Guitar Strummer
Download Links
DESCRIPTION
This is not another beat rhythm game. It’s not a game at all, but more of a guitar simulator. This is an app that lets you play chords on a virtual guitar. It functions similar to an autoharp so you can easily change chords and focus on rhythm and timing. It’s not explicitly an educational tool but it will prove useful for those learning to play guitar. So impress your dog, and annoy your friends as you become a guitar strumming master.
FEATURES
- Two ways to play chords: Traditional style open chords represented as orbs you can position and select, or go more hands on playing barre chords directly on the fretboard.
- Dynamic volume control: Intuitively add emphasis by varying your strum expression. There is visual feedback to help you control your playing.
- Warm and relaxing environment to play in.
- Save preset chord configurations so you can quickly jump into session after starting
- Tablature that you can place in the world and play along with.
- Add your own custom chords and tablature.
- Multiple guitar voices (still work in progress)
- Play “thump” and “pop” sounds by tapping on the guitar body or with buttons.
- Chords are displayed with indicators where your fingers would be. Great for keeping you on track or for those who are trying to learn to play for real.
- Optimized for mobile and playable at very high framerates on moderate PC’s.
INSTRUCTIONS
- MOVING OBJECTS
The guitar, chords and Tabs can all be grabbed and moved by holding down the trigger. Only the tip of the drumstick can be used to interact with objects.
- OPEN MENU
Click in the thumbstick on either hand to open and close the menu. The menu consists of all the available chords, all the tabs, and the preset window.
- THE FING-LONGER
While the menu is open your secondary hand will be represented by the fing-longer. It looks a little goofy but works by simply extending your selection range. 2D menu items can be interacted with even if they are out of range of the fing-longer.
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MAIN MENU PANEL
PRESETS
There are 5 slots where you can save chord presets. All the chords and their positions will be saved so you can jump right back in on your next session.
CLEAR ALL CHORDS / TABS
These buttons will clear out all the chords / tabs in your scene.
LEFT HAND MODE
Southpaws can check this box for a sinister play experience.
HELP
Displays a screen with instructions on how to play
RESET VIEW
This will recenter you back at the guitar
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ADDING AND DELETING CHORDS AND TABS
When the menu is open use your long finger to highlight a chord or tab. Pull the trigger to copy into your scene. When the menu is closed you can double click the trigger with either hand to delete a chord or tab from your scene. There are also menu options to delete all chords or all tabs at once.
- PLAYING NORMAL CHORDS
Simply hover your drumstick over a chord to change to that chord. You do not need to click anything. Chords stay active until another chord is selected so you do not need to hold your hand over a chord the whole time you are playing it.
- PLAYING BARRE CHORDS
To play barre chords hold down one of the two face buttons for an “E” style or “A” style barre chords. You will notice some lines leading down to the fretboard that will help you position your hand appropriately. It does not matter how close your hand is to the fretboard or how it is oriented. Move your secondary hand over the fretboard to change chords. Moving over the top 3 strings will play an E-string rooted chord, the lower 3 strings will play an A-string rooted chord. You can easily mix barre chords with normal chords to play songs.
- VOLUME CONTROL
The volume of the notes you play is dictated by two things: The distance to the strings, and the speed you are strumming. Lifting the pick up high above the strings will play them more quietly. Strumming slowly will play the string more quietly. It’s a little complicated but I tried to combine these two factors into something that felt good and allowed for a decent amount of expression while playing. You have an “EQ” looking thing on the guitar nut that gives you visual feedback for how loud that last notes were played. Additionally if you hold the primary hand grip.. Or squeeze it on the valve index it will add emphasis to the notes being played. This is useful if you are trying to play single or arpeggiated notes where you can’t do it fast.
- SAVING / LOADING CHORDS PRESETS
Use the load and save chord presets buttons in the main menu. There are 5 presets that will save and load the current active chords along with their positions. Saved presets will be writtent to the “Saved/GameSaves” folder.
- TABALATURE
Tabs work almost exactly like chords. You open the menu and click on them to copy them into your scene. You will notice in the bottom right corner of a tab there is a “Load Chords” button. After the menu is closed you can click this button to load the chords that are associated with this tab.
- LOCOMOTION
It’s rather simple but you can move around with the thumbstick on your primary hand. Left / Right rotates your view. Up / Down steps your forward and backward based on your head direction.
- CUSTOM CHORDS / TABS
It is possible to save custom chords and custom tabs on Quest and PC. This is somewhat technical and not recommended for newbies. If you are still reading this then here is the rub. All custom content needs to be added at the root level of the “Saved” folder. On PC this will be a subfolder of wherever you unzipped the application, On Quest this will be in
“Internal Storage/UE4 Games/GuitarStrummer/Saved/”. I didn’t put a limit on the number of chords or tabs, but use in moderation as the UI can only support so much and the performance may suffer.
CUSTOM CHORDS
Custom Chords need to put into a file named “custom_chords.txt” they need to be formatted as follows: This is a comma separated values format that reads as such: Chord_name, first_str_#, second_str_#, third_str_#, fourth_str_#, fifth_str_#, sixth_str_# Each line will create a new chord, The number for each string is the midi index for that note. See this: https://medium.com/@gmcerveny/midi-note-number-chart-for-ios-music-apps-b3c01df3cb19 The lowest “E” is number 40. If you do not want to play a string then the index number should be -1. Here is an example of a the contents of a “custom_chords.txt” file that adds 3 chords:
G, 43, 47, 50, 55, 62, 67 C, -1, 48, 52, 55, 60, 64 D, -1, -1, 50, 57, 62, 66
CUSTOM TABS
Custom tabs must be saved as “.jpg” format. They must be named with the prefix “tab_”. You should name them with a number, but you don’t have to. The code just searches for “tab_” .jpg. If you would like to associate chords with the custom tab then you need to add a matching text file. So for example if I find a file named “tab_42.jpg” I will search for a “tab_42.txt” chord file. The chord file needs to be formatted exactly as defined in the above section on custom chords.
Special note for Quest. There is currently a bug with the quest. It does work but the first time the program attempts to load the tab texture it won’t work. The tab will show up but be completely black. If you restart the program it should load the tab as a proper texture.
KNOWN ISSUES
- The Quest version has some playback issues. I am not sure why but even while the framerate is good playing back too many notes seems to jam it up. The end result is noticeable latency while playing. You may find it impossible to play as fast and fluidly on Quest as you can on PC. I have also experienced the sound dropping out sometimes. I am not 100% what is the cause of this bug but I am looking into it.
- Click to add a new chord or tab can be impeaded if there is something blocking the way in the foreground. For now try to explicitly aim at the desired target only.
- The “Chorus” and “Distorted” sound banks don’t sound very good. I considered removing them, but thought maybe someone could find a use for it?
Release notes:
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version 0.1.1
This is the first release everything is included and everything changed. Enjoy.