Known Issues

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

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

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

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

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

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

You cannot play 8 bit soundfiles on an Intel-based Mac. SonicMood checks for 8 bit files if you're running on an Intel-based Mac and will not add them to the soundfiles list. 8 bit files work fine on PPC-based Macs so they will show up in the soundfiles list there. Playing an 8 bit soundfile with SonicMood on an Intel-based Mac will cause 16 bit soundfiles to sound "noisy". This can only be corrected by quitting and restarting SonicMood. All soundfiles provided with SonicMood and on the sonicmood.com website are 16 bit and pose no problem.
If you use the System Preference application "Smart Scroll", when you scroll in a SonicMood window and then click the window's title bar, the window will "jump" down a little. It’s also a little harder to use the mouse wheel to change slider settings (they tend to “scroll” also). You can prevent this by adding SonicMood to the list on Smart Scroll's "Misc." page and un-checking the "Wheel" checkbox. UPDATE: This does not appear to be a problem as of Smart Scroll version 3.1.1 (the current version we’ve tested with).

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

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

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