ChartPlayer - a free and open source song chart player

[ladron]

ChartPlayer is an application for playing along to charts synchronized to music (such as Rocksmith CDLC charts).

It runs as a VST plugin inside your DAW so that you can use any other plugin you like (ie: guitar amp simulation) for your instrument sounds.

Features include:

- Support for guitar, bass, drums, keys and vocals
- Very fast startup and song loading
- 3D, "note highway" display
- Note detection
- Pitch shifting of songs that are slightly off of standard tuning
- Adjustable song playback speed

You can always download the latest version of ChartPlayer here:

https://github.com/mikeoliphant/ChartPlayer/releases/latest

ChartPlayer plays songs in OpenSongChart format. Rocksmith PSARC files can be converted to OpenSongChart format for use in ChartPlayer using ChartConverter. You can download it here:

https://github.com/mikeoliphant/ChartConverter/releases/latest

ChartPlayer runs on Windows (as a VST) as well as Linux and Mac (as a Jack client).

[J_1eighty2]

Can you make it so it also plays guitar pro files

[ladron]

17 hours ago, J_1eighty2 said:

Can you make it so it also plays guitar pro files

I've done a bit of work with Guitar Pro files. The main problem is that they generally aren't synchronized to a recording.

I think that the latest version of GP has support for sync-to-recording, but the *vast* majority of GP files won't have it.

[mick477]

It doesn't detect any of my charts :c It doesn't matter the folder I choose, it appears the same error. But the charts are fine, they are detected and can be played in RS2014

[ladron]

56 minutes ago, mick477 said:

It doesn't detect any of my charts :c It doesn't matter the folder I choose, it appears the same error. But the charts are fine, they are detected and can be played in RS2014

ChartPlayer does not play Rocksmith songs directly. Have you converted any songs to OpenSongChart format?

[mick477]

3 hours ago, ladron said:

ChartPlayer does not play Rocksmith songs directly. Have you converted any songs to OpenSongChart format?

oh my bad, sorry! how I didn't read that! thanks!

I didn't saw that in the readme file tho

[ladron]

1 hour ago, mick477 said:

oh my bad, sorry! how I didn't read that! thanks!

I didn't saw that in the readme file tho

Yeah, the readme is really just instructions on how to install the VST plugin.

[J_1eighty2]

6 hours ago, ladron said:

I've done a bit of work with Guitar Pro files. The main problem is that they generally aren't synchronized to a recording.

I think that the latest version of GP has support for sync-to-recording, but the *vast* majority of GP files won't have it.

I'm not too familiar with how that works. I know tonelib jam has a way of doing it. I'm not sure if you could copy that. Or even the ability to read daw midi. 

Overall I really like your app. The only things I would suggest to improve it is a more distinct color for the strumming and palm muting patterns. I find it hard to see. The ability to change the speed at which the notes come down the screen ( not the song speed). A search bar for songs and long notes for sustain. 

Keep up the good work! I will definitely be using your app. The daw integration is amazing. Thank you for creating it! 

[ladron]

12 minutes ago, J_1eighty2 said:

I'm not too familiar with how that works. I know tonelib jam has a way of doing it. I'm not sure if you could copy that. Or even the ability to read daw midi. 

So you're thinking you'd play along to midi rather than to a recording of the song?

12 minutes ago, J_1eighty2 said:

Overall I really like your app. The only things I would suggest to improve it is a more distinct color for the strumming and palm muting patterns.

Yeah - trying to get the visuals right involves a lot of tweaking.

I've been mostly using it for bass recently, so I'll admit that I've been neglecting the guitar side of things.

12 minutes ago, J_1eighty2 said:

The ability to change the speed at which the notes come down the screen ( not the song speed).

You can do that now - just go into options and change "Note display length".

12 minutes ago, J_1eighty2 said:

A search bar for songs

The latest release lets you type a character to jump to that point in the song list (based on current sort column). I've added the ability to type multiple characters for further narrowing down, but it isn't in a release yet.

12 minutes ago, J_1eighty2 said:

long notes for sustain. 

Not sure what you mean by that?

12 minutes ago, J_1eighty2 said:

 Thank you for creating it! 

You are welcome - thanks for the feedback!

[J_1eighty2]

3 hours ago, ladron said:

So you're thinking you'd play along to midi rather than to a recording of the song?

Yeah I personally would for sure. Either midi or a guitar pro version. It would be good for obscure songs. It would be really cool if you could add the sounds for the midi also in the daw, such as ez drummer, ez bass and solemntones etc. Also having the ability to mute instruments. It would also come in handy for audio engineers tracking guitars. 

You can do that now - just go into options and change "Note display length".

Thanks ill check that out. 

The latest release lets you type a character to jump to that point in the song list (based on current sort column). I've added the ability to type multiple characters for further narrowing down, but it isn't in a release yet. 

I'll also check that out. I found myself trying to click on a song to play but would sometimes click the wrong song because the text was so small. I tried using the arrow keys and the enter key to select a song but the interface didn't work like that. 

Not sure what you mean by that?

Just how regular rocksmith shows you the note duration. I notice it only shows when a note is played but doesn't show how long you should hold it for. 

You are welcome - thanks for the feedback!

No worries. Keep up the good work! I'll be sure to keep downloading all the latest updates. 

 

[Shroud]

I haven't checked the latest improvements but I just wanted to say again that this is already an incredible job! 

[ladron]

9 hours ago, J_1eighty2 said:

13 hours ago, ladron said:

So you're thinking you'd play along to midi rather than to a recording of the song?

Yeah I personally would for sure. Either midi or a guitar pro version. It would be good for obscure songs. It would be really cool if you could add the sounds for the midi also in the daw, such as ez drummer, ez bass and solemntones etc. Also having the ability to mute instruments. It would also come in handy for audio engineers tracking guitars. 

You can do that now - just go into options and change "Note display length".

Thanks ill check that out. 

The latest release lets you type a character to jump to that point in the song list (based on current sort column). I've added the ability to type multiple characters for further narrowing down, but it isn't in a release yet. 

I'll also check that out. I found myself trying to click on a song to play but would sometimes click the wrong song because the text was so small. I tried using the arrow keys and the enter key to select a song but the interface didn't work like that. 

Not sure what you mean by that?

Just how regular rocksmith shows you the note duration. I notice it only shows when a note is played but doesn't show how long you should hold it for. 

You are welcome - thanks for the feedback!

No worries. Keep up the good work! I'll be sure to keep downloading all the latest updates. 

Small text is probably a screen density issue - do you have a high pixel density display? I can also look into modifying how the arrow keys work in the song list - it would be reasonable for them to move the selected song instead of scrolling the whole list.

Regarding note durations, it *should* be displaying them. At least it does in most cases. I've seen issues where it doesn't always show chord durations, but I'm not sure why.

[ladron]

Just a note to all the people who have been responding here in these forums - I'm happy to discuss ChartPlayer here, but for tracking specific issues it would really better handled on GitHub:

https://github.com/mikeoliphant/ChartPlayer

If you create an account there, it is very easy to open up issues that I can then track. There is also a discussion section there.

[ladron]

On 9/23/2024 at 10:02 PM, J_1eighty2 said:

On 9/23/2024 at 6:16 PM, ladron said:

I'll also check that out. I found myself trying to click on a song to play but would sometimes click the wrong song because the text was so small. I tried using the arrow keys and the enter key to select a song but the interface didn't work like that. 

I've changed the interface so that the arrow keys will change the selected song, rather than just scrolling the display.

I also added an option to upscale the user interface.

[J_1eighty2]

6 hours ago, ladron said:

I've changed the interface so that the arrow keys will change the selected song, rather than just scrolling the display.

I also added an option to upscale the user interface.

awesome thanks! ill give it a try as soon as you upload it!

[ladron]

New ChartPlayer v0.1.6 release here:

https://github.com/mikeoliphant/ChartPlayer/releases/latest

New fixes/features:

• Multi-character search in song list
• Move selected song in song list with arrow keys
• Fixed crash on decoding very long songs
• Added user interface scaling option

[qwertyuiopz]

Here would be five great additions, in my opinion. First one is a bit complicated, and all the others are pretty simple QOL changes as far as I can tell.

1 - alternate tuning conversion for 5-string and such

An option to convert 4-string bass arrangements that are in non-standard tunings, to "5-string" standard tuning arrangements (in real-time or otherwise). 5-strings are obviously privileged instruments in that they can maintain standard tuning while accessing notes below E1, and it would make sense to take advantage of this, at least with this as an experimental feature, so that less retuning is required for those who can. It could be another string color for the 5th string, grey might be good. Or, it could just shift the colors down to where the B-string is red, so it's just the colors of EADGB. But a new color for the B-string might be preferable, since you don't have to mentally switch between the E-string being yellow in this case and the E-string being red in other cases. So, for example, take a drop D 4-string arrangement (DADG):

The arrangement, when the option is enabled, plays just like a standard tuning 5-string arrangement (BEADG), but for any notes below E, it defers them to the B-string. In this converted Drop D context, D#1 would no longer be the 1st fret of the E-string (obviously tuned down to D), but the 4th fret of the B-string.

Perhaps this feature can also detect the musical context, like nearby notes, in choosing whether to convert an E1 to the open E-string or to the 5th fret of the B-string.

Case 1 -- Suppose the note following the E1 was a D#1, which would be the 4th fret of the B-string. Rather than playing the E1 on the open E-string and then the D#1 on the 4th fret of the B-string, you play the E1 on the 5th fret of the B-string, and then the D#1 is just the neighboring fret.

Case 2 -- On the other hand, it could be that the note before the E-string was the 15th fret of the G-string or something, in which case, playing E1 on the 5th fret of the B-string right after would be inconvenient, so it would instead choose the open E-string for E1, with the threshold depending on how close the notes are together. Just some ideas for how it could choose.

2 - audio offset

Two different sliders--global audio offset, and per-song audio offset, with the ability to remember per-song settings. That could be stored in the same place as wherever the amount of times the song has been played is stored, or something. So, you can move the audio back 20 ms, or move it forward 20 ms, something like that. That would be extremely nice for some songs in my library.

3 - tuning input offset

This one is pretty minor in usefulness, since I doubt most people care about their score: doing a total tuning offset. For songs in Eb, I just use a plugin on my bass track to shift it down a half-step. Down-tuning is way more obnoxious; I would only do it for recording. But, ChartPlayer doesn't know that I have that tuner on, since it's just separately taking input from my audio interface without the plugin. So, usually I just let it detect less notes and ignore my reported note accuracy.

Now, of course there are potential solutions to this, like routing the output of my bass track to the input of the plugin through ReaRoute or something, or perhaps putting a pitch filter also on the ChartPlayer track right before the plugin might also work.

But the first solution requires that I route every instrument track (I use separate tracks for my guitars with their own respective plugins/settings) to the ChartPlayer track, which isn't as elegant as just allowing for the offset detection in the plugin itself. The second one requires that I enable both plugins and adjust their settings to be the same whenever in use, and additionally, pitch shifter plugins introduce latency, which could mess with the plugin. But this is a fairly straightforward and simplifying QOL feature.

4 - rescan fix

When clicking rescan in your library while a song is selected, it skips around to some other song in your library. Would be nice if this was fixed.

5 - favorites

Pretty straightforward. A star or something you click for songs that you want to show up at the top in a favorites section, and then after that, all the non-favorite songs.

 

So, some of these suggestions might not be good, or they might be good. Your call!

[ladron]

6 hours ago, qwertyuiopz said:

1 - alternate tuning conversion for 5-string and such

An option to convert 4-string bass arrangements that are in non-standard tunings, to "5-string" standard tuning arrangements (in real-time or otherwise).

As you say, this is non-trivial. Maybe not *too* bad for drop D. Harder for Eb, or other tunings where the other strings are also differently tuned - then you are into full-on transposition - dealing with open strings, etc.

6 hours ago, qwertyuiopz said:

2 - audio offset

Two different sliders--global audio offset, and per-song audio offset, with the ability to remember per-song settings.

I'm assuming the global offset is to deal with any latency between the audio and the display, and the per-song is to deal with badly made charts?

6 hours ago, qwertyuiopz said:

3 - tuning input offset

This one is pretty minor in usefulness, since I doubt most people care about their score: doing a total tuning offset. For songs in Eb, I just use a plugin on my bass track to shift it down a half-step. Down-tuning is way more obnoxious; I would only do it for recording. But, ChartPlayer doesn't know that I have that tuner on, since it's just separately taking input from my audio interface without the plugin.

My solution is to tune the song to E standard, which I find less distracting.

Can't you solve this by routing the output of your bass track into the ChartPlayer track? Then it would get the adjusted signal.

6 hours ago, qwertyuiopz said:

4 - rescan fix

When clicking rescan in your library while a song is selected, it skips around to some other song in your library. Would be nice if this was fixed.

Yeah, that's been bugging me as well.

6 hours ago, qwertyuiopz said:

5 - favorites

Pretty straightforward. A star or something you click for songs that you want to show up at the top in a favorites section, and then after that, all the non-favorite songs.

Yep. I've been planning on some sort of tagging system, with favorites being a built-in tag.

[qwertyuiopz]

1. Yeah, totally understandable if the logic would be ridiculously annoying to write for something like Eb to standard. But drop D to standard for 5 string basses would be great!

2. That's right, they would serve those functions.

3. It would bug me hearing it in a different key than I'm used to. I think I gave the routing point a word too

5. Great!

[ladron]

2 hours ago, qwertyuiopz said:

1. Yeah, totally understandable if the logic would be ridiculously annoying to write for something like Eb to standard. But drop D to standard for 5 string basses would be great!

I'm also very open to supporting actual 5-string CDLC bass charts. Assuming EOF supports 5-string bass (I think it does), that would likely involve bypassing the psarc format - either through a custom converter, or support in @ iminashi 's DLC Builder.

[ladron]

ChartPlayer v0.1.7 is now available:

https://github.com/mikeoliphant/ChartPlayer/releases/latest

Changes:

• Keep selected song active after re-scan.
• Separated A440 re-tuning. Added re-tuning options below E Standard.
• Added song tagging, favoriting, filtering by tag/favorite.
• Added "*" to denote songs slightly off of A440.
• Enter key now plays current selected song.

[HolloW]

@ladron really good job. i like the idea. do you have in mind the idea to transform the visualization style like guitar pro/tab looking? (like the notes/chords come from the sides, and not coming from behind to front). similar guitar pro, or rocksmith+.
that will be a really good feature.

 

Thx!

[ladron]

18 hours ago, HolloW said:

do you have in mind the idea to transform the visualization style like guitar pro/tab looking? (like the notes/chords come from the sides, and not coming from behind to front). similar guitar pro, or rocksmith+.

It isn't a high priority for me, but it is certainly a possibility.

[ladron]

ChartPlayer v0.1.8 is now available:

https://github.com/mikeoliphant/ChartPlayer/releases/latest

Changes:

• New font and text layout improvements
• Added song play time display
• Added song time seek slider

 

[ladron]

 

  Responding  here from another thread:

On 10/31/2024 at 11:15 AM, Rogu15 said:

I have tried to double load this in Reaper to have 2 player multiplayer with no success. Would it be possible to have this option on same PC? It loads so fast that I  think 2 separate computers would work just fine as it is now.

I was able to load two instances. Are you running the very latest version? What happens when you try?

Even if it works, two instances isn't ideal - there is no easy way to keep them in sync.

It would certainly be possible to have split screen display in a single instance. A bit of work, though.

On 10/31/2024 at 11:15 AM, Rogu15 said:

Some chord strumming "boxes" are bit hard to see. Could there be slider to change opacity or make them more visible some other way?

Can you give me a screenshot of what you are talking about here?

On 10/31/2024 at 11:15 AM, Rogu15 said:

This is maybe a far fetched but I like to play my sounds from valeton gp-200 and switch  my tones from pedal. In RS2014 there is text which tells the "sound/tone" when it changes. Would it be possible to have that implemented? And the far fetched part... Could it be possible to send MIDI commands from ChartPlayer when tone is changed, so that you could bind them to specific changes in daw etc.? Reaper supports midi quite good so with that you should be able to switch tone or FX blocks.

I've definitely thought about this, and it is certainly possible.

On 10/31/2024 at 11:15 AM, Rogu15 said:

 I really do enjoy this one and Im about to recommend it for my friends to try

Please do!