Karaoke Bird https://karaokebird.com Learn to sing Thu, 26 Apr 2018 11:47:35 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.3.33 Update v0.3: new UI, better performance, playlists https://karaokebird.com/blog/update-v0-3-new-ui-better-performance-playlists/ https://karaokebird.com/blog/update-v0-3-new-ui-better-performance-playlists/#comments Tue, 18 Aug 2015 14:40:02 +0000 http://karaokebird.com/?p=133 Hi folks, a new update rolled out today. There has been made significant improvements in design and functionality of Karaoke Bird. Let’s start one by one:

New user interface. Previous design struggled with too many elements on the screen. It was very easy to get overwhelmed for a beginner. Now there are a few most necessary buttons left: play, repeat, first 3 notes, full-screen, mic sensibility and show sidebars. As well as more simple and understandable colors. The rest of functionality and many new things are few click away in right and left sidebars. Right one stands for song settings customization and left is a menu with global settings, voice range and song catalog.
karaoke_new_interface

Better performance. This is not as visible, but very important improvement. Game rendering happens much faster thus available for less powerful laptops. I haven’t tried it with Android + Chrome yet, but I guess for some high end phones performance could be OK. Anyways in next few months proper Android app will be made.

Playlists. Getting more MusicXML files in the system also songs management becomes difficult. I have created some must have functionality like playlists, starred songs, recent songs. Song and playlist sharing is not priority yet, but someday will make it. Important to note that song management is more useful if you have registered user.
playlists_starred_recent

Precise audio analyzing. There is added some 160 – 180ms delay for audio analyzing to have more precise system. Delay happens with multiple processes starting with sound wave which you record at first and only then analyze and ending with human physiological things to count in.

Bugfixing. A ton of bugs have been fixed including annoying pitch recording line bug. Currently you can scroll timeline and see exactly where was your pitch comparing to note.

Future plans.

  • Voice recording – so you can listen how you sang a year ago :)
  • Updating website – will buy some cool WordPress theme for that
  • Voice lessons – will cooperate with vocal teachers to bring something similar they are teaching
  • Mobile app – this one will take some time, but it is worth it. Android will be the first platform

New update in video format (in Latvian)

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Update v0.2: mic sensibility, voice range https://karaokebird.com/blog/update-v0-2-mic-sensibility-voice-range/ https://karaokebird.com/blog/update-v0-2-mic-sensibility-voice-range/#comments Wed, 08 Jul 2015 17:36:45 +0000 http://karaokebird.com/?p=114 After publishing Karaoke Bird to Latvian auditory I have received a lot of comments on improving the game. Most of them were related to usability issues, so I decided to fix them. There are list of updates made available recently:

  • Microphone sensibility. You can now set sensibility and sing with in build mic in laptop. Keep in mind, the more sensible mic is, the more noise is recorded and this can spoil your pitch
  • Voice range. Record your voices low and high pitch so game will adjust all songs specially to your voice
  • Allow microphone. Browser asks acceptance of sound recording and sometimes people block it. Reminder to allow mic
  • Info popups. Helps to navigate in the game: voice range popup and allow mic popup
  • Text highlighting. A lot more easier to read lyrics while singing
  • New songs. I have added more Latvian songs and started to put also some popular English ones

Voice range feature

Future plans

I have two big issues to improve. Neither of them is a new feature but instead optimizing performance and user experience. Currently I have made rough prototype and all options are in main screen which makes mess and it is easy to get lost. So there will be 3 or 4 tabs created for game, settings, songs and mic. After that user interface will look much cleaner and understandable. The second is slow performance due to way how notes are drawn. I will fix this with some optimizing tricks and performance will be better for slower computers.

Video covering new features (in Latvian)

At the end there is a video of popular physics teacher in Latvia – Valdis Zuters. He is also a singer andĀ sang traditionalĀ folk song

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Alpha version for karaoke game https://karaokebird.com/blog/alpha-version-for-karaoke-game/ https://karaokebird.com/blog/alpha-version-for-karaoke-game/#comments Thu, 11 Jun 2015 14:20:48 +0000 http://karaokebird.com/?p=102 Hi there, I am announcing my free time project – a game where you can see how well you sing. Voice is recorded via browser (Google Chrome works the best at the moment) and displayed in real time comparing with actual notes you have to hit. You need only microphone (even cheapest 2$ works) and click popup to allow browser use it.

chrome_allow_use_microphone

 

No fancy hardware or software required and even no musical education needed here. It works as gray color boxes (notes) are moving from right to left and when they reach vertical line try to hit them with your voice. The higher block is, the higher you need sing and the longer the block, the longer you need to sing. Simple as that. Gray color blocks colors red to green and shows percentage 0-100 depending how good you are. Here is a simple example picture

karaokebird_gray_boxes

Here is a video (though in Latvian) how it works

The project is still in very early stage and lot of improvements and polishing has to be made. However it has basic functionality to start with: upload songs in *.xml format, timeline, adjusting tempo, transpose notes, metronome.

Some works in my near future TODO list:

  • Improve lyrics display. Currently they are moving and looks a bit messy
  • Add some songs in English
  • Playlist, starred, shared functionality
  • Fix pitch line
  • Optimize performance for less powerful computers

As for long term goals I will hire designer to improve graphics and make mobile version, but this will be ready only in months of time.

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