All Windows/Play, Rhythms and Bounce/Bounce/Bounce Preferences (Ctrl 220)
From Bounce Metronome
Next: Bouncing Balls - Other Visuals
Controls Common to Many Windows
Screen Shot (More)
.png)
This is what you get in the More version of this window (you use the More button to show it).
Bounce Preferences
Includes: SYNCHRONISE BOUNCES WITH SOUND - configure LEFT MIDDLE AND RIGHT MOUSE CLICKS on the bouncing balls display - KEYBOARD TAPS AND SHORTCUTS - and other options for the bouncing balls.
Set Bounce Synchronisation Delay
You can use this to compensate for latency to get the bounces in time with the clicks - or alternatively - to make the bounces early (like following a conductor)...
Delay the bounces to compensate for latency
What is latency?
If you have latency, you will find that each note gets played a fraction of a second after the bounce - every note delayed by the same amount.
The amount of latency depends on the device, which you select in Choose OUT DEVICES and PARTS to play for each device (Ctrl + 41). Typical amounts on a modern PC are small, just a few ms, but some may have more latency than this. The Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth. is especially noted for its high latency on some computers - can be 200 ms of latency.
How much of a delay do I need?
To compensate, switch this option on and then adjust the amount of the delay for the visual bounce. E.g. 20% or 200 ms to delay the visual bounce by 20% of a second (0.2 seconds).
For most devices you will need a compensation of a few ms or less, less than 1% of a second.
But [Micorosoft GS Wavetable Synth often has a lot of latency], if you notice serious latency issues with this device then you may well need to set it to 200 ms (20 % of a second).
See also the tip for the text area where you enter the amount of the delay to set.
Make the bounces early
Sometimes you may want the bounces to happen early. For instance conductors of orchestras often conduct the beat a moment before the player plays the note.
To do that, again switch this on but this time set a negative number for the delay for the visual bounce. E.g. -30% to make the bounce earlier by 30% of a second (0.3 seconds).
Micorosoft GS Wavetable Synth often has a lot of latency
This is common with the Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth particularly, even on a fast computer.
On some computers it has no appreciable delay but on others it may have a huge delay.
Typically it can be as much as a fifth of a second late, 20% of a second, or 200 ms. This is a massive delay when typical latencies on a modern Windows machine are at most a few ms.
It doesn't normally happen with dedicated sound cards with their own midi synth and the delay is hardly noticeable with most modern software synthesizers.
You may also be able to remove the delay for the Microsoft GS Wavetable synth by running DirectMusic Producer, see
http://www.robertinventor.com/wiki/FAQ_-_Soft_synths.htm#Microsoft_GS_Wavetable_Synth
See also the tip for the text area where you enter the amount of the delay to set.
To sync. sound with bounces if necessary:
How much to delay the visual bounce by, e.g. 20% for a fifth of a second - you can also make this NEGATIVE if you want the visual bounces early, similarly to following a conductor...
It's shown in % of a second, preset to 10% - that's the same as 100 ms. Or you can choose to show it in the more usual ms.
One reason for doing this is to compensate for latency - your computer setup has latency if every note gets delayed by the same amount of time. E.g. every note is a fifth of a second after the visual bounce. If this happens, you can compensate for it here.
Set this to the same amount as the latency for your synth or soft synth.
E.g. to 20% for 200 ms latency.
Even if your synth has a fairly low latency of say 10 ms, if doing demanding work you may find it helps to compensate for the latency here to get the visuals exactly in time with the synth. For 10 ms latency set this to 1%.
You need to try different amounts here until the bounces hit exactly at the same moment as the sound. It is possible to measure the exact amount of latency yourself - but a bit tricky, and unfortunately I haven't yet found a way to automate the measurement.
If you want to measure the latency, you can do it by making a recording using a microphone, then measure times on that recording. See below at the end of this tip.
Latency for the Microsoft GS Wavetable Synthesizer
This is especially useful for the Microsoft GS Wavetable Synthesizer as it has a lot of latency on some systems - while on other systems it may work fine with hardly any noticeable latency.
On my desktop when I run it under Vista it has latency of 200 ms. On the same machine with Windows 7 it has fairly low latency - a little bit but no more than 10 ms. On my XP laptop it also has low latency.
So if you happen to have the same setup as my Vista machine, then try 20% for the amount of the delay. Otherwise adjust until you get it right.
Alternatively, reduce latency for Microsoft GS Wavetable Synthesizer
If this is your synth, then you may be able to do something about it.
On a modern computer there is no reason at all to have such high latency as 200 ms, so I don't know why it happens, perhaps just some defaultof the software that gets switched on sometimes for some reasonto a latency far higher than anyone needs.
Anyway, whatever the reason, you can tweak the Microsoft GS Wavetable Synthesizer to reduce its latency by using Direct Producer.
I have tips about how to do it here:
http://robertinventor.com/wiki/index.php?title=FAQ_-_Soft_synths#Microsoft_GS_Wavetable_Synth
That worked on my Vista setup, though it was a little temperamental, as you can read there.
How to measure the amount of latency exactly
I'd like the program to auto detect the latency and automatically compensate for it, but have been unable so far to find a way to do it.
Though if one needed to, one could probably measure it oneself.
To do that, use the on-screen PC Keyboard Player (Ctrl + 112). With a microphone attached to your PC or any other method for recording sound: record the sound of a tap on the PC keyboard (e.g. with a pen or pencil). In the same recording, record the sound of the note played by that tap, and measure the delay between the two.
That should work as the visuals are practically instantaneous, and normally there isn't much latency between the PC keyboard key press and the appearance of the letter on the screen. So the latency between visuals and sound in Tune Smithy is similar to the latency between a key press and hearing the sound.
There's a good article about how to measure latency here in the wiki for N-track studio.
http://ntrack.com/wiki/index.php/Latency - see under "How can I measure it?" and then "For MIDI-to-softsynth latency:"
I'll just quote from it here as it is clearly set out and don't think I can improve on their advice:
"
For MIDI-to-softsynth latency:
1. Stick a mike very close to a key on the MIDI keyboard.
2. Set up to record audio from the mike, but mute the track.
3. Make sure the mike input is NOT being monitored (at least, not loudly).
4. Pick a percussive sound for the softsynth. Use LIVE mode, of course.
5. Send the softsynth output to the monitors, where the mike will pick it up.
6. Measure the distance between mike and monitor.
7. Start recording.
8. Whack the key. (Consider tapping the key with something that will make a nice percussive sound the mike will pick up.)
9. Stop recording
10. See Measurement below
Measurement
Now, take a close look at the wave file you recorded. Zoom all the way in. You should be able to see two spikes, one for the key being whacked and one for the softsynth output.
To get that difference in milliseconds, right click on one of the time-bars above and below the track wave display area, select "Custom", and enter 1000 in the box. Now the number to the right of the decimal point (in the timeline) will be in milliseconds.
Subtract the distance (in feet) between mike and speaker from the result (in milliseconds). This is your total latency.
"
When stopped, show bounce positions for:
This can be useful as a way to look closely at the frame for any desired time. You can then print the frame, save it as an image or copy it to the clipboard at any desired resolution using EXPORT ANIMATION, or Print or Copy (Ctrl + 234)...
This only affects what you see when the tune and the bouncing balls are both stopped. When unselected shows the position for the bouncing ball, baton or drum stick at time 0. When selected, shows the position for the time shown here.
This time field is syncrhonised with the time field in EXPORT ANIMATION, or Print or Copy (Ctrl + 234). So if you then go to that window, you can save a frame for the desired time as an image, print it, or copy it at any resolution.
When stopped, show bounce positions for:
Edit this to show a single frame of the animation at any desired time...
This is the animation time to show when stopped. You can edit this to show the image for a particular time which you can then save it as an image using EXPORT ANIMATION, or Print or Copy (Ctrl + 234)
To look at the frame more closely, since the preview pane in EXPORT ANIMATION, or Print or Copy (Ctrl + 234) is quite small, you can also stop the rhythm and bouncing balls and then use the option "When stopped show for time ..." in Bounce Options (Ctrl + 220).
This is particularly useful for the 3D frames. You can zoom into the 3D scene, and show it from any angle using the ALT or CAPS LOCK + click and drag method in 3D Bouncing Balls, Drum stick or Conductor's baton (Ctrl + 224). So you can use this to adjust the image to your preferences, or look closely at the details of the 3D scene before you save your image.
Bouncing Balls - Visuals - Controls, Text and layout (Ctrl + 233)
For Bouncing Balls:Configure: Beat labels and counting system, controls to show, what to show on the blocks, and whether to show tempo
Bouncing Balls - Other Visuals (Ctrl + 225)
For Bouncing Balls - configure:Colours, Shadows and Splash, Motion, and Display
Type of Ball etc (Ctrl + 221)
Show bouncing balls as beat numbers, tumbling stars, lyrics for a song, more
Bounce Patterns (Ctrl + 227)
Height of bounce, exaggerate bounces before significant beats in the bar, and other options to do with the way the balls bounce.
Show VOLUMES (Alt + V)
- also lets you adjust VOLUMES with MIDDLE button - DROP LIST
Set how the right button works in the bouncing ball displays. Preset is RIGHT CLICK to ACCENT...
Accent
RIGHT CLICK on the beat to ACCENT the beat or unaccent it.
With each right click you set the beat to the next volume level.
Use CTRL + RIGHT CLICK to change the accents in the reverse order, e.g. if the accents are 25 50 75 100, then the right click changes the volumes in the order shown, and Ctrl + right click steps through the same volumes in reverse order.
Enter the volumes for all the desired accent levels in the Accent Volumes field.
Volume Level
Right click to adjust the volume. This is especially useful if your mouse doesn't have a middle button.
Accent and Volume
Right click on the diamond to accent the beat. Right click anywhere else in the beat to adjust the volume.
This option is useful if you don't have a middle mouse button and want to use right button to adjust volumes and also to set accents.
Instrument for Individual Beat
You can right click on it to change the instrument for just that beat. This lets you play the part with a different instrument for each beat.
You get the non melodic percussion menu if set to hide melodic instruments and features. Otherwise, you can uses SHIFT + RIGHT click to bring up the non melodic percussion menu and CTRL + RIGHT click to bring up the Waveform Instruments menu.
You can also right click on the coloured dot at bottom right of each beat, when the right button is set to something else with this drop list.
The coloured dot can be shown or hidden from the More version of Bouncing Balls - Visuals - Controls, Text and layout (Ctrl + 233)
Tap Rhythm
Right click to tap a rhythm. This is mainly for backwards compatibility if you have got used to using the right button in this way in BM Pro.
If you have any of the other options here selected, then you can use the CTRL + SPACE BAR keyboard shortcut to tap out a rhythm with the space bar. Most users will probably find that more convenient anyway.
Context Menu
Right click does nothing except bring up the normal right click context menu like a right click elsewhere in the window.
Accent volume levels (Alt + L)
Enter the volumes for all the desired accent levels - IN INCREASING ORDER...
These volume levels are used for a couple of the right button options for the Bouncing Balls display: Right button adjusts Accent, or Accent and Volume.
Each time you right click on the beat then the volume changes to the next in the list.
So for instance, if the volumes are 25 50 75 100 (using 0 to 100% for volumes) then a right click will adjust 25 to 50, or 50 to 75 and so on.A right click will adjust the last number (here 100) back to the first one, 25.
Use CTRL + RIGHT CLICK to change the volume levels in reverse order, e.g. right click on beat with volume level 50 to adjust to 25.
Volume Levels
The numbers must be in the range 0 to 100. The numbers must be entered in ascending order.
Preset is to have three volume levels - which you could think of as:quieter than usual, normal and accented, as 33 66 100
Examples
For two levels, you could use
50 100
For three volume levels (the preset):
33 66 100
For four levels
25 50 75 100
For five levels
20 40 60 80 100
ADJUST BEAT TIMES with LEFT CLICK and drag on blocks display (Alt + T)
Switch this off if you only want to left click on the main window to skip beats, not to adjust times.
Bouncing Balls window has at most
TIP: if you want the balls to bounce separately each in a different section of the display, set this to 1.
REVERSE ORDER PARTS for time signature rhythm
Use this to order the parts for the rhythm in different ways in the bouncing balls displays...
So for example in 6/8 the part with 6 beats is first, topmost in 2D and nearest in 3D. Then next is the part with 2 beats, then finally the bar beat.
If you reverse the order, then the bar beat is first - so topmost in the 2D bouncing balls display and nearest in the 3D display, and the part with 6 beats is last.
Often you may want to keep the bar beat at the bottom and reverse the other parts only. So to deal with that there's an option to reverse all except the bar beat.
Animate ONE WINDOW AT A TIME
Only animates the bounce window you are currently using...
Usually when you are using the 3D Bouncing Balls, Drum stick or Conductor's baton (Ctrl + 224) you don't need Metronome Bouncing Ball (Ctrl + 219) and vice versa. And if you are using the larger 3D Bouncing Balls, Drum stick or Conductor's baton (Ctrl + 224) then you probably don't need the main window bounce, and vice versa.
This option will animate the bounce window you worked with most recently or the currently active window.
You can activate any window with a click on its title bar. You can tell which window is the active window because it is shown slightly differently with its title bar highlighted.
Next: Bouncing Balls - Other Visuals
Controls Common to Many Windows
