Hi Everyone,
I have been taking a long break from PianoBooster and I also been playing the piano much less over the last year. But PB has not been totally forgotten, I have been gradually preparing to release a new version but never quite got round to finishing it off.
The Windows version had some problems as the same code performs much better on Linux than on Windows. Anyway have put a temporary fix for the Windows version that is available here for testing
http://sourceforge.net/projects/pianobooster/files/pianobooster/0.6.6.test/It now comes complete with a complete with a "Booster Music" course and a "Beginner Course" that is automatically installed in your music folder. You may need to delete your "Piano Booster.ini" to see all the default options as a fresh install (although this should not be necessary).
I have also added a new "Rhythm tap" mode for complete beginners. Tapping out the rhythm is a very good way to learn a piece of music. You can now tap out the rhythm using your MIDI keyboard -- press any note above middle C for the right hand part and any note below middle C for the left hand part. You can choose either to tap out the rhythm using ether the drum sound or the using piano sound which will then automatically play the right note. (It is kind of cheating really -- but tapping out the correct rhythm is an important way of learning a new piece of music) Try to get white cross (called a timing marker) to land smack in the middle of each note.
Please report back to every one how you get on.
I am sorry there is no Linux or Mac version at the moment and so you will have to build the latest code from svn (I don't have a Mac and so I am unable to build a mac version.)
My apologies I accidentally disabled the forum post, as some spammer posted a spam message on the top level forum I disable post on the top level forum. But it also disable posts on all the forum sorry. it explains why has been very quiet here.
Regarding the future of PB I am not planning on making any major changes. I was thinking of added more guidance and gaming features to encourage you to improve your playing etc (eg a top score and progress graphs etc).
I would like to fix some of the windows issues which may require adding background thread to the code to do the processing.
I don't feel that that the horizontal scrolling of PB works that well as it is tiring on the eyes and the either the notes come at you too fast or they are two squashed up. The fixed horizontal time grid means that the horizontal note spacing is extremely ugly with notes crashing in the bar lines etc. If I had to do PB over again I would probably used a conventional music score complete with the standard note durations.
Any way there are my random thoughts on Piano Booster. Let us know how you get on with the test version.
Louis
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