Frequently Asked Questions
SonicMood works on Macs only

System Requirements
Installation
Running SonicMood
Trial Period
Registering SonicMood

Recording SonicMood’s Sound
Playing SonicMood Through Rogue Amoeba's Airfoil
SonicMood Problems
Uninstalling SonicMood
Program Incompatibilities
What is SonicMood?
How Did SonicMood Begin?

System Requirements
SonicMood is available as a Universal Binary compatible with OS X versions 10.4.11 thru 10.9.x. There is also an Intel-only Cocoa version that works with OS X versions 10.6.8 thru 10.9.x. SonicMood will NOT run on ANY version of Microsoft Windows. On-line Help is available here for the latest version. Please try before you buy to be sure SonicMood’s performance on your computer is acceptable.

Installation
You need to mount the SonicMood.dmg file first. This is the file you downloaded; it's a compressed "disk image" file. Just double-click on the file icon and OS X will uncompress and mount it as a drive on your desktop. A window will open containing a "Read Me" file and a folder that contains the SonicMood program and the SonicMood Soundfiles folder. You can drag the SonicMood folder to your Applications folder (there’s a “shortcut” just to the right) or anywhere else you'd like it. When you're done, unmount the disk image on the desktop by right/control-clicking it and selecting "Eject SonicMood" from the contextual menu.

After you launch SonicMood, you can add soundfiles to SonicMood from any "Sound Files..." folders you may have also downloaded. First click the "Edit" button on the SonicMood toolbar, or select “Edit Mood” (⌘I) from the “Edit” menu. In the window that opens click the "Soundfiles" toolbar button. Here you can select from a list (check or just double-click) up to 32 soundfiles for each Mood. If you want all Moods to use these same soundfiles simply click the button that says "Use selected soundfiles with all Moods".

If the soundfile list is empty, you can just “drag & drop” soundfiles (MP3’s, etc.) or folders containing soundfiles onto the empty list. You can also use the “+” (for files) and “+Folder” buttons to add soundfiles. After you’re done, the list should contain the names of the soundfiles you’ve added. Then you can proceed to select them for Moods as mentioned in the previous paragraph.

That's it! Look at the topic "Soundfiles" (under “Mood Editing”) in the Help window for more information.

Running SonicMood
To run SonicMood, just double-click its icon. You'll see a "nag" screen first - it appears each time you start SonicMood until it's registered. You'll probably want to play with it for a while to be sure it's for you, so you can click on "Not Yet" to go on without registering.

The first time you run SonicMood ("SonicMood Carbon.app" or "SonicMood Cocoa.app") it renames its file to "SonicMood.app." However, the menu name will continue to be either "SonicMood Carbon" or "SonicMood Cocoa".

If you are new to SonicMood, you may want to select "SonicMood Help" from the "Help" menu. A Help window will open in your browser. Read the “Overview” to give yourself a basic idea of how SonicMood works. While you’re reading, SonicMood will begin playing. Simply close the browser window when you're through.

As the Mood plays you will hear instrumental and natural sounds together in relaxing, melodious harmony. The nature sounds may be quiet at first and gradually swell in volume. Adjust the loudness using the volume slider. Click the "Mixer" button on the toolbar for more control. You can pause SonicMood by pressing the space bar or clicking the pause button. Double-click on another Mood in the "Moods List" to select a different Mood. Click the "Edit" button (on the toolbar) to display the Mood editing controls ("Edit" window). The "Picture" window (click the "Pictures" button on the toolbar) will open a window you can use to display pictures. Add photos, etc., just by "dragging & dropping" onto the window.

Trial Period
Note that until you register, you'll get a window asking if you want to register each time you start SonicMood. Other than that SonicMood will operate without restriction for 14 "actual use" days. That should give you enough time to decide if you want to keep it. If you’ve tried an earlier version of SonicMood but didn’t register then, your trial period is reset to 7 additional days with each new version. So you can come back and try a newer version at any time.

Registering SonicMood
You will receive a "code" via email from us after visiting the Purchase page and buying SonicMood, your next step is to "register" it. First, make sure you have the latest version by downloading it from the Downloads page. Then "install" it (see Installation above for help). Finally, run SonicMood and click "Register" on the nag window that appears. In the appropriate spaces enter the name and code you received in the email (the name will be the name you used when buying SonicMood through PayPal - the code you enter should include the "hyphens") and click "Accept". A small window should appear thanking you for registering. Click "Ok" and the windows will disappear and you won’t be nagged again!

Users registering SonicMood v5 and later will receive a new kind of registration code. This code will NOT work with earlier versions of SonicMood, except for the latest versions (v4.9.9.4, v4.9.9.5, and v4.9.9.6) that were recently re-posted on our web site. If you need to run an earlier version, email us and we'll see what we can do.

Registration Policy
SonicMood is registered to the user, not to a particular computer. If you are the registered user, you can install SonicMood on more than one computer. As long as you’re the one using it, there’s no problem.

Upgrade Policy
A registration is good through two increments in the major version number, with a “round up” of the bug-fix version number (the third digit). After that, you will need to pay a reasonable upgrade fee. For example, if you purchase and register version 5.2.1 your registration code will work on all versions until version 7.3.0. But starting with version 7.3.0 you'll need to pay the upgrade fee which will provide you a code that'll work up until version 9.3.0. Note that this does not apply to anyone who registered before v4.8.6; they all got free upgrades for life.

You can see when you will need to upgrade by selecting the “About SonicMood” window from the “SonicMood” menu. This window will show you which version you registered with and when you need to upgrade. The “Newer Version is Available” window will also tell you if you’ll need to pay an upgrade fee when a newer version becomes available.

NOTE: If you try "updating" SonicMood using the built-in version update, and the "Software Update" window has a message saying "Warning! This is a PAID upgrade!", please ignore this. This message was caused by a bug in SonicMood that was fixed in version 4.9.8.4. No one will need to pay for an upgrade until version 6.9.0, which is a long way away. I apologize for this error and any concern it might cause.

Use Policy
Whatever you make using SonicMood is yours, there are no copyright issues. For example, if you are a musician who'd like to include some sounds you've recorded with SonicMood, to add to your own original work, you have our permission to do so and even copyright your resulting work.

Recording SonicMood’s Sound
You can record SonicMood's sound by selecting "Record Audio..." (⌘R) from the "Mood" menu, or clicking the "record" button if you've added it to SonicMood's toolbar. A "Audio Record" window will open. Click the "Record File" disk-icon button, type in a name for the file and select the folder you want it saved in. When done, the "Record" button will be active. Select the “Recording Method” next, either “MIDI” or “Digital Audio.” Select the desired settings if “Digital Audio.” You can set a length for the recording, too, under "Recording Length" (be sure to check the box). Click “Record” to start the recording, and click "Stop Recording" to stop the recording and save it. If you use the “MIDI” recording method, this records the instrumental but not the soundfile sounds.

In order to record SonicMood in Digital Audio mode, you’ll need to have downloaded and installed “Soundflower” from the “cycling ’74” web site’s download page here: http://code.google.com/p/soundflower/downloads/list. After Soundflower is installed, you should also run “Soundflowerbed.” You’ll find it in the “Soundflower” folder the installer added to your Applications folder. Just double-click to run it. Afterwards, you should see a “flower” icon on your menu bar. Click the “flower” and select your speakers from the items below “Soundflower (2ch).”

Note that as of October 8, 2025 the latest version of Soundflower is 1.5.1. You'll need this version if you are running 10.6, "Snow Leopard." Otherwise, you can use the previous version. If you're running 10.4.x, "Tiger," then you should use the earlier version of Soundflower, 1.4.3.

SonicMood will record ALL sounds coming out of your computer’s speakers while recording in Digital Audio mode. So be sure to mute any other audio sources your might have running, including Apple Mail (the "you've got mail" ping), etc. Or you can go to System Preferences, Sound and select the “Sound Effects” tab to modify the alert sound settings. Select different speakers or a lower alert volume as an alternative to muting Mail, etc.

You cannot play 8 bit soundfiles on an Intel-based Mac. SonicMood checks for 8 bit files if you're running on an Intel-based Mac and will not add them to the soundfiles list. 8 bit files work fine on PPC-based Macs so they will show up in the soundfiles list there. Playing an 8 bit soundfile with SonicMood on an Intel-based Mac will cause 16 bit soundfiles to sound "noisy". This can only be corrected by quitting and restarting SonicMood. All soundfiles provided with SonicMood and on the sonicmood.com website are 16 bit and pose no problem.

If you want to convert any MIDI file(s) you've recorded to MP3 format (to play on your iPod, for example), you can use iTunes (v7.0.2 or later). Just drop the MIDI file(s) onto the iTunes playlist and select the file(s) you wish to convert. Then select "Convert Selection to MP3" from iTune's "Advanced" menu. iTunes will convert your MIDI files to MP3, ready to load into your iPod.

Playing SonicMood Through Rogue Amoeba's Airfoil
In the main Airfoil window, be sure the device you're sending to is "deselected" as an active output (i.e., "available"). SonicMood must be selected as the Hijack application. Under the Edit menu in Airfoil, the 'Advanced source settings...' item then becomes available (otherwise it will be shaded out). When selected, a choice between Standard Mode (Hijack one audio stream) or MegaMix Mode (Hijack all audio streams) becomes available. When MegaMix Mode is selected both the MIDI and soundfile streams are sent by Airfoil to the selected output device.  Note that Airfoil may insist that SonicMood be restarted in order to be Hijacked.

SonicMood Problems
If SonicMood displays an error message window, heave a big SIGH and then please send us the Error Message. If you have any other clues such as what you were trying to do when the error happened, feel free to include them in the space provided. Thanks!

If SonicMood experiences a crash while using Rogue Amoeba's version 4.5.6 of Airfoil, and you are running Lion (10.7), you may have encountered the problem they describe here: http://rogueamoeba.com/utm/2011/08/20/well-shoot/

We have found, during testing here, that the computer "wake up" (a new feature with v4.9.9) doesn't work reliably on older Power Mac G4s and G5s. The issue appears related to an issue users have experienced with applications not resuming execution after waking from "forced" (as opposed to "idle") sleep. If you're unsure about your computer, please try using SonicMood's computer sleep/wake first before using it to wake you for that important meeting!

Registration Problems
If the "registration name" you receive is your email address, and you right-click on it and select "copy link," what you paste into the "name" field may include the extra words "mailto:" at the beginning of the name. In that case please delete "mailto:" so that only your email address remains. Otherwise SonicMood won't recognize your registration and will complain. Newer versions of SonicMood automatically check for "mailto:" and remove it if necessary.

If you try to register SonicMood and receive the error "Your User Code is not Valid..." be sure you are running the latest version of SonicMood, because the code you received will not work with versions of SonicMood prior to v4.8.8. If you want to use an earlier version, please contact us for a different registration code.

Also, we changed the way we use the registration "Name" to generate a "Code" starting with v4.8.6, to circumvent some piracy. It’s therefore possible that a very few registered users may need a new registration code. If you’ve registered an earlier version of SonicMood and update to v4.8.6 or later and it complains that you're not registered when you know you are, contact us for a new code. Thank you, and we're sorry for any inconvenience this might cause you.

No Sound
First check that both the "Instruments Enabled" and "Soundfiles Enabled" items are checked on the "Controls" menu, and that the volume sliders are not too low or muted (click the button just right of the marquee to show/hide the drawer window with "instruments" and "soundfiles" volume sliders).

No SoundFile Sound:
If you don't hear any "soundfiles" (nature sounds like crickets, etc.), it's possible the soundfiles never got installed when you moved the SonicMood folder into your applications folder. If that's the case, it's a simple fix.

To check whether the soundfiles got installed, click on the "Soundfiles" tab in the "Edit" panel (the area at the right of the main window that appears when the "Edit" button is pressed). There should be a list of soundfiles there; if not, that's the problem. If you see a list of soundfiles, but none of them are checked, then you'll just need to do a "Reset." I'll explain how to do that after I go over how to get the soundfiles, if you need them.

To get the soundfiles, you can go to our page here and download the "SonicMood_Soundfiles.zip" file (click the button). Then unzip the soundfiles folder.

Now launch SonicMood. After it's running, just drop the soundfiles folder onto the soundfiles list. You should see the list fill in at that point.

OK, now you just need to do a "Reset" to get each Mood associated with its soundfiles. With SonicMood running, select "Reset to Original Moods Only" from the "Moods" menu. That should get the cricket, etc., sounds working again!

No Sound At All:
If you're not hearing any sound at all, there are several possible explanations:

First, be sure you haven't accidentally paused SonicMood. Check that the "pause/play" button at the upper left is showing the two vertical "pause bars" and not the right-pointing "play arrow."

Then, being sure the "Edit" area of the main window is visible, click the left-most tab and insure that all three instruments have their "rel vol" knobs enabled. Then do the same for the "right-most tab" for the soundfiles.

SonicMood may (rarely) fall silent if you end another program which uses Quicktime.

Another audio application may have set the audio output sample rate too high. See this Apple article for information on how to reduce the sample rate: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=300832

If you are running SonicMood under "Tiger," OS X v10.4.11, or earlier, it will fall silent if it has been running continuously for over 24 hours (even if paused for some or all of that time), due to a bug in Quicktime. The only solution to this problem at present is to enable "Reset sound every 24 hours", a checkbox (not present on later versions of OS X) on the "General" page of the Preferences window. The setting is enabled by default. It will quickly perform a shutdown and restart of the "sound engine" (without stopping SonicMood's execution) every 24 hours, requiring no user intervention. You can also just quit and restart SonicMood and sound will resume. (The silence is NOT permanent)

Distorted Sound
We've received reports that a sound-enhancing program called "OSS 3D" may cause distorted sound with SonicMood under Leopard, although apparently it sounds fine with Snow Leopard. We also understand that the developer, "Subband Technologies, LLC," sold the program to "Joesoft" and it's now called "Hear." We have used "Hear" and the current version (v1.0.3) doesn't cause detectable distortion.

We do have firsthand knowledge of a problem between SonicMood and Hear that causes SonicMood to increase its memory usage every time a new Mood is selected. We have also shown that the problem is caused by Hear since the same memory increases happen when using QuickTime to play MIDI files, if Hear is running. UPDATE: The latest (as of June, 2012) version of Hear, version 1.1.3, doesn't seem to have the increasing memory usage problem.

Won't Accept a Soundfile
You cannot play 8 bit soundfiles on an Intel-based Mac. SonicMood checks for 8 bit files if you're running on an Intel-based Mac and will not add them to the soundfiles list. 8 bit files work fine on PPC-based Macs so they will show up in the soundfiles list there.

Note that all soundfiles provided with SonicMood and on our website are 16 bit and pose no problem.

QuickTime is too old or couldn't be found
If you see this message, you need a newer version of Quicktime. It is a free download from www.Apple.Com/Quicktime/download/mac.html so just download and install it and you'll be up and running.

Basic Troubleshooting Questions and Quick Fixes
If SonicMood crashes on you and you need help, here are some questions we'd like answered:
  1. What version of OS X are you running?
  2. Are you using an Intel Mac or a PPC Mac, and which one?
  3. If SonicMood crashed at launch, did you see any messages (the "please wait" window, for example) before you saw the crash window? Does the SonicMood window itself ever appear?
  4. If the crash occurred while you were using SonicMood, what were you doing just before the crash happened?
  5. Did you put SonicMood's folder into your Applications folder?
  6. Does the account you're logged into have "Admin" rights? To check (if you're not sure) open System Preferences and click the "Accounts" button under "System." On the left-hand side of the page that opens, you'll see "My Account." Under your user name it should say something like "Admin" or "Standard" or something else...
Also:
If SonicMood's "Crash Reporter" window never appeared, please look in the "~/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/" folder for a "SonicMood xxx.crash" file with the most recent date and time, and email it to us.

Quick Fixes:
You might just need to reset the prefs file. To do that hold (and keep holding) the "Command" key when you double-click SonicMood's icon to launch it. A window should open asking if you want to reset the preferences. Click "RESET" and see if SonicMood comes up successfully.

If that doesn't work, you could try deleting the default Moods and prefs files manually. Just delete the whole SonicMood folder (the default Moods and prefs files are inside the folder) here: "~/Library/Preferences/SonicMood/" .

Finally, it's possible you have a damaged copy of SonicMood. If all else fails, try re-downloading SonicMood from the download page

Uninstalling SonicMood
To uninstall SonicMood simply drag the "SonicMood.app" file to the trash. After that, go to the "~/Library/Preferences" folder and drag the “com.BitOfParadiseProducts.SonicMood.plist” file and the “SonicMood” folder to the trash. Finally, go to the “~/Library/Application Support” folder and drag the “SonicMood” and "BoPP314" folders to the trash.

SonicMood Program Incompatibilities
Trying SonicMood with your setup before buying it is always a good idea. If it works for you, great! If not, let us know and we'll try to figure out why.

We have seen a problem between SonicMood and an audio enhancing program called "Hear" that causes SonicMood to increase its memory usage every time a new Mood is selected. We have also shown that the problem is caused by Hear since the same memory increases happen when using QuickTime to play MIDI files, if Hear is running. UPDATE: The latest (as of June, 2012) version of Hear, version 1.1.3, doesn't seem to have the increasing memory usage problem. However, we have seen an increase in CPU usage of SonicMood when Hear v1.1.4 (late July 2012) is installed. Uninstalling Hear brings the CPU % back down to normal.

The "Picture Window" doesn't like some ".tif" files. "tiff" files are OK, though.

There is a bug in the PowerPC version of OS X v10.4.10 (fix = update to 10.4.11) that causes the initial copying of Picture files to the new location to fail.

Note that PPC-based Macs using the Apple "Mighty Mouse" need to scroll horizontally instead of vertically when using the shift-key with the mouse-wheel to change the volume of all the Moods for the Instruments and Soundfiles sliders on the SonicMood window.

If you use the System Preference application "Smart Scroll", when you scroll in a SonicMood window and then click the window's title bar, the window will "jump" down a little. You can prevent this by adding SonicMood to the list on Smart Scroll's "Misc." page and un-checking the "Wheel" checkbox. UPDATE: This seems to be fixed in later versions of "Smart Scroll."

Adding a Mood file created with a newer version of SonicMood (v4.8.5 or later) to v4.8.1 will cause that version to crash due to a bug in v4.8.1.

What is SonicMood?
It is "generative music," or "algorithmic music" I suppose. It attempts to be "ambient music" in the sense that it's designed to be either "actively listened to with attention or as easily ignored, depending on the choice of the listener" (Brian Eno - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambient_music).

There is a school of thought that talks about "emergent behavior," phenomena that happens when a number of simple and possibly random processes combine. Here's a couple of links that give some insight into the idea: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergence and http://scienceblogs.com/oscillator/2010/01/designing_emergent_behavior.php. I sometimes think that's part of what's going on with SonicMood. It's certainly something I was thinking about while I was developing SonicMood early on.

Also, I suspect I was influenced a little by John Cage and his "chance music" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Cage).

So SonicMood creates "generative music" by taking three MIDI instruments and playing them according to some programmed algorithms, the instruments and programming depending on the "Mood". It then optionally adds nature sounds from AIFF, MP3 and other "soundfiles" to each "Mood". These nature sounds are played in loops, but have a range of random start, pause, and fade times to minimize the perception of repetition. Twenty-one soundfiles are supplied with the "SonicMood Plus" download. Up to 32 can be played together with each Mood.

Out of the box SonicMood includes 40 pre-programmed "Moods," but you can modify them or make your own using SonicMood's built-in Mood editor.

SonicMood can also display beautiful pictures in its "picture window" to go with the sounds. You can create a timed "slide-show" using those saved images.

I should mention that I'm a fan of the radio show "Hearts of Space" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hearts_of_Space) which plays lots of "ambient," "electronic," and "experimental" music. They are on our local PBS station (KCHO) Sunday evenings, followed by "Lighthouse" (locally produced, not the "Christian Radio" station) which also features "ambient" music.

How Did SonicMood Begin?
I originally wrote SonicMood because I was looking for something to mimic the sounds wind chimes make; peaceful, soothing, relaxing natural sounds. Being stuck inside on the computer all day made me miss that ambiance. Using a Mac with it's built-in MIDI synth, I soon realized I could do a lot more than simple wind chimes. So I started playing with various sound-generation algorithms to get the effect I was looking for while keeping the load on the CPU as low as possible - after all, SonicMood is intended to run in the background while the user does "real work." Later I gave SonicMood the ability to play "soundfiles" - just digital recordings like MP3's and AIFFs that add to the overall effect. They can be any recorded sound but I include 21 nature sounds like birds, crickets, rain, thunder, etc. And there's more on our web site including foghorns, trains, and city sounds, too (maybe you'd want to wake up to those sounds - SonicMood has both a sleep and a wake timer).