Frequently Asked Questions
See the Important Messages below to learn about
upcoming changes to our pricing policy.
What is SonicMood?
SonicMood is
a program that plays polyphonic sounds with stimulating
harmonies based on pre-defined "Moods". The Moods are
intended to have a relaxing or thought-provoking effect on
the listener. You can edit these Moods or add new ones of
your own design. An "iTunes-like" user interface speeds
learning and enhances ease of use.
SonicMood plays in the
background on your Mac, making soothing tones and harmonies
using sounds of musical instruments built into Apple's
Quicktime synthesizer. When you select a Mood from the 28
pre-defined in the "Mood List", SonicMood picks a set of
instruments, harmonies, and note timings which suggest that
Mood and plays them together in a "chime-like" fashion.
SonicMood adds nature sounds from AIFF, MP3 and other
"soundfiles" to each Mood. These nature sounds are played
in loops, but have a range of random start, pause, and fade
times to minimize the perception of repetition. Twenty-one
soundfiles are supplied with the "SonicMood Plus" download.
Up to 16 can be played together with each Mood.
SonicMood can display beautiful, soothing scenes (that you
can add to using "drag & drop") to go with the sounds.
You can create a timed "slide-show" from these scenes.
The combination of chime-like instrumental sounds and
recorded nature sounds makes SonicMood the perfect Ambient
Sound source for your relaxed lifestyle!
Why
is SonicMood?
I originally wrote
SonicMood because I was looking for something to simulate
the sounds wind chimes make. Sort of peaceful, soothing,
relaxing natural sound. Being stuck inside on the computer
all day made me miss that "ambiance". Using a Mac with it's
built-in MIDI synth, I soon realized I could do a lot more
than simple wind chimes. So I started playing with various
sound-generation algorithms to get the effect I was looking
for while keeping the load on the CPU as low as possible -
after all, SonicMood is intended to run in the background
while the user does "real work". Later I gave SonicMood the
ability to play "soundfiles" - just digital recordings like
MP3's and AIFFs that add to the overall effect. They can be
any recorded sound but I include 21 natures sounds like
birds, crickets, rain, thunder, etc. And there's more on
our web site including foghorns, trains, and city sounds,
too (maybe you'd want to wake up to those sounds -
SonicMood has both a sleep and a wake timer.
What
is Rhythmically Homogeneous Music?
This
web site will answer your questions
about Rhythmically Homogeneous Music.
System
Requirements
SonicMood is a Universal Binary
(runs on Intel and PPC) and works with OS X versions 10.3.9
(Panther), 10.4 (Tiger), and 10.5 (Leopard). On-line Help
is available here for all versions. Try before
you buy to be sure your computer's performance is
acceptable.
Installation
You need to mount the
SonicMood.dmg file first. This is the file you downloaded;
it's a compressed "disk image" file made using Disk Copy (a
standard OS X utility). Just double-click on the file icon
and OS X will uncompress and mount it as a drive on your
desktop. A window will open containing a "Read Me" file and
a folder containing the SonicMood program and a SonicMood
Soundfiles folder. You can drag the SonicMood folder to
your Applications folder or anywhere else you'd like it.
When you're done, unmount the disk image on the desktop by
right/control-clicking it and selecting "Eject SonicMood"
from the contextual menu.
Next, you can add files to the SonicMood Soundfiles folder
from any "Sound Files..." folders you may have downloaded.
First click the "edit" button on the SonicMood toolbar, or
select “Edit Mood (Info)” (⌘I)
from the “Edit” menu. In the window that opens
click the "Soundfiles" toolbar button. Here you can select
from a list (check or just double-click) up to 16
soundfiles for each Mood. If you want all Moods to use
these same soundfiles simply check the box that says "apply
to all Moods".
If the soundfile list is empty, you can just “drag &
drop” soundfiles (MP3’s, etc.) or folders containing
soundfiles onto the empty list. You can also use the “add
file(s)” and “add a folder” buttons to add soundfiles.
After you’re done, the list should contain the names of the
soundfiles you’ve added. Then you can proceed to select
them for Moods as mentioned in the previous paragraph.
That's
it! Look at the Help window Topic "Soundfile Sounds" for
more information.
Running
SonicMood
To run
SonicMood, just double-click its icon. You'll see a "nag"
screen first - it appears each time you start SonicMood
until it's registered. You'll probably want to play with it
for a while to be sure it's for you, so you can click on
"Not Yet" to go on without registering.
The first time you run SonicMood you may want to click the
"?" at the right side of the window's toolbar. A Help
window will open near the SonicMood window. You should
review it for the meaning of the various Menu items and
Control settings. At the same time, SonicMood will begin
playing in the background. When you're through reading,
click the "close box" at the top left of the window (in the
"Title Bar") to close it.
As the Mood plays you will hear instrumental and natural
sounds together in relaxing, melodious harmony. The nature
sounds may be quiet at first and gradually swell in volume.
If the volume is not to your liking you can move the
"master volume" slider and/or the "instruments" and
"soundfiles" sliders: slide right to make it louder, left
to make it softer. You can pause SonicMood without quitting
the program by pressing the space bar or clicking the pause
button. Double-click on another Mood in the "Moods List" to
select a different Mood. You can click the "edit" button
(on the toolbar) to display the Mood editing controls
("Mood Info/Edit" window). The "Scenes" window (click the
"scene" button on the toolbar) will open another window for
displaying pictures. Add photos, etc., just by "dragging
& dropping" onto the window.
Trial
Period
Note that until you register, you'll get a window asking if
you want to register each time you start
SonicMood.
Other than that
SonicMood will operate without
restriction for 14 "actual use" days. That should give you
enough time to decide if you want to keep it.
Registering
SonicMood
If you've
received a "code" via email from us after visiting
the Purchase page and buying SonicMood,
your next step is to "register" it. First, make sure you
have the latest version by downloading it from
the Downloads page. Then "install" it (see
Installation above for help). Finally, run SonicMood and
click "Register" on the nag window that appears. In the
appropriate spaces enter the name and code you received
in the email (the name is the one you gave when you
bought SonicMood - the code you enter should include the
"hyphens") and click "Accept". A small window should
appear thanking you for registering. Click "Ok" and the
windows will disappear and SonicMood will start.
NOTE: The code you've received won't work with versions of
SonicMood earlier than v4.8.5. Instead, SonicMood will say
"Your User Code is not Valid..." If you want to use a
version earlier than v4.8.5, contact us for a different
registration code.
Also, because of a change in the way we use the
registration "Name" to generate a "Code", a very few
registered users may need a new registration code. If
you’ve registered an earlier version of SonicMood and
update to v4.8.6 and it complains that you're not
registered when you know you are, contact us for a new
code. Thank you, and we're sorry for any inconvenience this
might cause you.
Upgrade
Policy
A registration is good for two major version releases.
After that, you will need to pay a reasonable upgrade fee.
In other words, if you purchase and register version 5.2.1
your registration code will work on all versions up to and
including version 7.2.1. But starting with version 7.2.2
you'll need to pay the upgrade fee which will provide you a
code that'll work up thru version 9.2.1.
You can check for when you will need to upgrade by
selecting the “About SonicMood” window from the “SonicMood”
menu. This window will show you which version you
registered with and when you need to upgrade.
Recording
SonicMood Sound
You can record SonicMood's MIDI instrument sounds by
selecting "MIDI Record..." (⌘R)
from the "Mood" menu, or clicking the "record" button if
you've added it to SonicMood's toolbar. A "MIDI Recording"
window will open. Click the "record file" disk-icon button
and type in a name for the file and select the folder you
want it saved in. When done, the "record" button will be
active - just click to start recording. You can set a
length for the recording, too, under "Record length". Press
"stop recording" if you want to stop the recording and save
it. The recording will be saved as a MIDI file. Note that
this only saves the MIDI sounds, not the soundfile sounds.
If you want to convert any MIDI file(s) you've recorded to
MP3 format (to play on your iPod, for example), you can use
iTunes (v7.0.2 or later). Just drop the MIDI file(s) onto
the iTunes playlist and select the file(s) you wish to
convert. Then select "Convert Selection to MP3" from
iTune's "Advanced" menu. iTunes will convert your MIDI
files to MP3, ready to load into your iPod.
To save all audio, including soundfile sounds, you'll need
to use a third party program. I have used RogueAmoeba's
(http://www.rogueamoeba.com/audiohijackpro/)
"Audio HiJack Pro" to successfully record SonicMood's sound
to an MP3 file (use the "capture the System Audio"
function). RogueAmoeba also has "Nicecast" and "Airfoil"
which may allow sending SonicMood's sounds over the Airport
Network. I have not tested either of these. Another product
(which I also have not tested) is "WireTap Pro" by Ambrosia
Software which purports to do something similar to "Audio
HiJack" (http://www.ambrosiasw.com/utilities/).
If you are a musician who'd like to include some sounds
you've recorded with SonicMood, to add to your own original
work, you have our permission to do so and even copyright
your resulting work.
If
SonicMood Stops Making Sound
There are
several possible explanations for this:
It may (rarely) fall silent if you end another program
which uses Quicktime.
Another audio application may have set the audio output
sample rate too high. See this Apple article for
information on how to reduce the sample rate:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=300832
Finally, earlier versions of SonicMood would fall silent if
it had been running continuously for over 26 hours (even if
paused for some or all of that time). This is due to a bug
in Quicktime. SonicMood v3.2 and above circumvent this
problem, however.
If the Soundfiles Sound "noisy"
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.
Note that all soundfiles provided with SonicMood and on our
website are 16 bit and pose no problem.
Quitting
SonicMood
Press
"Command-Q" or select "Quit SonicMood" from the SonicMood
menu, or select "Quit" from the Dock menu for SonicMood.
If
SonicMood displays an Error Message
Heave a big
SIGH and then please contact us with whatever the Error
Message said. If you have any other clues such as the
version of the operating system, the version of
QuickTime, which flavor of Mac, etc. you have, feel free
to include them in the email. Thanks!
If you tried to register SonicMood and received the error
"Your User Code is not Valid...", look at the NOTE under
"Registering SonicMood" above.
Error
Message: QuickTime is too old or couldn't be
found
If you see this message, you need a newer version of
Quicktime. It is a free download from www.Apple.Com/Quicktime/download/mac.html
so just download
and install it and you'll be up and running.
Uninstalling
SonicMood
If you
decide you'd rather not have SonicMood on your computer,
uninstalling it is easy. Simply drag the "SonicMood.app"
file to the trash. After that, go to the "Users/[your user
name]/Library/Preferences" folder and drag the “SonicMood”
folder to the trash. Finally, go to the “Users/[your user
name]/Library/Application Support” folder and drag that
“SonicMood” folder to the trash. You may want to drag any
soundfile folders that came with SonicMood to the trash,
too.
SonicMood
Program Incompatibilities
Trying
SonicMood with your setup before buying it is always a good
idea. If it works for you, great! If not, let us know and
we'll try to figure out why.
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. You can prevent this by adding SonicMood to the
list on Smart Scroll's "Misc." page and un-checking the
"Wheel" checkbox.
Adding a Mood file created with a newer version of
SonicMood (v4.8.5 or later) to v4.8.1 will cause that
version to crash due to a bug in v4.8.1.
IMPORTANT
MESSAGES
We're
considering increasing the price of SonicMood with version
5.0. The plan is this: We want to split SonicMood into
three versions. There would be a Free version with very
limited capability. It would essentially be a player for
pre-packaged Moods that we sold at a low price (probably
around $1.25 each, with volume discounting for purchases of
multiple Moods). Then there would be a Basic version that
allowed some limited manipulation of Moods along with an
export capability. Finally the Pro version would
essentially be the current version, with all the
flexibility of Mood creation that it offers, and some added
features. Pricing is not yet set, although the Basic and
Pro versions would probably be at around the $15 and $40
price points respectively.
Also, because of a change in the way we use the
registration "Name" to generate a "Code", a very few
registered users may need a new registration code. If
you’ve registered an earlier version of SonicMood and
update to v4.8.6 and it complains that you're not
registered when you know you are, contact us for a new
code. Thank you, and we're sorry for any inconvenience this
might cause you.