Blogging to Paradise

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

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

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

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

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

John

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

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

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

Enjoy!

John

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Take care all,
John

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

John

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

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

Â

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

We’re back in business!

John

Hi all,

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

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

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

Thank you for your understanding!

Take care everybody,
John

With apologies to Abby Road

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

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

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

and enjoy!

John