SonicMood for Mac
Relieves stress by generating ambient music.
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SonicMood overview
SonicMood relieves stress by generating ambient music.
Is life stressing you out? Do you need to relax or block out that annoying babble from the next cubicle? Maybe you're just having a hard time falling asleep? Wouldn't it be nice to be in a garden, listening to the flow of water just a trickle away, the hum of crickets, a bird that creates melodies in the distance? Now at last you can with SonicMood! Each "Mood" is a blend of polyphonic stereo instrumentals with pleasing harmonies combined with the sounds of nature. Moods have a mellowing effect, the gentle sounds lying just below your consciousness. SonicMood comes with 42 pre-defined Moods AND you can create your own! It's ambient music at its best!
The 42 Moods use a mix of different instruments, including bells, crystals, kalimbas, glockenspiels, violins, and many others. Audio recordings of nature sounds are added to each mood. You can create your own moods or edit the existing moods. You won't find anything like this in conventional music...
What’s new in version 5.2
Version 5.2:
- Compatible with OS X 10.9 Mavericks.
- Now using the Cocoa frameworks (Intel only) for one version of SonicMood. The "Universal" version using the Carbon frameworks is also available and supported.
- Changed the version update code so SonicMood downloads the update that's the same "type" as the version that's running. So if the carbon version is running, it downloads "SonicMood Carbon.app", and if the cocoa version is running, it downloads "SonicMood Cocoa.app". Afterwards, it launches the new version which deletes the old version and then renames its file to "SonicMood.app" (although the UNIX executable retains the name of either "SonicMood Carbon" or "SonicMood Cocoa"). So the first time either version runs, it renames its file to "SonicMood.app", however the menu name will continue to be either "SonicMood Carbon" or "SonicMood Cocoa".
- Instrument names are now extracted from ".sf2" (Soundfont) files and used to label the instrument selection controls on the Edit panel. Loading of Soundfonts should be more reliable (less chance of failure) now.
- Made a change to the "Volume Settings" window so that it initially appears on top of the SonicMood window. It can be moved and will remember its position during a session, but if closed before SonicMood is quit then the next time SonicMood is launched and the "Volume Settings" window is opened it will again appear over the SonicMood window.
- The Soundfiles page on the Edit Panel now displays which soundfiles are actually audible at any moment. There's also a limiter you can apply via a slider at the top of the page which limits the number of selected soundfiles that can be audible at any one time.
- The min/max pause/play time sliders on the Soundfiles page are now logarithmic and the range is increased to 600 seconds (10 minutes). The fade time slider is now also logarithmic and the range has been doubled to 120 seconds (2 minutes).
- The Soundfile volume now fades in a logarithmic fashion with more steps for a smoother sound.
- Added a command ("remove missing soundfiles from selected moods"), available from the Moods menu or the Moods list contextual menu, that would removed any references to missing Soundfiles in the highlighted Moods.
- Added ability to replace all soundfiles with the files dropped in a folder (hold the Command key to do a replace instead of an add).
- Modified the way the master volume slider works so the soundfile volumes are immediately changed, rather than just changing the endpoint for the volume if a soundfile is fading up or down. This also affects the "sleep / wake" fade volume.
- Made some cosmetic improvements to the Edit panel pages.
- The name of the current synthesizer is now displayed in the SonicMood window's Title.
- Made a few changes so the Dock icon's right-click list includes the "Main Window" now.
- The "Live resize..." checkbox on the Preferences window, Windows tab, will only appear if the Carbon version of SonicMood is running. Also true for the SonicMood contextual menu and the "Window" menuitem. Live resize is always on for the Cocoa version.
- Moved the menuitems "New Mood" and "New Theme" from the "File" menu to the "Moods" menu since they're really not related to creating, loading, or saving files.
- Moved the MenuItem "Sleep/Wake Schedule..." from the Moods menu to the SonicMood menu.
- Fixed a crash that could happen if a Moods file with fewer Moods replaced the current Moods file where the Mood being edited was a higher number than the number of Moods in the new Mood file.
- Fixed a bug that could cause a crash when doing a "Reset to Original Moods Only" from the Moods menu, if a new Mood had been added and was currently playing.
- Fixed a bug that could cause a crash during the check for a new version.
- Fixed a major list sort bug that caused the sorted items to be in the wrong places after the sort (initiated by pressing on a listbox header).
- Fixed a bug that prevented deleting ".sf2" files from the Synths list in Preferences.
- Fixed a bug that caused numbers rather than the Musical Key to be shown in the slider on the Piano Keyboard window.
- Fixed a cosmetic issue that confused the "Tempo Multiplier," "Time Sync," and "Time Mode" control's relationship with the Note Timing settings for the instruments (on the "Inst, Vol, Notes" tab).
- Fixed a potential bug where long soundfiles are still loading while SonicMood indicates in the soundfile list that they're playing.
- Fixed a small cosmetic bug in the labeling of the Mood Sweep Mode and Soundfile Sweep Mode sliders.
- Fixed a font size bug.
- Fixed a bug in the SuperSlider class control that was causing the values during a drag slide to not be registered properly.
- Fixed a small bug that could cause some controls on the "Inst, Vol, Notes" tab of the Edit panel to get scrunched together if the window was resized horizontally so that the vertical and horizontal scrollbars were both visible.
- Fixed a minor bug that caused a momentary soundfile volume transient if the fade time slider was set to 0.
- Fixed a few contextual menu bugs in the Picture Window.
- Fixed a bug that prevented the "Soundflower not found" error message from appearing in the "Record Window".
- Fixed a cosmetic bug that caused the "Abort Conversion" button on the "Record Window" to be cut off at the bottom.
- Fixed a bug that caused a spurious "Undo Hide Ext Button" undo item in the Edit menu after changing to the Soundfiles tab on the Edit panel after starting SonicMood.
SonicMood for Mac
$6.99
In English
Version 5.2
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(42 Reviews of SonicMood)
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User Ratings
Oct 19 2023
Version: 5.2
I'm John, the developer of SonicMood and I've been "away" for a while. I no longer have a Mac, now I have a Chromebook. I seem to have lost the source code for SonicMood but I pretty much know how I created it so might try again using the developer tools Chrome contains...
We'll see.
Anyway, thanks to everyone who has left so many kind comments. SonicMood was a labor of love. It started when my (dearly departed) wife and I moved to Paradise, California (hence "Bit of Paradise Products" and there were chimes hanging on an arbor leading to one of our fruit orchards. I realized I could create those same sounds using the Mac's synth and, essentially, a random number generator. That's how SonicMood started.
My wife passed from lung cancer (don't smoke!) in 2018. I miss her all day, every day...
OK, that's it for now ;-)
Mar 18 2015
Version: 5.2
To John, the Developer & You, the User,
What a shame SonicMood is no longer available. It was a superb application that let you freely mix sounds and themes and layer them. This meant you could created thousands of ambient, relaxing sound and music.
I used SonicMood all the time. It was especially useful when having to think deeply about things I was writing up in research papers. I also hooked up my Mac to the lecture room sound system and played used the sound and music when my students were working on projects - it really relaxed the whole atmosphere of the room! And because with SonicMood the music and ambient sound mix was created by the user, this meant I do not have to worry about copyright issues.
If the developer of SonicMood, John, is reading this, I want to thank you sooooo much for your wonderful creation. I am not sure why SonicMood suddenly vanished from cyberspace. But I hope you are well. And if there is any chance that you can revive SonicMood, many would be forever grateful.
It is so true the saying that " ... you never realize what you have got until it is gone." I wanted to install SonicMood on my bran new Mac, but discovered it is no longer available. I miss it already!
I regret that I did not thank you enough John for your work. If you do revive SonicMood, I would have no hesitation of purchasing it again. Not only that, I would encourage you to charge for updates. I don't believe I ever was asked to pay for an update since the initial purchase in 2009! It was so obvious you put so much loving care into the development of this application.
All the best from Japan! :)
What a shame SonicMood is no longer available. It was a superb application that let you freely mix sounds and themes and layer them. This meant you could created thousands of ambient, relaxing sound and music.
I used SonicMood all the time. It was especially useful when having to think deeply about things I was writing up in research papers. I also hooked up my Mac to the lecture room sound system and played used the sound and music when my students were working on projects - it really relaxed the whole atmosphere of the room! And because with SonicMood the music and ambient sound mix was created by the user, this meant I do not have to worry about copyright issues.
If the developer of SonicMood, John, is reading this, I want to thank you sooooo much for your wonderful creation. I am not sure why SonicMood suddenly vanished from cyberspace. But I hope you are well. And if there is any chance that you can revive SonicMood, many would be forever grateful.
It is so true the saying that " ... you never realize what you have got until it is gone." I wanted to install SonicMood on my bran new Mac, but discovered it is no longer available. I miss it already!
I regret that I did not thank you enough John for your work. If you do revive SonicMood, I would have no hesitation of purchasing it again. Not only that, I would encourage you to charge for updates. I don't believe I ever was asked to pay for an update since the initial purchase in 2009! It was so obvious you put so much loving care into the development of this application.
All the best from Japan! :)
Aug 26 2013
Version: 5.1.0
SonicMood was a pleasant surprise for me. I am working on the PC the whole day doing software development. My working space is the usual office environment with people talking, phones ringing and smartphones pinging. SonicMoods wonderful relaxing Moods keep me focused on the tasks at hand. The soundscapes it creates never get boring. And there are so many controls to fiddle with this app will keep me focused for years to come. Very much recommended!
