Moods and Themes
You can add soundfiles (MP3, AIFF, etc.) to any Mood. Specific soundfiles are assigned to each Mood when you run SonicMood for the first time. To make changes to these assignments, go to the "Soundfiles" page in the Edit window (press the "edit" button on the toolbar to get there). See the Help topic Mood Editing under the heading Soundfiles and Sound Motion for more information on soundfiles.
By selecting "Edit Mood (Info)" (⌘I) from the "Edit" menu, or clicking the "edit" button
on the toolbar (if visible) you bring
up the Edit window to get information about and edit
the Mood highlighted in the Moods list. From here you
can change many things including the instruments and
their relative volume and position in the sound field,
the musical scale, octaves, note timing, number of
notes, and the musical key for any Mood. In addition,
you can select soundfiles which play along with the
instruments. See the topic Mood Editing for more
information on how to add, delete, and modify Moods.
The Moods List
in the titlebar first to un-zoom the
window.
The Moods list is sortable (ascending or descending) by
clicking on the header of any column except the leftmost
(speaker icon "Mood Playing" indicator). Moods can also be
re-arranged in the Moods list just by dragging to a new
position. You can move multiple (even disjoint) rows at one
time. An outline of the row(s) you're moving will appear
along with a horizontal line to indicate where the Mood or
Moods will drop if you release the mouse button. Note that
if one or more lines are moved via a drag, the column
header no longer indicates that sorting is in effect.
You can select multiple Moods (in the Moods list) and cut,
copy, or delete them all using the Edit Menu. You can paste
Moods between Themes too. See the Help topic MenuBar for more information.
Mood Column Definitions
The Moods list has 6 columns. Each column (except the
first) is capped by a header which uses a brief word or
symbol to give meaning to its contents.
- The first column indicates (using a loudspeaker icon) the Mood that's currently playing. If the Mood is paused (by clicking the Pause button or pressing the space bar, for example) then the speaker shows no "sound waves" emanating from it.
- The second column has the name of each Mood. You can edit the name by selecting "Edit List Item" (⌘E) from the "Edit" menu or contextual (right/control-click) menu, or you can use the Click-Pause-Click technique. When the cell becomes editable, make the changes and press "return/enter" or click outside the cell.
- The third column has checkboxes and the Mood timer intervals. You may directly edit the timer values using the "click-pause-click" technique or by selecting "Edit List Item" (⌘E) from the "Edit" menu or contextual (right/control-click) menu. Check a box to add that Mood to the "Marked" Mood Play Order (see the Timers topic for more information).
- The fourth column shows a list of days and times for Moods scheduled to play. See the Timers Help topic to find out how to schedule a Mood to start at a time you select.
- The column labeled "Instruments" lists the three instruments that play in that Mood. Instruments can be changed on the "Edit" window on the "Instruments" page. See the Mood Editing Help topic under the heading "Editing a Musical Instrument's settings" for more detailed information.
- The Soundfiles column contains the names of the soundfiles associated with each Mood. Select the "Soundfiles" page on the "Edit" window to change. More specific help is in the Soundfiles Help topic.
Create a Mood
The Mood you created is inserted above the highlighted Mood in the "Moods List". If no Mood is highlighted, the new Mood is inserted above the Mood that's currently playing. If you're on a Theme other than the "All Moods" Theme then your new Mood will show up there and in the "All Moods" Theme. See the next section for more about Themes.
Working with
Themes
To add a Theme, press the "+" button below the Themes list. Delete a Theme, previously added, using the "-" button (or just press the delete key on the keyboard). You can't delete the "All Moods" Theme (the "-" button will not be visible when this Theme is selected). Only the "All Moods" Theme has direct access to the Moods. Themes that you add only contain "links" to those Moods. So removing a Mood in one of those Themes only removes the link, not the Mood information itself. Nevertheless you can edit Mood information (in the "Edit" window) for any highlighted Mood in any of these Themes.
To add links to the Moods, you can use drag & drop, copy & paste, or "Copy Moods to Theme..." (^ +) from the Mood menu. For drag & drop, just select from any Theme the Mood or Moods you'd like to add to the target Theme. Select them using the standard techniques: click the starting Mood then ⇧-click the ending Mood to select a range, or ⌘-click multiple disjoint Moods to select them. Then just drag them to the target Theme row and drop. The number to the left of the Theme name will indicate how many Mood links are now in that Theme. Copy & paste works like always: highlight a Mood or Moods from any other Theme and either select "Copy" from the "Edit" menu or Control-click and select "Copy" from the contextual menu that appears. Now highlight the Theme you want to copy this Mood or Moods to and select "Paste" or Control-click in the Mood or Theme list areas and select "Paste". "Copy Moods" works like selecting "Copy" - highlight the Mood(s) to copy then select "Copy Moods". A sheet window will drop down and you can select the Theme to copy to from a list.
You can sort and delete Themes just like Moods (all except for the "All Moods" Theme). Themes can also be re-arranged just like Moods can. Simply drag a Theme row (or rows) to a new position. The only restriction is that you can't drag a new Theme to be above the "All Moods" Theme. If you try you'll hear a "boop" and the Theme will not be moved. Note that if one or more lines are moved via a drag, the column header no longer indicates that sorting is in effect.
There are contextual menus available for both the Moods list and the Themes list. Right/Control-click in the list to show the menu and select an item.
Use the tab key to go back and forth between the Moods and Themes lists. In the Moods list, use the ↑↓ keys to move the highlight. Press enter to play the highlighted Mood. In the Themes list, moving with the ↑↓ keys immediately changes to the highlighted Theme.
Loading, Saving,
Adding, and Creating Mood Files
All Mood information is saved
in a "Mood file". The default file is named "SonicMood
Moods" (pretty original, huh?) and is kept in the
"SonicMood" folder inside your Preferences folder. You can
save Mood information to a different Mood file and/or in
another folder. You can also create a new Mood file or add
Mood files. Since you can add, delete, and modify scales
from the "Edit" window's "shared note properties" page,
Mood files also contain the "musical scale" information for
that set of Moods.
IMPORTANT: If you want to make
changes to Moods without affecting the original file you
should first save the file under a new name.
If you'd like to listen to the Moods in a different Mood file, you can load the file by selecting "Open Mood File..." (⌘O) from the "File" menu. Or, you can just drag and drop the Mood file onto the "Moods list" in the SonicMood window (hold the “command” (⌘) key down to replace the current Mood file, otherwise the Moods are added to the current file). Either way the "Moods list" will display the Moods in this file. To return to the "default" Mood file, "SonicMood Moods", select "Open Default Mood File" (⌥⌘O) from the "File" menu.
You can add one Mood file to another using "Add Mood File(s)..." (⇧⌘O) from the "File" menu. Doing this will add the Moods from the selected file(s) to the current file. Another way to do this is to simply "drag and drop" a Mood file onto the "Moods list" on the SonicMood window. Not holding the "command" key down insures that the Mood file you're dragging won't replace the current Mood file. Moods, Themes, Scales, and Patterns with the same name (case is ignored) are replaced by the ones in the added file.
You can save a Mood file by selecting "Save Mood File As..." (⇧⌘S) from the "File" menu. A standard "save dialog" window will appear; enter the name and location you'd like to save the file at. This Mood file will contain all the Moods and Themes in the current Moods and Themes lists. You can load it again with "Open Mood File..." (⌘O) from the "File" menu, by double-clicking it's icon, or just dropping the file onto the "Moods List" while holding the “command” key down. The current Mood file will be replaced with the selected file (the current file will be saved first).
You can also save selected Moods by choosing "Save Selected Moods..." (⌃⌘S). Only the Moods highlighted in the Moods list will be saved, and no added Themes are saved. Otherwise the comments of the previous paragraph apply.
You can create a brand new Mood file by selecting "New Mood File" (⌘N) from the "File" menu. After selecting a name for the file, you will be presented with a Moods list with the original Moods in it. You can then edit or delete the Moods you don't want and add others to make a completely new & different set of Moods.
Mood Timers
Interval
Timers
Mood Scheduler
Click the "schedule" button on the toolbar to access the "Scheduled Start Times" window and set/start/stop the scheduler. When running, the scheduler will start a Mood at a particular time after zero or more days have passed. See the Help topic Timers for more information on this one also.
Mood tempo
