Importing music into StepMania to use within a game.
Aim: to create a gaming level with your own music choices.
Example of game designed for Participant B - involving a finger press (MCP joint exercise)..
Example of game designed to just focus on the count of 4 beat and pressing on the first beat of the bar. Beat 1.
Example of game designed for an external shoulder rotation. A 4 beat melody guides the movement in abduction away from the body.
Put a music file (MP3) of your choice into an editing software such as Audacity, Logic or Cubase to trim the music to the very first beat of the bar. It is essential that the start of the song is on the first beat of the bar and exactly on time, so that the arrows in the song synchronise exactly to the beat of the music.
BPM
Arrow to music synchronisation can occur when the beat of the music, or whatever musical feature you want, is in time with the arrow. Therefore establishing the correct BPM of your track is important. So that the arrow divisions are accurate.
Import the completed trimmed track into an audio editor that can detect BPM such as DJ PRO or ableton software which enables the correct BPM to be recognised. (Sometimes a track may have varying BPM during the song, if so you will need to use Ableton, Logic, Cubase to adjust the song to ensure that the BPM is consistent). f the BPM is not consistent there is an option in StepMania for adaptation, by placing a BPM marker at the specific bar when creating a StepMania chart.
For dance music or generally any music which uses a click track or drum machines etc - will be on time and consistent.
Editing a Song in StepMania to Synchronise with Gaming Arrows
Once the music is in the StepMania platform. Then you can place arrows according to where the beat is. Arrows can be placed within the game according to different note values. Arrows do not have to be placed directly ‘on the beat’ but can be placed within several subdivisions of the beat. This is useful if you need arrows and thus movements to follow a rhythmic pattern or a melody.
This is a short video to demonstrate how a stroke survivor can alter the key press to serve as game controls to use their left paretic arm to control StepMania