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Adam Noveskey
May 08, 2022
I hate to sound like a pessimist, but has anyone else kinda "given up" on Interval Barks or Solfegiator?

I've adjusted my vocal range numerous times, and switched between 3 different headsets... but nothing seems to make either game happy. I'm always out of range - either I'm way too high or way too low.

The only time I can seem to make Interval Barks happy is when I sing falsetto, which IS NOT my normal vocal range, so I am limited to a very small range of notes that I can faithfully hit.

It's gotten to the point now where I just don't even bother. I sing whatever note I feel like in IB just so I can move along to the next daily exercise, and quite literally hit play and don't bother to sing in Solfegiator!
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Nick Name
May 08, 2022
if you prefer, you can remove the games which aren't working by clicking your profile pic in the top right > account settings > training preferences > smart training off > then click Solfegiator and Interval Barks.
sorry to hear about the problems you're having, Solfegiator didn't work for me too (but Interval Barks does lol, might be some kind of user error on my end for Solfegiator but I gave up on it ahaha)
edit: click update after making the changes to the preferences
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David Robinson
May 08, 2022
It has been working for me, but it does seem a little finicky. Have you made sure that your mic isn't clipping? I find that if I sing too loud and too close it doesn't recognize the pitches.
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Brian Blades
May 09, 2022
It's definitely pretty frustrating. I tend to have the most problems with Solfegiator and Melody Jay, but all of them tend to have issues at times. They changed the 'engine' that runs these vocal games a few months back, and they've never been the same. Way too picky with too many false reads.

I have to keep my settings on 'baritone' otherwise some of notes are just too high for me to hit. I'm definitely NOT a baritone. I'm barely a tenor. But I think the lowest note that I've had to sing in either of the aforementioned games is a middle C which is no problem. Occasionally in Interval barks, I'll have to sing a note that I'm pretty sure is lower than middle C (maybe an A directly below?), and I can usually manage to stretch my voice to hit it.

Here's one tip that has definitely helped a bit. For all of the games (especially the 2 where you have to sing consecutive notes), trying singing in almost more of a staccato style. Well not really staccato, but more staccato than legato. No 'glissandos'. So in other words, make sure you're not sliding from one pitch to the next. Make sure there is clear separation between each note, or the engine gets tripped up and will register the wrong note. I wish that they could somehow fix this. These are very useful games, and they seemed to work just fine in the old versions. However, doing it this way (not sliding into notes) seems to be eliminating at least 50% of the false reads in my experience so far.
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Gunnar Maaß
May 09, 2022
I have to admit that I enjoy barking quite a bit. Imo the games with mic input are pretty valueable tools because they bring into focus the audiation practice side of ear training, which can sometimes be a bit too lopsided towards recognition practice.

I agree that avoiding Glissandos helps and is good training practice in general. A helpful way to avoid them is trying to imagine the requested interval in your head in the right octave, before you make a sound.
I also feel like the reason that the staccato tip works is because the game doesnt seem to take audio latency into account?

I might be wrong but singing an interval on the spot without playing it before is actually a pretty challenging skill and is still quite different from recognizing the name of a given interval. Additionally even experienced guys like Bob Katz admit that the ear is easily fooled by the octave relationsship and i notice myself making the mistake regularly.

Do you have the same issue when you try the game on your phone?
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Ciarán Buckley
May 11, 2022
That's very interesting about the new engine, Brian. I have been experiencing issues also, since they changed over to this new engine. It seems like it was done in order to release the Sight Singing Trainer. Before this, I was really enjoying the games (Solfegiator, etc.) and found them quite reliable.

I hope they get this fixed. Perhaps they might be able to set Solfegiator to use the olde engine whilst still keeping the Sight Singer Trainer, which seems to be working well.
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trebor sualk
May 11, 2022
I gave it up! What makes me wonder, is there no possibility to skip a task for zero? Have I to take my mic and test barking everytime again? My singing is right (proved) but the programm takes about 20% of it as correkt - if some. Let me skip that!
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Passawat Kingngern
May 13, 2022
For Interval Barks, try the TonalEnergy Tuner & Metronome app on the appstore (or any tuner app you can find). Sing your answer into the app to check it before you sing the final answer into the exercise. This helps you figure out if you're singing the correct range. After you get the hang of it then you can ditch the app.
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Ciarán Buckley
May 13, 2022
I feel like ToneGym need to comment on this. We need some sort of response. Not good enough just to go radio silent and seemingly ignore the issue.
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ben hesketh
May 13, 2022
Interval Barks has had an uprgrade hasn't it it looks different anyway, Sofrigater until this week i'd never rreally scored much, now up to level 3
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Hugo Paris
May 14, 2022
I used to have the same issue. Here are things that helped:

Have you calibrated tonegym to your vocal range? There's a vocal range test in the tool box. it made a big difference for me.

Are you sure your mic level is not too hot, or too low?

I keep a keyboard newarby to check the question and my answers before singing without the keyboard.

I spent a lot of time, and even put in a bug ticket, for mis-reading the quality of the intervals, in my case I kept singing major seconds into a minor second question.

All this changes helped make it work for me which allowed making it to level 70 quickly. I find that the game's progress really grew my musicality, I can now use my voice more accurately for recognition in other games. I hope you'll be able to make it work for you too!
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ToneGym Community
May 15, 2022
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