Alright, let’s dive into this perfect pitch filter game thing I messed around with today. It was a bit of a journey, lemme tell ya.
First things first, the idea. I stumbled upon some articles talking about perfect pitch and thought, “Hey, could I maybe train my ear a little?” I’m no musician, but the idea of being able to identify notes instantly sounded kinda cool. So, I started searching for some online games or exercises, and that’s where the “perfect pitch filter game” concept came from. Basically, it’s a game where you hear a note, and you have to guess what it is, but with a twist – a filter is applied to the sound.
Round one: Scoping it out. I figured I could find a pre-made game online, right? Nope. Nada. Plenty of ear-training apps and websites, but nothing with the specific filter thing I was after. So, I thought, “Okay, DIY time.” I started by looking at the existing ear-training resources to see what notes they used, how they presented the sounds, and how they gave feedback. It was pretty basic stuff – play a note, show a piano keyboard, let the user click the note, and then tell them if they were right or wrong.
Next step: the technology. I was thinking of using Javascript, HTML, and CSS. I know the basics, and it seemed like a simple enough project. I also needed a way to play sounds. I messed around with the Web Audio API, which seemed like the right thing to use. After a couple of hours of googling and testing, I managed to get it to play a simple tone. Victory!
Filter fun. Now for the juicy part, the filter! This is where things got a little hairy. The Web Audio API has some built-in filter nodes, like low-pass, high-pass, and band-pass filters. I started playing around with those, tweaking the frequencies and Q values. The goal was to make the notes sound a little weird or muffled, making it harder to identify them. I ended up using a combination of a low-pass filter to dull the high frequencies and a slight distortion effect, just to add some extra spice.
Game time! With the core sound stuff sorted, I moved on to the game logic. I created an array of notes (C4, D4, E4, etc.) and a function to randomly select one. Then, I added event listeners to the piano keys on the screen, so when you click a key, it plays the corresponding note. I had to make sure the filter was applied only to the randomly selected note, not the notes you click on the piano.
Feedback and results. After a lot of tinkering, I had a basic game. It played a filtered note, and you had to click the correct key on the piano. If you got it right, it would give you a “Correct!” message. If you got it wrong, it would tell you the correct note. Simple, but effective.
Testing, testing. I played the game for about 30 minutes. Honestly? It was tough! The filters really messed with my ability to identify the notes. I did get a little better over time, but I’m definitely not developing perfect pitch anytime soon. The low pass filter was too strong, i should have used a combination of low pass and high pass filter.
Final thoughts. It was a fun little project. I learned a lot about the Web Audio API and got a better understanding of how filters affect sound. The game itself is pretty basic, but it’s a good starting point. Maybe I’ll add more features later, like different difficulty levels or more complex filters. For now, though, I’m calling it a win. I built a thing, it kinda works, and I had a good time doing it.
