Blogging to Paradise

Well, I’m still working on SonicMood next version, alpha 12. My computer died about a week ago and it took a few days just to track down the problem (bad video card). I took a shot at just buying something from Best Buy (bad idea) but of course that video card didn’t work (Mac Pros are pretty particular about which video card you can use…) plus it wasn’t even as described on the box (only one DVI connector, not two). So I bought one that I knew would work (a very nice ATI Radeon 3870 HD MAC/PC edition) from Amazon with next day shipping.

Anyway, long story short, I’m back up and working on SonicMood again. I doubt I’ll make the “early June” hoped-for release date since I haven’t even started beta testing of this version. I’m also still struggling with the audio recording. Parts are looking pretty good, but I’m stuck at needing to use something like “Soundflower” (www.cycling74.com/products/soundflower) to get the recording input to work right. I may have to go with that this go-round and get something that works better for the next release.

That’s it for now - back to work!

Cheers,
John

I’ve been working hard on the next SonicMood update. I have the undo/redo working and also “digital recording” is coming along well. With this version you should be able to record both the instrumental sounds and the nature sounds to an audio file that you can move to iTunes and then upload to an iPod, etc.

There’s still more work to be done as I’m not yet happy with everything on the recording side.

I’m shooting for an early June release, but that could change depending on how long testing takes (and how many bugs show up…)

Cheers,
John

Hi all,

I’ve been working on SonicMood v4.9.2 and making progress on adding a proper undo/redo capability so you can reverse editing changes. This is taking longer than I expected (as usual) since I have to be careful with the way I handle changes (since one control can affect others).

I also am making some cosmetic and functional changes to make the whole operation a little more intuitive (I hope!). And I’d like to improve the way timing is selected with a few more choices in the note and rest durations. Still thinking about how to handle that.

Finally, I am still planning on adding MP3, etc., recording capability. I’d like to do that soon, but don’t know if it will make it into this version or not… I’m afraid I’ve gotten a bit sidetracked with the undo/redo thing, so we’ll see…

On a side note, I just wanted to let you all know about what I consider a GREAT deal over at MacHeist. They have a “bundle” sale that just started today (March 25th) with what I consider mostly incredible apps for $39! I don’t know how they do it. 25% of their sales is supposed to go to charity, too.

I don’t know if you have to be a member or not (doesn’t cost anything) but if you’re interested, here’s the link to their web site:
http://www.macheist.com/

SonicMood isn’t part of the bundle and I don’t get anything out of this. But it just seems like such a good deal that I thought I should pass it along.

Cheers,
John

Not to be confused with the impending birth of our daughter’s baby!

SonicMood v4.9.1 has been posted on the web site. You can download it there or use SonicMood’s update feature to download it.

Most of the changes are cosmetic, intended to improve usability, especially with Mood editing. But there are some bug fixes, of course. A list of the changes are here.

Enjoy!

Version v.9.0 is out, and we’re having a sale!

To honor the inauguration of the 44th President of the United States, we’re taking 44% off the price of SonicMood!

For this week only (Sunday thru Saturday), SonicMood is only $7.25 (it’s usually $12.95)!

Help us celebrate this historic event by taking advantage of SonicMood at 44% off.

I just wanted to let everyone know; please help spread the word!

John

SonicMood v4.9.0 is now available on our web site, www.sonicmood.com

The improvements include a re-designed note selection engine, some nice “tweaks” to many of the included Moods, a few cosmetic enhancements, and the usual assortment of bug fixes.

It’s a free update to all registered users. If you were a “trial” user whose trial expired, this version will give you another 7 days to check it out.

Enjoy!

John

We’ve just released the newest version of SonicMood, 4.8.9! It’s HOT so get it now!

We’re in the middle of beta testing SonicMood v4.8.9.

Here’s a list of some of the new features and bug fixes for this version:

• Made the edit window more compact to save screen space. In addition, the edit window is now resizable with vertical and horizontal scrollbars so the controls can be scrolled. The width and height of the edit window, along with the position of the scrollbars, is saved.
• Changed default starting size and position of windows. Made changes to the default locations of windows so they open over the main window.
• Tweaked the look of the various lists.
• Changed some of the toolbar buttons on the main window.
• Made a small tweak to the “color scheme” selection area of the Preferences window and changed the default color scheme to “mellow yellow”. Also put a “spiral galaxy” graphic background on the Register window.
• Made a few improvements (I hope) to the “version update” function, including adding a check to see if the SonicMood folder is read-only. If it is, SonicMood will tell the user to fix it before an update can happen.
• Came up with a way to trap the user’s pressing of the oval button at the right of the titlebar to know when the toolbar is hidden or shown.
• Changed the URL for the “Bit of Paradise Products” link on the “About SonicMood” window from the BitOfParadise home page to the SonicMood home page. Also changed the URL for downloading updates.
• Added more error checking in the “version update” code.
• Got the “Cancel” button on the “version update” DownLoad window to work even if the connection is interrupted.
• Changed the behavior if a network connection isn’t available. Now no user message is given (it “fails silently”) if the check is not requested explicitly by the user (auto check).
• Replaced the HTMLViewer with an EditField in the “version update” window to hold the version notes. This avoids the crashing problem on PPC with Tiger (don’t know about Leopard with PPC…) when scrolling with the mouse scrollwheel.
• Removed some unused “Help” variables.
• Fixed an “out of bounds” error that happened if a Mood was moved to the last row, and it was playing, when it was deleted.
• Fixed a bug that caused the wrong Mood to be removed from the “play times” schedule list if a scheduled Mood was deleted.
• Fixed a problem with the way user names were saved if the name was in a multi-byte character set like Kanji, etc.
• Fixed a bug that erased a good registration if the user started to re-register and then pressed Cancel. Also fixed a bug that caused a good registration to be erased if the user entered an invalid re-registration code and then pressed Cancel.
• Fixed a bug that prevented the horizontal scrollbar from appearing when listbox column sizes were increased.

Like the title says, we’ve just released the latest update to SonicMood! While there are no huge changes, this version finally adds an “update” capability that will offer to download and install the latest version.

Another notable change is the use of “alphanumeric” registration codes starting with v4.8.8. This will give us more code possibilities and reduce the (extremely small) chance that two people wind up with the same code. We hope it will also reduce piracy…

But it’s important to note that this change (alphanumeric codes) will not work with earlier versions of SonicMood. If you want to run an earlier version for some reason (not recommended, by the way), then you can email us for another code.

We had some fun playing around with the color “schemes” that you can change from the Preferences window (“windows” page). Now the default scheme is “midnight” and there are some pretty bright schemes added Don’t forget you can always make your own if you don’t like ours
Be sure to check out the Mood “sharing” page on our web site. (http://www.sonicmood.com/MoodSharing.htm). We’ve added another set of Moods in a Mood file by Patrick EL MELIANI, our resident SonicMood genius! He’s a true musical artist and really knows his way around SonicMood. Thanks Patrick!

We’ve also added a file courtesy of another user, Jack Huntington. While in Maui recently, Jack recorded the “early birds” who make a racket at 6:25 in the AM! He’s kindly supplied us with a copy of said recording which we’ve posted in a zip file on the Mood “sharing” page (it’s “Maui Birds early am.zip”). Thank you Jack!

That’s about it. For a list of all changes for this version, go to the web site here:
http://www.sonicmood.com/SonicMoodHistory.htm

Take care all,
John

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