Difference between what is played and what is performed

I'm not sure if I'm the only one experiencing this, most times when I perform a song, the pitch and quality of the notes are much cleaner than when it's played back in the judging sessions. For example, I would play a high note cleanly but when I hear it when it's being judged, I would hear a slurring effect.

Any ideas/inputs on how I can minimize the difference?

Thanks,

dreamy

I felt the same way. I think it is just a matter of 'hearing' the song in your head while you are playing it. In the judging session, you are more removed and it doesn't sound as good.

I agree with tonyv on this one. When you are playing any instrument, it will often sound great while you are playing. After playing, if you were to record yourself playing, you would be able to easily pick out small mistakes and notes that are off. This goes for any musical instrument imaginable. Just something that gets easier to deal with as you play an instrument.

elon

I'm almost positive there actually is a difference. I'm tempted to do an audio recording of one vs. the other to make sure.

I think the speed of the pitch bend on the version that's played back is much slower than it is when performing. I would love it if the author's of LT could look into this and fix it in a future release.

Sam McGrath

I will gladly look into it this weekend. I will post my findings on Monday.

elon

There is definitely a difference. Quite a big one, actually, especially noticeable during the faster passages. It's a brief portamento leading into each note, which makes everything sound slurry on playback. If I had to bet I'd say it were a deliberate 'punishment' coded in for people who use the note-snap (easy) setting, but it's apparent on all difficulty settings.

It would be great if the devs could tidy this up, because I reckon we could have some seriously impressive players on here, but the world will never get to hear them because the World Stage spoils their recordings.

(BTW I love this app...just a few tweaks to make it double awesome).

Ahh yes, I was too baffled by this until I found a little trick to help prevent that.

What you do is, while you're performing the song, when you hit those high notes be sure to take your finger off the leaf first and NOT the + or -.

The same goes for taking them both off at the same time, a split second will make the difference between Deeeeeeeee and deeeeeeeekweeeeeeeeek. Haha, me and my suggestions. <.<

Yes I noticed this too. I'm not talking about the squawk between register jumps... I'm talking about nailing a scale-like staccato run perfectly, and then when hearing it in the judging session, there are these legato slides between more than half of the notes... makes it sound horrible compared to how it was when I played it. :( :

After much testing, I have come to the conclusion that y'all just need to practice more. What is played back during judgment, is spot on exactly what you play. I will post some recordings to back myself up once I get a chance to.

elon

I'm sorry I have to disagree with you elon. I just spent the entire afternoon playing with this app... every single time I do a performance, the judging session playback is WAY more melismatic. I can play a staccato scale, for example, and upon playback there are slides between every single note as if one note runs into the next one.

I even recorded one performance session into my computer, and then also recorded the playback session as well. My pitch-rider software (recognizes pitches and then notates them onto a staff) was able to notate the performance recording without any trouble whatsoever. The playback session recording, however, caused the pitch-rider software to complain that it could not accurately locate the pitches and rhythms.

Care to post the recordings?

elon

My suboptimal performance for Viva La Vida

This is taken straight from isight recording on my Mac since I don't have any professional recording equipments. The first half is what I played, and the second half is what was played back during the judging sessions, my iphone was sitting at the same spot relative to the mic both times.

There ya go!! That's a PERFECT example of what I am (as well as others) are talking about. Now, if you can say that professional composers, musicians and some with PhD's in music call that example "exactly the same" ... they're completely crazy.

Yeah, those two are not exactly the same. Using snap-to pitches by any chance?

elon

Also, what version (1.0.2, 1.0.1) of LT, what devices are you running LT on, what OS?

Snap-to-pitch does not work for World Stage performances. v1.0.2 ... OS 2.2.1

[quote author=JWolf]Snap-to-pitch does not work for World Stage performances. v1.0.2 ... OS 2.2.1\[\/quote\]

I'm on the same thing as JWolf, however, this had been the case for all past versions since I downloaded LT. I do use snap to pitch, I'll try it without that and see.

It would help if you guys also posted what hardware you have and software so they could better evaluate the problem. I use an iPhone 3G with the latest software. Leaf TBone is also fully updated. I can't report any differences from what I play to what I hear back. On the occasion it seems like I will bend a note or two during the performance but during playback I don't hear the bending of the note so much, but that's a good thing and it's rare.

I'm also using a iPhone 3G (quite new too, upgraded from 2G last month), latest OS and latest LT version. This issue seem to vary from device to device, perhaps it's not something that's systematic.

I performed March of the Three Kings this morning and there was a significant difference, to the tune of about a quarter step. Let me practice it with Snap to Pitch on LOW setting. (BTW - HEY that song is HARD - even with the difference, how many could play that song well?! :D )

Edit: AHHHH - okay - BIG difference with Snap to Pitch on Low. We're all just gonna have to become better players. ;)

P.S. I suck with STP turned on Low, LOLOL

Basically I believe the crux of the issue is that the performance will *always* be recorded as if you are on snap-to-pitches low, and blow mode.

This sucks for anyone who's using touch mode (which is the majority) and people who don't have snap to pitch on low (which is the majority).

Smule devs should definitely address this in some way, as it is a major discrepancy.

I've resorted to using blow mode and snap to pitches low, just because this makes my performance and playback sound the same.

Moses

Finally, I got around to posting a YouTube video of this bug. I used my arrangement of "The Water is Wide". This is a 2nd generation iPod touch, playing Leaf Trombone v1.5 on Touch Mode with Snap-To-Pitch set to Low.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ncfJk_SasY

This is far from an ideal performance. Still, the first half of the video shows I wasn't sliding between notes, while the second half has portamentos everywhere.

The judging session IDs for this performance can be found on Leaf Trombone at #356587, #356590, and #356602.