Paradiddle Update: Stability, Hi-Hat MIDI, Local Audio Files
Thank you so much for supporting Paradiddle! If you're enjoying your VR jam sessions and excited about upcoming features and improvements, I would really appreciate it if you wrote a review on Steam. It doesn't even have to be long - any review helps in proving that Paradiddle is trying to be the most flexible, responsive and user-friendly VR drumming app out there.
Hey everyone! The latest Paradiddle update introduces fixes to some major bugs that have been reported to me over the past few weeks, along with a few new features. To anyone who has reached out to me about these bugs, thank you so much for letting me know, and also for your patience. This is exactly why Paradiddle started out on Early Access, and I really appreciate your feedback and help in improving the quality and stability of the app!
Different MIDI Notes When Hi-Hat Is Open/Closed
I believe this was a widely anticipated addition and I’m happy to say it’s finally here! The hi-hat now has two MIDI notes associated with it, one sent when it’s open, and the other when it’s closed. You can modify either note in the drum options menu, under the MIDI tab. Just as a reminder, the left trigger will control the hi-hat opening/closing by default, and you can remap this under the Controls menu. You can set a button to either open the hi-hat, in which case the default hi-hat position will be closed, or to close the hi-hat, in which case the default hi-hat position will be open.
In addition to this, I’m also working on adding MIDI notes for different zones on certain drums (such as the cymbal edge vs the center/ride), and this will most likely be included in the next update.
Audio File Loading & Playback
It’s now possible to load your local audio files into Paradiddle, and control playback within the app! For those of you who are trying to drum along to a specific song, this should hopefully ease the pain of having to switch out of the app to a separate audio software or YouTube. You can load any audio file located under the Paradiddle\Saved\AudioFiles\ directory in your Paradiddle installation folder (for instance C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Paradiddle\Paradiddle\Saved\AudioFiles) by pulling up the Options tab in the app, and clicking on “Load Audio File”. I’ve added a few sample files in there to give everyone an idea of what playback looks like, but it’s likely that these samples might change in the future. The playback UI is pretty straightforward: you can freely play/pause, turn on/off looping, change the volume and also move the timestamp to pick where in the song you want to go. All common audio formats should work, but feel free to let me know if you run into any issues, and I’ll look into it.
Recording Playback Improvements
The recording playback UI now has a couple of new features that make it much more useful. Users are now able to change the volume of the recording, and mute it if they’d like to. Muting the recording won’t hide the expanding rings on the drums that tell the user when to hit the drum, so you can still follow along to the visual cues to practice how to play the recording. In addition to this, there is also a “Hide” button that will hide the visibility of all drums that belong to that recording. This was done to give users some more power in tidying up their space, in the case that they have multiple recordings in the scene.
As I mentioned in the last Paradiddle announcement, I’m still hard at work on several new and exciting features. These include Mixed Reality recording/streaming support, preliminary Vive tracker support, Steam Workshop integration, and more. The Paradiddle VR drum cover contest will also be announced as soon as MR recording/streaming supported is added.
As always, feel free to let me know or post on the Steam Discussion Forums if you have any other comments or questions. And thanks again for supporting Paradiddle! If you're on Discord, you might want to join the Paradiddle Discord group as well. I'm always active on there, and others in the group are also always willing to help out with questions. Stay tuned for more updates, happy jamming!
Emre
[email protected]
Official Paradiddle website: http://paradiddleapp.com
Paradiddle drum covers Youtube playlist (your cover could be on here too!)
FAQ: http://paradiddleapp.com/faq
Join us on Discord!: https://discordapp.com/invite/wjHnTVr
Reddit: http://reddit.com/r/paradiddle
Hey everyone! The latest Paradiddle update introduces fixes to some major bugs that have been reported to me over the past few weeks, along with a few new features. To anyone who has reached out to me about these bugs, thank you so much for letting me know, and also for your patience. This is exactly why Paradiddle started out on Early Access, and I really appreciate your feedback and help in improving the quality and stability of the app!
New Features
Different MIDI Notes When Hi-Hat Is Open/Closed
I believe this was a widely anticipated addition and I’m happy to say it’s finally here! The hi-hat now has two MIDI notes associated with it, one sent when it’s open, and the other when it’s closed. You can modify either note in the drum options menu, under the MIDI tab. Just as a reminder, the left trigger will control the hi-hat opening/closing by default, and you can remap this under the Controls menu. You can set a button to either open the hi-hat, in which case the default hi-hat position will be closed, or to close the hi-hat, in which case the default hi-hat position will be open.
In addition to this, I’m also working on adding MIDI notes for different zones on certain drums (such as the cymbal edge vs the center/ride), and this will most likely be included in the next update.
Audio File Loading & Playback
It’s now possible to load your local audio files into Paradiddle, and control playback within the app! For those of you who are trying to drum along to a specific song, this should hopefully ease the pain of having to switch out of the app to a separate audio software or YouTube. You can load any audio file located under the Paradiddle\Saved\AudioFiles\ directory in your Paradiddle installation folder (for instance C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Paradiddle\Paradiddle\Saved\AudioFiles) by pulling up the Options tab in the app, and clicking on “Load Audio File”. I’ve added a few sample files in there to give everyone an idea of what playback looks like, but it’s likely that these samples might change in the future. The playback UI is pretty straightforward: you can freely play/pause, turn on/off looping, change the volume and also move the timestamp to pick where in the song you want to go. All common audio formats should work, but feel free to let me know if you run into any issues, and I’ll look into it.
Recording Playback Improvements
The recording playback UI now has a couple of new features that make it much more useful. Users are now able to change the volume of the recording, and mute it if they’d like to. Muting the recording won’t hide the expanding rings on the drums that tell the user when to hit the drum, so you can still follow along to the visual cues to practice how to play the recording. In addition to this, there is also a “Hide” button that will hide the visibility of all drums that belong to that recording. This was done to give users some more power in tidying up their space, in the case that they have multiple recordings in the scene.
Bug Fixes
- Fixed a major bug that made the Controls tab pretty much completely unusable. You should now be able to remap your controls freely, and have your changes take effect as expected.
- Fixed a major bug with MIDI Device saving/loading that stopped both MIDI input/output from working upon repeated use of the app. If you were resorting to creating a new MIDI port to get around this issue, you should no longer have to do that.
- Fixed an Oculus-only bug where loaded drums changed position based on where the user was when they started the app. No matter where you are when you start the app, saved/loaded drums should now always appear in the same exact spot.
- The mute state of drums are now properly saved in drum sets and recordings.
- Turning MIDI out off on a drum will now automatically unmute it if it was muted.
Coming Up Next
As I mentioned in the last Paradiddle announcement, I’m still hard at work on several new and exciting features. These include Mixed Reality recording/streaming support, preliminary Vive tracker support, Steam Workshop integration, and more. The Paradiddle VR drum cover contest will also be announced as soon as MR recording/streaming supported is added.
As always, feel free to let me know or post on the Steam Discussion Forums if you have any other comments or questions. And thanks again for supporting Paradiddle! If you're on Discord, you might want to join the Paradiddle Discord group as well. I'm always active on there, and others in the group are also always willing to help out with questions. Stay tuned for more updates, happy jamming!
Emre
[email protected]
Official Paradiddle website: http://paradiddleapp.com
Paradiddle drum covers Youtube playlist (your cover could be on here too!)
FAQ: http://paradiddleapp.com/faq
Join us on Discord!: https://discordapp.com/invite/wjHnTVr
Reddit: http://reddit.com/r/paradiddle