Blogging to Paradise

Well we’ve finally managed to push the latest version of SonicMood out the door!
I won’t bore you all with the list of improvements, just go here: http://www.sonicmood.com/SonicMoodHistory.htm for the list
I hope everyone likes the improved way of editing Moods. There’s more work to be done, but I think we’ve made it a bit easier to figure out some of the editing capabilities of SonicMood.

John

We’re making great progress on the next update to SonicMood! Most of the new features are in and debugged. There are still one or two new features we’re thinking of adding. After that it’ll be beta time, followed shortly by its release.:) Here’s a partial list of changes so far: 

1. Combined all the edit controls that worked on individual instruments into one page called “Individual Note Properties.” That and a few other changes in the “Mood Info/Edit” window should make editing Moods easier.
2. Changed the timing and volume variation controls to work on each instrument individually.
3. Each instrument can set its own # of notes now, although the maximum number of notes playing at any time is still 16.
4. Changed the method of setting pause and sustain times from directly specifying a time in seconds to setting a “tempo” (in Beats Per Minute) and a note value (quarter note, eighth note, etc.)
5. Changed the “Mood Tempo” slider into a “Relative Tempo (%)” slider on the SonicMood window to be compatible with the idea of “tempo” and note values (quarter note, etc.)
6. Enabled the use of the mousewheel to adjust all sliders (volume, pan, etc.) and the time/date digits in the sleep/wake/TimeOfDay windows.
7. Tweaked the MIDI note generation to work more reliably with new features like the ability to adjust the number of notes for each instrument individually.
8. The “Instrument Groups” (pianos, strings, etc.) are saved and restored now.
9. Updated some of the Mood instrumental settings to make them more pleasing.
10. Moved the synthisizer list to the preferences window.
11. Made cosmetic changes to the “default” color scheme to make it more “mainstream”.
12. Changed the slider knobs to round and tweaked the location of slider elements a little to give more space.
13. Added background color to the “Mood Info/Edit” window. Fixed the text so its color would contrast properly with the background color.
14. Saved a little space at the top of the SonicMood window and now the “zoomed” height is 60, not 65.
15. Fixed a bug with the “Clear All” and “Restore” buttons/functions on the Keyboard Window. They weren’t working.
16. Fixed a bug the was causing fast notes to sometimes not continue after a few seconds.
17. Fixed a bug that kept buttons from darkening when pressed.

We got back last Saturday and all was well. Well, there’s a LOT of ash on the ground, in the trees, etc. But other than cosmetic issues, nothing was harmed around here.

We’re back in business!

John

Hi all,

We live in Paradise, CA, and have been in the middle of a number of threatening fires collectively called “the Lightning Complex”.

Yesterday we were told to evacuate and are currently in a motel about 50 miles from our home.

I have the automatic registration software here so if you purchase SonicMood I will be able to register you from the motel There might be a slightly longer delay (usually you receive your registration within half an hour) if I’m out for a short time, but I’ll keep checking for sales, don’t worry

Thank you for your understanding!

Take care everybody,
John

With apologies to Abby Road

So here’s another update - another few bugs fixed and that’s about it. For the record they are:

• Added the number of checkmarked Moods or Scenes to each marquee’s timer progress bar when in that mode.
• Changed the label above the soundfiles list to include a color background for highlighting the text.
• Fixed an “out of bounds” error when changing Themes after updating from an old version (before v3) of SonicMood.
• Fixed a bug that caused fast Moods to stall when the Mood timer changed from a slow Mood to a fast Mood.
• Fixed a bug that caused the SonicMood window’s listboxes to not be sized right if SonicMood starts “zoomed” to a small size and is then “zoomed” to its normal size.
• Fixed a bug that caused the Progress Bar Mode display to overlap the elapsed and total time values in the marquee if the timer was on and the SonicMood window was “zoomed” to its small size.

So if you want it, here it is:
http://www.sonicmood.com/SonicMoodDownloads.htm

and enjoy!

John

Well, the fires around here are keeping us trapped. There’s so much smoke in the air that we are forced to stay inside just so we can breathe! Of course that means I’ve got lots of time to devote to “improving” SonicMood…

So I’ve fixed a few bugs that were pointed out to me, added a couple of handy features that were suggested, and changed a couple of things I found annoying…

We’re so trapped, tho, that I’m afraid I’m near to introducing another update. That’d be v4.8.6.2… Coming soon to a web site near you!

Keep the faith, baby!

John

We’ve just released the latest version of SonicMood, v4.8.6. While it doesn’t look or sound too different from the last version, there are plenty of changes “under the hood”.

The biggest change is an re-factoring of the sound generation components. There is a lot of timing going on to handle note generation and synchronization. The way the many timers were handled before was fairly cumbersome and would have been difficult to expand upon. The change makes expansion of the MIDI section of the software much easier. I’m thinking a future version of SonicMood will allow for multiple sets of three instruments so it will be possible to add an accompaniment to the main theme of the Mood.

Other changes involve the handling of the soundfiles and the scenes. They are now kept in a location apart from the preferences and default Mood file. Addition of soundfiles and general soundfile maintenance should be easier with this new arrangement.Finally, we made some improvements to the sleep, wake, and time of day timer controls and the way the scale and pattern lists are displayed. Along with lots of little “tweaks” to get the interface easier to use.

Hope you like it!

John

It shouldn’t be too long now. We’ve got v4.8.6 in beta and so far we’ve received no reports of bugs. If all goes well, this version will go “gold” in a week or less.Don’t forget, those of you who haven’t purchased SonicMood yet, if you buy before v4.8.6 comes out you’ll get “free updates forever”. If you wait until after v4.8.6 is out you’ll need to pay a small upgrade fee after every two major version releases.Lots of good stuff coming, so don’t wait!John

Well, we haven’t seen much in the way of bug reports (or bugs) in v4.8.5.3 so the next version will probably be v4.8.6. As you may know from the “IMPORTANT MESSAGES” notes on our web site, anyone registering after v4.8.6 comes out will no longer have “free upgrades for life”. Instead you will have to pay a reasonable “upgrade fee” after two major versions. So if you register with v4.8.6 you’ll need to pay the fee when v6.8.6 comes out, which probably wouldn’t be for a few years.So far I’ve managed to make two major improvements to v4.8.6. One is a re-factoring of the timers that drive the notes and many other time-dependent operations. This will make for a much cleaner and easier to maintain and extend set of routines. The other is the rethinking and rearranging of the way we handle Scene files and Soundfiles. Scene files and Soundfiles will now be kept in separate folders inside a folder labeled “SonicMood” inside the “Application Support” folder. This will make for a centralized repository for those files which will make it easier to keep track of them. It will no longer be necessary to specify a location for the Soundfiles folder, either.There are a few more improvements:

1. Holding the “shift” key down while sliding the instruments or soundfiles volume slider will set the volume of all the Moods, not just the one currently playing.
2. The “Scene list” is now on a sheet window attached to the “Scene” window.
3. Put the current elapsed timer mode in the “progress bar timer area” of the marquee.
4. Improved the behavior of the elapsed timer so it won’t start up if the current Theme contains no Moods.

More to follow!☺

OK, we’ve managed to squish a few more bugs and the result is v4.8.5.3. I hope we don’t find too many more before v4.8.6 cause I’ll run out of numbers! Check out the web site. We’ve added a few more Moods and another .mid file here:http://www.sonicmood.com/MoodSharing.htmAnd visit the forum here:http://sonicmood.com/forum/once in a while too, ok?☺Cheers,John