Am I doing it wrong? (pitch)

[Ciccarello]

I just started playing today and noticed some oddities with the pitch tracking I didn't understand. For reference the mic I use is my gaming headset which I use to speak to people daily so there is no chance the microphone is broken or faulty.

Now I know I am not the best singer out there, which is why I started playing this because I want to regain my old singing voice. However I noticed a lot of sporadicness with some my sung notes which appeared a little more off than just my poor singing. To test this I held a constant note throughout parts of some songs and here are 2 screenshots that represent what I am talking about.

http://puu.sh/a1UZS.png

If I am holding a constant note how can I possibly be too high for the high notes and too low for the low notes?
On the second one it is possibly my microphone was having trouble picking me up because I was holding a low note but I am in a completely silent house at 4 am. So if there is a silence threshold, I was definitely above it. Regardless however, the pitch in the middle is jumping around on a long held note.

Can anyone make sense of this please?

[Smilley]

The first shot can be explained by how the game's pitch detection works: there are 12 different pitches the game can detect, after which it loops; so a 12 will be rated same as a 0. This is the reason why you can sing the songs in a male voice without somebody manhandling your tender bits. Also, the game always shows your voice in relation to the closest correct pitch.
Let's say you sing at a constant "G#", that's rated as a 8 in the game.
The word "I" is an "F", meaning 5, and the syllable "without" is a "C#", meaning 1.
The closest your constant 8 comes to a 5 is being 3 above it, but because the 1 is also a 13, the closest your 8 comes to THAT is by being 5 below - as opposed to being 7 above.
As for the second pic, you might want to change the Threshold and Mic Boost settings in Tools->Options->Sound.

[Ciccarello]

So in this case I was holding a higher note than the shifted octaves equivalent and thus the scoring gave me a 'under pitch' score because it was so high it went into the next octave?

As for the second picture I'll look into poking around in those settings and seeing what it does. I thought about it before but wasn't sure if that was where I needed to be.

Thanks for the explanation, now I can get back to being a terrible singer and stop thinking something is wrong with my game. :)

[Smilley]

So in this case I was holding a higher note than the shifted octaves equivalent and thus the scoring gave me a 'under pitch' score because it was so high it went into the next octave?

Yes, that's pretty much it.

As for the second picture I'll look into poking around in those settings and seeing what it does. I thought about it before but wasn't sure if that was where I needed to be.

Those are the settings that affect uptake the most. The settings that work best for me are "Off" for Mic Boost and "10%" for threshold, though those settings might differ depending on hardware, driver software and personal preferences.

Thanks for the explanation, now I can get back to being a terrible singer and stop thinking something is wrong with my game. :)

Play the game for a month or two and you'll become much more competent, I guarantee.