Moods and Themes

SonicMood plays "Moods" from various "Themes" which are meant to be relaxing, stimulating, and/or thought provoking. SonicMood comes with 28 pre-defined Moods and five pre-defined Themes (not including “All Moods”). Selecting a Mood defines a note scale, MIDI instruments, octaves, timing, and soundfiles which are intended to create a certain sonic impression.

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.

The name of the Mood currently playing is displayed in the central "Marquee" area. You can select a different Mood using the forward/back buttons at the left, by pressing the ⌘← and ⌘→ keys, or by double-clicking on a Mood in the "Moods list" below the Marquee.

Pause the MIDI instruments and Soundfiles sounds by clicking the "pause" button between the arrow buttons or pressing the spacebar.



"Overall Volume" for all Moods is controlled by the slider to the right of the Marquee. The "Mixer" window can also control the "Overall Volume" as well as the "Instruments" and "Soundfiles" volume and the "Mood Tempo". More information is available in the Main Window Help topic.
















By selecting "Edit Mood" (⌘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

The Moods list is simply a list of the Moods associated with the Theme selected in the Themes list on the left. The Moods list includes the name of the Moods and the instruments, soundfiles, etc., which are used to create the Moods. If the SonicMood window is in its "small size" (zoomed) state, the Moods and Themes lists will not be visible. In this case, click the green "+" 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.

1. 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.
2. The second column has the name of each Mood. You can edit the name by selecting "Edit Highlighted Text" (⌘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.
3. 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 Highlighted Text" (⌘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).
4. 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.
5. The column labeled "Instruments" lists the three instruments that play in that Mood. Instruments can be changed on the "Edit" window on the "Individual Note Properties" page. See the Mood Editing Help topic for more detailed information.
6. The Soundfiles column contains the names of the soundfiles associated with each Mood. Select the "Nature Soundfiles" page on the "Edit" window to change. More specific help is in the Soundfiles Help topic.

Create a Mood
SonicMood provides you an easy way to create a unique Mood to add to the list of Moods. Select "Create Custom Mood" (⌥⌘+) from the "Mood" menu to open a "sheet" window that lists three steps. For the first step you set the Mood's "attributes" the way you want. Enter a Mood name for the second step. After you've done that, or if you just keep the defaults, the third step is either "Create" or "Cancel".

The Mood you create 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

The purpose of Themes is to group Moods together. You can add or delete Themes, except for the "All Moods" Theme which (as its name implies) lists all the Moods. The Theme selected when you quit SonicMood will be the Theme selected when you start SonicMood again.

There are contextual menus available for both the Moods and the Themes list. Right/Control-click in the list to show the menu and select an item.

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 enabled).

To add a Mood to a Theme, use drag & drop, copy & paste, or "Copy Moods to Theme..." (^ +) from the Mood menu. For drag & drop, just select from any other 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. Then just drag them to the target Theme row and drop. The number to the right of the Theme name indicates how many Mood links are in that Theme. Copy & paste works like always: highlight a Mood or Moods from any 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.

When you “Delete” a Mood, you delete it from every Theme it’s in, including the “All Moods” Theme. “Removing” a Mood only removes it from the current Theme. Pressing the “delete” or “backspace” key “Deletes” the highlighted Mood. To remove a Mood (or Moods) from the current Theme, highlight it/them and select “Remove Mood(s) from Theme” from the Mood menu, or right/control-click and select “Remove” from the contextual menu.

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 rows are moved via a drag, the column header no longer indicates that sorting is in effect.

Use the tab key to move around between the Moods, Themes, and Search field. 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.

Mood files can be identified by the "white notes and sunny ocean" icon. Double-clicking a Mood file will launch SonicMood using the Mood settings from that file. You can also drop a Mood file onto the Moods List when SonicMood is running to load the settings from that file. On normal startup, SonicMood will automatically load the last Mood file you've saved (if any). Otherwise SonicMood will use the default Mood file.

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

The "Marquee" area near the top center of the SonicMood window provides control over the Mood timer. The Picture window's Marquee works the same way for the Picture. Click the round button on the right side of the Mood or Picture Marquee to bring down the corresponding timer setup sheet window. Set the timer Play/View Order "mode" and timer interval here. You can start/stop either timer by clicking the round button on the left side of the Marquee. Look in the Help topic Timers for more information.

Mood Scheduler
Click the "play times" button on the toolbar to access the "Scheduled Play 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

If you want to make an overall change to note play activity for a Mood, you can change the "Mood Tempo" setting. Moving this slider on the "Mixer" window to the right will increase the speed of the notes. Normal “tempo is when the slider “thumb” is in the middle. The setting is saved for each Mood, unless the "Change All Moods" button is engaged.