PitchPerfector v3.8 Discussion

Welcome PitchPerfector Users!

This page is a quick introduction to some of the feature planning for v3.8 that we hope to deliver late December, 2014.  This is ambitious given that we’re just 2 weeks away and there’s also a new foundation tool set that was just released (that could make it go faster or slow things down).

The purpose of this post is

A) To let you know what is coming

B) To collect YOUR input. What would you like to see?

 

Guidelines for comments:

*) Current version you are using:  eg, 3.5

*) How long have you used PitchPerfector?

*) Possible quick easy enhancements

*) Biggest ideas and concept for consideration

Of course we will look at all of these and do our best. We expect to be able to include some of the smaller easier enhancements in v3.8

More complex requests will be deferred to a future release, such as v3.8 or  v4.0

Please be lively and courteous!

I look forward to hearing from you!

Stephen

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PitchPerfector v3.8 Planning

Note: I will INTENTIONALLY not list all of the plans for v3.8 here because doing so much squash or curtail contributions and discussions.  The items noted could also be considered a point to get the conversation started.

1) Remove requirement for:Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass Requirement This is an easy one as it has never been a requirement, but it was confusing to a lot of users.
The tricky part of this is what to do with the Space removed – which opens the door to helping with a few other features.Also, the intended use of this feature was to help people get a quick sense of where their range might fall on the keyboard.  The problem is that it’s very common for people to play notes and sing an octave above or below and part of this problem is caused by the level of sound coming from your computer.  That is a speaker emphasizing higher or lower tones might make the pitch sound an octave higher or lower because of it’s emphasis of the overtone series.I get confused sometimes with new gear… So, where/how do we make this USEFUL feature available without confusing newer users into thinking it’s required step?  It could be moved to a menu, but then it’s unlikely to be discovered by the new singer who needs it.  Your comments on this are welcome and appreciated!
2) Bigger Keyboard YES!  Okay, this has been a long time coming and the problem has always been how to best use the real estate of the screen. That is, making the keyboard HUGE is easy, but it means taking away something else.For some the current keyboard is fine.  But, for many the keys are too close together. So it will be bigger.Multiple Views of the Keyboard – We can put it above, or below, run the full width of the screen if we like.Do we also need a more realistic keyboard look for the Y axis of the display? Or is the current view fine for understanding?  Adding a 2nd keyboard view would eat a lot more real estate, but might help for some.
 3) Taller View, Bigger Range  The current v3.62 offers two views (since v2.5 I believe).  The first primary view is what most of us use 99% of the time – it’s the big area taking 75% of the screen.Next, there’s the smaller staff to the lower left – Many don’t realize that this is actually a HIGH LEVEL zoomed out view.  So, you can see where you are from a multi-octave perspective.The Problem: The current views do not provide sufficient real time viewing while singing longer patterns, that scale beyond the height of the screen size.Part of this was addressed by offering the Small, Medium, Large, Extra Large Views… but it does no go far enough.Here’s the plan for v3.81) Make the primary display window zoomed out 2X – this will provide ample vertical room for folks with  rare exception of using the Small view and very long vertical scales, for example.2) Overlay a Zoom window that is 2X closer/bigger than the current view that only displayes the current note being sung for a shorter duration (eg, the zoomed in effect would require MORE screen space, so to have this we cut the range.  Hopefully this makes sense.  #2 is a feature that might be pushed to v3.85 just because we’re having quite a debate on WHERE to position it.Longer Term – this leads into the next question, but overall the long term plan (v4.0) is to completely re-write the display engine to allow variable zoom – you size it the way you want it.  See next topic
 4) User Interface is OLD Honestly, I felt the UI looked “dated” when PitchPerfected was originally released 5.5 years ago.  I was a CAD/CAM Graphics Developer for decades, so working with what i considered an “ugly” interface was a bit hard to swallow.As with many things there are tradeoffs.  Other competing tools on the market have nicer “looks’ but their core audio engine has serious problems.  For quite a long time we had an exodus of about 20% of our new users coming from a competing product because the graphing results were so bad.  Pretty face, broken down engine.So, I opted for the best audio engine I could find and struggle with a User Interface that is subpar.  From a marketing and sales perspective, that’s probably the wrong choice.  But, I’m an engineer by training and that won the day.So, I continue to look for a replacement system with a better UI that maintains the current excellence of fast reliable audio (which by the way can be fairly easily configured to work with any audio system around – something the competition often can’t do).
 5) Support for iPhone, iPad, Android, other Smartphones Here’s a BIG gap. Five years ago running on a computer was great and it really fit better for serious singers as it was for dedicated practice time, not just on the fly driving down the road entertainment.But, times changed and now I think many people would be better served by running PitchPerfector on a Tablet or smart phone.  The down side is that we have a long list of planned high end features we want to bring to PitchPerfector 4.0, but as we move to smaller display devices we’ll need to cut and stream line functionality.I don’t know of an easy solution and welcome any input on this one.I’m in early dialog with one company who develops great apps for iPad – but that would also mean finding another solution for the Android market.This is the #1 top target for 2015
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As you can see, I left a lot of room for people to raise smaller topics and put in requests.

 SHARE YOU IDEAS! There’s a good chance you’ll get what you ask for!

 

To YOUR Highest Singing Results!

Stephen

 

Categories: Products.

Comments

  1. Katrin Boeckx

    I don’t know if you remember but when I installed PitchPerfector v3.5 a few years ago (I’m still using it almost every day) it wasn’t working properly on a French computer because of the directory names which are different. We solved the problem together so it’s working fine now.
    I don’t know if you sell PitchPerfector often in France but I just wanted to remind you… And I would like to know that, if I upgrade, it will work correctly!

    • Singing Coach

      Hi Katrin,

      YES, I do remember! Thanks for saying hello! We don’t get a lot of sales from France, but welcome more of your friends to join us!

      Glad to hear you’re still using and enjoying the program!

      Stephen

  2. Patrick Fraser

    I have an older version so perhaps you’ve already addressed this issue…but I always wanted to know how far off pitch I was in cents. Some kind of scale would be helpful.

    • Singing Coach

      Hi Patrick,
      This is an interesting request. Is this just for curiosity?

      How much you are off is constantly changing… but! Maybe we could add a simple display to show the distance… hummmm… at first glance this didn’t grab me, but i’m seeing it might be quick an easy to add… I’ll see… maybe in v3.8!

      For those not familiar, there are 100 CENTs between each note (horizontal lines). Example uses: “I was about 30 cents flat all night, this head cold is really challenging!”

      Thank you!
      Stephen

  3. Helene Dion

    My #1 wish is the ability to design my own short phrase to repeat, instead of being “stuck” to major triad, minor triad, etc.

    • Singing Coach

      Hi Helene,

      Great desire!

      As a longer goal, we’d like to incorporated any Midi and even a combination of midi scores with the target vocal line represented as regions on the graph so you’d see where you voice should be…

      While it seems quick/easy to add a note pattern within the program, it opens several complications… immediately there’s a need for timing… which immediately moves to “full midi”… it’s a nice feature that has merit, but opens the door so many directions that I’ve been shy to open Pandora’s box. We will include this and it might be as early as v4.0 early next year.

      For now, there’s a really easy short term solution:
      a) play the pattern on another app – eg, midi, or audio recording on a side by side app
      b) use an external source for prompts of the pattern

      Hope that tip helps for now.

      Thanks for your contribution!
      Stephen

  4. Barry Thomas

    I appreciate all the hard work you do . I can’t wait to see what’s next. I know we live in a fast pace society and I know how important the smart phone has become. But when it comes to music I like to separate my-self from the rest of the world and place my-self in a situation where it is just me and my pitch perfect to develop my voice. I would love the size of the display made larger. It is so great to be a part of the pitch perfect family. I think I bought one when they first put them on line to sell. I wouldn’t trade it and I’m so grateful for all the work and providing updates for them. It’s so exciting. Keep up the great work

    • Singing Coach

      Hi Barry,
      Interesting perspective on where you want to train. It’s helpful to know your preferences and preferred usage.
      Stephen

  5. Lance Swafford

    Hello Stephen, Thanks for all. I would like to make a request for when
    you upgrade you PitchPerfecter. As far as selecting the note, the
    keyboard works perfectly fine. I would not change that. But I would
    add pitch selection to the notes left of the graph. Those would make
    perfect buttons that are a bit more convenient than the keyboard. Most
    of my view is on and near the graph. Maybe also a way to record ones
    voice during the exercises in order to hear it back. Our voices alway
    sound different when we hear them from an outside source. Thanks for
    all you are doing. 🙂

    • Singing Coach

      Lance,

      That’s a very interesting idea that I had not considered. Will investigate and if it’s quick and easy we’ll get it in for v3.8.

      Thanks,
      Stephen

    • Singing Coach

      Hi Lars,

      Thanks for the suggestion.

      Linux/Unbutu – would be nice, though highly unlikely.

      None of the development kits with good audio engines support Linux – I’m guessing partly because there are so many flavors of UI that it would be a huge time sink to keep up with them… on top of that it’s a tiny fraction of the marketplace.

      Thanks for the suggestion. I’ll at least keep it in mind.

      Stephen

  6. kb

    So excited about these changes!! I love this program and have found it so useful for creating better pitch accuracy on single notes but have not been able to make good use of it with scale practice because of the view restrictions. Looks like all that is getting fixed and being released in no time…awesome Xmas gift, thanks!!!

  7. Dana Ray

    Hi Stephen!

    I just bought 3.62 version and I wanna know if there’ll be an early bird offer for 3.8. I say this because I’d love to have a bundle for my group. We are five and we’d love to practice and have the ultimate version with the Foundations of Singing course.
    Yes, the bundle 🙂
    Thanks!

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