History
SonicMood works on Macs only
v5.2.0 (Dec 31, 2024):
Compatible with Mavericks (OS 10.9).
Now using the Cocoa frameworks (Intel only) for one version of SonicMood. The "Universal" version using the Carbon frameworks is also available and supported.
Changed the version update code so SonicMood downloads the update that's the same "type" as the version that's running. So if the carbon version is running, it downloads "SonicMood Carbon.app", and if the cocoa version is running, it downloads "SonicMood Cocoa.app". Afterwards, it launches the new version which deletes the old version and then renames its file to "SonicMood.app" (although the UNIX executable retains the name of either "SonicMood Carbon" or "SonicMood Cocoa"). So the first time either version runs, it renames its file to "SonicMood.app", however the menu name will continue to be either "SonicMood Carbon" or "SonicMood Cocoa".
Instrument names are now extracted from ".sf2" (Soundfont) files and used to label the instrument selection controls on the Edit panel. Loading of Soundfonts should be more reliable (less chance of failure) now.
Made a change to the "Volume Settings" window so that it initially appears on top of the SonicMood window. It can be moved and will remember its position during a session, but if closed before SonicMood is quit then the next time SonicMood is launched and the "Volume Settings" window is opened it will again appear over the SonicMood window.
The Soundfiles page on the Edit Panel now displays which soundfiles are actually audible at any moment. There's also a limiter you can apply via a slider at the top of the page which limits the number of selected soundfiles that can be audible at any one time.
The min/max pause/play time sliders on the Soundfiles page are now logarithmic and the range is increased to 600 seconds (10 minutes). The fade time slider is now also logarithmic and the range has been doubled to 120 seconds (2 minutes).
The Soundfile volume now fades in a logarithmic fashion with more steps for a smoother sound.
Added a command ("remove missing soundfiles from selected moods"), available from the Moods menu or the Moods list contextual menu, that would removed any references to missing Soundfiles in the highlighted Moods.
Added ability to replace all soundfiles with the files dropped in a folder (hold the Command key to do a replace instead of an add).
Modified the way the master volume slider works so the soundfile volumes are immediately changed, rather than just changing the endpoint for the volume if a soundfile is fading up or down. This also affects the "sleep / wake" fade volume.
Made some cosmetic improvements to the Edit panel pages.
The name of the current synthesizer is now displayed in the SonicMood window's Title.
Made a few changes so the Dock icon's right-click list includes the "Main Window" now.
The "Live resize..." checkbox on the Preferences window, Windows tab, will only appear if the Carbon version of SonicMood is running. Also true for the SonicMood contextual menu and the "Window" menuitem. Live resize is always on for the Cocoa version.
Moved the menuitems "New Mood" and "New Theme" from the "File" menu to the "Moods" menu since they're really not related to creating, loading, or saving files.
Moved the MenuItem "Sleep/Wake Schedule..." from the Moods menu to the SonicMood menu.
Fixed a crash that could happen if a Moods file with fewer Moods replaced the current Moods file where the Mood being edited was a higher number than the number of Moods in the new Mood file.
Fixed a bug that could cause a crash when doing a "Reset to Original Moods Only" from the Moods menu, if a new Mood had been added and was currently playing...
Fixed a bug that could cause a crash during the check for a new version.
Fixed a major list sort bug that caused the sorted items to be in the wrong places after the sort (initiated by pressing on a listbox header).
Fixed a bug that prevented deleting ".sf2" files from the Synths list in Preferences.
Fixed a bug that caused numbers rather than the Musical Key to be shown in the slider on the Piano Keyboard window.
Fixed a cosmetic issue that confused the "Tempo Multiplier," "Time Sync," and "Time Mode" control's relationship with the Note Timing settings for the instruments (on the "Inst, Vol, Notes" tab).
Fixed a potential bug where long soundfiles are still loading while SonicMood indicates in the soundfile list that they're playing...
Fixed a small cosmetic bug in the labeling of the Mood Sweep Mode and Soundfile Sweep Mode sliders.
Fixed a font size bug.
Fixed a bug in the SuperSlider class control that was causing the values during a drag slide to not be registered properly.
Fixed a small bug that could cause some controls on the "Inst, Vol, Notes" tab of the Edit panel to get scrunched together if the window was resized horizontally so that the vertical and horizontal scrollbars were both visible.
Fixed a minor bug that caused a momentary soundfile volume transient if the fade time slider was set to 0.
Fixed a few contextual menu bugs in the Picture Window.
Fixed a bug that prevented the "Soundflower not found" error message from appearing in the "Record Window".
Fixed a cosmetic bug that caused the "Abort Conversion" button on the "Record Window" to be cut off at the bottom.
Fixed a bug that caused a spurious "Undo Hide Ext Button" undo item in the Edit menu after changing to the Soundfiles tab on the Edit panel after starting SonicMood.
v5.1.0 (May 5, 2025):
Added two more Moods, "New World" and "Jangoround."
Made the volume settings window a floating window instead of a DrawerWindow, and added checkboxes for "Instruments Enabled" and "Soundfiles Enabled." Removed those items from the "Controls" menu. The "Instruments Enabled" and "Soundfiles Enabled" settings can now be set for the currently playing Mood, a selection of Moods, or all Moods.
Made a change so pause and sustain times included in patterns would exhibit the same random behavior that the standard timing exhibits. Also changed the way those pause and sustains included in note patterns affected the timing. The multipliers now multiply the total note sustain or pause, not just the whole note sustain or pause.
Reworked the way patterns generate notes. This is an "under the hood" change and should be transparent to the user.
Fixed the way the "Tempo" control works so the result is more accurate. Also changed the labeling of the control so it was easier to understand.
Added a few more combinations of soundfiles and used them to modify the default Mood soundfile selections for some of the Moods.
Added two buttons above the Edit panel, just left and right of the name of the Mood being edited. Once button toggles the instruments on/off and the other toggles the soundfiles on/off. They work on the edited Mood only, unlike the volume settings window which has radio buttons for the playing Mood, the highlighted Mood(s), or all Moods.
Changed the behavior of the "-" button under the Mood list. If a Theme other than the "All Moods" Theme was selected then the button would only "cut" the Mood from that Theme, not delete it permanently.
Added a checkmark next to the "Zoom" text on the DockMenu when SonicMood is zoomed.
Changed the "New Mood File" keyboard shortcut from "⌘F" to "⌘N" and changed the "New Mood" keyboard shortcut from "⌘N" to "⌥⌘N".
The keyboard shortcut "⌘F" now does a "Find" by moving the focus to the search field, and the shortcut "⌘G" does a "Find Next" and can be invoked no matter which control has focus as long as the SonicMood main window has focus.
Improved the functionality and understandability of the Mood Schedule window. Also made major changes to the "under the hood" workings of the Mood scheduler.
Changed the way Mood schedule conflicts are calculated to include the interval for repeating scheduled Moods and made significant improvements in the way conflicts are handled.
Added a "Check for Schedule Conflicts" checkbox on the Mood Play Schedule window.
Made a change to un-pause SonicMood if a scheduled Mood event occurs and SonicMood was paused.
The helptag (tooltip) for the "+" button under the Mood List has been re-worded and now includes the name of the Mood to be duplicated as a starting point for the new Mood.
The helptag (tooltip) for the Mood List area has been re-worded to make it clearer. The list behavior has also been modified so double-clicking on a row will start playing that Mood even if SonicMood was paused.
The helptag (tooltip) for the "volume sliders" button (the square button just right of the marquee) has been re-worded to properly refer to the "Sound Settings" window.
Added listbox "helptags" for each column to assist with understanding the contents of the columns.
Updated and improved the wording of some "HelpTags" (aka "tooltips").
Improved the help tags for some of the sheet windows.
Added two new columns to the Mood List, "IE" and "SE" for "Instruments Enabled" and "Soundfiles Enabled." Checkmarks allow enabling or disabling the playing of a Mood's Instruments and Soundfiles.
Improved the look of the "drag image" when a listbox row is dragged.
Streamlined the code for tracking and sorting listbox rows.
Improved the way listbox column widths are adjusted when the font size is changed.
Made some changes to speed up resizing the main window when the edit controls are displayed on slow computers.
Changed the shading of the "tabs" that select the edit panel so that the selected panel's tab is shaded while the others aren't.
Removed the Mood file name info display along the bottom of the window and put it and the current Mood name in the SonicMood title bar.
Made a few other cosmetic improvements.
Made a change to try and recover if an invalid or bad .SF2 or .DLS file is attempted to be added to the list of synths.
Fixed a potential crash if the SonicMood Dock icon was accidentally double-clicked during launch.
Fixed a bug with the Pattern note selection method if the # octaves > 1 but the pattern is only one octave (1,2,3,4,5 for example).
Fixed a bug that caused the "clear button" in the search box to not respond to clicks if clicked on some areas of the button.
Fixed a bug that caused changes to Mood list column widths to not be remembered from launch to launch.
Fixed a bug that caused the volume settings window's location to be incorrect when opened.
Fixed some bugs in the volume support code.
Fixed a bug that caused the Mood Scheduler to not start the next Mood in the schedule list if a Mood schedule other than the first Mood in the list had been edited. In that case the Mood that had been edited had its schedule time entered as the next Mood scheduled instead of the Mood that was actually the one that should have been next chronologically.
Fixed a bug that caused the marquee to display a time for a Mood timer Mood when the Mood timer isn't running. Caused by having a scheduled Mood that ends before the next scheduled Mood when no Mood timer is running.
Fixed a bug that prevented selecting multiple schedule rows in the Scheduled Mood window.
Fixed a bug that caused a crash if SonicMood was launched after shutting down on a Theme that contained no Moods.
Fixed a number of other bugs and cleaned up code.
v5.0.3 (Oct 2, 2025):
Dropped the price for fall from $12.95 to $6.99!
Made several changes to improve the reliability of the version update process.
The round volume, pan, etc., adjustment "knobs" are no longer monochromatic, but will take on the same colors as the buttons. The mouse's scroll button works as before to rotate the knob, but holding the shift key down multiplies the effect by 10.
Added the ability to reset the Mood or Picture timer by double-clicking on the timer progress bar.
Fixed a bug that caused the Mood Timer time to get set to zero after the first launch and shut down.
Fixed an "Out of Bounds" error that could occur shortly after launch under certain conditions.
Fixed a bug that caused the Audio Record window's "Record" button to be enabled when the window was first opened, before a file was specified.
Fixed a problem with a temporary file not being deleted at the end of a digital recording under some circumstances.
Fixed a bug with undo/redo in the Piano Keyboard window.
Fixed a bug that caused the wrong instrument sound to be played through the Piano Keyboard window if the window opened right after SonicMood was launched.
Fixed a bug that was causing the old SonicMood application to not be deleted when SonicMood was updated using SonicMood's built-in updater.
v5.0.2 (August 10, 2025):
Codesigned and ready for Mountain Lion.
Added icons at 256x256 and 512x512 pixel resolution, to comply with new requirements for Mountain Lion.
Made an improvement to the way errors are trapped and handled.
Made a change to better determine the position of a control in a window - used by "List buttons" to insure that the list displayed when the button is clicked is positioned properly.
Changed a few things related to registration, to try and reduce the incidence of piracy.
Put the current Mood's name in the Titlebar area.
Made a change to avoid an error message and shutdown if the Prefs file isn't recognized. Now the response will be to create a new Prefs file.
Fixed a bug that caused SonicMood to not display the "Mood List" (column width was set to 0) if SonicMood v5.0.1 had been run previously. The quick fix (for those with this problem) is to select "Reset Mood List Column Widths," found at the bottom of the "Moods" menu.
Fixed a crash that could occur when checking for a new version at launch.
Fixed a bug that caused the "Text/Symbol" color selection in the Preferences to not operate correctly. The fix allows the "User" color to be used as the base for the "Auto" color select. Also, the "User" selection is no longer over-ridden by an automatic text-to-background color contrast check.
Modified (to correct a bug) the check (added in v5.0.0) to be sure the timers were running. It was causing the instrumental (MIDI) sound to restart periodically under Mountain Lion.
Fixed a small bug that was causing the "please wait..." launch window to be displayed twice.
Fixed a bug that could cause a "Nil Object Exception" when Soundfiles are selected in the list.
Fixed a potential "Out of Bounds" crash at launch due to a bug in the way "List buttons" are labeled.
v5.0.1 (June 9, 2025):
Fixed a bug that reliably caused a crash by opening Preferences and clicking the Marquee color box in the "Window Color Schemes" area.
v5.0.0 (June 7, 2025):
SonicMood v5 is compatible with Mountain Lion (10.8), and is "Code Signed" to comply with the upcoming "Gatekeeper" security requirements. This is a free upgrade for all registered users.
The Mood editing controls are now part of the main window, giving easier access and control of Mood settings. The layout of controls has been changed and, along with changes to labeling, should be easier to understand. The editing controls can be hidden, if desired.
Added three new Moods, "Night Skies," "Workout," and "Blue Rose," and two new Note Patterns, "Close Encounters" and "pi."
Added the ability to "sync" the "Time Base" sliders when editing a Mood's note timing. This allows for a common time base between instruments while still providing for different notes (whole, half, quarter, etc.) for each instrument.
New note patterns are now automatically added to existing ones when new Mood files are added.
Moved the display of the current musical key from the marquee to the label on the "Musical Key" slider on the Edit panel.
Improved the layout of menu items and relocated the items in the "Timing" menu to other menus, eliminating the need for that menu.
Added "Save, Cancel, Don't Save" prompting on "document" windows that have changes, when "Auto Save" is off and SonicMood is quitting. To enable this, some major changes were made to window monitoring and shutdown handling. The shutdown order is now set to insure that the main window closes last.
Moved the "Instruments" and "Soundfiles" volume controls into a drawer window.
Eliminated the need for the "Remove File Refs" button below the Soundfile list on the "Soundfiles" page of the "Edit" panel. Now, whenever a soundfile or files is deleted, any Moods which used those files will be automatically updated.
Moved the "Hide each Soundfile's extension (.MP3, etc)" selection from the Preferences window to the "Soundfiles" page of the "Edit" panel. It's just below the list, where the "Remove File Refs" button used to be.
Combined the Picture list with the Picture window to make it easier to change.
Improved the way "scheme" colors are handled so the contrasts are better and the colors more pleasing.
The list and marquee text size can now be changed using ⌘+ and ⌘- as well as from the Preferences.
Mood and Picture timers can now run up to 4 hours.
Timer values no longer have to be multiples of 10 seconds.
Timer and Schedule values can now be directly edited.
Updated and improved the way the Mood Timer's progress bar works, plus fixed a few inconsistencies with the information that's displayed on the marquee when different Themes are selected. Updated the Picture Timer's progress bar mechanics, too.
Tweaked the display of the event times for Moods that are changed based on Timer or TimeOfDay (Schedule) values.
Multiple items can now be selected for changing timer values (Mood and Picture), and Instrument (MIDI) and Soundfile volumes.
Made a few changes to timer displays and the way the time field's data is handled.
Added the ability to do a ⌘A to "select all" in relevant lists. You can now "select all" and delete all the "Patterns," "Scales," "Soundfiles," "Pictures," etc. However, you can't delete ALL Moods, and deleting ALL Scales will cause a default Scale to be created since SonicMood must always have a Mood to play and a Scale to play it with.
Added "Edit Timer," "Edit Mood Name," and "Edit Schedule" to the Mood list's contextual menu.
Added the "Mini Control Window" to the list of windows that can be opened/closed from the SonicMood dock icon by right/control-clicking and selecting it from the list.
Added the Keyboard window to the set of windows whose minimized state is recalled from launch to launch.
Changed the Theme name highlight, when the Mood that's playing is in that Theme, from bold to italic.
The currently playing Mood is now listed in italics in the Mood List.
Removed the little "value" floater that appeared next to the slider "thumb" on some sliders since it could cover the tick-marks. It was generally unneeded since the value is included in the slider labels when there's a possibility of ambiguity.
Added a red "alert" color to the Edit window's # of notes sliders. It appears if a user tries to set one of the sliders so that the total # of notes is greater than 16.
Made some changes to the way SonicMood handles updates, to make the process more reliable.
Made some changes to the code that's executed when SonicMood starts up.
Updated and improved the "Help Tag" help for many of the controls.
SonicMood has a new registration scheme which includes the date and time the registration code was generated. This will insure that unique codes are created for each user and each registration. SonicMood version 5 will still work with the registration codes used in earlier versions. A few of the most recent earlier versions of SonicMood, v4.9.9.4, v4.9.9.5, and v4.9.9.6, have been updated to recognize this new registration scheme. They are posted on our web site under the "Downloads, Older" tab.
Added a check to be sure the "Event Loop" timers (these control things like the marquee's scrolling, etc.) were running, and get them going again if they stall.
Crash reports are now also added to the System Log as a Log Level Error.
A newly created Theme will be named "New Theme" followed by the number of Themes (including the new one).
The "+" under the Mood list now calls the same routine as the ⌘N under Edit (New Mood), instead of the "Create Custom Mood" routine. This is to have symmetry with what the "+" under the Theme list does. "Create Custom Mood..." is still available under the "Moods" menu.
Fixed the way the Mood list contextual menu's "Reset Column Widths" works.
Fixed a bug that caused the "copy" cursor to be used when just rearranging rows in the Picture window's listbox.
Fixed a "halo" that was appearing sometimes around a newly dropped picture on the picture window's canvas.
Fixed a bug that resulted in the Record window not opening at launch although it was open when SonicMood was quit.
Fixed a bug that would cause a crash if the Record window was open and recording when SonicMood was quit.
Fixed a bug that prevented the selection of multiple rows in the MoodsListbox if the mouse clicked on the "Timer" column when selecting with command-click.
Fixed a bug that was causing the time field's digits to not always be highlighted properly.
Fixed a bug that prevented entering a "1" in the 10s digit of the time of day control's hour if a digit greater than "2" was in the 1s digit. The value would be immediately interpreted as > 12 hours and the display would be "corrected."
Fixed a bug where the "mute" button sometimes didn't work for the relative volume settings on the "Inst, Vol, Notes" page of the Edit panel.
Fixed a small bug that could result in the Sleep/Wake fade time slider in the Preferences and the Sleep/Wake Timer setting window from agreeing.
Fixed a bug that prevented the Mood and Picture timer "set" window from displaying more than 2 hours on the controls.
Fixed a bug that failed to stop a soundfile from playing when unchecked if it was checked while editing a Mood that wasn't playing. It would cause a crash if no other soundfiles were checked.
Fixed a minor problem with the search field that caused a loss of focus when shift-tabbing between controls.
Fixed a crash related to restarting the MIDI instruments every 24 hours. During the investigation it was found that the restart is no longer needed unless the user is running Tiger (OS X v10.4.x).
Fixed a bug that could cause a crash when checking the username and password for the Sleep/Wake timer.
Fixed a bug that would sometimes cause the Mood play start times to not be sorted correctly.
Fixed a bug that made some note selection methods impossible to select.
Fixed a bug that was failing to save changes to the width of the "Mood List" column.
Also fixed a related bug that was incorrectly sizing the width of the "Schedule" column. Its width, as well as the widths of columns 0 and 1, is set based on the current font size (and therefore the row height).
Fixed a bug that could cause a crash if the "schedule" column's header was clicked to sort by that column right after the Moods Menu's "Reset to Original Moods Only" item was selected.
Fixed some bugs related to opening a different Moods file or setting to the default Moods file.
Fixed a bug that was allowing Mood deletion when the Main window was zoomed small.
Fixed a few bugs related to adding a Mood file to an existing file. The bugs were related to updating/adding note patterns.
v4.9.9.6 (October 26, 2025):
Fixed a bug that reliably caused a crash when dropping a Mood file onto the Mood List.
Changed all "PICT" graphics files to "PNG" files since PICT files are being depreciated by Apple.
Improved the way instrument (MIDI) sounds are faded in volume (diminuendo), the way panning works for both instrument and soundfile sounds, and the way soundfile play/fade/pause is handled.
Added an "alert" red color to the "value" text of the Edit window's soundfile min/max play and min/max pause time sliders. The alert appears if the user tries to drag a slider past its allowed value. For example, attempting to drag the min play time slider to a value higher than the max play time slider will highlight the slider value in red and the slider will stop. In other words, the min play or pause time must always be less than or equal to the max play or pause time.
v4.9.9.5 (October 17, 2025):
If the version check is automatic, the "Checking..." message now appears at the bottom of the SonicMood window (instead of in a separate window) when SonicMood starts.
Changed the "Check for Updates" window so the user can press a "Cancel" button if a manual check for updates to SonicMood is taking too long.
SonicMood now indicates which Themes contain the currently playing Mood by highlighting the Theme names in boldface (can be more than one).
The state (in/on or out/off) of the "Change All Moods" button on the "Volumes and Tempo" window is now remembered across launches of SonicMood.
Tweaked the location of the red circle containing the # of Moods being copied/moved between Themes during a drag. It's now just right of the cursor arrow and doesn't overlap the "+" if a copy is going to happen.
Added a "Show Toolbar" and "Hide Toolbar" to the SonicMood window's contextual (right-click) menu.
When modifying schedule times for sleep/wake and Mood play, the user can now type "R" in the "In" field to reset the time before the next scheduled event to zero. Also fixed a bug that was preventing the "A" and "P" keys from being recognized as shortcuts to set AM and PM, respectively, in the "At" field for time of day when the next event will occur.
Changed the way the sleep/wake and Mood play times are displayed so that whether the event is "On" or not, the time entry field that's NOT selected ("At" or "In") will be updated once per second.
Widened the "Volumes & Tempo" window slightly and changed it from a Floating window back to a Document window so undo/redo would function properly.
Fixed a minor problem that caused the current row in a listbox to not be centered vertically when the listbox was first displayed.
Fixed a crash caused by adding a folder containing some non-audio or defective audio files to the soundfiles list.
Fixed a rare hang that could have occurred when SonicMood was checking for newer versions if the connection to the remote web site couldn't be completed.
Fixed a bug that caused an "out-of-bounds" crash if the last Theme in the list was deleted, if it was highlighted in boldface.
Fixed a hard crash that occurred when dragging a Mood from one Theme to another.
Fixed a bug that prevented a Theme from highlighting with boldface when the current Mood is dragged to it from another Theme.
Fixed a bug that caused the prompt for deleting a Mood to always ask if the user wanted to delete "Bells At Evening" even when another Mood was selected.
Fixed a bug that could cause SonicMood to not finish launching if it was launched in a folder that contained many other, similar files (instead of its own folder).
Fixed a small bug that caused the Toolbar state (visible or not) to not be saved if it was hidden by right-clicking the Toolbar and selecting "Hide Toolbar."
Fixed a bug that caused the wrong Theme to be highlighted after a Mood was drag-copied from another Theme. After the drag-copy the destination Theme was highlighted instead of the source Theme, even though the list of Moods didn't change.
Fixed a bug: After a Mood was "cut" in one of the Themes, the top (row 0) Mood was highlighted instead of the Mood that was below the cut Mood.
Fixed a bug that caused the SonicMood window to lose focus after double-clicking on a Mood, if the Edit window was open.
Fixed a potential bug that sometimes caused an extraneous "bar" to appear at the bottom of the list of Note Selection Patterns on the "Shared Instrument Settings" page of the Edit window.
Fixed a bug that was preventing schedule times for sleep/wake and Mood play from being set properly under certain conditions.
Fixed a bug that causes an "Out-of-Bounds" error when quitting, under certain conditions.
Fixed a small bug that names a specific Mood in the Marquee when the Mood play timer is set to "Shuffled" and the next Mood is selected randomly. Now it just says "a Shuffled Mood..."
Fixed a small bug that resulted in the Marquee display of the "next Mood" not being updated if Moods in the list were checked or unchecked while Moods were being played in check-marked order.
Fixed a bug that says "Edit/Play: ..." the same Mood on the Edit window's titlebar, when a timer changes the Mood playing but not the Mood highlighted. Should update to reflect that the Edit Mood is no longer the same as the Mood playing!
Fixed a bug that was causing the Mood being edited in the Edit window to change when a timer action changed the Mood playing, even though the highlighted Mood wasn't changing.
Fixed a small bug that caused a row, below a Mood that was just deleted, to not be highlighted.
Fixed a bug that scrambled the Mood schedule time display in the Mood list if a Mood with a schedule time was deleted from the list.
Made a change to SonicMood that should make it slightly more efficient.
v4.9.9.4 (August 4, 2025):
Made a change to address a rare crash when opening the "Picture window."
Fixed a bug that happened if SonicMood was quit with "auto save" off. If the "Cancel" button was pressed in the "Save?" dialog, SonicMood would stop playing.
Fixed a bug that caused an undo to be set for all three instruments when the Edit window was opened.
Changed the name of the "Mixer" window to "Volumes & Tempo" to avoid confusion since the window doesn't contain controls to mix in sounds from other apps. Also changed the window to be a "floating" (is visible when SonicMood has the focus) instead of a "document" window.
Fixed a rare bug related to the search field that might have caused a crash on startup.
Removed the Search field and the buttons from the top right side of the SonicMood window when SonicMood is zoomed small, and moved the volume slider over in their place. The "zoomed" window width is now much smaller.
v4.9.9.3 (July 14, 2025):
Lion (OS 10.7) compatible.
Changed the labels over the three columns of instrument settings on the Edit window from "Instrument #1" etc., to the names of the instruments. Added button/labels below the "Pattern List" to indicate which instrument was #1, etc., to match the Pattern List headings.
In the Edit window, removed the "Favorites" and made the Instrument "Group" dependent on which instrument is selected. Changing a Group now causes the first instrument in that Group to be selected. The Group selection is no longer "undoable" since the instrument will change and it's undoable. The same goes for the next/previous Group and instrument buttons. There is no longer an "All Instruments" group since no matter which Group is selected all the instruments are displayed - only which instrument is selected changes when the Group changes.
Added a feature to the control knobs on the Edit window so that clicking on a knob position moves the knob pointer to that position. Of course dragging the knob still works too.
Improved the appearance of a row that's being dragged. Removed the lines separating columns in a list.
Widened the button on the "Mood Play Schedule" timer window and changed the text to "Update Highlighted Mood".
Moved the mute buttons to the right of the "speaker" on both the Mixer window and SonicMood window.
Changed the Picture Timer slider scale to match the Mood Timer slider scale.
Removed any manipulation of user interface elements from threads.
Fixed a bug that caused a black line to scroll across the marquee if the list of soundfiles was very long (long names or many or both).
Fixed a bug that caused the "progress bar" text to be cut off if the time was greater than 99 minutes (i.e., 3 digits).
Fixed a bug that was causing the "Mood Timer" and "Picture Timer" sliders to be limited to 60 minutes.
Fixed a bug that was cropping the right edge of the Total Time display on the ProgressBar if the value was equal to or greater than 100 minutes.
Fixed a bug that kept the green "+" visible with the cursor if the user dragged a Mood onto a Theme and then decided to drag the Mood back over the Mood List.
Fixed the Mood List drag so if multiple Moods are being dragged the number dragged is inside a circle.
Fixed a bug that kept the "Hide Keyboard" text on the show/hide keyboard button in the Edit window from changing to "Show Keyboard" after the Keyboard window was closed by clicking the window's red "close button."
Fixed a bug that caused the wrong edit/play Moods to be displayed in the Edit window's title under certain conditions.
Fixed a bug where the Mood created using "Create a Mood" had 6 x 3 notes (max), where 16 is supposed to be the max!
Fixed a bug that could cause a crash while setting up soundfiles.
Fixed disabled text on a few sliders so they match.
Fixed a bug that caused the green "+" (copy) cursor to appear when dragging rows on the Picture List window.
Fixed a bug that caused a Theme row that's dragged to lose its "Bold" setting...
Fixed a problem where two black keys were not visible on the piano keyboard.
Fixed wake volume fade up starting late.
Made changes to the way some threads are implemented to improve their reliability.
Fixed soundfile volume high relative to MIDI sound on Lion Preview 4 using a "workaround." However, overall SonicMood volume is lower now. Issue has been "bugged" to Apple.
Fixed resize tab color issue with Lion.
v4.9.9.2 (May 6, 2025):
Improved the look of the main window.
Updated to the latest compiler by replacing obsolete or deprecated code.
Extended the max timer value for Moods and Pictures to 2 hours.
Added a set of previous/next buttons and a drop-down list of Moods to the "Pause Button Window". Also changed the name of the window to "Mini Control Window" (in the "Controls" and "Window" menus).
SonicMood's colors now lighten (instead of darken) when SonicMood loses focus.
Added a new scheme, "default," which is a more standard-looking color scheme.
Dropped "Now Playing:" from the SonicMood's Marquee display. Fixed the extra double-quote bug resulting from the change.
Changed the "whistle" note selection in the LightHouse Mood to be a pattern based on "1/5".
Fixed a huge bug in the Edit Moods window that caused the sound to remain unchanged when a new instrument was selected from the menu on the "Individual Instrument Settings" page.
Fixed a bug that causes problems on Tiger (10.4.11) if "auto save" is off and the user makes a change to the sleep/wake timer sheet window then clicks "Done." Can't have a sheet window descend over another sheet window on Tiger.
Fixed a bug that caused the Mood edit window's text to be too dark with some color schemes.
Fixed a bug that caused a crash in the Color window.
Fixed a bug that caused the floating "Pause Button Window" to not receive color scheme updates.
Fixed a bug that prevented the default color scheme from being used after the Preferences "Restore Schemes" button was pressed and accepted.
Fixed a bug that caused delete undo to fail in the Mood search field. Fixed another bug that was preventing the Tab key from working properly.
Removed redundant code to handle tabbing between various controls.
Fixed an old bug that had re-surfaced and was causing the top of the SonicMood window to not be in the same place when SonicMood was quit and then re-launched, if the toolbar was not visible.
Fixed a bug associated with using command-g to search again. Using command-g after using the left/right arrow keys to move the cursor in the text field would not continue the search, but rather add blanks to the end of the search.
Fixed a bug that caused the "Mood Search" label in the SearchFieldCanvas to appear and go full black if the field had focus and the window was resized.
v4.9.9.1 (April 18, 2025):
Fixed a bug where the name of the current Mood file in SonicMood's title bar wasn't changed when the file was saved using the "Save Mood File As..." item under the "File" menu.
Fixed a bug that caused an "out of bounds" crash if the Mood change timer was running (any Mode), and an empty Theme was selected.
Tried again to fix a bug that happens infrequently. The symptom is an error while SonicMood is "auto" saving a change to the Moods file and/or Prefs file.
v4.9.9 (April 8, 2025):
Added two new Moods (numbers 36 and 37), "Forest of Solitude" and "Bamboo Forest."
Added the ability for SonicMood to sleep and wake the computer when SonicMood sleeps and wakes.
Combined the sleep and wake windows into one window and added a checkbox for "Sleep/Wake computer." Also added a slider to allow changing the "Sound Fade Time" for sleep and wake.
The sleep and wake times (if any) are now displayed in the "Marquee" of the SonicMood window.
The Marquee now also displays the next Mood to be played and the time at which it will be played. The current Mood file's name is now displayed in the SonicMood titlebar.
Added the ability to type "A", "a", "P", or "p" to select "AM" or "PM" for the time of day control.
Added a highlight for the time controls to indicate which one has focus.
Modified the sleep/wake window so the scheduled sleep/wake times appear at the top of the window immediately when times are changed or the on/off buttons are clicked.
Re-arranged some of the controls on the Mood Play Schedule window to try and make the operation more obvious.
Changed the Preferences window pages a bit.
Modified the Registration Window's "Code" entry field so it's multiline in preparation for the new, longer code that's coming (existing registration codes will still work).
Added a new color Scheme, "true black," and improved the look of "business gray."
Made changes to the way colors in a Scheme are managed to insure the text colors match on sliders and other controls.
Improved the automatic text/symbol color selection.
The marquees are now dimmed like other items in a window when SonicMood loses focus.
Added a new Color Scheme, "gold cadillac."
Changed the background color on the Color and Scene windows so they're always black.
The picture timer now continues on even if the Mood timer is paused.
The Theme the current Mood was selected from is now highlighted using boldface type. This is a change from previous behavior where the currently selected Theme was highlighted both by the usual row highlight and boldface type.
Added undo/redo to the "Clear All" and "backspace delete" buttons on the "Piano Keyboard" window. Also, the Scale being edited is now displayed in the window's titlebar.
Changed the "# of Undo Levels" button on the "General" page of Preferences so it doesn't show the selected button color, but just shows the "silver" (white) color of the other buttons on the Preferences window.
Made a few "under the hood" changes to the event timers that control sleep/wake and Mood play scheduling.
Improved the way the user's name and code are handled during registration in case there's a mistake in entry.
Improved the error reporter output.
Made a number of other small cosmetic changes.
Fixed a bug that caused SonicMood's controls to not regain focus when some windows were closed
Fixed a bug that caused console messages containing: "NSAutoreleaseNoPool()" to appear when the Preferences window was opened for the first time using the menu item with the mouse.
Fixed a bug where the sleep/wake elapsed time was off by one second.
Fixed a bug that caused the sleep or wake time to switch from "AM" to "PM" or vice-versa if the current time was between 12 and 1.
Fixed a bug that caused the countdown to wake or sleep (in the sleep/wake timer window) to stop at 1 second left and the "On/Off" radio button to not go off. The sleep or wake occurred properly, though.
Fixed a bug in the display of the sleep and wake times where midnight would appear as 0:xx AM instead of 12:xx AM.
Fixed a bug that caused the sleep/wake times to not be updated properly when "repeat" wasn't zero, if SonicMood was Quit and then restarted later.
Fixed a bug that prevented typing an hour's digit greater than "9" into the "time field" if the current time was before 10 (AM or PM) without manually changing the AM/PM button first. Fixed some other minor time field-related bugs, too.
Fixed "seconds creep" when the sleep/wake timer was off and the user tabs between time entry fields on the sleep/wake window.
Fixed a longstanding bug that caused the listbox select-pause-click technique to not work properly. Even after a listbox row was selected, and after editing the cell, a second click was required to re-open the cell for editing.
Fixed a small bug that kept the Picture List window's "Timer" column too narrow so when clicked to edit the time digits didn't fit the width.
Fixed a bug that prevented the delete/backspace keys from working on the lists in the Moods TimeOfDay Schedule and the list of synths in the Preferences window.
v4.9.8.4 (Nov 5, 2025):
Added a new Mood, "High Plains Asia."
Improved picture file handling when adding files. Adding a folder of pictures should be faster and more responsive now.
The Diminuendo, Modulation, and Pitch Bend effects all now vary linearly up and down (triangle wave), instead of sinusoidally. Future versions of SonicMood will let the user choose between sinusoid, triangle, sawtooth, and square wave variation of these effects.
The main SonicMood window will now always open, even if other SonicMood windows are open, when the dock icon is clicked, unless the "Don't open SonicMood window if dock icon clicked" item in Preferences is checked. The old behavior was to open the main SonicMood window only if no other SonicMood windows were open.
The Edit window no longer has the previous/next, play/pause, and Mood name information at the top of the window. An incompatibility with undo/redo between the Edit and SonicMood windows necessitated this change.
The Preferences option "Quit when SonicMood's main window is closed" is no longer available because it was causing problems during the Quit process if there were unsaved changes. SonicMood can be quit in the usual way using Command-Q or selecting "Quit" from the "SonicMood" menu.
Added "Pause Button Window" to the "Window" menu. It can be opened/closed using command-9. It's also still available under the "Controls" menu.
Modified the ErrorReporter window to show what page is open if the Edit window is open if SonicMood crashed. Used to just show the titlebar of each open window, but the Edit window's titlebar no longer contains the page name info...
Fixed bugs in the "Save, Cancel, Don't Save" prompting when closing the Edit, Mixer, and SonicMood windows. If undoable changes were made and "Auto Save Changes" was off (set in Preferences), then the prompt should appear. Also insured changes were saved for those items that can't be undone anyway.
Fixed a bug that prevented sorting of the Themes List.
Fixed a bug that kept undo/redo from working when selecting synths in the Preferences window.
Fixing a bug that caused a crash when a damaged or mislabeled soundfile was added to the soundfile list. Also fixed a bug that caused a "Nil Object" when selecting a file in the soundfile list after changing the "Maximum Soundfile Size" slider (and clicking "Update") in the Preferences.
Fixed a bug in the version Update window about "Warning! This is a PAID upgrade!" when no paid upgrade was needed. The problem arose because the determination of the paid upgrade version used a method that could put commas instead of periods in the version string, depending on the decimal separator used by the OS.
Fixed the Registration window so undo and redo can be used when entering the registration information.
Fixed a small bug that allowed the "User Text/Symbol Color" to be enabled when "Allow Editing" was unchecked the first time the Preferences window was opened after SonicMood was launched.
Fixed a crash that happened when the red "close" button on the SonicMood window was clicked with "Auto Save Changes" unchecked and "Quit when SonicMood's main window is closed" checked. Unfortunately the fix required removing the "Quit when SonicMood's main window is closed" option from the Preferences.
Fixed a bug that prevented the SonicMood window from re-opening after it had been closed by the Pause Button Window's green "-" button.
Fixed a few more issues with closed or "hidden" windows, the SonicMood Dock icon, and the floating "Pause Button Window."
Fixed a bug that allowed invalid characters to be inserted in the "Note Pattern" for note selection. Now invalid characters are rejected from an edited pattern. Also made some changes to the way the Note Patterns are updated when edited or selected via the checkboxes. The changes should make the process more reliable.
Fixed a crash that could happen (rarely) at launch on certain Moods that have relatively short sustain and pause times.
Fixed a bug in the display of colors in the "Mood Colors" window due to note sustains being computed after the notes themselves were selected. This also had a minor effect on the way notes were played.
Fixed a bug that could cause a short burst of soundfile sounds while SonicMood was launching.
v4.9.8.3 (Oct 4, 2025):
Made some general improvements to the version update code to address several bugs that had surfaced.
Fixed a bug that caused an "out-of-bounds" error when changing the "max notes" edit value if SonicMood has been paused since the last time it was launched.
Fixed a bug that allowed a user to try and save a color scheme file to a write-protected folder, resulting in a crash.
Added a test for folder writability to all file save actions.
Fixed a bug that caused a crash when soundfiles were unchecked in the Edit window under certain conditions.
v4.9.8.2 (Sept 6, 2025):
Added a "pause/rest" and a "sustain/note" capability to patterns. Values entered in the pattern (using "p
Added a "user selectable" text/symbol color. Updated the Preferences window to allow for "Auto, Mono, or User" text/symbol color selection.
Added the new color scheme "ice blue". Access it from the Preferences window, "Windows" page; you will have to click "Restore Schemes" first to make the new scheme available.
Made the background color of the "Editing:" label at the top of the Edit window match the window background.
With few exceptions most control labels and other text are no longer displayed in bold lettering, and only the currently selected Theme is shown in bold.
Editing of items in lists is now exclusively accomplished the "normal" way by clicking a row to select it and then clicking a cell in that row to begin editing. Therefore, the "Edit Highlighted Text" (
Made a change to the location specifier for the AudioToolbox file, and several other System Frameworks. Some users were getting an error that it is hoped this will fix.
Improved registration checking code to reduce piracy. Limited the number of registration tries to 10 - after 10 SonicMood will quit. This only affects new registrations.
Added shading to the startup window.
Fixed an annoying "beep" that sounded when a Mood file was added to the current Moods list via drag and drop or "File" menu selection.
Fixed the Keyboard window so the controls fit properly again after the removal of the "Restore" key. Also unbolded the text in the window.
Fixed a small bug that allowed the Keyboard Window to add notes to a scale when the "Shared Instrument Settings" page wasn't selected.
Fixed a bug that prevented selecting text using shift-option left/right arrow or shift-command left/right arrow.
Fixed a bug that caused a cloned Mood to be inserted in the Moods list before the currently playing Mood instead of the Mood that's being cloned (the highlighted Mood).
v4.9.8.1 (July 20, 2025):
Added the Moods "Windy Day" and "Climbing Mount Fuji".
Undo/redo for the main SonicMood window, the Edit window, and the Mixer window now share a common stack. The other windows, like Preferences and the Picture window, continue to have separate undo/redo stacks.
Made some changes to the Edit window to make it a little more understandable. Specifically, labels were improved and controls were rearranged to a more logical arrangement. Also updated some of the HelpTags.
Added an option in the Preferences to select whether to allow dimming of window backgrounds when SonicMood loses focus. Also changed the background when dimmed so it was just dimmer, but not gray.
Made some minor cosmetic changes to a few windows.
Fixed a bug that could cause a crash during a check for a newer version.
Fixed a bug that was causing SonicMood to pause if using the space bar in some save dialog windows.
Fixed a few other small bugs.
v4.9.8 (April 8, 2025):
Redid the way colors are handled and streamlined the code significantly. Added the ability for the user to load/add/save color schemes to/from a file. Rearranged and simplified the "Color Scheme" section on the Preferences window.
Simplified the look of the main window by adding a "Mixer" button to the toolbar and removing the extra volume sliders. Pressing the toolbar button opens a "Mixer" window that contains the volume sliders for "Overall Volume", the instruments and soundfiles, and the Mood Tempo slider. The "Mixer Window" item under the "Controls" menu, and the "Mixer" item under the "Window" menu also open or close this window. NOTE that your toolbar will be reset to the default button set on first launch of this new version.
Added the "Record" toolbar button to the default set of toolbar buttons.
When a menu command to close a window is given, if that window isn't in front then it isn't closed but is instead brought forward. This allows the window to be seen if it's become hidden behind other windows. Toolbar buttons which open/close windows will behave in the usual way, closing a window if it's open without further consideration.
Made the main window slightly more compact so it can take up less space. The Edit window is also slightly more compact.
Improved the appearance of all sliders a Little.
Made a few improvements to the look and operation of the "Update Check" window.
Added the "Edit" window to the list of windows on the "Window" menu, and renumbered the others so the "Edit" window can be opened/closed by pressing ⌘2.
Made some usability improvements to the Edit window. Rearranged controls on the "Individual Instrument Settings" and "Soundfile Settings" pages, and added checkboxes for selecting which instrument used what pattern on the "Shared Instrument Settings" page.
Improved the look and function of the buttons and Mood name field at the top of the Edit window.
Put the "BPM" / "sec" buttons at the top of the "Individual Instrument Settings" Edit page and made a few other re-arrangements, too. Also improved the labels on the note timing buttons and removed the horizontal dividers.
Improved the way the buttons for affecting "This Mood" or "All Moods" worked on the Edit window's soundfiles page by making their effect more logical.
Made an improvement so that if the user has selected to have "All Moods" use the selected soundfiles, a soundfile will start playing if the user checks it in the soundfile list on the Edit window, even if the Mood being edited isn't the Mood that's playing.
Streamlined how pictures are added to the Picture window so that the Add Picture Window closes by itself if all pictures are successfully added.
Changed the Picture timer interval range from 0 to 5 minutes to 0 to 60 minutes (it's now the same as the Mood timer).
Allow for longer names in the Mood and Picture timer window titles by adding ellipses ("...") to the middle of a name that doesn't fit. Also improve some of the labeling.
Cleaned up the right edge alignment of a few listboxes.
Improved the random number note generator.
Made some improvements to address a crashing bug that occurs infrequently when another OS process, like Time Machine or Spotlight, is scanning files. If the OS process is accessing the Prefs or Moods file at exactly the same time as SonicMood tries to do a save, the result could have been a "Nil Object" exception. The changes should eliminate this error.
Fixed two soundfile manipulation bugs that could cause "Out-of-Bounds" crashes.
Fixed a bug that caused the currently playing soundfiles to not be displayed in the marquee. This happened if soundfiles were deleted and SonicMood was reset to the default set of Moods that used the deleted soundfiles, if those soundfiles were later added back.
Fixed a crashing bug that occurred when the last Mood in the Moods list was playing, and a Mood file was dropped onto the list while the "Command" key was held down (to replace the current Moods), if the Edit window was open.
Fixed an old bug that caused the "copy cursor" (green "+" pointer) to disappear and reappear if the mouse was moved when a Mood file was dragged over the "Moods list" while SonicMood had the focus. Fixed a similar bug for the "Soundfiles" list (Edit window), the "Pictures" window, and the "Synth" list (Preferences window).
Fixed a bug that prevented undo from working on listbox checkboxes if the row the checkbox was in wasn't highlighted when the user clicked the checkbox.
Fixed a bug that caused the sorting of the note pattern listbox to be wrong (wrong instruments associated with the patterns) when a column header was pressed to cause the sort.
Fixed a bug that caused the "Scheme Colors" to revert to pre-edit values if the user clicked the "Black or white text only" checkbox while editing the colors in the Preferences window.
Fixed a bug in the "Scheme Colors" that caused the color scheme that was selected when a scheme was saved to not be the one selected if the scheme was added to the existing schemes.
Fixed a bug that prevented ⌥-spacebar from working to check or uncheck a Mood timer checkbox in the Mood's list.
Fixed a bug that caused a funny "space" character to appear in the "Controls" menu, "Pause/Play" item instead of the word "Space", if the user was running under "Tiger" or "Leopard". Also fixed the same problem with the "Pause Button Window" item.
Fixed a bug that prevented the "Schedule" button's caption from being updated if the button is added to the toolbar and schedules are running.
Fixed a bug that could cause a crash and/or the SonicMood window to become confused. The bug was related to having "Auto Save" turned off and quitting when one window was "dirty" (had unsaved changes). The SonicMood window would close but the "dirty" window wouldn't and would instead prompt for "Save, Don't Save, Cancel". Now the changes are saved automatically if the user quits SonicMood.
Fixed a bug that caused the Soundfile volume to "jump" to a high value if the Edit window Soundfile Settings page's "Fade Time" was set to a low value when the volume had stopped changing up or down.
Fixed a small bug that kept the Edit window's, "Soundfile Settings" page, "Clear All ✓" button disabled unless a checkmarked row was selected. Fixed similar bugs for the Sound Motion controls (at the top of the page). They showed enabled even if the "Enable" button (the small round button at the right side) wasn't activated. Also fixed a bug that prevented the "Enable" button from being activated if a checkmarked soundfile wasn't highlighted in the list below. Fixed a similar bug that kept the "Remove File Refs" button from being enabled unless a checkmarked soundfile was highlighted.
Fixed a potential "out-of-bounds" error in the SelectNote method by applying limits to all array indices.
v4.9.7.1 (February 9, 2025):
Fixed a bug that caused instruments or soundfiles to start playing at launch even if they'd been "muted" by the button on the main window.
Fixed a bug that could cause an "out of bounds" crash if the user clicked at the far right side of the "Search History" button, which is left of the "Mood Search" field.
Fixed a big bug that caused the save file selection to be ignored when the user tried to save a new Mood file.
v4.9.7 (January 28, 2025):
Added a new Mood, "Bells Knells," number 32!
Modified note selection so each instrument can use a different pattern.
Re-arranged the note selection button's items to "incremental, decremental, pattern".
When a Soundfile is deleted now (not just de-selected from a Mood) it is removed from the lists of all the Moods that used it.
Moved the "Register" menu item from the Help menu to the SonicMood menu and added "Purchase SonicMood" to the same menu. Also made a slight improvement to the way registering SonicMood from the SonicMood menu works.
Changed the shortcut for the "Mood" menu item "Create Custom Mood..." from "⇧+" to "⌥⌘+".
Improved the way the Mood menu's "Restore Highlighted Moods" item works so that, if possible, the original Scale and note patterns are restored for the selected Mood(s).
The shortcuts for the "Controls" menu items "Instruments Enabled" and "Soundfiles Enabled" are now ⌥⌘Y and ^⌘Y respectively.
Changed the wording of some of the items on the dock icon menu and the Window menu.
Adjusted the size, curvature, and up/down triangles of the List buttons on the "Individual Instruments" page of the "Edit" window.
The "Edit" window now remembers which list had focus on each page and restores the focus when that page is selected again, as long as the window remains open.
Improved the display of the current musical key on the Edit window's "Instrument Group Setting" page.
Changed the default Undo limit from 0 (no limit) to 20. The limit can be changed in the Preferences.
Rearranged many items on the "General" and "Windows" pages of the Preferences window. Improved the appearance of the "Color Select" buttons on the "Windows" page of the Preferences window. Also fixed a bug related to the highlighting of the currently selected button.
Improved the calculation of the text color. The text can still be either black/white, as before, or a color which contrasts with the background. Added the "Use B&W; Text Only" checkbox to the Color Scheme setup/selection part of the Preferences window.
Added two new color schemes, "charcoal" and "moby grape."
Improved the way scrolling text is handled in the marquee, added "Playing" or "Paused" to the marquee's Mood name display, and added a note to the display that the "Soundfiles Folder Empty" if it is.
Changed the "loudspeaker" icon in the Moods list that indicates which Mood is playing.
Made improvements to several of the Moods.
Updated/improved the icon used on the "Soundfiles" toolbar button on the "Edit" window. Also changed the icon for the "Edit" toolbar button to an "i" in a circle, and the Mood timer's "start/stop" button from round to square and its icon to an hourglass.
Made the "startup message" window slightly smaller and added the version # to the bottom. Also made it slightly transparent.
Made several changes to improve the reliability of SonicMood's startup process.
Added a test for some invalid characters in the Registration window's Name and Edit fields.
Improved the performance of the routines that add pictures to the picture window. Also, the "cancel" button is now more responsive.
Added the ability to double-click on the image in the Picture window to show the Picture list. Double-clicking on a row in the list will select that Picture and possibly close the list window. Added a checkbox to the window to indicate whether to close it after a picture is selected by double-clicking.
Reduced potential confusion as pictures are added to the picture window. Now no mention of bad pictures is made unless at least one bad picture is encountered.
Added a "Checking for Updates" window that appears when SonicMood launches if the automatic check is enabled in Preferences or if the user requests a check.
Made a change to the version update routines so the operating system's "tmp" folder is used to temporarily hold the downloaded update.
Improved the way error crashes are reported to us by making it a more automated process for the user. Now the user can just click a button to send the report instead of having to "copy and paste" the error message into a separate email. In addition, we get more information about the state of SonicMood at the time of the crash, improving our chances of finding and fixing the bug that caused the crash.
Redid the methods associated with selecting the next/previous Moods or Pictures and set the buttons and menu controls to just go forward/back by rows, not considering check marked Moods/Scenes or random change.
Added menu items for Previous Timer Mood and Previous Timer Picture, and changed the keyboard shortcuts for selecting next/previous timer Mood or Picture (they're now the same as the non-timer versions with the addition of the Shift key).
Added the ability to double-click on the Mood timer progress bar to display the timer settings window, and the same for the Picture timer progress bar. Can also click the Picture info in the marquee to open the Scene list.
Fixed a bug that could cause an "out of bounds" error when the checkbox next to a soundfile was checked or un-checked to select or de-select a soundfile from the "Soundfiles" tab of the Edit window.
Fixed a potential problem with the registration check that could cause an infinite loop with certain codes. It was a rare problem that had never actually occurred in practice, but was discovered during testing.
Fixed a possible bug connected with the "Open Folder" button on the "Synth" tab of the Preferences window.
Fixed a small bug that caused the word "space" to appear twice in the "Controls" menu for "Play/Pause" of a Mood.
Fixed a bug related to adding a new Mood when SonicMood is launched.
Fixed a rare bug that could cause a non-integer "max notes" value to be assigned to an instrument.
Fixed a bug that caused the next Mood in the list to start playing if the Mood timer settings window was opened and then closed with the timer on and the "Mood Play Order" check-Marked selected but no Moods checked.
Fixed a small issue with adding pictures using the file selection window. If the window's "Cancel" button was pressed, a window would still open indicating no files added. Now no further action is taken.
Fixed a bug that caused the ⇧⌘K shortcut to not change to the next picture if no pictures were check-marked and the "✓Marked" timer "Picture Display Order" was selected.
Fixed a bug that caused the "Save," "Cancel," "Don't Save" window to open twice if "Auto Save Changes" was off, the main window had unsaved changes, and the user clicked "Cancel" in the process of quitting SonicMood.
Fixed a bug that left a check mark next to any floating window's open/close menu item, even though the floating window had closed by then, if the user was in the process of quitting, then cancelled closing a window that had unsaved changes.
Fixed a bug that prevented the "Colors" window from remembering its position and size on the desktop.
Fixed a few bugs that caused the vertical position of the main window to change depending on the state of its toolbar (hidden or visible) and whether the window is "zoomed" or not. For example, under certain conditions the top of the main window could wind up underneath the menubar.
Fixed a bug that was preventing the note "colors" in the Color window from being cleared in some cases when the Mood changes.
Fixed a possible hang on startup if Internet access is unavailable (blocked, ISP down, etc.) and SonicMood tries to check for updates.
Fixed a few "List Button" button's up/down arrow shapes (they weren't quite symmetrical horizontally).
Fixed a bug in the Message display field on the Record window that prevented the message from appearing.
Fixed a bug that failed to set the soundfiles volume when SonicMood was started for the first time (no prefs file yet) so that nature sounds were not audible.
Fixed one bug and several potential bugs relating to checking for and downloading version updates.
Fixed a small bug that prevented the Mood timer's "progress bar" from resetting to zero immediately after the user manually changed Moods.
Fixed a bug that caused a crash if the last row of a list was edited and then that row was deleted and then an undo of that edit was made.
Fixed a bug that kept the background color of the soundfile name display from being updated when its color scheme was changed.
Fixed a problem with the way file selection windows worked for several cases (Synth selection and Soundfile selection). The file selection window would open but any files selected would not get passed on, so it was as if no file was selected.
Fixed a bug that prevented the spacebar and some edit controls from acting normally when entering file names in some save file windows used for saving Moods, etc., when the edit window was open to the "Individual Instrument Settings" page.
v4.9.6.1 (October 10, 2025):
Fixed a bug that prevented a new user from registering
Added three new Moods ("Rainy Day," "Aurora," "Inside"), and added a "Check for New Moods" Mood menu item. The new Moods should be added automatically so the check is there "just in case."
Improved drag row reorder and drag Moods to a Theme. If dragging a single row, the dragged row is shown as it is being dragged. If dragging multiple rows, the # of rows is displayed and the SonicMood icon is also displayed. When dragging from the "All Moods" Theme to another Theme, a "+" is added to the mouse cursor. If dragging from one Theme to another (not "All Moods"), the Mood(s) are moved, not copied, unless the "Option" key is held down during the drag.
Dragging a Scale or Pattern doesn't revert to the currently selected item after the drop. Instead, now the highlighted row stays highlighted. This is also true if a Scale or Pattern is deleted or a new one added or if a column is sorted.
Updated and changed the Help system to use a browser to display the Help files, instead of using the Apple Help system.
Changed the Help behavior so the last Help page/item opened is restored when Help is called (added "Last Help Page" to Help menu). Doesn't update if user selects another Help page while viewing.
Added a "drop picture folder" capability to the "Picture Window" (formerly the "Scene Window"). The new capability allows for nested folders so you can drop a folder containing picture files and folders containing more picture files. Picture files/folders/images can be dropped anywhere on the window. Added this "drop picture folder" ability to the list window, too. Generally cleaned up the code to make it more efficient and improve error trapping.
If more than 10 images are being added to the "Picture Window", SonicMood will pause while they're added.
Added some code to prevent errors if the Picture window is closed while pictures are still loading. Also added a check so that if disk space becomes low a warning message will be displayed and the loading of pictures will stop.
Made a change to allow the mouse wheel to scroll back/forward thru pictures when the "Picture Window" has the focus.
Added a "Restore Highlighted Moods" item to the Mood menu which will restore any SonicMood-supplied Moods, highlighted in the Moods list, to their "built-in" settings.
Changed the "enable/disable" type buttons to be small round buttons with a blue center which looks recessed.
Improved the registration code so that "mailto:" at the start of the "Name:" field is automatically recognized and removed.
Updated the look of the toolbar buttons to a more "metallic" look.
Made a few small changes to the "Chime Chorus" Mood.
Changed the double-click behavior of the Scales and Note Pattern lists in the Edit window so double-clicking a row doesn't center the row vertically, but changing the edit Mood does.
Made some cosmetic and functional changes to the "Edit" window's "Shared Note Properties" and "Soundfiles" pages.
Replaced the "Mute" buttons on the instruments page of the Edit window with the round blue buttons used elsewhere. Added a "Mute" button to the soundfiles page ala the ones now on the instruments page.
Added an "OK/Cancel" check to the Scales and Patterns "Restore" button function.
Gave slider "thumb" buttons a more realistic look.
Changed the listbox cell edit behavior to closely match iTune's. No longer is it "click-pause-click" - instead, once the cell is highlighted, it's click and pause. If the pause is greater than the double click time then the cell becomes editable.
Now when adding a Theme to the Theme list the new Theme is always added AFTER the highlighted Theme.
Took out the "Remove Mood" item from the Menu since the "Cut" Edit menu item does the same thing.
Rearranged the sliders on the SonicMood window. The volume sliders now slide continuously.
Modified all the sliders so that holding the Shift key changes the mouse wheel change increment from 1 to 10.
Made a change to allow a user's setting to over-ride the "optimal" solution for slider and multiplier value in note timing.
If the "Green + zooms SonicMood full-screen" is checked in Preferences, then clicking the green "+" causes the SonicMood window to zoom to full-screen while "Option clicking" causes the window to shrink to its small size.
If SonicMood isn't the app in the forefront, then its shading changes to gray.
Added a red highlight color to the active digit in a time entry field, and got the "finger pointer" cursor to work when the mouse cursor hovers over a digit.
Improved the way marquee text is displayed and updated, and changed the marquee size a bit.
Simplified the way the "color schemes" selection operates in the Preferences window.
Added a new window color scheme, "business gray" and made "Furnace" the default scheme for new users.
Removed the "Unified Toolbar Titlebar" Preferences item if SonicMood is running under Leopard or Snow Leopard since they are always on.
The user can now access the "File" menu item "Save Selected Moods" from both the SonicMood and the Edit window.
Added a "Cancel" button to some sheet windows.
Fixed some bugs on the "Individual Note Properties" page of the Edit window:
Fixed a bug that caused the BPM/seconds conversions to be inaccurate.
Fixed a bug that caused the note time multiplier to be wrong and to display the wrong values next to the selection buttons.
Fixed a bug that caused some sliders to indicate zero instead of the correct settings.
Fixed a bug that caused listbox rows near the bottom to have a gap between them and the actual bottom of the listbox. Also fixed a long-standing bug that caused the selected cell highlight to be visible in all lists instead of the currently active one.
Fixed a bug that caused the "this Mood" / "all Moods" setting for sliders on the SonicMood window to not stick.
Fixed a bug where selected Moods weren't copied to a Theme using the "Copy Moods" sheet window.
Fixed a bug that kept the Tab key from shifting focus between the several time entries in the sleep, wake, and time of day
windows.
Fixed a bug that could give a non-zero value for the play or pause time when the "note multiplier" select button was on "no rests" or "max notes".
Fixed a bug that prevented the "delete" and "backspace delete" keys from deleting a Theme or Themes in some cases.
Fixed a small bug that caused the "Remove Mood" ("-") button below the Moods list to be enabled even if no Mood was selected.
Fixed a bug that reset the size of the Picture list under certain conditions.
Fixed a small bug so that the Mood that's highlighted (or being edited in the Edit window) if the SonicMood window is closed is the same Mood that's highlighted when the SonicMood window is re-opened.
Fixed a bug where the undo limit wasn't being set properly. It also wasn't being changed when the user changed the Preferences setting.
Fixed a bug that prevented proper updating of the Edit window when a Mood file was dropped onto the Moods list.
Fixed a bug that caused the Scheme color that's selected with the "color picker" window to be off slightly from what's selected in the picker.
Fixed a bug that caused the name of a newly selected soundfile to be truncated if a different Mood file was loaded under certain conditions.
Fixed a bug that caused the Picture window's "Picture Timer" to continue running when the window is closed.
Fixed the way the "+/-" green button on the "Pause Button Window" is supposed to work hiding and showing all SonicMood windows.
Fixed a problem when downloading a newer version - unzipping the downloaded file in Snow Leopard (10.6.1) causes the containing window (ApplicationSupport.SonicMood) to open. Fix uses an AppleScript to close the window again.
Fixed a bug that causes an "Out-of-Bounds" crash when changing to the "favorites" instruments group if there is no favorite instrument saved.
Fixed a bug that could under certain conditions cause an "Out-of-Bounds" error when clicking the pause button on the "Pause Button" window.
Fixed some other oddities associated with the selection of instruments and instrument groups.
Fixed a crash that occurred if a long digital audio recording was stopped and the Record window closed quickly before the conversion to a different audio type was finished.
Fixed a bug associated with zooming the window.
Fixed a few potential bugs that could happen if many Scales or Patterns are deleted. Now at least one Scale and Pattern must remain. And if all the Moods are selected and the "Restore Highlighted Moods" menu item selected when only one Scale and Pattern remain there is no crash. Same if the user selects "Check for New Moods".
Added three new Moods ("Rainy Day," "Aurora," "Inside"), and added a "Check for New Moods" Mood menu item. The new Moods should be added automatically so the check is there "just in case."
Improved drag row reorder and drag Moods to a Theme. If dragging a single row, the dragged row is shown as it is being dragged. If dragging multiple rows, the # of rows is displayed and the SonicMood icon is also displayed. When dragging from the "All Moods" Theme to another Theme, a "+" is added to the mouse cursor. If dragging from one Theme to another (not "All Moods"), the Mood(s) are moved, not copied, unless the "Option" key is held down during the drag.
Dragging a Scale or Pattern doesn't revert to the currently selected item after the drop. Instead, now the highlighted row stays highlighted. This is also true if a Scale or Pattern is deleted or a new one added or if a column is sorted.
Updated and changed the Help system to use a browser to display the Help files, instead of using the Apple Help system.
Added a "drop picture folder" capability to the "Picture Window" (formerly the "Scene Window"). The new capability allows for nested folders so you can drop a folder containing picture files and folders containing more picture files. Picture files/folders/images can be dropped anywhere on the window. Added this "drop picture folder" ability to the list window, too. Generally cleaned up the code to make it more efficient and improve error trapping.
Added some code to prevent errors if the Picture window is closed while pictures are still loading. Also added a check so that if disk space becomes low a warning message will be displayed and the loading of pictures will stop.
Made a change to allow the mouse wheel to scroll back/forward thru pictures when the "Picture Window" has the focus.
Added a "Restore Highlighted Moods" item to the Mood menu which will restore any SonicMood-supplied Moods, highlighted in the Moods list, to their "built-in" settings.
Changed the "enable/disable" type buttons to be small round buttons with a blue center which looks recessed.
Improved the registration code so that "mailto:" at the start of the "Name:" field is automatically recognized and removed.
Updated the look of the toolbar buttons to a more "metallic" look.
Made a few small changes to the "Chime Chorus" Mood.
Changed the double-click behavior of the Scales and Note Pattern lists in the Edit window so double-clicking a row doesn't center the row vertically, but changing the edit Mood does.
Made some cosmetic and functional changes to the "Edit" window's "Shared Note Properties" and "Soundfiles" pages.
Replaced the "Mute" buttons on the instruments page of the Edit window with the round blue buttons used elsewhere. Added a "Mute" button to the soundfiles page ala the ones now on the instruments page.
Added an "OK/Cancel" check to the Scales and Patterns "Restore" button function.
Gave slider "thumb" buttons a more realistic look.
Now when adding a Theme to the Theme list the new Theme is always added AFTER the highlighted Theme.
Took out the "Remove Mood" item from the Menu since the "Cut" Edit menu item does the same thing.
Rearranged the sliders on the SonicMood window. The volume sliders now slide continuously.
Modified all the sliders so that holding the Shift key changes the mouse wheel change increment from 1 to 10.
Made a change to allow a user's setting to over-ride the "optimal" solution for slider and multiplier value in note timing.
If the "Green + zooms SonicMood full-screen" is checked in Preferences, then clicking the green "+" causes the SonicMood window to zoom to full-screen while "Option clicking" causes the window to shrink to its small size.
If SonicMood isn't the app in the forefront, then its shading changes to gray.
Added a red highlight color to the active digit in a time entry field, and got the "finger pointer" cursor to work when the mouse cursor hovers over a digit.
Improved the way marquee text is displayed and updated, and changed the marquee size a bit.
Simplified the way the "color schemes" selection operates in the Preferences window.
Added a new window color scheme, "business gray" and made "Furnace" the default scheme for new users.
Removed the "Unified Toolbar Titlebar" Preferences item if SonicMood is running under Leopard or Snow Leopard since they are always on.
The user can now access the "File" menu item "Save Selected Moods" from both the SonicMood and the Edit window.
Added a "Cancel" button to some sheet windows.
Fixed some bugs on the "Individual Note Properties" page of the Edit window:
Fixed a bug that caused the BPM/seconds conversions to be inaccurate.
Fixed a bug that caused the note time multiplier to be wrong and to display the wrong values next to the selection buttons.
Fixed a bug that caused some sliders to indicate zero instead of the correct settings.
Fixed a bug that caused listbox rows near the bottom to have a gap between them and the actual bottom of the listbox. Also fixed a long-standing bug that caused the selected cell highlight to be visible in all lists instead of the currently active one.
Fixed a bug that caused the "this Mood" / "all Moods" setting for sliders on the SonicMood window to not stick.
Fixed a bug where selected Moods weren't copied to a Theme using the "Copy Moods" sheet window.
Fixed a bug that kept the Tab key from shifting focus between the several time entries in the sleep, wake, and time of day
windows.
Fixed a bug that could give a non-zero value for the play or pause time when the "note multiplier" select button was on "no rests" or "max notes".
Fixed a bug that prevented the "delete" and "backspace delete" keys from deleting a Theme or Themes in some cases.
Fixed a small bug that caused the "Remove Mood" ("-") button below the Moods list to be enabled even if no Mood was selected.
Fixed a bug that reset the size of the Picture list under certain conditions.
Fixed a small bug so that the Mood that's highlighted (or being edited in the Edit window) if the SonicMood window is closed is the same Mood that's highlighted when the SonicMood window is re-opened.
Fixed a bug where the undo limit wasn't being set properly. It also wasn't being changed when the user changed the Preferences setting.
Fixed a bug that prevented proper updating of the Edit window when a Mood file was dropped onto the Moods list.
Fixed a bug that caused the Scheme color that's selected with the "color picker" window to be off slightly from what's selected in the picker.
Fixed a bug that caused the name of a newly selected soundfile to be truncated if a different Mood file was loaded under certain conditions.
Fixed a bug that caused the Picture window's "Picture Timer" to continue running when the window is closed.
Fixed the way the "+/-" green button on the "Pause Button Window" is supposed to work hiding and showing all SonicMood windows.
Fixed a problem when downloading a newer version - unzipping the downloaded file in Snow Leopard (10.6.1) causes the containing window (ApplicationSupport.SonicMood) to open. Fix uses an AppleScript to close the window again.
Fixed a bug that causes an "Out-of-Bounds" crash when changing to the "favorites" instruments group if there is no favorite instrument saved.
Fixed a bug that could under certain conditions cause an "Out-of-Bounds" error when clicking the pause button on the "Pause Button" window.
Fixed some other oddities associated with the selection of instruments and instrument groups.
Fixed a crash that occurred if a long digital audio recording was stopped and the Record window closed quickly before the conversion to a different audio type was finished.
Fixed a bug associated with zooming the window.
Fixed a few potential bugs that could happen if many Scales or Patterns are deleted. Now at least one Scale and Pattern must remain. And if all the Moods are selected and the "Restore Highlighted Moods" menu item selected when only one Scale and Pattern remain there is no crash. Same if the user selects "Check for New Moods".
Fixed a bug that kept the Soundfile volume control from changing all the soundfile's volume.
Fixed a small bug that could cause no color scheme to be selected if all color schemes were deleted and then a "Restore All" of the color schemes was done. Now the first color scheme will be selected by default.
Fixed a small bug that caused a "halo" to appear around the controls on the "Picture Window" when they are pressed.
v4.9.5 (July 23, 2025):
SonicMood can now record digital audio with the help of soundflower, a free utility. The "Audio Record" window has been updated to support both MIDI and digital audio recording. Also, the window's elapsed time display's digits are larger and look like "LED" digits.
Changed the MIDI file format so each instrument now has its own track. Further manipulation of MIDI files in programs like Garage Band will be much easier now. However, MIDI recordings can no longer be appended to the end of other MIDI recordings.
Added an "undo/redo" capability to all the controls and added an undo limit setting in Preferences. Values are 10 to 100 (in 10 step increments) or "No limit."
A new Preferences setting, “Auto Save Chages” has been added. With "Auto Save Changes" on, changes are automatically saved after a delay that is also set in Preferences. With "Auto Save Changes" off, the user must save changes manually by pressing ⌘S. In this case the user will be prompted to save when closing a window if changes were made to items in that window. Users upgrading from an earlier version of SonicMood will continue to see the same behavior as before (“Auto Save Changes” on). New users (those who haven’t run an earlier version of SonicMood) will be prompted to save when they change something.
Made some changes to controls on the SonicMood window:
- Changed the Theme list behavior so double-clicking on a Theme edits the name.
- Clicking on the "+" under the Moods List now brings up the "Create a Mood" sheet window.
- A Mood can now be cloned even if the current Theme is empty. In this case the Mood that's currently playing is used as the clone template.
- Replaced the play/pause buttons above the instrument and soundfile volume sliders with small round buttons just right of the sliders. The button graphic is more indicative of its purpose.
Changed the behavior when a Mood or Moods is dragged from the Moods list to a Theme. After the drop the Moods list stays with the source Theme and does not change to the target Theme.
Made a few "under the hood" changes to the way the Mood volume fade down and fade up is handled. The way the sound starts up in a new Mood should be less abrupt now. Also changed the default (first time user) "Volume Fade Up" time from 0 back to 5 seconds.
Added previous/next (back/forward) buttons to the Edit window's Instrument and Group select lists. Pressing one of these buttons will select the next or previous instrument in the current group, or the next or previous instrument group.
Improved the look of the "Mood Name Editfield" at the top of the Edit window and made some cosmetic changes to that window and the Record window to enhance the look and logical layout of those windows.
Updated a few HelpTags in the Edit window’s “Soundfiles” page. Changed the labels on the play/fade/pause sliders to be a little better (maximum instead of max, etc). Made the sliders stop so the min pause can't be more than the max pause, etc.
You can now use the “shift” key to move up one octave on the “Piano Keyboard.”
Added ".caf" (Core Audio File) to the list of audio files SonicMood can play as "soundfiles." Just drop a ".caf" file onto the soundfile list on the "Soundfiles" page of the "Edit" window to add that file. If you have iLife installed, you may find some interesting sounds here: “/Library/Audio/Apple Loops/Apple/iLife Sound Effects”
Scene data is now stored redundently in the Scenes folder as well as in the Preferences file. If the Preferences are deleted or reset the Scene name, etc., information is no longer lost.
The Scene List’s height is saved now (the Scene List is a “sheet window” that drops down when the “Scene List” button is pressed in the Scene window).
If the "command key" is held down while SonicMood launches, the user is asked if they want to reset the preferences.
Changed a few menu item's labels and shortcut keys. The Mood menu's "Restore the Current Mood" shortcut is now ⌥Z and the "Restore the Original Moods" shortcut is now ^⌥Z. Removed the Window menu's "Zoom" shortcut key and changed "MIDI" to "Audio Record." Rearranged the items in the "Timers" menu so the Sleep/Wake items are first, etc. Changed the File menu's "Save Mood File" item to "Save Mood and Prefs Files".
Rearranged the volume sliders on the SonicMood window.
Right/control-clicking on the "Instruments" and "Soundfiles" sliders on the SonicMood window will popup a contextual menu that allows the user to specify changing the volume for the Mood that's playing or "all Moods." If "all Moods" is selected, an asterisk ("*") will appear just right of the slider's label. The current setting is also indicated by the slider's HelpTag.
Fixed a small bug that caused the "Download" button in the "Update" window to be enabled even if the user is supposed to acknowledge (by checking a box) that the download is for a paid update.
Fixed a few small bugs that caused the instruments and soundfiles play/pause buttons (next to the volume controls on the SonicMood window) to not update correctly when the ⌘Y and ⌥Y shortcuts were used. Also fixed similar bugs that caused the buttons to change state if clicked or the shortcuts were used and SonicMood was paused.
Fixed bug that causes fade down time to be ignored (no fade) if the MasterVolume is > 50% (mid scale). Also fixed slight sound glitch that happened sometimes when the Mood timer changed Moods.
Fixed crashing bug that causes "out of bounds" error when changing the Max Notes slider setting on a Mood that's not the one being played. The bug appears if SonicMood is already paused with the EditMoodsWindow open at launch, and the MaxNotes slider is moved.
Fixed a weird bug that caused the Edit window to not update when different Moods were selected in the SonicMood window's "Moods List" if the heading in the first column was clicked.
Fixed a bug that prevented updating the heading on the "Note Pattern" list on the "Shared Note Properties" page of the "Edit" window when a pattern was selected as a note "Selection" method on the "Individual Note Properties" page.
Fixed a small bug in the Preferences "Window" page so a "highlighted" (thicker black border) color selection panel doesn't stay highlighted when "Use Scheme" is checked.
Fixed a minor bug that caused the marquee to not be updated when a Scale name was changed.
Fixed a bug that sometimes caused musical key changes while chords were still playing.
Fixed a bug that prevented typing "12" as the hour when "PM" is showing in a time control.
Fixed a bug that caused a crash if a picture file of unrecognized format was added to the Scene window.
Hopefully fixed a bug that caused a crash if the user edited a Mood while it was being recorded.
Hopefully fixed a bug that caused an "out of bounds" crash when double-clicking on a Mood with the EditMoodsWindow open, if new Moods files were dropped onto SonicMood that extended the length of the Scale list.
v4.9.1 (Feb 28, 2025):
Fixed a crash that can occur during the download of a new version.
Made the SonicMood icon slightly smaller to give a little more room between icons on the dock.
Changed the volume, volume variation, and pan controls on the Edit window to round knobs.
Changed the behavior of the "Edit Mood Playing" button on the Edit window so it displays "Click to Play" and "Click to Pause" when the edited Mood is playing.
Changed many buttons on the Edit window and elsewhere to several new custom classes for an improved appearance.
Added separator lines on the Edit window's "Individual Note Properties" page between the instrument columns and the function areas (instrument selection, volume, timing, note selection).
Added the color scheme "TwiNight".
Added an outline around most buttons.
Fixed a bug where the sleep/wake timer settings were not displayed when SonicMood was launched with the timer on.
Replaced the checkboxes for enabling the motion effects and the play/fade/pause for the soundfiles with the new custom class buttons.
Swapped the listbox and the play/fade/pause controls on the "soundfiles" page of the Edit window.
Fixed an issue where double-clicking on a non-highlighted Mood in the SonicMood window's list, when the Edit window is open and the "Individual Note Properties" page is showing is delayed by the time needed to refresh the page that the Mood name becomes editable.
Changed the "resize tab." It's now transparent and takes on the color of the window background.
Changed the Chime and Colors windows so they are normal global floating windows that use the transparent "resize tab" like the SonicMood and Scene windows use.
Changed the volume knobs in the Edit window so the middle position is 100%.
Made the slider's "thumb" slightly larger.
Hopefully found a fix for the “NilObjectException” crash bug that happened infrequently to some when SonicMood tried to save changes to its Mood file.
v4.9.0 (Jan 16, 2025):
Expanded the piano keyboard to five octaves and added base octave and a musical key controls, whose values are saved. The octave and musical key settings can be changed using the arrow keys, and sustain can be toggled using the Tab key. Also, sustain now works with the computer keyboard keys.
Changed the "upgrade" criteria so it's based on incrementing the second version number digit, and not comparing the third digit. So if the user registered with v4.8.9 they would get free upgrades until v6.9.0 instead of v6.8.9.
Increased the volume for the instrument (MIDI) output.
Changed the icon for SonicMood to a shiny circle containing seagulls, notes, and sun over the sea.
Improved the look of the SonicMood toolbar icons and the mute/live (red/green) buttons above the Instrument and SoundFile volume sliders.
Adjusted the Tempo slider’s range to have more of an effect on the tempo.
Double-clicking on the “marquee” in the main window now toggles (opens or closes) the “Edit” window for the currently playing Mood.
Changed the "Scene" icon on the SonicMood window to a static scene instead of a thumbnail to make its purpose clearer.
Updated control labels and "Help Tag" text, capitalizing as appropriate.
Removed some text and replaced it with icons on the SonicMood window.
Replaced the "Previous" and "Next" buttons with their iconic equivalents on the "Edit" window. Also replaced the "Play Me" and "Edit Mood Playing" buttons with shaded buttons.
Changed the default color scheme to "iTunes" (was "mellow yellow").
Re-wrote the code for "note selection", especially the "pattern" selection code, but including the other selection methods ("uniform", "Gaussian", and "incremental").
Tweaked the default Mood settings for all 28 standard Moods. Not big changes, but took advantage of some of the newer features. The default Moods should sound slightly more interesting.
Changed the behavior when the "delete" or "backspace" key is pressed so a Mood is only removed from the current Theme (not deleted), if the Theme isn't the "All Moods" Theme.
Fixed a "Nil Object" bug in the automatic "save changes" routine.
Fixed the Theme bug where the # of Moods shows up in column 0 if a Mood is deleted, wiping out the Theme names.
Fixed a crash that occurred if the note pattern is "0".
Fixed a small bug that caused the "Edit" window instrument pan slider's "thumb" to be slightly off near zero.
Fixed the slider control's "Thumb" vertical position for Tiger.
Fixed a bug in the Edit window's instrument volume Mute buttons that caused them to sometimes not toggle their display state when pressed.
Fixed a small bug that kept the Instruments in the list on the "piano keyboard" from changing if the Mood was changed or an Instrument was changed for a Mood, and the "Current Mood" radio button was selected.
Fixed a bug that causes a Keyboard key to continuously repeat if sustain is on and the key is held.
Fixed other lingering piano keyboard issues.
Fixed a small bug that failed to properly update the "Instrument mute" button when option-y was pressed to toggle it.
v4.8.9 (Dec 11, 2024):
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.
Changed the button appearance so that a pressed button would display as convex rather than just darker.
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.
Fixed a bug that ignored the Toolbar visible setting when SonicMood started.
Fixed a bug that caused the SonicMood window to move to the 2nd monitor if they were stacked vertically with the "main" monitor on top. Issue was with the "limit a window's position" Preference setting.
Fixed a bug that prevented the Themes listbox from scrolling when dragging Moods over from the MoodsListbox.
Fixed a bug that prevented the command-E key combination from allowing the editing of the Scene list.
v4.8.8 (Oct 27, 2025):
Added an "Update" capability that offers to download and install the latest version of SonicMood. It warns the user if the update would require them to pay an upgrade fee. The “Check for Update” can be done manually from the “SonicMood” menu or a check can be done at each launch if enabled from the “General” page of the “Preferences” window.
Added a "trial period reset" when a new version is detected. A user who is unregistered or whose registration has expired is given 7 more days to try the new version.
Changed the way the "# of notes" slider in the "Edit" window works. Now the other sliders aren't adjusted if the user tries to set one of the sliders to a value that would make the total # notes greater than 16.
Added a Mood search field to the bottom of the SonicMood window. The search is incremental and the Moods list highlight
moves to the matches as the user types.
Implemented an "alphanumeric" registration code for new users registering starting with v4.8.8.
Went to "bold" text for many of the controls and displays to improve legibility.
Improved the highlighting of the selected color box in the Preferences window.
Made "Midnight" the default (startup) color scheme. Changed/updated some of the other color schemes.
Removed the "shading" from the slider controls in the Preferences and a few other windows.
Improved the arrangement of "Color Selection" controls on the "windows" page of the Preferences window.
Fixed an issue with the way the slider “thumb” (button) responded to a mouse click. The “thumb” will now always go to where the mouse cursor is, rather than sometimes have a slight offset.
Changed the format of the "Time Of Day" schedule window's list for the "repeat time". The time is now displayed to include the elapsed number of days like the Start time includes.
Fixed a small bug that prevented the Scene Window's "Scene" button from refreshing when the Scene List Window is closed.
v4.8.7 (Sept 10, 2025):
Made a major overhaul of the “Edit” window:
- Combined all the controls that worked on individual instruments into one page called "Individual Note Properties." Musical note scale selection, note pattern selection, and musical key selection are now on a page called “shared note properties.” Removed the “Notes” page.
- Moved the "sound motion" controls to the "shared note properties" and "soundfiles" pages and removed the "sound motion" page.
• Moved the “synth” page to the preferences window. - Changed the note timing, note selection, and volume variation controls to work on each instrument individually. The pattern selected is the same for all three instruments, however.
- Each instrument can set its own # of notes now, although the maximum number of notes playing at any time is still 16.
- Increased the maximum "octave range" from 5 octaves to 8.
- Increased the maximum number of sound files that can be played at one time from 16 to 32.
- Changed the method of setting pause and sustain times so you can specify either a time in seconds or set a "tempo" (in Beats Per Minute), and a note value (quarter note, eighth note, etc.) The timing slider supports either "seconds" or "BPM". There are two buttons above the slider to select either one.
- Added the ability to delete a Mood, Add a Mood, or Create a custom Mood, using Menu items, from the "Edit" window.
- Made other cosmetic changes to the “Edit” window to make it more attractive and understandable.
• The last "Instrument Groups" (pianos, strings, etc.) selections are saved and restored now.
Changed the way the "Mood Tempo" slider on the main window worked to be compatible with the idea of "tempo" and note values (quarter note, etc.) Also made the slider's setting "per Mood", so each Mood can have its own “Mood Tempo.”
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.
Updated some of the Mood instrumental settings to make them more pleasing.
Enabled the use of the mousewheel to adjust all sliders (volume, pan, etc.) and the time/date digits in the sleep/wake/TimeOfDay windows. Shift-key + mousewheel will change all the Mood’s volumes for the instruments and soundfiles sliders on the SonicMood window (Note that PPC-based Macs using the Apple "Mighty Mouse" (with trackball) need to scroll horizontally instead of vertically.)
Changed the title bar caption in the “Edit” window from “Mood Info/Edit” to just simply “Edit”.
Changed some default soundfile names.
Removed the default Scenes that used to be supplied with SonicMood. Scenes are no longer "embedded" in SonicMood, but a variety of public-domain photos will be available on the SonicMood web site for users to download.
Made cosmetic changes to the "default" color scheme to make it more "mainstream".
Changed the slider knobs to round and tweaked the location of slider elements a little to give more space.
Added background color to the "Edit" window. Fixed the text so its color would contrast properly with the BackGround color.
Made a slight correction to the Scene marquee's "progress bar" so it doesn't overlap the buttons at each end.
Fixed an issue where the absence of a soundfile extension could cause the file to be ignored if it was one of the default soundfiles supplied with SonicMood.
Sometimes a Mood would start and play in a given key, but change keys while some notes were still playing in the previous key, causing unwanted dissonance in some cases. Fixed.
Fixed a few bugs that caused the sound timing, etc., to be affected if the “Edit” window was opened and a Mood other than the one playing was highlighted in the Mood’s list.
Fixed a bug in the Create A Mood function that caused some settings to be reversed.
Fixed a bug with the "Clear All" and "Restore" buttons/functions on the Keyboard Window. They weren't working.
Fixed a bug the was causing fast notes to sometimes not continue after a few seconds.
Fixed a bug that kept buttons from darkening when pressed.
Fixed a small bug that caused the initial volume to be low for the Mood that plays the first time SonicMood is launched.
v4.8.6.2 (June 30, 2025):
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.
v4.8.6.1 (June 23, 2025):
Added a "Get Playing Mood" button to the EditMoodsWindow. Clicking the button will switch the edit to the currently playing Mood. Also made the "Show Current Mood" (⌘L) MenuItem (under "File" menu) global. It will work when you're in another window.
Made changes to the way notes are timed to be more efficient.
Made some changes to the way notes are started to avoid the pause when a Mood with long instrument sustains is changed to a Mood with short sustains.
Changed the “Save Changes Delay” time (General page of the Preferences window) so its minimum is 10 seconds, not zero.
Fixed a BIG bug that could cause an "out of bounds" error if the "Create a Mood" middle slider was set one tick up from "Moody". This would cause the Instrument Group “Square Lead” to be selected. Only problem was THERE IS NO Instrument Group called "Square Lead"...
Fixed a bug that causes "zoom" (clicking on green “+”) to maximize window instead of going small after running a previous version of SonicMood.
Fixed a bug that could cause a "Nil Object Exception" when SonicMood does its automatic file save.
Fixed a bug that could make SonicMood not well cadenced, especially with “fast paced” Moods.
v4.8.6 (June 12, 2025):
Refactored several major components of SonicMood to reduce the code size a bit, lower the chance of bugs, and make future changes easier.
Changed the way Soundfiles and Scene files are handled so they're kept in a centralized location. Both sets of files are located inside the “Application Support/SonicMood” folder inside the user’s Library folder. The Soundfiles are located in the "Soundfiles" folder and the Scene files are located in the “Scenes” folder. PLEASE NOTE: 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 Scene files to the new location to fail. The original five Scenes will be substituted instead.
Improved the “drag & drop” behavior for the Moods list and soundfiles list. You can now drop a folder containing other folders of soundfiles and even including Mood files and they will all be copied to the appropriate places and the Mood files will be added to the current Mood file.
Added a separator between the Scales and the Patterns lists in the "Mood Info/Edit" window so their respective heights are adjustable.
Made the Time Of Day window resizable, and changed its Mood selector from a “ComboBox” to a “Popup Menu” to avoid problems with Moods with similar names.
The Time of Day minimum play time (“For at least”) and repeat interval (“Repeat every”) settings are remembered if they were changed by the user.
For the Time of Day and the Sleep and Wake timers, the digit last selected in each of the time fields is remembered. The user can press Tab and Shift-Tab to switch between the time fields and (in the case of the Time of Day window) the schedule list. Control-left/right arrow will move the highlighted selection digit between the days, hours, minutes, and seconds entries for each time field.
Made the Scene List Window into a sheet window and limited its width to 600 pixels or the Scene Window width, whichever is smaller. Changed the Scene window’s marquee slightly.
Made the green "+" button zoom either to a compact size or full-screen, depending on a Preferences setting on the windows page.
Holding the shift key down while using the mouse to adjust either the Instruments or the soundfiles volume setting from the SonicMood window will now change the volume of all the Moods.
The “log” volume setting on the “General” page of the “Preferences” window is now a checkbox. The user can select a volume increment for the log volume setting now.
Improved the behavior of the Mood timer so it doesn't start if the current Theme is empty of Moods.
Changed the word "Marked" to "Checked" for the Mood and Scene timer display, etc.
Changed both registration window's placement setting so they appear in the middle of the screen.
Made a number of other “under the hood” improvements to SonicMood.
Fixed a bug that prevented the display of the changing sleep/wake/TimeOfDay timer digits when an arrow button is held down.
Fixed a few minor bugs relating to the way the Time of Day window worked.
Improved the way the Mood and Scene timer progress bars look and work.
v4.8.5.3 (May 13, 2025):
Fixed a bug that caused a crash if a Mood is dragged to a new position in the Moods list.
Fixed a bug that fails to enable the soundfile controls (play/pause time, volume, pan) when a soundfile is selected (checked) in the "Mood Info/Edit" window soundfile list, if editing a Mood that's not the one currently playing.
Fixed a bug that caused an "Out of Bounds Error" under certain conditions when a soundfile was "unselected" in the soundfile list.
Corrected a small bug that failed to highlight the Mood (or last Mood if more than one) when copied over to another Theme.
Increased the default width of the soundfiles column in the Moods list from 200 to 300 pixels.
Made a slight cosmetic change to the EditMoodsWindow soundfiles page.
v4.8.5.2 (May 7, 2025):
The "register" menu item (under "Help") is no longer disabled if the user is registered. Instead, it changes to read "Register Again?" and allows the user to re-register (under a different name, for example).
Modified the behavior of SonicMood when a Mood file is added. If a Mood in the added file has the same name as one in the current file, then that Mood's settings will replace the settings of the Mood in the current file.
Changed the drag & drop behavior for Mood files and soundfiles. The default behavior is now to copy a file (add it) to a Mood file or a soundfile folder. Hold the "command" (⌘) key down to replace the Mood files or a soundfiles folder.
SonicMood now allows soundfiles or soundfile folders to be dropped onto the Moods list.
Made a change that keeps a soundfiles' selection unchanged if an added Mood isn't using any soundfiles. Also allows for adding new selections of soundfiles if they're not already in the Mood (soundfiles merged).
Made a slight change to the "soundfiles" page of the "Mood Info/Edit" window. Changed the soundfile Min and Max Pause time from 120 seconds to 240 seconds.
Increased the length of sound motion for both the Instruments and the Soundfiles on the "sound motion" page from 30 to 60 seconds.
Added more note patterns.
Made a change so a Mood won't stop playing when a Mood file is added as long as the added file doesn't contain the same Mood that's playing.
Changed the logarithmic volume fade to be more like the way a logarithmic volume control works (i.e., powers of 10 change in volume).
Also improved the logarithmic volume slider change and the volume slider tickmark representation.
Made a slight change to the marquee display of the Mood name and Mood file name.
Opening a sheet window no longer causes floating windows to "hide." That behavior worked around a bug that's been fixed with our updated compiler.
Fixed two olds bugs that caused the current Mood to start playing over if any Moods were removed from a Theme or any Mood except the Mood that's playing was removed from the "All Moods" Theme.
Fixed a BIG bug that had the effect of mixing and scrambling the Mood settings and the Mood names. So if a file with more than the default 28 Moods was added to another file those Moods really got scrambled!
Fixed a bug that causes multiple soundfiles to be merged with the same name if their parameters are different.
Fixed a bug that caused the Mood timer progress bar to keep going after time had elapsed if either the current Theme was empty or the Mood Timer Mode was "list" and no Moods were checked.
Fixed a bug that caused an added Mood file to not have it's soundfile parameters correctly set for display in the "Mood Info/Edit" window if the window was open when the Mood file was added.
Fixed a bug on PowerPC-based Macs that causes Mood volume and pattern to be zero under certain circumstances.
v4.8.5.1 (April 24, 2025):
Fixed a bug which affects registered users who were running a version of SonicMood earlier than version 4.5.0. Their user name might become scrambled causing them to have to re-register.
Fixed a bug that caused Mood file data from earlier versions of SonicMood to not be copied over to the new version properly.
v4.8.5 (April 21, 2025):
Changed the free demo time limit from 30 days to 14 days of "actual use". Users demoing an earlier version will have their trial period reset to 14 days. Also, until SonicMood is registered its main window's titlebar displays the number of days left in the trial.
Added two new Moods: "Japanese Wind Chimes" and "The Ocean".
Added a big "Pause" button window that's Global Floating. It's semi-transparent until the user moves the arrow cursor over it. By clicking the button, the user can easily pause SonicMood (make it quiet) even when SonicMood isn't visible. The window includes the "Master Volume" slider too, so overall SonicMood volume can be adjusted here. Note that this window used to be the "Restart Info" window, which indicated when the next restart would take place. Since restarts (which occur every 24 hours to circumvent a bug in QuickTime) are transparent to the user, this window has been re-purposed.
Made a significant improvement in the way Mood files are handled when they are added to the current Mood file. More care is taken in handling Themes, musical scales, schedules, and other Mood-related items.
Added an option for Notes and note timing to be selected based on different criteria, instead of just randomly, on a per-Mood basis. Selections are made from the "Mood Info/Edit" window, "Notes" page, and note "patterns" can be selected / added / changed from the "Scales / Patterns" page.
Made some improvements to the way Instruments were used during the generation of sounds.
Reduced the size of the "Now Playing" PushButton on the "Mood Info/Edit" window so it looks like a PushButton again under Leopard.
Changed the way the volume fade works by using time, not volume, to track the fades. "Fading" includes the fade up/down of the overall (Master) volume when changing Moods (fade down of overall volume only occurs if the Mood is changed by timer). It also includes the way soundfile volumes fade up/down (settings on the "soundfiles" page of the "Mood Info/Edit" window), and overall volume fade up/down during a wake/sleep event.
All the fades now occur with a logarithmic volume change.
As an option, the volume slider scale can be logarithmic or linear. The user can change the scale in the Preferences window, General page.
Added a menu item to the Windows menu to display the simulated piano keyboard. The key velocity, instrument, and whether the current Mood's instruments are selected or not are now saved. Also, now there's a checkbox for "Hold Notes". If checked, notes are held until the mouse leaves the keyboard area, otherwise they're only held until the mouse button is released. This setting is also saved.
Added the ability to record the piano keyboard onto a MIDI file, along with the SonicMood generated instruments.
The Instrument volume setting that's controlled by the slider on the main window is now kept separately for each Mood.
The musical scale octave range is now saved for each instrument and Mood. The setting is made via a slider on the "Instruments" page of the "Mood Info/Edit" window. Previously the octave range setting was saved with each Scale.
When Mood files are added and some Mood names already exist, the case of the names is ignored and the settings of the added Moods are used, replacing the settings of the same-named Moods in the current Mood file.
Added a save of the Mood file and prefs file before doing the "Reset All".
Removed text from the checkbox above the "note patterns" listbox in the edit window, and changed behavior so that just double-clicking on a pattern will enable the "pattern" note selection method and select the pattern.
Changed slider and up/down arrow controls so the cursor changes into a "finger pointer" when it is over the control, just like the button controls. Added an option in the Preferences to turn this behavior on or off.
Changed the name of the slider on the left side of the SonicMood window from "note pacing" to "Mood tempo" to better convey its purpose.
The user can now add a Mood when a Theme other than the "All Moods" Theme is selected.
Made it so you can use the File menu to create / open / add / save a Mood file from anywhere, not just the main window.
Added a “font size” setting in Preferences that changes the size of text in the lists and marquees.
Added access to on-line help (http://www.sonicmood.com/SonicMoodHelp.htm) from the Help menu. This is most useful to users running OS X 10.3.9 since the on-line help is identical to the built-in help available to Tiger and Leopard users.
Added a "restore" capability to items in lists.
Eliminated the "Random Key Change" checkbox on the "Notes" page of the "Mood Info/Edit" window by allowing a KeyChangeAmount slider setting of 0 (zero).
Changed the gain in the MIDI volume for each instrument to possibly reduce speaker distortion for some users.
Each Mood can now have its own setting for the amount of key change that's set on the "Notes" page of the "Mood Info/Edit" window.
Made some improvements to the way the MIDI synth is loaded to reduce the possibility of errors.
The "Pause button", "Chimes", and "Colors" windows now all have custom titlebars whose colors match the window color.
Modified the "colors" window to display the color bars separately for each instrument, in 3 columns.
Added numbers (#1, #2, #3) to the Instrument names on the "Instruments" and "Notes" pages of the "Mood Info/Edit" window, to indicate their relationship.
Added a delete synth button to the "Mood Info/Edit" window, synth page.
Added a "Add Scene File(s)..." menu item (and contextual menu item) to the Scene window. Allows multiple pictures to be loaded.
Added the word "<- timer ->" to the "progress bar" area in the marquee on the main window to indicate what that area represents.
Rearranged the columns for the "Time of Day" and the "Timer" in the Moods list. Also removed the columns for the Scale and key.
Changed what's displayed in SonicMood's marquee. Now the top line is the Mood name and the Mood file name. The 2nd line is the Instruments, Scale and key, and soundfiles. The SonicMood window's titlebar now just says "SonicMood".
Changed the Scene window so there's a smooth color gradient all the way down.
A bug in Leopard causes mouse clicks on sheet windows to not register if a floating window from the same app is open. Due to this, SonicMood's floating windows are temporarily hidden when a sheet window is opened, if you're running Leopard. Once the sheet window is closed, the floating windows reappear. This affects the Chimes, Colors, and Pause Button floating windows. Sheet windows that prompt for file or folder names or display messages only are not affected by this bug.
Fixed a bug that caused the right-arrow pointer to not be erased when a new pattern is created with no rows hilited and the new pattern row is double-clicked. Bug appears when the 2nd column is edited.
Fixed a bug that causes the "Mood Info/Edit" window's note pattern select button to list each pattern twice when another Mood file is added to the current Mood file. Also fixed a bug that kept the current note pattern text dim when the button first appears after the "pattern" note select method is chosen, if not editing the currently playing Mood.
Noted an incompatibility with the "Smart Scroll" System Preferences app and developed a work-around. The problem caused a window to "jump" if its title bar was clicked right after scrolling in the window.
Fixed a bug that caused selected timer digits to not be highlighted in the time setting controls like sleep/wake, etc. Revamped the way this is handled to achieve more consistent results.
Fixed a bug that sometimes kept the "time to event" from updating when an item in the schedule list was selected in the "play times" window.
Fixed a bug that caused the instrument's volume (slider on the SonicMood window) to be zero after a Mood is dropped onto the Moods list and that Mood is played.
Fixed a major bug that affected how selected Moods were saved and loaded when the original Mood file contained any "time of day" Mood play data.
Fixed a bug that caused the wrong settings to be to the first Mood in the list when a Mood file is loaded to added to an existing Mood file.
Fixed a bug that prevented deleting a Mood or Moods if the "Mood Info/Edit" window is open to any page.
Fixed a bug that caused a crash if the Mood that's playing is the last Mood and that Mood is deleted while the "Mood Info/Edit" window is open.
Fixed some bugs related to deleting Moods when the "Mood Info/Edit" window is open.
Fixed a bug that kept the SonicMood marquee's progressbar from displaying the minimum play time when a scheduled Mood ran while the Mood timer was running.
Fixed the control order for all edit window controls. Tab and Back-Tab (shift-Tab) now switches between Listboxes, EditFields, and ComboBoxes.
Fixed a bug that would cause SonicMood to try using a file that's dropped onto its application icon even if the file isn't a "Mood file".
Fixed a problem where the Moods file name wasn't being updated when the Moods file was changed via a drag and drop on the Mood's list.
Fixed a problem where if a Moods file was dropped on the app it was as if we were starting SonicMood from scratch. May also fix a crash when this happens.
Fixed a bug that would cause an "out of bounds" error crash if a Moods file was added to the existing file if the added Moods file had more "parameters" than the current file.
When a different Mood file was loaded (MenuItem "Open Mood File...") SonicMood wasn't changing to that Mood file's saved SoundfileFolder. Fixed.
Fixed a small bug that didn't display an added favorite instrument if we were viewing the favorite Instruments list on the "Instruments" page of the "Mood Info/Edit" window.
Fixed a bug that didn't update the Instrument name on the "Mood Info/Edit" window's "Notes" page if an Instrument was changed on the "Instruments" page.
Fixed a bug that caused the note sustain value to be incorrect (too big) at start.
Fixed a bug that caused a "NAN" (Not A Number) to be displayed instead of the time on the "Time of Day" window under certain (rare) conditions.
Fixed a bug that prevented the "delete" key from working in the Time of Day window.
Fixed a bug that caused the "combo box" to be empty sometimes when the Time of Day window is opened. Also fixed a bug that prevented an "event" from being deleted from the list.
Fixed a bug that caused the Instrument volume to be zero if another Mood file was dropped on the Moods list. Also fixed a related bug that had the problem with normal Moods files.
Fixed a bug that kept the Moods list from scrolling when dragging a row to a new position and the list needed to scroll.
Fixed a bug that caused an "outline" to appear over a scene if it was dragged/dropped on top of another scene.
Fixed a bug that caused delete to not work under 10.4.x if deleting from the Time of Day list. Problem was that the "Are you sure?" prompt is on a sheet window, and so is the Time of Day window. Apparently a sheet window over a sheet window is ok in Leopard (10.5.x), but not Tiger (10.4.x). So the fix was to use a "box" window for 10.4.x.
Fixed a bug that prevented selection of synth's from the "Mood Info/Edit" window, synth page, add button.
Fixed a bug that caused the "window splitter" (left/right arrow) cursor to revert to just an arrow when the mouse button was clicked and held down.
Fixed a bug in the Edit menu display of the "Copy" menu item when listbox rows are highlighted vs when a listbox cell is being edited.
v4.8.1 (December 13, 2024):
Fixed several bugs which could result in crashes, one relating to Theme selection and the other associated with opening the "Preferences" window under certain conditions.
Improved SonicMood's error handling and report capabilities. Added OS version, Mac version (PPC or Intel), CPU freq, other user computer info, to the error message.
SonicMood now closes the colorpicker window when the "Preferences" window is closed.
Made sure instruments and soundfiles are "turned on" (not muted) for older (v4.0.0, etc.) versions that didn't have a mute capability.
Added multiple item delete capability to the list in the TimeOfDay schedule window. Also fixed a bug that failed to refresh the "Play Time" Column of the Moods list in the SonicMood window after changes were made in the schedule.
Got rid of the rectangular box outline when dragging Moods, Themes, etc.
Fixed a bug that kept the sleep/TimeOfDay/wake toolbar buttons from having their color updated when selecting a window color using the color picker, if the "window" radio button was selected in the "Preferences" window.
Added "Add", "Update", "Delete" to the TimeOfDay window's contextual menu.
Fixed a bug that prevented the correct Theme from being displayed in the Moods list if the Theme had been dragged to a new position without being selected (highlighted) first.
Changed message prompts for the TimeOfDayControls "Delete" method prompt and the CreateMood "no name" error message from a "Modal Box" to a "drop-down sheet". This is the way all other messages are displayed.
Changed the behavior of the Themes list so that when a Theme is deleted, the highlight goes to the next Theme, not the previous.
Add ESC as a way to cancel a listbox cell edit and restore the original contents.
Fixed a few other listbox row drag and highlight issues.
Changed the Moods listbox sort so user rearrangements are preserved unless a column is explicitly sorted (by clicking on the column header).
Changed the Moods listbox sort so user rearrangements are preserved.
Fixed bugs in the "Preferences" window Scene page that caused a "Nil Object" exception if the SceneWindow wasn't visible and either the "Auto size the Scene window" check box or the "Auto size the Scene list" check box were clicked.
v4.8.0 (December 3, 2024):
Leopard compatible.
Made a change to the way registration is handled to allow for user names that contain "extended" characters like umlauts, etc. Also improved the code checking and developed a way to handle pirated codes.
Moved to a new "Help" system that uses Apple's "Help Viewer" to display HTML-formatted help.
Changed the default toolbar so the "Sleep" and "Wake" buttons are on the toolbar and the "back/play-pause/forward" buttons are back on the window. To accomplish this we added a provision that allows the toolbar to be re-initialized to a different set of items.
Added the capability to start Moods at specific times and repeat at specific intervals. To open the "Mood play time" schedule window a button was added to the toolbar and a menu item called "Mood Play Time" was added to the "Timers" menu. Finally, a new column was added to the "Moods list" that displays the "next play" time (or "not set") for each Mood.
Implemented a "Fade up volume" when switching Moods. It can be turned on or off and the time it takes the volume to fade up can be adjusted from the "General" page of the "Preferences" window.
Combined the instruments into one column in the Moods List.
The Moods list column sort direction and "mode" (ascending, descending, no sort) are now saved.
The SonicMood titlebar now contains the name of the current Mood file.
Made the left/right arrow keys select columns that are available for editing. Made ⌘E a global for editing any list cell that is available for editing. Removed the individual menu commands for editing Mood, Theme, and Scene cells. Moved the "Mood Info/Edit" Menu item from the "File" menu to the "Edit" menu and renamed it "Edit Mood (Info)". Removed the "Mood Info/Edit" Menu item from the "Mood" menu.
All lists now support "wraparound" when using the up/down arrow keys. The "page up", "page down", "home", and "end" keys now function properly as well.
Changed the look of the "Mood Info/Edit" window to accommodate the additions to the instrumental controls and some improvements to the way soundfiles are handled.
Added a contextual menu and an "Add Synth" button to the synths list on the "Synths" page. Also extended the "drag & drop" of synths on the list to allow dragging & dropping of multiple files.
The "control-left/right" arrow keys now change the selected instrument on the "Instruments" page. Also added a mute button for each instrument.
Changed the way the "Notes" page looks. Now, there's a group of three sliders (one for each instrument) in a common color for each setting. Added "Pitch Bend", "Modulation Depth", and "Volume Diminuendo" to the instrumental effects available. Each instrument can be controlled independently with one of the sliders. Also changed the "Key", "# Notes", and "Variations" sections.
On the "Soundfiles" page, extended soundfile "Play" time from 100 seconds to 240 seconds, and soundfile "Pause" time to 120 seconds. Added a new item ("remove missing soundfile(s)"), to the soundfiles list contextual menu. Changed the path file separator from ":" to "/" for the soundfile path display and moved the display down so it's just above the soundfile list. Also put both the soundfile path & the number of soundfiles selected on buttons that can be pressed to select a new folder and to refresh the soundfile list, respectively. Provided buttons for adding soundfiles or folders, or deleting soundfiles from the current soundfile folder. Also added a "Remove missing soundfile's reference" button. Finally, the length of a soundfile is now displayed to the tenth of a second, and the default soundfile play maximum time is set to roughly 3 times that length.
Changed the behavior for dragging a Mood file onto the Moods list so that it adds the Moods to the current Mood file if the "Option" key is held down, otherwise the Mood file will replace the current file as the file being used (which was the previous behavior). In addition, when soundfiles are dragged and dropped onto the soundfile list in the "Mood Info/Edit" window or the "soundfile folder path" field in the "Preferences" window, they can be added to the current folder if the user holds down the "Option" key.
Added a green "+" for drags where an object is being added to something, like Moods, Themes, Scenes, or synthesizers.
Added a round graphic with a "+" and the number of items (rows) being dragged between and within (row reorder drag) lists (10.4+).
Tweaked the looks of the "Preferences" window a little.
Replaced the modal color chooser with the mode-less floating color chooser for selecting window, marquee, button, and highlight colors on the "Windows" page. You can watch the effect on the windows, buttons, etc., as you change the color.
Removed the "transparency" sliders from the Scenes and Chimes pages and added a "Window Opacity (%)" slider to the Windows page. This slider controls the opacity/transparency of the SonicMood, Scene, Chimes, MIDI, and Mood Colors windows. Also removed the "Window Shadow" checkboxes and added one to the Windows page that updates the same windows as previously mentioned.
Changed the slider knobs from ovals to triangles to better indicate their settings.
Changed some of the button captions in message windows to better reflect what clicking the button means (instead of just "OK" all the time...).
Introduced a feature that limits window positions so they can't be accidently (or through a software glitch) positioned too far outside the screen's limits. This should work fine with multiple monitors (although it's only been tested with one or two monitors).
Added a "Reset All Size & Position" menu item to the "Window" menu. This is an emergency measure to be used only if a window is missing and presumed lost...
Changed the checkbox toggle key combination from ⌘-spacebar to ⌥-spacebar to avoid a conflict with the shareware program "LaunchBar".
If SonicMood throws an error, a "SonicMood Error" window now opens instead of just a Message Box. The window contains more information about the error and an offer to help compose and send an email to us with that information.
Made some internal changes to improve SonicMood's reliability and performance.
Fixed a bug in SonicMood's MIDI file format that caused MIDI files created by SonicMood to be unplayable on the latest versions of iTunes and QuickTime. The error given was "Mac OS error -208" (which means badFileFormat).
Fixed a bug that could potentially cause a crash if a Mood file was dragged and dropped onto the Moods list when the "Mood Info/Edit" window was opened to the soundfiles page, and the Mood file used a different soundfile folder that had fewer soundfiles than the current folder.
Fixed a bug that could cause an "Out of Bounds" error if the "Mood Info/Edit" window was open when a different Mood file was opened. If the Mood being edited was a higher number than the total number of Moods in the opened Mood file, the crash would occur.
Fixed a bug that sometimes would not update the "Mood Info/Edit" window when a different Mood file was selected.
Fixed a bug that caused the Scene window to use Live Resize even if it's off.
Fixed a bug that caused the Scene window's scene timer on/off button to indicate "off" if the timer was running with the window closed before it was opened.
Fixed a small bug that caused the currently playing Mood's row to not be highlighted when SonicMood first starts.
Fixed a bug that caused extra steps to be executed when Moods were copied to other Themes. This slowed the copy down and, if the "Mood Info/Edit" window was open, caused controls to jump around to the settings for each Mood as it was copied.
Fixed a bug that caused the "Preferences" window position to reset if the MIDI window is opened, then closed.
Fixed a bug that would cause the Sleep and Wake timer's initial "Time Until..." value to be set ahead 12 hours if the user was trying to set the Sleep/Wake time in the AM.
Fixed a memory leak that occurred when the graphic on one of SonicMood's toolbar buttons was changed. This only affected users running OS 10.4.9 or 10.4.10.
v4.7.6 (May 28, 2025):
Fixed a bug that caused a crash if the user tried to use "Create a Mood." SonicMood would crash when the "Create" button was pressed.
Made a minor cosmetic change to the MIDI window by combining the "elapsed time" settings and the countdown timer within one area of the window.
Fixed a bug that caused the default value for Mood timer to be 1 second for the Mood created by "Create a Mood".
Made the "Create" button the default in the "Create a Mood" window.
Made sure that Moods can only be added or "Created" if the "all Moods" Theme is selected and a Mood is highlighted.
Fixed a small bug that allowed the user to delete ALL the Moods by doing a "select all" and deleting... Now at least one Mood must stay.
Fixed a small issue where the highlighted Instrument row wasn't centered in the Instruments list in the "Mood Info/Edit" window.
Fixed a bug that kept the Tab key from working properly after the Mood name edit field was selected in the "Mood Info/Edit" window. Also fixed a bug that kept the spacebar from pausing the sound, and the arrow keys from working properly right after the Mood name was edited if the edit was ended by pressing the "enter" or "return" keys.
Changed the labels on the play/pause time sliders (SoundFile page of the "Mood Info/Edit" window) from min/max to minimum/maximum.
Increased the range of possible colors in the "Mood Colors" window.
Increased the range of the "Sound Motion" time sliders on the "Sound Motion" page of the "Mood Info/Edit" window from 20 seconds to 30 seconds.
Fixed a bug that sometimes left a white "ghost" around cleared "Color bars" in the "Colors" window. Occurred especially when changing the musical scale.
Fixed (or worked around) a problem caused when an 8 bit per sample soundfile is played and we're running on Intel with OS X 10.4.9 (don't know about later versions of OS X yet...). The sound becomes "statically" or "noisy" and all the other soundfiles are affected and sound the same. The fix is to limit the soundfiles in the list to only those that are at least 16 bits per sample, if we're running on Intel. All the soundfiles supplied with SonicMood are 16 bits so this is actually a very minor problem.
Fixed a bug that kept proper slider settings from being set on entry to the Soundfiles page of the "Mood Info/Edit" if no soundfiles were checked.
v4.7.5 (May 16, 2025):
Added the option (in Preferences) of a "unified" toolbar/titlebar appearance and added a toolbar to the SonicMood, MIDI recording, and Help windows. Changed the appearance of all three windows significantly. The SonicMood toolbar can be modified by the user.
Added a proper search field to the Help window's toolbar. Improved the speed with which Help topics are displayed.
Rearranged items on the "Window" page of the Preferences window, added a button color selector, and added "Window Color Themes" which the user can add to or change. The themes are a quick and easy way to customize the color scheme of the windows which use color.
Added shading to the colors of all windows that have colored backgrounds, and made improvements to the way marquee color shading is done.
Improved the contrast between the button text/symbols and background, and sliders text and background. Improved the text contrast in the Help window, too.
Added a "Copy" menu item to the "Edit" menu for the Help window so the user can select and copy Help text to the clipboard.
Enabled cut/copy/paste for various editable cells in lists such as the Moods list, etc. Pressing the ESC key while editing an editable cell now restores the original cell contents.
The Mood and Scene timer values can now be edited directly in their respective lists. The standard "click-pause-click" method can be used, as well as selecting "Edit Mood Timer" or "Edit Scene Timer" from the "Mood" or "Scene" menu or their list's contextual (right/control-click) menu.
Improved the way the Scene List window works when changing scenes using the keyboard shortcut.
Added a "Bring All to Front" Menuitem to the "Window" menu.
Added "Play Soundfiles" (command-Y) and "Play Instruments" (option-command-Y) to the Controls menu to toggle the playing of the soundfiles and instruments for the currently playing Mood. Removed the "speaker" from the toolbar and replaced it with a small round button just right of the soundfiles slider. The button is green while soundfiles are playing and red when they're stopped. Also added an identical button just left of the instruments slider.
Added contextual menus to the MIDI recording and Help windows.
The MIDI recorder now records only the relative volume settings for the individual Instruments. The "instruments" slider volume is no longer included in the recording. This change prevents the recorded sound from accidentally being set too low.
Control-spacebar now toggles the checkbox in the soundfile list that's on the soundfiles page of the Mood Info/Edit window.
Changed the way the Mood and Scene timers work so that if they're running, clicking the "previous" or "next" button changes the Mood/Scene based on the "Mood/Scene Play Order" setting (Shuffled, Listed, Marked).
Improved the method that insures windows placed off the screen are returned to the screen the next time they're opened. The method now takes into account whether the toolbar is visible or not.
The "About..." window now shows the user's registration code, the version that was current when the user registered, and when (if ever) an update will require an upgrade fee.
Adjusted the height of the "About..." window depending on whether the user has registered (and there's extra info to display) or not.
Changed the minimum size of the SonicMood window to 380w x 190h.
Changed the name of the "note energy" slider to "turbulence", and lowered its default start up value from 5 to 2 so things are a little more sedate for first time users.
Made a change in the way SonicMood accesses the Quicktime library to work around a bug discovered on a Mac Pro.
Fixed a bug in the selection of the Mood and Scene timer values. Was using the current Mood/Scene, not the highlighted one.
Fixed a bug that prevented the "Mood" menu's "Reset Mood" selection from properly restoring the highlighted Mood's settings. The fix also improves the way the "Mood Info/Edit" window's "Cancel" function works.
Fixed a bug that caused the wrong Theme to be highlighted if a drag from the Moods list wasn't completed.
Fixed a bug that caused the number of Themes to be selected for editing instead of the Theme name, if "Edit Theme Name" was chosen from the "Mood" menu.
Fixed a bug that kept the "Paste" menu item (either on the menu bar or the contextual menu) from being enabled after a Mood "Copy".
Fixed a bug that caused highlighted Help topic search results to lose their red highlight if the font size was changed.
Fixed a bug that would potentially crash SonicMood if another Mood file was merged with the current one, the last Mood was played, and then SonicMood was restarted.
Fixed some bugs related to the "Settings apply to all Moods" checkbox setting on the Soundfiles page of the "Mood Info/Edit" window.
Fixed a bug that kept the selected Mood row from being properly centered in the "Moods List".
Fixed a bug that ignored a change in the Mood if the default Mood file was loaded.
Fixed a bug which caused the wrong Mood to be highlighted when a different Mood file is loaded.
Found a solution to a bug that required all SonicMood program windows to be brought to the foreground when a picture file was dropped on the Scene window in order for the picture to display. Now a file can be dropped on the Scene window and the window will stay in the background. This keeps the SonicMood windows from covering up folders containing picture files, etc.
Fixed a bug that causes the Scene window size to not be saved (or restored) properly if the window is closed before SonicMood is shut down.
v4.7.0 (December 18, 2024):
SonicMood is now a Universal Binary.
Removed the "Zoom" button at the upper left corner and replaced it with the green "+" Zoom button on the titlebar. Clicking the green "+" causes the Zoom behavior (compact window / normal window) to occur.
Rearranged the SonicMood window to accommodate the display of any Sleep and Wake times. All of the buttons in the window are now custom and more in keeping with SonicMood's style. The label on the slider on the right side has been changed from "note intensity" to "note energy" to avoid confusing it with a sound volume setting.
The Marquees (information displays at the top center of the window) for the SonicMood and Scene windows have been changed. They feature "scrolling" text when the information is too long to fit. They also "roll over" to display multiple textual items on one line. The overall look is more three-dimensional due to a subtle shading.
Improved the way the Chimes window animation works - it is smoother now. The need for an "Animation Rate" slider in the Preferences has been eliminated.
Improved the Sleep and Wake timers so that the CPU % doesn't jump up when the volume is transitioning during waking or going to sleep. Fixed a crash that could occur if the user Quit SonicMood while it was waking or going to sleep. Also fixed a problem if the Sleep or Wake timer hadn't expired and SonicMood was quit. On restart later the timer would be confused and SonicMood would hang. Also improved the usability of the Sleep and Wake timer windows.
Improved the MIDI Record timing and reduced the CPU load while recording. Also improved the Record window's appearance.
Improved the way Themes are highlighted in the Themes list when Moods are dragged there from the Moods list.
Changed the Edit/Info window to a document window. If the window is open when SonicMood quits, it will re-open the next time SonicMood runs. The same is true for the SceneList window (shows a list of the Scene names).
Improved some error handling.
Improved the way glyphs (small icons) look in the Command menu.
Managed to reduce the average "% CPU" load slightly.
Made a change in the way the user's registration code is verified when SonicMood starts. The code is now checked against the version number of the running program. Anyone who has already registered SonicMood, or anyone who registers a version prior to the release of version 5.0.0, will be unaffected by this and will get "free upgrades for life" (the code you have now will continue to work with all future versions). Users who wait and register after the release of version 5.0.0 (which won't be out until sometime next year) will have free upgrades for two major version changes. So if they register version 5.1.1, they'll be able to run all versions thru v7.1.1, but to run v7.1.2 and later will require a new registration code. To get the new code the user will just pay a small upgrade fee (probably about half the full price). The code they receive will be good for another two major version changes starting with the version that's current when they upgrade.
Fixed a bug which kept a newly "drag & dropped" picture from displaying in the Scene window if the window didn't have the focus. When dragging a picture onto the window, the window now gets the focus and the picture is displayed promptly.
Fixed a bug that caused the displayed value of MIDI record time to stop at 35 min and 47 seconds, although the recording continued.
Fixed a bug that kept the information in the "Mood Info/Edit" window from updating when a Mood was deleted.
v4.6.0 (October 6, 2025):
Improved the way musical note timing is accomplished. Moods continue playing even when a menu is displayed or windows are moved and resized.
Made some changes to the sound generating algorithms to improve the overall effect.
Added "sleep" and "wake" timer buttons to the SonicMood window.
Added a Logo with the "Peace Pigeon" button and the words "Sonic" and "Mood" on either side. Clicking on the "Peace Pigeon" button causes a randomly selected Mood from the current Theme to be played.
Added an "note intensity" slider (aka Turbulence) to the SonicMood window. Removed the "Turbulence" sheet window and the slider on the "Notes" page of the Mood Info/Edit window. Higher settings of "note intensity" will cause the MIDI instrumental notes to sound more frequently and with greater variation in their volume and pause/sustain timing.
Added a "Save Selected Moods..." menu item and ability. This item on the "File" menu allows the user to save some Moods to a file for sharing with others or for merging with another Mood file.
Added a "Live Resize" item to the Windows menu and a "Help Tags" item to the Help menu.
The "Colors" and "MIDI Recording" windows now observe the "Live Resize" setting on the "Preferences" window.
Added a toolbar to the "Preferences" and the "Mood Info/Edit" windows and got rid of the "OK" and "Cancel" buttons on the Preference window. Cleaned up the wording on some of the Preference window's checkboxes.
Changed "Accept" to "OK" on the Mood and Scene Timer sheet windows.
Changed the Chime and Color windows to global floating windows.
Increased the font size in the Help topics list to make it more legible, and removed the "Close" button at the bottom of the Help window.
Changed the "[no file]" button to read "Clear", increased the min/max pause/play times from 60 to 100 seconds, and added the length (in mm:ss) and format (mono/stereo) to the list on the Soundfiles page of the "Mood Info/Edit" window. If no soundfiles are selected, "---" is displayed now instead of "[no file]".
Added an option to let SonicMood choose a random starting volume for each soundfile when a Mood starts playing. Soundfiles for which the "Fade, play & pause enabled" checkbox isn't checked (on the Soundfiles page of the "Mood Info/Edit" window) are unaffected. The option can be toggled on the Soundfiles page of the "Preferences" window. It is "on" by default.
Added a "memory" to the Soundfiles page settings so that an individual soundfile's settings are remembered even if the soundfile is removed from a Mood (unchecked) and another Mood is subsequently edited. This should make adjusting soundfile settings much easier.
Checking or unchecking a soundfile or highlighting another row in the Soundfile list no longer restarts the sounds for all the other soundfiles. The Soundfile list's current (highlighted) row is remembered when changing Moods.
Changed the way soundfiles are defaulted to Moods when SonicMood is initialized or new Moods are created. Now there are 9 different combinations of soundfiles which are assigned to the various Moods during initialization. If these soundfiles aren't in the "SonicMood Soundfiles" folder SonicMood uses by default, then they won't be played, however. This folder of soundfiles can be downloaded on the "Downloads" page of this website.
Added "(not found)" in the Marquee after a Soundfile folder name if SonicMood doesn't find it.
Made the soundfile volume fade smoother by increasing the volume step update frequency.
Changed "Clear" to "Delete" in the "Edit" menu and all contextual menus. This is in line with the recent iTunes nomenclature change.
Put the Mood name back into SonicMood's titlebar and moved the Mood filename below the marquee and the SonicMood logo.
Made a few minor cosmetic changes.
Fixed several small bugs which caused some incompatibility with Rosetta on Intel-based Macs.
Fixed a small bug which caused the Scene window to not update after resizing if LiveResize was off.
Fixed a bug where if a soundfile was selected and none had been selected before, it was supposed to
start playing but it didn't.
Fixed a bug where the "Play" checkbox wasn't unchecked when the "No Files" button was clicked.
Fixed a bug which caused the Edit listbox column widths to not be saved.
Fixed a small bug which resulted in the "Mood Info/Edit" window's titlebar not being updated properly when a change to a Mood name was made.
Fixed a bug which caused the "Mood Info/Edit" window to be positioned at the extreme top left of the screen if the Preferences window had been opened.
Fixed a small bug that caused the menubar to flash during SonicMood's launch.
Fixed a small bug where the "Fade, play & pause enabled" checkbox was enabled even for soundfiles that weren't checked in the list.
Fixed a small bug that had the Help window opening under the SonicMood window. Now it opens under, but offset enough that it's visible.
Fixed a bug which caused the instruments to fall silent after the 24 hour restart.
Fixed a bug that would cause the soundfile sound to "jump" suddenly if the soundfile volume was adjusted during a volume "fade".
Fixed a bug that caused the name of a soundfile dropped onto the Mood or soundfile list to be improperly recognized.
Fixed a bug which caused soundfiles to start playing when the "Fade, play & pause enabled" checkbox was unchecked if "Play the soundfiles" was unchecked.
Fixed a bug which caused the soundfile fade to continue even after unchecking the "Fade, play & pause enabled" checkbox.
Fixed a bug which caused the page label to not be updated when changing pages on the "Mood Info/Edit" window.
NOTE: There are a few 10.2.8 (Jaguar) bugs I've been unable to resolve in this latest version. Because of this I'm (reluctantly) dropping active support for 10.2.8 and earlier.
v4.5.0 (June 18, 2025):
Added a "Sleep Timer" and a "Wakeup Timer". The volume is adjusted up or down as appropriate over a one minute interval, then SonicMood is either paused or un-paused.
Changed soundfile play so that up to 16 soundfiles can be played simultaneously. Each soundfile can have its own minimum and maximum play and pause durations, with a random variation. When it's time for a soundfile to go from playing to paused or vice-versa the volume changes slowly, over a user-adjustable time period.
Added the ability to have several "soft" synthesizers available. A new tab in the "Mood Info/Edit" window, called "Synths", allows the user to select a different synthesizer. New synthesizers can be added by dropping the synthesizer file (.DLS or .SF2) onto the list on that tab.
Added a "MIDI file record" capability. The "chimes" instrument sounds can now be recorded onto a MIDI file and later played using the Quicktime player or any other player that can play MIDI files.
Each of the three MIDI instruments for each Mood can have its own pause and sustain timing.
Changed the way the SonicMood trial works. Now trial users are only charged for the days they actually run SonicMood, instead of consecutive calendar days. Registration info is saved in the prefs file as before, but also saved in the Application Support folder.
Changed the registration window so the previous values of UserName and UserCode are entered in case the user tried to register but entered an incorrect value (typo or ?) and has to re-enter. This way they don't have to retype everything...
Added a random musical key change feature. Checking the box on the "Notes" tab of the "Mood Info/Edit" window will cause the musical key to change randomly at times determined by the note generator. The amount of key change (i.e., how far from the current key the change can go) can be set using the slider below the check box.
Added a picture drop capability to the imagewell on the SonicMood window.
Added a "Create a Mood" feature.
Added a "Color Window" that displays colored bars keyed to the instrumental sounds. This window replaces the "musical notes" that were displayed over the scene in the Scenic window.
Changed the SonicMood window so that all three volume sliders are visible. The slider knobs are now custom, and change color as the volume is changed to reflect the volume level.
The chimes window now shows the chimes with a little more space around them.
A Mood (or Moods) can now be copied to a Theme using a menu selection under the Mood menu. Drag and drop copy of Moods to Themes is still supported, of course.
The minimize state of all document windows is saved when SonicMood quits and restored when SonicMood is launched again.
All document windows can be opened or closed from the Dock menu.
Added a new menu, "Timers". The Mood, Scene, Sleep, and Wake timers are all controlled from this menu.
Command-T now opens the Sleep timer window instead of the Scene window. You now bring up the Scene window with Command-2, the Chimes window with Command-3, the Colors window with Command-4, and the Restart Info window with Command-5.
An automatic save of changes happens after a short delay. The delay time is now user changeable from the "General" tab of the Preferences window.
SonicMood now allows the user to force a save using Command-S ("Save Mood File" from the File menu).
The SonicMood window now indicates that changes have been made but not yet saved by putting a red dot in the center of the red "close box" at the upper left of the window. Changes are still saved automatically when the SonicMood program shuts down.
Made shade of timer progress bar background darker so it contrasts with progress bar.
Put name of the Mood being edited in the Titlebar of the Mood Info/Edit window. Tab and 'enter' keys can now complete an edit in the editfield at the bottom of the window.
In the Moods list, replaced "Lazy Daze" with "Forbidden City" Mood. Tweaked "Replicant Tears" a little.
In the Themes list, moved "Wine Time" to "Relaxing" and replaced it in "Meditative" with "Forbidden City".
Removed the 3 "octave" (8) columns from the MoodsListbox.
Fixed a minor bug so that the labels over the Help topics and Help Text are centered over their respective areas in the Help Window.
Fixed a minor issue that didn't preserve a thumbnail's aspect ratio in the SceneWindow button on the SonicMood window.
Fixed a bug that caused SonicMood to always start with the "All Moods" Theme, even when another Theme had been selected before last quitting.
Fixed a bug that caused SonicMood to think a "Favorite Instrument" wasn't deleted when it had been.
Fixed a bug which caused the # of Moods remaining in a Theme to overwrite the Theme name when a Mood in a Theme > 0 was deleted.
Fixed small bug where Command-F didn't always bring up the Turbulence sheet window.
Fixed a small bug that caused the chimes window resizing tab to disappear when the window's background color was changed.
Fixed a bug which caused a crash if a ResetAll was done while highlighting a Mood whose row number in Theme 0 (All Moods) was greater than the row it was on in the current Theme.
Fixed a minor bug which caused slider knob alignment with tick marks to be slightly off for the pause & sustain SuperSliders on the "Notes" tab of the "Mood Info/Edit" window.
Fixed a minor bug which didn't update one Turbulence slider when the other one was changed.
Other minor bugs fixed.
v4.1.1 (November 20, 2025):
Fixed a bug which would cause SonicMood to crash with an "Out of Bounds" error if the user selected "New Mood File" from the "File" menu and entered a name.
Fixed a bug under Jaguar (10.2.8) that caused the "Group Name" list on one of the "Inst" tabs of the "Mood Info/Edit" window to blank out if a row was clicked.
The simulated piano keyboard's instrument list is now updated if the "Current Mood" radio button is selected and the user changes one of the current Mood's instruments.
Improved the displayed resolution of new images added to the Scenes window.
Added an "Auto Size Window" capability to the Scene window. When this item is checked on the "Scene" tab of the Preferences window or selected from the Scene window's contextual menu, the window will size to fit each Scene as it's displayed.
v4.1.0 (November 14, 2025):
Updated the look of the SonicMood window.
Removed the lower volume control (the soundfile volume). The single slider now controls the Mood (master) volume, the Chimes (MIDI instruments) volume (when the Option key is held down), and the Soundfile volume (when the Control key is held down). Labels indicate which volume is being adjusted. The Soundfile volume is independent of the Chimes (MIDI instruments) volume. It's no longer a percentage of that volume.
Changed the "Mood pointer", the musical note at the left side of the current Mood in the Moods list. The new pointer is a speaker icon with sound waves emanating while the Mood is playing and no sound waves when paused. The button at the lower left of the "Marquee" uses the same icon to denote when the soundfile sound is on or mute.
Improved the way a highlighted Mood is displayed in the Moods list. The highlighted Mood row will be centered vertically in the Moods list, if possible, when the SonicMood window opens and when a Theme is selected.
Changed the play/pause button behavior so it doesn't "shade" when SonicMood is paused.
Clicking on the "Chimes", "Scene" (thumbnail picture), or "Get Info" ("i") buttons only opens their respective windows now. They are no longer a click once to open, click again to hide. But if you hold down the "Command" key while clicking, then the related window will be hidden. I've done this to make it easier to "reveal" a window that's been buried under other windows, while still allowing the flexibility of hiding the window by a button click.
An "Option double-click" (hold the Option key down while double-clicking) on a Mood in the Moods list brings up the "Mood Info/Edit" window to edit it, but doesn't change the Mood currently playing.
The "enter" key can now be used like the "return" key to terminate the editing of a list cell, or to select a list row.
Added a few new Moods: "Celestial Harmony", "Moonlight Magic", "Quiet Enchantment", "Space Sounds". Also added five "default" Themes: "Meditative", "Spiritual", "Relaxing", "Chimes", "Melancholy". Users of previous versions of SonicMood will have to do a "Reset All" from the "Mood" menu to see the new Moods and Themes.
The Mood play order, the Scene view order, and the soundfile folder name are now in a smaller font size below the Mood, Scene, and soundfile names respectively.
The Moods, Themes, Scenes, and Scales lists can now be sorted on most columns.
The drag rearrangement and deletion of Moods, Themes, Scenes, and Scales lists now supports multiple, possibly disjoint, selections.
Copying and pasting between Themes using Command-C and Command-V now supports multiple selections, just like drag and drop does. In addition, you can now "drag and drop" or "copy and paste" between any two Themes. The "Select All" (Command-A) option has been added to the "Edit" menu.
Added Edit/Cut (Command-X) to facilitate moving Moods around between Themes. Also added to the contextual menu.
Provided for a timer interval setting for each Mood and Scene. Added the display of the Mood and Scene timer interval settings on their respective lists.
Improved the operation of the Mood and Scene timers.
Changed the name of the "Mood Info" window to "Mood Info/Edit".
Added the ability to edit the Mood name in the "Mood Info/Edit" window.
Added a check for entry of a valid scale range in the "Mood Info/Edit" Scales list. Added more error checking and feedback to the Scales list editing process.
The "red highlight border" that indicates which column will be edited in the Scales list (Mood Info/Edit window, Scales tab) has been replaced by a background color. In addition, the Mood, Theme, and Scene names are now highlighted with the same background color. You may change this color from the Preferences window, Windows tab.
Improved the "cell click to edit" function. It now behaves more like iTunes, i.e. click once on a cell and then click again after a wait longer than the double-click delay but shorter than two times the double-click delay. And be sure "Click on a List Cell to Edit" is checked on the General tab of the Preferences window.
Changed the nomenclature of the soundfile from "background soundfile" to just "soundfile". On the "Mood Info/Edit" window, renamed the "Background" tab to "Soundfile" and the "Motion" tab to "Sound Motion".
Moved the Scenes to a separate window. Clicking the top rightmost button on the SonicMood window now opens a new window, the Scene window. The Scene list is now a drawer window which descends from the Scene window. The transparency and shadow state of the Scene window and Scene list drawer are adjustable from the Preferences window, Scene tab page.
Added the ability to reset the Scenes to their original defaults.
Added a Transparency slider and a "Shadow" checkbox to the "Chimes" tab page of the Preferences window. Using these you can "ghost" the Chimes window and see the desktop beneath it.
The Chimes window is now directly resizable using the "resize tab" at the bottom right of the window. Drag the tab to the new size and release. The resize slider has therefore been removed from the Preferences window. A Preferences item has been added to the Chimes tab: "Hide Resizing Tab"
Added "Show Chimes"/"Hide Chimes" to SonicMood's Dock menu. This allows you to show or hide the Chimes window without first switching to SonicMood.
Moved the "Max Soundfile Size" slider control from the Preferences window to the "Soundfile" tab page of the "Mood Info/Edit" window.
Changed the "Mood Info/Edit" window behavior so it will appear if hidden under other windows when "Get Info" is selected. Also changed the "Help" window behavior so it will appear if hidden under other windows when "Help" is selected.
Added a set of "Marquee Colors" buttons to the "Window" tab page of the "Preferences" window. The two horizontal color bands in the SonicMood Marquee and the one in the Scene window Marquee can be selected individually using these buttons. These buttons contain the color of the item they change. The window background colors are also now displayed on their respective buttons.
Added the shortcut "Control-Command-Z" to the "Zoom" menu item; it's the same shortcut iTunes v5 uses. Also added "Zoom" to the Dock menu and a "Zoom" button to the SonicMood window. Zoom is a toggle which makes the SonicMood window very compact, or normal sized.
Zoom now resizes and moves the SonicMood window smoothly.
Modified the SonicMood window behavior so that it remembers two positions on the screen. One position when it's normal sized, and another position when it's "Zoomed" small. That way the user can keep the "Zoomed" SonicMood window in a corner, say, and the normal sized window someplace else.
Added a "Search Stop" feature to the Help window. Click the "Search" button once to start a search. Click again to "Stop". Command-g can be used to start a search and Command-. can be used to stop a search in progress.
Changed the "Help" window Help Topics up/down key (when the Help Text has the focus) to shift-up/down arrow.
Text found by doing a search in the Help window is now centered vertically in the display.
Fixed a bug which kept "Copy" (Command-C), "Paste" (Command-V), and "Clear" (delete key) from working with more than one Mood at a time.
Fixed a bug which prevented the shift-up/down arrow key combination from highlighting multiple rows in the Moods list. You can now select a row (Mood) and then hold the shift key down while extending the selection using the up or down arrow key.
Fixed a bug which tried to delete a Theme instead of the current Scene when the delete key was pressed.
Fixed a bug which caused the digits on slider controls in the "Mood Info/Edit" window to get thicker when the slider was moved.
Fixed a bug which prevented the "Option-Left Arrow" and "Option-Right Arrow" keys from changing the Scene if the "Mood Info/Edit" window had the focus.
Fixed a bug which kept some items from being restored if "Cancel" was clicked while editing from the "Mood Info/Edit" window.
Fixed bugs which prevented the update of soundfile info (volume, pan, & soundfile) if editing a different Mood and "Change All Moods" is checked.
Fixed a bug under 10.2.8 (Jaguar) which could cause the Scales tab on the "Mood Info/Edit" window to go blank while moving up and down the Moods list via the up and down arrow keys.
Fixed a bug which caused the "% Volume Variation" ("Mood Info/Edit" window, "Notes" tab) setting to be used as a variation of the total volume instead of as a variation of a percentage of the total volume.
v4.0.0 (September 6, 2025):
Added the ability to transpose a Mood's scale to a new key.
Added a background soundtrack capability. This "ambiance" sound is played in a loop along with the Mood instruments. SonicMood supports MPEG3 (.MP3), AIFF (.AIFF), MPEG4 (.M4A), Quicktime movie (.MOV), and .WAV soundfile formats. Soundfiles can be "dragged and dropped" onto the Mood's list and the currently playing Mood will use that file. Also, the folder that soundfile is in will be used as the source for all soundfiles for that Mood file.
Added the ability to adjust the position of each instrument in the stereo soundfield. These "pan" settings are saved on a Mood-by-Mood basis. The "ambiance" soundtrack can also be panned.
Both Mood instruments and the "ambiance" sounds can now move dynamically in the stereo soundfield. The movement "velocity" and "type" (back-and-forth, random, echo) can be varied by the user.
Settings for the background sound and sound panning can be adjusted from the "Mood Info" window (click the "Get Info" button or select "Get Info" from the "File" menu).
Added the "Turbulence" setting to the "Notes" tab of the "Mood Info" window. It is still available from a sheet window by pressing "Command-F".
Added "OK" and "Cancel" buttons to the "Preferences" and the "Mood Info" windows. Clicking "Cancel" (or pressing the "Escape" key) undoes all changes made in the window.
Numerous cosmetic changes and usage improvements to the "Mood Info" window. Cosmetic changes and improvements to the SonicMood window and Chimes window.
Added the ability to change the size of the "Chimes" window. Also added a "chimes arrangement" feature so the chime tubes can appear in a row (linear) or in a circle.
Added a "Chimes" tab to the Preferences Window. On the tab are a Chimes window "Animation frame rate" slider, the "Chime Motion" slider (moved from the Chimes window), a "Window Size" slider, two "Chimes Arrangement" Radio Buttons, a "Background Color" button, and a "Uses main window color" checkbox.
Significantly improved the speed at which the SonicMood window re-opens when Command-1 is pressed or the SonicMood icon on the Dock is clicked.
Made some improvements to the Help System.
The key combination "Command-A" is no longer a shortcut for "About SonicMood". It was removed because it is not convention.
The key combination "Command-+" was added as a shortcut for "Add a Mood". The menu item "Add a Theme" was created and the shortcut key "Option-Command-+" was assigned to it.
Added the musical scale information to the "Moods file".
Improved the way file paths are handled, allowing for longer file path names and non-ASCII characters in the names.
Fixed a bug which caused problems with "New Mood File" and "Merge Mood File".
Fixed a bug which caused a "Nil Object Exception" if a Mood name was edited and then the delete key was pressed followed by the return key. This "zero length" Mood name would cause the crash.
Fixed a bug which caused an "out of bounds" error if an attempt to Add a Mood was made and no Mood was highlighted in the Moods List. Fixed several related bugs which would cause the same error if an attempt was made to Edit a Mood, Scene, or Scale name and it wasn't highlighted in its list. Also fixed a similar bug which could cause the "out of bounds" error if trying to add or delete an instrument to the "favorites" list if no instrument was highlighted.
Fixed a bug that prevented the open state of the Scene List Window from being recorded as SonicMood closed.
Fixed a bug which could cause the musical scale notes to be moved incorrectly when a scale was deleted.
Fixed a bug which would prevent the "Turbulence" control from having any affect.
Removed "Seashore" as a sound used by the default Moods since it doesn't sound right with Quicktime v7.
Other minor bug and Tiger compatibility fixes.
v3.2.2 (June 15, 2025):
Corrected minor cosmetic issues when running under 10.4 (Tiger).
The SonicMood window's visibility state is now preserved from launch to launch. In other words, if the main window is closed when quitting SonicMood, it will remain closed the next time SonicMood is launched. Of course it can be opened by pressing Command-1, by clicking on the SonicMood item in the Window menu, or (if no other SonicMood windows are open and the "Don't Open SonicMood Window on Dock Icon Click" box is unchecked in the Preferences window) by clicking on the SonicMood icon in the Dock.
Fixed a bug which prevented changes to the Moods settings (in the "Mood Info" window) from taking place immediately.
Fixed a bug which could cause the minimized state of the SonicMood window to become confused.
Improved Prefs file handling to prepare for changes coming in SonicMood v3.3.0.
v3.2.1 (April 5, 2025):
Fixed a "showstopper" bug which would cause SonicMood to crash with the message that it "went Out-of-Bounds in SetupMood.". The bug occurred if a new Mood was added, and then deleted while it was playing.
Fixed a minor bug in the chimes display which could cause a chime tube or two to "disappear" for a while.
Minor updates to the Help system and a cosmetic change or two.
v3.2.0 (March 31, 2025):
Made major changes to the internal program structure of SonicMood to provide more robust operation.
Finally you can close the SonicMood window and the application will not quit. Re-open the window by clicking on its Dock icon or pressing "Command-1". A Preferences option allows you to keep the old behavior (quit on SonicMood window close) if you desire.
Cycle through all open windows (e.g. Help, Preferences, Chimes, Mood Info, SonicMood) by pressing "Command-` (grave accent)" or "Shift-Command-` (grave accent)".
Added a "New Mood File" (Command-N) capability. "New Theme" is now (Shift-Command-N).
Added a "Mood File Merge" (Shift-Command-O) capability.
Removed the "back" and "forward" Scene buttons below the volume control. Option-click the "back" and "forward" Mood buttons, above the volume control, for the same effect.
Each instrument now has its own volume relative to the main volume. Changes are made from the "Get Info" (Mood Info) window, Instruments tab.
Added the ability to change the notes in a musical scale and to add new scales. Editing of notes is made easier by the use of a simulated piano keyboard. Notes can be played on the keyboard using any of the 128 available musical instruments.
Added a "Turbulence Control" that affects all the Moods globally. Reached from the "Mood" menu, or by pressing "Command-F", Turbulence acts as a kind of natural "wind" buffeting to make the sounds vary as chimes blown by a breeze would.
Modified the help window behavior so it re-opens when SonicMood launches, if it was open before. It will also go to the same help topic & line it was at before. There is also now an option to search all help topics, not just the currently selected topic. With the focus on the Help text field, pressing "Option-Up/Down" will select the previous/next help Topic. Pressing left arrow moves to the top of the current help text while pressing right arrow moves to the bottom.
SonicMood now remembers its paused/play state, and the last used Preferences window tab. It also records whether the SonicMood, Help, or Chimes windows were "Minimized" (to the Dock), and restores their state (Minimized or not) the next time SonicMood is started.
Modified the way Mood, Scene, and Theme names were edited. The old way worked by clicking on their names in the respective lists. This sometimes resulted in "unintended editing". The new method allows you to edit using a menu item or contextual menu. The "click edit" mode is still available, and is somewhat more robust. To use it just check "Click to Edit List Cells" on the General Tab of the Preferences window.
Added "alternating color band" highlighting of rows in the Moods, Themes, Scenes, and Scales lists.
When dragging a Mood to drop on a Theme, the target Theme row is now highlighted with a blue outline.
Contextual menus now indicate selection of an item by prefixing it with a check mark.
Can now toggle the check mark in the Mood and Scene list checkboxes using "control-spacebar".
The "Zoom" item on the "Window" menu is no longer marked with a check mark if "Zoom" is selected.
Made SonicMood's sound generation algorithm more robust so it can handle Pause and Sustain settings as low as zero. This can make for some very fast notes. This also permits making many more chords: Set Pause to 0, Sustain to 1 or 2 seconds (season to taste), pause/sustain variation to around 0%.
Increased the "volume variation" range from 20% to 50%. This control is found in the "Mood Info" window (File menu, "Get Info" item) on the "Notes Edit" tab.
Now when adjusting the volume control a little drawer opens with a digital display of the current volume. The drawer closes when the mouse cursor is moved away from the control. The drawer also appears when using the "iTunes compatible" "Command-UpArrow" and "Command-DownArrow" keys to raise and lower the volume. The drawer closes when the "Command" key is released.
Modified the behavior of all slider controls (volume control, etc.). Now when you click on or near and start to drag the slider button, the button doesn't "jump" to the mouse cursor. Instead, the button won't move until you start to drag the mouse. The slider button moves the same distance as the mouse cursor, so clicking near the button or slightly off its center won't cause the setting to change unexpectedly. The slider button will jump to the cursor if it's more than half the button's width away when you click.
After a ResetAll the Mood that was selected stays selected, if possible.
Made some minor cosmetic changes to improve SonicMood's appearance.
Removed the "Metal Windows" option. There are just too many problems rendering Metal Windows.
Improved file handling for better SonicMood versions compatibility.
Reduced CPU usage a little.
Added the REALbasic banner to SonicMood's "about" window.
Fixed a bug which would cause a crash the first time you ran v3.2 after using v3.0, if you'd added at least two more Moods. SonicMood would work on the second launch.
Fixed a bug which could cause a "Nil Object Exception in AdjPic" error if the Preferences window was open along with one other window besides the main window, and the main window was resized and then closed.
Fixed a bug which could cause the Preferences window to open under the menu bar when first opened.
Fixed a bug which prevented the selection of exactly 50, 150, or 250 seconds on the Scene timer slider.
Fixed a bug which affected Moods which were just added. Resetting a newly added Mood would result in that Mood's settings being scrambled.
Identified a bug which results in the sound from SonicMood vanishing after it has run continuously for over at least 24 hours (even if paused for some or all of that time). This has been traced to a problem in Apple's Quicktime and Apple has been notified of the problem. A workaround has been developed which automatically restarts (without actually quitting) SonicMood after 24 hours. This seems to reset the sound and is transparent to the user. If this restart is not desired, it can be disabled by the user from the "General" tab of the "Preferences" window.
Added a floating "data" window which shows when SonicMood first started, when the next restart will happen, and what the current time is. This window can be toggled on/off from the Window menu.
v3.1.0 (February 26, 2025):
Used for internal development only - never released.
v3.0.0 (January 14, 2025):
The Menu bar, Menu items, and Dock have been changed to be more "iTunes-like". Play/Pause is now toggled with the space bar. The arrow-keys work like they do in iTunes. The look of the SonicMood window is also more "iTunes-like". Right-clicking on the SonicMood icon in the dock displays a menu which is similar to the iTunes dock menu. There is a Preferences window.
The SonicMood window is resizable. It can be full-screen, small, or anything in between. If the Scenic picture is displayed, it's resized either with or without preserving the aspect ratio of the picture. Live resize is available, and is selected by default on speedy computers. A Metal window look is also selected by default on computers running OS X 10.3.x or above. Both can be turned on and off from the Preferences window.
Moods are selectable from a list of Moods. The list includes complete information about the Mood, like what instruments, musical scale, and timing are used. The information is contained in resizable columns. Moods can be rearranged within the list using drag and drop.
There is a Themes list. Each Theme can contain several to many Moods; use them to organize Moods into categories like "Favorites" and "Cheerful". More than one Theme can contain the same Mood. The user can add Moods to a Theme by dragging them from the Moods list or using "Copy" and "Paste" from the Edit menu. Themes can be rearranged using drag and drop.
The user can toggle between the Moods/Themes display and the scenic picture by clicking on a button which contains a "thumbnail" of the current picture. The relative size of the Moods and Themes lists can be adjusted using mouse drag.
Mood editing (changing instruments, timing, etc.) is done in a separate window.
The normal yes/no prompting for adding/deleting/reseting of Moods/Themes/Scenes can be turned off from the Preferences window.
The yellow "Help Tags", which appear when the mouse cursor "hovers" over an area, can be turned on or off from the Preferences window.
Contextual menus (control/right-click) are available for the Moods list, Themes list, Scenic picture, Scene list, and SonicMood window.
The Help System has been improved.
v2.0.4 (October 8, 2025):
Fixed a bug which prevented the "Chime Motion Slider" (in the Chime window) position from being saved.
Reduced the effect of the "Chime Motion Slider" so the chime motion isn't as extreme.
Added a "Change Background Color" item to the Chime window contextual menu (right-click or control-click on the chime window to see). Selecting this item brings up the "Colors Chooser" window. Select a new color for the window or click the "Cancel" button to keep the current color.
Made the Chime window a global floating window. It will stay on top of other windows (including the SonicMood window).
Rearranged the "Disclosure Triangles" for hiding/revealing the full SonicMood window and the Scenic picture. They are now in a more logical relationship with the window elements they're hiding or revealing.
v2.0.3 (September 9, 2025):
Tweaked the program to reduce CPU usage.
Fixed a bug which could cause a "Nil Object Exception" on startup.
v2.0.2 (August 31, 2025):
Added "In/Out" buttons for selecting/de-selecting each of the three possible instruments in a Mood. You can use this to isolate an instrument to determine what it sounds like, for example.
Added several items to SonicMood's dock menu. "right-click" on SonicMood's dock icon to get a list - choose to "Shuffle" to another Mood (a Mood is randomly selected and played), "Pause" a Mood, or go to the "Next Mood" or "Previous Mood". This can all be done while SonicMood is hidden.
Worked on the Help System to address issues some users have reported.
Fixed another "Quit" bug (similar to the one in 2.0.0) which manifests itself if the user Quits the app from the Dock.
v2.0.1 (August 20, 2025):
Fixed a BIG bug which caused SonicMood to ask you to re-register, or told you that your 30 days were up, if you quit SonicMood by selecting "Quit SonicMood ..." from the "SonicMood ..." menu bar instead of clicking on the "close box" in the SonicMood TitleBar.
v2.0.0 (August 19, 2025):
Added a "chime" window which displays chimes moving to the sounds. Added a "disclosure triangle" near the bottom to show/hide the "Chime Motion" slider.
Added a "License Type" entry in the "About SonicMood" window (Apple-A).
Added a "Show Scene Only" item in the "Scene" menu. Added a "disclosure triangle" in the scene area to show/hide the Scene Only view.
Added a "disclosure triangle" at the top left of the SonicMood window to replace the function of the "small" button. Clicking on this disclosure triangle will make the SonicMood window much smaller.
Can now "drag & drop" a picture or file (jpg, bmp, gif, tiff, png, photoshop, or pict) onto the scene area and it will display immediately. It becomes a permanent part of your scenic pictures. It is scaled to fit the scene area and the aspect ratio of the image is preserved.
In addition to the picture "drag & drop", you can drag & drop a "Mood" file (yellow note icon - if you've saved any) onto the scene area and SonicMood will use that Mood file. It's equivalent to selecting "Open Mood File" from the "File" menu and specifying that file to open.
You can now delete the "default" scenes (the ones which come with SonicMood) if you want.
Added a "Scene Timer" (in the "Options" menu). You can use it to cycle through all the Scenic pictures SonicMood has and you've added. It's like a "slide show". You can have SonicMood select the pictures randomly, sequentially, or you can specify which scenes to show.
For both the "Scene Timer" and the "Mood Timer", you can now click on a "Set" button in the group area (in top left of SonicMood window) to bring up the timer window for that timer.
Added an "Open Default Mood File" item on the "File" menu.
Added a tabbed panel to allow easy switching between the "Mood Edit" controls and the Scenic display. This replaces the "Controls" button. The "Options", "Show Controls" menu item is gone too.
Moved the "Add a Mood", "Delete Mood", and "Reset Mood" buttons to the bottom right of the "Mood Edit" tab. Their functions are also available under the "Mood" menu bar item.
If you add a new Mood, it is initially a "clone" of the Mood in effect before the "Add". Before this the new Mood would always be the same - tubular bells with generic control settings.
The names of the picture files you drop onto the scene area are now saved. A "popup menu" has been added below the "Mood" popup which lists the scenes. You can easily go to any scene by selecting it from this popup. You can also edit the scene names - change them to anything you like.
You can right-click (control-click) on the scene area and get a "context list" of things you can do. Most scene manipulation functions are available from this list.
The notes can now appear anywhere in the scenic picture.
Changed the default scenic pictures. There are now five (instead of six), but you can add your own. There are a few differences in the scenes and they fill the wider space better.
Eliminated the list of Moods in the Mood menu. It was causing too many problems and isn't really needed anymore with the Moods popup menu.
Removed the "Mood Timer" menu bar item. Folded the functions into the "Mood" menu bar item.
Fixed a bug which prevented the current Mood from being properly set up and displayed after opening a Mood file.
Fixed a problem with tick spacing on the slide controls which display tick marks.
Fixed a problem with the close buttons not working or not working properly on the Help and Chime windows.
Fixed a couple of display mode bugs.
v1.2.0 (July 29, 2025):
Fixed a major OS9 bug that prevented SonicMood from displaying all the scenic pictures. It could also manifest itself by causing an error when the user tried to display Help.
Changes in both versions (OS9 and OS X) include the ability to save and load different "Moods Files". You can now launch SonicMood by double-clicking one of the Moods Files (you can recognize them by their "yellow musical note" icon). The name of the Moods File is included on SonicMood's Title Bar (in parenthesis) along with the current Mood Name. There's also a considerable difference in the way SonicMood looks. The musical staff is gone, the notes just play over the top of the scene. The Edit Moods window is gone too. Now you just switch between the scenic picture with some minimal controls at the top of the window, and the window with all the controls displayed pretty much like they were with the separate Edit Moods window. Now you can change the background color to anything you'd like! You can still have the Metal appearance, too (OS X 10.2 or above). Also the SonicMood program icon has changed from "musical notes" to a white "peace dove" on a blue background.
v1.1.0 (July 16, 2025):
Major update to program. Added ability to edit Moods and create new Moods. Greatly improved help system. Lots of little performance and stability tweaks. Changed icon from "bonsai" to "upbeat notes".
v1.0.6 (June 15, 2025):
Removed bonsai & earth from pictures, fixed bug where controls weren't displaying with some configurations, more font changes.
v1.0.5 (June 10, 2025):
Controls re-arranged and grouped to make more understandable. Fonts changed for improved legibility. Help text amended to increase clarity.
v1.0.4 (June 6, 2025):
Moves all the controls off the "scenic picture" which improves the appearance and avoids some problems with control adjustments. Uses non-composite graphics mode now.
Other minor cosmetic changes and small bug fixes. Updated the help system. Moved the "Register SonicMood" menu item "Options".
v1.0.3 (June 4, 2025):
This version fixes a "crashing on startup" problem which some users have experienced. It also addresses a reported problem with setting the volume and selecting Moods from the Moods popup list.
v1.0.2 (June 1, 2025):
Changed the menu so that help is invoked with Apple-? and Apple-H now hides SonicMood. Ffew other small cosmetic changes.
v1.0.1 (June 1, 2025):
Set Fonts to default to System font. Changed from QuickDraw to Quartz rendering for OS X. Other minor changes.
v1.0.0 (May 29, 2025):
Initial release.
