Alex Killian
The aim with Recorder Academy is to create a fun and engaging way for children and young adults to practice music outside of the traditional classroom setting.
Recorder Academy is a music education game created in the Unity game engine. Utilizing pitch estimation technology it listens to what the player plays on the recorder in real time and provides instant user feedback. Using Fast Fourier Transform and Summation of Residual Harmonies technology Recorder Academy takes the frequency picked up from the microphone and identifies the dominant frequencies to its associated note value.
This technology is then used in a Guitar Hero style game. When the note object falls to the bottom of the screen the player is prompted to play the correct note if this is done correctly they receive a point. These core gameplay mechanic increase engagement and motivation in practicing music.
The final product is a game that improves player motivation to practice music. During the process I learned about pitch analysis through Unity and expanded my game development knowledge greatly.
The accompanying thesis to my project discussed the creation of the application through an iterative design process and he accompanying research that went a long with it. The research involved the study of a case study that showed an increased success rate from students using a gamified tool to practice music. The creation process was broken down into 7 two week sprints and in this thesis is discussed what was done during each sprint and how the work done lead to the final product.
Hi! My name is Alex, I'm a recent creative computing graduate and for my final year project I have developed music education game in the Unity game engine. Game development and music have been great passions of mine from a very young and I wanted to create something that catered to both of these passions of mine. I also wanted to challenge myself by expanding my knowledge on real time pitch analysis through Unity.
