Pitch detection not working in melody lessons

[Pida]

Hi,

I'm trying to practice sight reading using the melody lessons. When I set up my microphone (Macbook w/ Mountain Lion) everything is working fine and Earmaster recognizes all the notes I'm singing.

However, the software cannot recognize a singe simple melody (such as d - c - d) I'm singing. This is true for the very first exercises of both "melody reading and playing" and "melody hearing and playing" (I'm translating the lessons' names from German.)

All my answers are marked as wrong. There's little feedback, only three red crosses are shown. Rhythm shouldn't play a role in these exercises so I think pitch detection must be the problem. Not a single note was recognized in dozens of attempts.

When I play my answer back, it's sounding fine and as I said, I can see my singing is fine when setting the mic set up. I'm also an experienced instrumentalist, a choir and solo singer and my singing teacher is quite satisfied with my intonation. And, as I just checked, playing the notes on an instrument doesn't help.

Earmaster is set up not to transpose anything.

What more can I try?

Thanks
Pida

[Quentin]

[This is a copy of the answer posted in a similar thread]

Hi,
Please check the FAQ in the support section of the website. One of the entries is about using a mic with EarMaster. One of the most common reasons for wrong evaluations is when the metronome gets picked up by the microphone. One of the solutions is to use headphones for those activities.

Here's what the FAQ says:

First of all, it is highly recommended to use headphones with all the activities that involve the use of a microphone. The reason for that is that if the metronome sounds that come out of regular speakers get picked up by the microphone, it will be considered as part of your answer by EarMaster.

When you go through the Microphone setup steps, take special care with the settings of step 3, 4 and 6.

Don't go past step 3 and 4 before the tones shown by the program are corresponding to the ones you are singing. If you sing a C and the program isn't displaying "C", then you should adjust the available settings.

The program may also not recognize your answers if you sing several octaves above or below the question, in which case you can ask the program to only evaluate the tone, not the octave in which it is sung. To do that, click on the "Exercise Settings" tab and choose "Answer Identification>Any Octave".

[Pida]

Hi,

thanks, but (i) I am using headphones and (ii) pitch detection is working fine when setting up the microphone. In the meantime I also discovered the interval singing lesson is working as it should be...

[Quentin]

Are you on Windows or Mac OSX?

[Quentin]

Please also make sure you have the latest update. There have been a few fixes done to the way sung answers are evaluated over the course of the updates these last months. To check for updates (in non-Mac Appstore versions), go to the Help menu and click on "Check fro Updates". If an update is available, you can download it and install it.

[Pida]

I am on Mac OS Mountain Lion. I downloaded EM five days ago from your website and just a few hours later an update was available. But the problem remains both with and without this update.

Something different, but possibly related: In this topic on melody imitation...
http://www.earmaster.com/community/forum/2/1886.html

... you write "The only requirement is to start on the accentuated beat of the metronome (the first tick of the bar, which is played at a higher pitch than the others).. "

When I try to practise melody imitation, there is no accentuated beat. All beats sound the same. It doesn't matter whether the "Metronome click" is set to "Compund" or "All beats".

[Quentin]

In melody imitation, the metronome only plays indeed only two beats (one strong, one weak). I just tested the exercise on 10.8 with a very bad mic (one built into a cheap webcam) but all notes are recognized perfectly, so I am not sure what the problem could be on your setup.

Could you try to activate the "Show Pitch Curve option" from the "Exercise Settings" menu to see the tones you sing displayed on the staff? Maybe they are at a different octave than those played by the software. Also, if your voice range is set to Baritone or Bass, try to choose Grand Staff or F clef for the Clef setting in "Exercise Settings".

[Pida]

Thanks, it's working fine now. I changed a few settings back and forth and also switched between several clefs a few times and now the exercises have been working for a while without any problems.