixed a bug with the note match mini game not correctly working with the scale note selector
  
• Engine upgrade
  

A small patch arrives for AudioTheory Piano Keys. This includes the following changes:

• Fix for scale intervals not displaying correctly
  
• Fix for highlighting colour obscuring note names on scale
  
• Logo no longer vanishes on M1 MacBook when fullscreen mode is active
  
• File browser support now working on M1 Macs
  
• Bug fix for modal scales not saving between sessions
  
• Fix for diminished scales not loading correctly from the scale library
  
• Engine upgrade
  

It's almost been two months since the launch of AudioTheory Piano Keys and a new update is now ready! Version 1.4.0 adds in support for multiple keyboard sizes all the way up to a full size 88 key piano.



[h3]88 Keys[/h3]
By default AudioTheory Piano Keys still starts out with the 37 key view. This can then be adjusted form the options popup, where you can select between 37, 49, 61, 76 and 88 keyboard size options.




Depending on the keyboard size, you will notice that in order to fit the wider length keyboards, parts of the interface will be automatically hidden. These can be brought back to overlay on top of the keyboard as required by using the icons that sit in their place.



[h3]Additional changes[/h3]
The majority of other changes making their way into this update are here to support the new range of keyboard sizes:

Toggles for UI elements. The scale highlighting config. (middle right), the mode selector (bottom right) and the note selector (bottom left) can all now be toggled independently . For the smaller keyboard sizes this gives better flexibility on what information you're seeing on screen, and for the larger sizes it's a requirement to allow the full length of the keyboard to display.

Additional sounds (for the lower and higher notes). Again, this is predominantly for 88 key support, but it means that new notes are available in other contexts too. It also accounts for the increased file size of this update.

MIDI support for out of range notes. For example, if you connect an 88 key MIDI controller but are using the 37 key view, you will still get audio feedback from the notes not on screen.

Extended output octave range. This covers the extended range of available notes, and can now be set between between -2 and +2.



You might also notice that the application logo is now a slightly different shade of blue. Long story short, the intention has always been for the AudioTheory applications to be variations on the same logo; the same shape but with some form of notable difference.

However, the variation for AudioTheory Piano Keys was achieved by using a different background, rather than the fill colour inside the logo itself (with the darker logo 'popping out' from the lighter background). What this means was in contexts where the logo was used without the background (typically as just an icon) it ended up looking the same as the AudioTheory Guitars logo. This change ensures a visible difference in all situations!

That's all for today, thanks for reading.

Update 3 arrives today for AudioTheory Piano Keys. This combines a set of performance optimisations to make the application run more efficiently. It's also the last (well, last currently planned) 'under the hood' update, meaning that the groundwork for future updates is now complete, with the intention being for these to be mostly focused on adding in new features.



Also, a quick side note, tomorrow it will be exactly one month since AudioTheory Piano Keys launched. That went fast! Thanks for taking the time to check it out.

[h3]Variable Render Rate[/h3]

Ah, the solution to all of life's problems. This week I've made a fair few optimisations in the name of performance, but the most noticeable is a new variable render rate that means the display doesn't update when it doesn't need to.

This works well because there are many scenarios where you may find the software idling, it is after all reference material so it makes sense to leave it open up on screen. The software now looks out for these moments and greatly reduces the CPU overhead when possible, before seamlessly resuming to business as usual when any sort of input (or any action that results in a visible change on screen) is detected.



[h3]Run out of focus[/h3]

I have also changed the default behaviour of the application so that it pauses running if the window is not in focus. This makes it a lot more practical to leave open in the background.

Originally this was not set because I imagined scenarios where it would be useful to poll for MIDI input when using the application alongside a DAW or other piece of software (e.g. you could be working in Logic on one screen and have AudioTheory running in the background on a second monitor). This may still be the case, so if your requirements do in fact mean that it's desirable for the application to run out of focus, then you can turn this back on in the settings.

That's all for today. Thanks for reading, and keep practicing.

Fraser