Blogging to Paradise

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.

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

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

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

Hope you like it!

John

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

Or is it “features added and bugs fixed?” Try it and let us know! ;-)Yes, it’s true! We’ve managed to push out another update to SonicMood. This one fixes a few more bugs and add some features, including a few that are “under the hood.” For example, the way SonicMood handles Mood files that are added to an existing file is more logical. 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. Previously, the original Mood’s settings would be kept.This version of SonicMood adds some more “note patterns”, too, thanks to the work of one of our users, Patrick EL MELANIE. If you haven’t downloaded and played any of his Mood files, maybe you should. They’re here: http://www.sonicmood.com/MoodSharing.htm and they’re free! :)I’ve also posted a MIDI file I recorded using SonicMood that captures one of Patrick’s Moods, “Taiko Rhythms”. It’s a lively Mood with a real nice beat! Proof that SonicMood can do more than create slow, semi-random sounds! :)Enjoy!

Well, we got v4.8.5 out, then rushed out v4.8.5.1 to fix some rather annoying bugs. Now we’re working hard on another bug fix version (v4.8.5.2) that’ll squish even more bugs we’ve found!We’ve also made a new page on the web site (“Sharing”) at http://www.sonicmood.com/MoodSharing.htm that contains extra soundfiles and some Mood files users have contributed. Stop by and pick up some new Moods if you’d like.Well, it’s May already and the yard’s a mess. We are threatening to go out and start a cleanup (to be fair, Laura did a bit yesterday while I was pounding the keyboard). So it’s time to GTD (Get Things Done!) :)Hope you all have a great weekend!John

It’s been a long time coming, but a change is gonna come!

In this case, a new version of SonicMood!

We’re finally just about ready to roll it out. Come Monday v4.8.5 will be released to all manner of fanfare and Press Releases! I’m so excited (and exhausted - it’s 3:30 AM out here on the West Coast; why am I up?)

So SonicMood goes to v4.8.5, and its price goes to $12.95. The price increase was a hard decision, but numerous (defined as more than two) people have suggested that SonicMood is underpriced. Maybe it is, I don’t know. But we’ll find out soon enough, I figure. Another change is the reduction of the “trial period” from 30 days to 14. Those same “numerous” people think 30 days of “actual use” is too much. They say that someone ought to be able to decide whether they like SonicMood enough to shell out the cash for it after two weeks of testing. Especially when it’s not necessarily two weeks elapsed time…

Well, we’ll know soon enough. What with all the PR and such, we’ll certainly be giving it the old college try anyway!

BTW, speaking of PR. I have added one more person to our large “staff” of my wife and I. That person is Robert Mitton of Denver, CO, who has accepted the position of “Director of Marketing.” Robert is first and foremost a HUGE fan of SonicMood. He bought it as part of the Mac-Update promo of several months ago and began raving almost immediately (he tends to rave a lot anyway, it turns out So after some weeks of him providing informal suggestions about how to better promote SonicMood, we mutually decided he should just go to work with us. So that’s it! Welcome aboard, Robert! He has a lot of friends in the Colorado Mac User’s Group (CoMUG) who have also provided some advice that’s been much appreciated by us both! They have a great user’s group over there - must be the altitude!
So that’s it - more in a few days; but now, to bed!

We’re working on a new alpha, v4.8.2. It will include (among other things) the ability to choose how notes are selected and how pauses and sustains are determined. For example, you’ll be able to specify a pattern like the Fibonacci sequence to generate notes. This won’t be completely deterministic (you’re not going to be able to feed a musical score into SonicMood), but will give you more control over the kinds of sounds SonicMood can make.

If you have any ideas or suggestions for new features, feel free to give them here

Well, we’ve finally managed to push v4.8 out the door

The last hurdles were mainly getting some tutorial videos published and putting final touches on the web site. Let me know what you think, and if you encounter any problems with either SonicMood or the web site!

John

We have SonicMood v4.8.0 waiting in the wings and we’ll release it as soon as we’ve had a chance to test it on Leopard. As of October 27, 2007, we are still waiting to get our hands on a copy. UPS says they’ll have it here Monday, the 29th (I’m so excited As soon as we get it installed we’ll test SonicMood and see if we need to make any changes. As of this moment we’re unaware of any potential problems (although some developers say sheet windows with graphics might have refresh issues). If we discover any issues, we’ll add the fixes to v4.8.0 and then release it. It will be a free update for all users.

UPDATE (November 4, 2025):
We’ve been working on a few Leopard-related bugs and think we have them fixed. Beta testing has been uneventful (after the first crash reports and we should have 4.8.0 out soon! Thanks to everyone for their patience

UPDATE #2 (December 27, 2024):
I’m really behind on my blog posts…

Anyway, SonicMood is Leopard compatible. Has been since v4.8.0… We’re working on v4.8.2 (might become 4.8.5 right now, adding the ability to affect the note selection and timing criteria in a more direct and interesting way…

We’ve also added the ability for the user to select the font size for the Marquee display and the items in lists.

More to follow!

Well, we’re slowly moving toward the release of v4.8.0. We’ve caught some bugs and made a number of changes and (hopefully) improvements.

One of the improvements allows the user to set a “fade-up” time for the volume when changing Moods. It’s a very pleasing effect, I think. Another (that’s still in work) will allow the user to set a time of day for starting a Mood. Similar to the current “Mood Timer”, this one will let the user set specific times for Moods to play and how long to play or whether to repeat play. So the user could have a rousing Mood set to play early in the day to get things going, and later have more tranquil Moods play on into the evening… Lots of cool possibilities with this one, I think.

Some other improvements include more control over where Soundfiles go and how they get there. There’s more flexibility in the use of multiple Mood files and the saving and combining of them. We’ve added some more “special effects” to the instrument (MIDI) sounds - you can set “Pitch Bend”, “Modulation Depth”, and “Volume Diminuendo” for each of the three instruments in each Mood. In general there’s more capability and usability in Mood editing now.

You’ll find that v4.8.0 looks a little different, although the changes are fairly subtle. For example, the “Color Chooser” you get from the Preferences window is now a mode-less, floating window. There’s no more selecting a color and pressing “OK” to close the window before you see the effect of the color. Colors update in “real time” as you change them in the “Color Chooser” window. You can also change the overall transparency of the five main windows from opaque to nearly transparent.

There’s lots of other little improvements that I won’t go into here. We’re still working on a few features but anticipate the start of beta testing in the next few weeks, with a release around mid-September. This will be a free update for all registered users.