#12 Include Ukulele as instrument(s) (high g, and low g strings, gcea tuning, may be adf#b, too)

[Anonymous]

This is a feature request:

It would be great if you could include Ukulele as instrument; and/or an option for "other instrument" to define number and tuning of strings and save as new (named) instrument setting (think mandoline, baritone ukulele, tenor guitar, banjo, etc.) and offer an option (or just an email link) so users can upload (or send in) settings for new instruments.

Kind regards

Andreas

[zapyon]

It was me, who opened these tickets; didn't realise I was not logged in. Sorry.

[SeeLook]

Hi Andreas,

I'm happy to see someone is using other tuning than the classic one.
I thought about saving custom tunings from the beginning but it looked so much sophisticated so I gave up.
So I will add this option to TODO list for the next release. Sharing tunings as well.

Have You seen this incoming Nootka 2 version? Beta4 actually?
There is an option for transposing instruments. Guitar as well.
And as far as I know (I've got access to octave guitar and alto one) - they have "the same" tuning as classical guitar has but shifted with some interval.
Also a common practice in musical scores for guitar ensembles is to write parts for them with scordatura - with notes representing position on classically tuned guitar. (Similar way as saxophones have - seeing C and playing B or Es).
So for current Nootka state this is more appropriate way to achieve baritone or tenor guitar.
But maybe I'm wrong and it is not that simple for real cases.
Anyway this transposition option has to be added to that equation.

And to add ukulele as the separate instrument sounds proud but for now, sorry to say, Nootka can't offer much for this instrument.
I mean, ukulele is more like to play chords, even if they are written properly in classic western musical notation.
And for now Nootka doesn't support them - there is lack of interval logic and chord shapes.
And this is big deal.
So maybe when chords will be implemented because just to add ukulele in the next release it is not that big deal.
Anyway, it is not only about functionality support but also about terms of content: some special exercises of ukulele or some typical melodies. May I count on You with that?

So let's be in touch....

[SeeLook]

Ticket moved from /p/nootka/bugs/34/

[zapyon]

Thank you for your quick response.

Actually, NO, Ukulele is not just about chords, NOT by far!
Check out Jake Shimabukuro, Taimane Gardner, etc.
Fingerpicking is rather popular among Ukulele players.
I think chord strumming with the Ukulele is just like with the Guitar: one option of several to play the instrument. But of course, an option to add instruments would make it easy to generate a setting for any other kind of string instrument. Thanks for considering.

I did not see a version 2 to check out. I found 1.7.4 beta and tried it out on Ubuntu 20.10. Sadly it crashes all the time (e.g. reproducably, when klicking on the settings button right after the first start (and going through the steps with the setup wizard). So I tried the stable version, 1.4.7, and it works so far on Ubuntu and on one Android device (Android 10).

Thank you for this cool program. I really like the idea and will try to use it to get to speed with bass notation reading. Will give more feedback when I know Nootka better.

Cheers

Andreas

[SeeLook]

Hi Andreas,

Sorry for my ignorance about ukulele, I mean no offence.
And adding new instrument is quite a nice part of coding, so I'm tempted even more now :-)

1.7.4 is fourth beta version of incoming Nootka 2 - and do not waste Your time to understand any numerology here ;-)
But it is too bad Nootka still crashes.
Though I tried follow Your steps (fresh run with wizard, select guitar, then go to settings and make ukulele).
And nothing crashed. I tried either with actual development version and this "old" beta.
Do You have deb package or AppImage?

Anyway, thank You for feedback a lot.
You might try the latest devel version (aka night build) from AppImage - so You would catch something new, if any but benefit from newest version.
And it is in better shape than the latest beta, I'm just fixing bugs there with hope to not create new ones.
There is a big chance this bug was repaired also, because instrument creation is handled better way now.

Have nice day
Tomasz

[zapyon]

Hi Tomasz,

yesterday, on my Ubuntu 20.10 machine, I tried the deb package and flatpak of version 1.7.4.
The problem arose after:

• starting Nootka
• using the wizard, setting it up for bass
• clicking the settings button (upper left of the program window)
• the dialogue does not appear, program freezes until I kill it

Today I tried the AppImage of 1.7.4 — this time it all works.

When I set up "other instrument", I can only set the range of notes for the instrument, but neither number of strings nor their tunings. But this would be very helpful to be able to train positions of notes on the score AND on the fretboard. Actually this feature – to see fretboard and score position of notes – was what I liked about Nootka when testing it with bass settings.
It would even be cooler If you could answer questions on the score by simply playing the note on the instrument.

Somehow I have no recording sound in Nootka yesterday (pulseaudio, neither with Nootka 1.4.7 nor 1.7.4) – or is there no visual feedback for that? I assumed playing a note on the instrument and recording it would sort of automatically answer a question when asking for a note on the fretboard. It would be great if this would also work for notes on the score; i.e.: you just play those notes and Nootka checks if you played the correct ones.

Cheers,

Andreas

[SeeLook]

It is quite possible that the reason of the crash is due to deb package was build under Debian and version of libraries don't match well.
For next release I will prepare separate packages for Debian and Ubuntu.

Since we decided to have Ukulele support let's keep this 'other' instrument for others than guitars. But it could be good idea to add options for selecting tuning in wizard already.

And Nootka pitch detection should work just out of the box as long as audio input works.
If You have more than one input device You have to assign the proper one to Nootka in pavcontrol or other pulseaudio settings.

With working audio input all combinations You mentioned are possible.

Have fun with the app,
Tomasz

[zapyon]

Well, I guess, some Debian packages may be younger versions than the corresponding Ubuntu 20.10  versions, so you may be right.

 

Looking forward to see what happens regarding ukulele support. May be I should really go and compile Nootka myself one of these nights …

 

Thank you again, Tomasz.

 

Regards

 

Andreas

[SeeLook]

Nootka 2.0.2 will have Ukulele support.
Added already in development version,
so nightly builds have it now:
https://www.opencode.net/seelook/nootka/-/blob/master/README.md#testing-nightly-builds