Synthesia (video game)

Last updated
Synthesia
Synthesia logo.jpg
Developer(s) Synthesia LLC.
Platform(s) Windows, macOS, iOS, Android
Release9 December 2006;16 years ago (2006-12-09)
Genre(s) Music video game
Mode(s) Single-player
OS X 10.8.2 running Synthesia 8.5 OS X 10.8.2 running Synthesia.tiff
OS X 10.8.2 running Synthesia 8.5

Synthesia is a piano keyboard trainer for Microsoft Windows, iOS, macOS, and Android which allows users to play a MIDI keyboard or use a computer keyboard in time to a MIDI file by following on-screen directions, much in the style of Keyboard Mania or Guitar Hero . Additionally, Synthesia can be paired with MIDI keyboards that have illuminated keys, or with virtual player piano on screen, which some people believe makes learning piano easier for beginners. It was originally named Piano Hero, due to the similarity of gameplay with Guitar Hero ; this was until Activision (the owners of the rights to Guitar Hero) sent a cease and desist to the program's creator, Nicholas Piegdon. [1] [2]

Contents

History

Synthesia was started around 2006 by Nicholas Piegdon, and was originally named "Piano Hero". Hosted as an open-source project on SourceForge, it was released under the MIT license.

The program was originally for Windows-only, but after a donation drive in early 2007, it was ported to Mac OS X. [3] An open source fork for Linux called Linthesia also exists, which is used as a base of other forks to fix compilation issues on recent Linux systems. [4]

Cease and desist letter

In a letter dated 26 March 2007, Activision requested that Piegdon "immediately cease any and all use of the "Piano Hero" name in connection with the distribution and promotion of [his] video game and agree not to use such in the future". [5] Piegdon responded by hosting a contest for a new name for the project, resulting in the name, Synthesia, suggested by Daniel Lawrence. [6]

Continued development as closed-source project

After May 2012, Piegdon decided to stop releasing the source code, as he saw the potential commercial value of the program. However the last open-source release version 0.6.1b is still available for download.

In the continued commercial version the basic functionality was still freeware. A "Learning Pack" key could be purchased to unlock the freemium additional features, such as a sheet music display mode. In December 2014, with Version 10 of Synthesia, the ability to use the program without purchasing it was removed, with the exception of several playable included demo MIDIs. However, an older version can still be downloaded, thus still being able to use the program for free.

Features

Synthesia has support for playing custom MIDI and MusicXML files, as well as linking with MIDI controllers. Synthesia will rate the player's performance afterwards, and give a score which can be submitted to an online scoreboard. Synthesia also has a paid "Learning Pack" that allows users to view music in musical notation, as well as multiple practice features, such as "Melody Practice" which pauses the piece whenever the user misses a note, and only continues when the right note is played. [7]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GarageBand</span> Digital audio workstations for macOS, iOS, and iPadOS

GarageBand is a line of digital audio workstations developed by Apple for macOS, iPadOS, and iOS devices that allows users to create music or podcasts. GarageBand was originally released for macOS in 2004 and brought to iOS in 2011. The app's music and podcast creation system enables users to create multiple tracks with pre-made MIDI keyboards, pre-made loops, an array of various instrumental effects, and voice recordings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rosegarden</span> Digital audio workstation program for BSD and Linux

Rosegarden is a free software digital audio workstation program developed for Linux with ALSA, JACK and Qt4. It acts as an audio and MIDI sequencer, scorewriter and musical composition and editing tool. It is intended to be a free and alternative to such applications as Cubase.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Renoise</span> Digital audio workstation

Renoise is a digital audio workstation (DAW) based upon the heritage and development of tracker software. Its primary use is the composition of music using sound samples, soft synths, and effects plug-ins. It is also able to interface with MIDI and OSC equipment. The main difference between Renoise and other music software is the characteristic vertical timeline sequencer used by tracking software.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Logic Pro</span> Digital audio workstation

Logic Pro is a proprietary digital audio workstation (DAW) and MIDI sequencer software application for the macOS platform developed by Apple Inc. It was originally created in the early 1990s as Notator Logic, or Logic, by German software developer C-Lab which later went by Emagic. Apple acquired Emagic in 2002 and renamed Logic to Logic Pro. It is the second most popular DAW – after Ableton Live – according to a survey conducted in 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guitar Pro</span> Scorewriter and MIDI editor

Guitar Pro is a multitrack editor of guitar and bass tablature and musical scores, possessing a built-in MIDI-editor, a plotter of chords, a player, a metronome and other tools for musicians. It has versions for Windows and Mac OS X and is written by the French company Arobas Music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Songbird (software)</span> Music player

Songbird is a discontinued music player originally released in early 2006 with the stated mission "to incubate Songbird, the first Web player, to catalyze and champion a diverse, open Media Web".

<i>UltraStar</i> 2023 video game

UltraStar is a clone of SingStar, a music video game by Polish developer Patryk "Covus5" Cebula. UltraStar lets one or several players score points by singing along to a song or music video and match the pitch of the original song. UltraStar displays lyrics as well as the correct notes similar to a piano roll. On top of the correct notes UltraStar displays the pitch recorded from the players. UltraStar allows several people to play simultaneously by connecting several microphones possibly to several sound cards. To add a song to UltraStar, a file with notes and lyrics is required, together with an audio file. Optionally a cover image, a backdrop image and a video may be added to each song. UltraStar comes preloaded with a short sample from Nine Inch Nails hit "Discipline" from The Slip album.

<i>Frets on Fire</i> 2006 video game

Frets on Fire (FoF) is a free, open-source music video game created by Finnish independent video game developer Unreal Voodoo. Players use the keyboard to play along with markers which appear on screen, with the aim to score points, achieve a high point multiplier, and complete a song. Frets on Fire was the winner of the Assembly 2006 game development competition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LMMS</span> Free software digital audio workstation

LMMS is a digital audio workstation application program. It allows music to be produced by arranging samples, synthesizing sounds, entering notes via mouse or by playing on a MIDI keyboard, and combining the features of trackers and sequencers. It is free and open source software, written in Qt and released under GPL-2.0-or-later.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">JUCE</span> C++ Cross-Platform Application Development Framework

JUCE is an open-source cross-platform C++ application framework, used for the development of desktop and mobile applications. JUCE is used in particular for its GUI and plug-ins libraries. It is dual licensed under the GPLv3 and a commercial license.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Logic Studio</span> 2007–2011 professional music production suite by Apple

Logic Studio is a discontinued professional music production suite by Apple Inc. The first version of Logic Studio was unveiled on September 12, 2007. It claims to be the largest collection of modeled instruments, sampler instruments, effect plug-ins, and audio loops ever put in a single application.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MainStage (software)</span> Music application by Apple

MainStage is a music application developed by Apple Inc. designed for use in live performance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Progression (software)</span> Scorewriter

Progression, previously stylized as PROGRESSION, was a music creation and performance computer program created by NOTION Music. Created for use on Microsoft Windows and macOS laptops or desktops, Progression focused on composition for guitar, but could also be used to compose for keyboards, bass, and drums. As of April 2019, Progression is no longer available for sale in the PreSonus online store, nor via dealers worldwide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MuseScore</span> Music notation software

MuseScore is a music notation program for Windows, macOS, and Linux supporting a wide variety of file formats and input methods. It is released as free and open-source software under the GNU General Public License. MuseScore is accompanied by a freemium mobile score viewer and playback app, and an online score-sharing platform.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tux (mascot)</span> Mascot of Linux

Tux is a penguin character and the official brand character of the Linux kernel. Originally created as an entry to a Linux logo competition, Tux is the most commonly used icon for Linux, although different Linux distributions depict Tux in various styles. The character is used in many other Linux programs and as a general symbol of Linux.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Overture (software)</span> Scorewriter

Overture is a music notation (scorewriter) program for Windows and Macintosh platforms, published and developed by Sonic Scores. While Overture is primarily a scorewriter program, it also allows editing the score's MIDI audio playback data in the manner of sequencer and digital audio workstation (DAW) software.

mpv (media player) Free and open-source media player software

mpv is free and open-source media player software based on MPlayer, mplayer2 and FFmpeg. It runs on several operating systems, including Unix-like operating systems and Microsoft Windows, along with having an Android port called mpv-android. It is cross-platform, running on ARM, PowerPC, x86/IA-32, x86-64, and MIPS architecture.

Comparison of user features of operating systems refers to a comparison of the general user features of major operating systems in a narrative format. It does not encompass a full exhaustive comparison or description of all technical details of all operating systems. It is a comparison of basic roles and the most prominent features. It also includes the most important features of the operating system's origins, historical development, and role.

References

  1. ↑ "Activision sends Piano Hero fella cease and decist; denies plans of Lawyer Hero". Destructoid. Retrieved 2008-01-10.
  2. ↑ "'Piano Hero' Name Cease And Desist From Activision". Synthesia Official Website. Retrieved 2019-07-19.
  3. ↑ "You want Piano Hero on your Mac?". TUAW. Retrieved 2008-01-10.
  4. ↑ "Synthesia-like software for Linux". GitHub .
  5. ↑ "Piano Hero Gets Cease and Desist". Kotaku. Archived from the original on 2012-07-09. Retrieved 2008-01-10.
  6. ↑ "Synthesia Name Change". Synthesia Official Website. Archived from the original on 2007-10-24. Retrieved 2014-08-18.
  7. ↑ "Synthesia Features". Synthesia Official Website. Retrieved 2012-03-10.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.