2011

Android Melody Generator released

I’ve been tweeting it, but I have to officially blog it too…

My Android Melody Generator app is now available on the Android market! I still need to redesign the website for it, melodygenerator.com and create some more graphics, but that will have to wait a day or two. Here’s my description:

Easily generate short tonal melodies for your songs or compositions.
Melody Generator for Android uses a new theory of melody to automatically generate melodies with the tap of a finger. Melody Generator can provide quick and easy assistance to composers and songwriters who need quick melody ideas, or to any music lover who just wants to play around. The current version of Melody Generator (Version 1) includes the following features:

– 8 bar melodies
– Time signatures: 4/4, 3/4, 2/4, 6/8
– Random chord progressions
– Random or custom key signatures (A, Bb, B, C, Db, D)
– Random or custom tempos
– Use of whole notes, half note, quarter notes, 8th notes, and 16th notes

The Melody Generator saves melodies as short MIDI files to your SD card, and allows you to browse through and listen to them after they are generated. Check out the website for sample output. Of course, more features are in the works!

By S P Hannifin, ago

The Android Melody Generator – coming this week

The first version of my Android Melody Generator app is complete. The only things left to be done do not involve programming:

– create an icon for it
– create some screenshots for it
– create a little website for it that includes examples and some documentation (I purchased the domain melodygenerator.com … it’s simple and to-the-point … nothing’s there yet, but there should be soon)

And that’s it! Then I will upload it to the Android market. It will be $4.99. Might even be done by this time tomorrow.

I will admit this: one of the problems I have with the app is that, at least for me, it becomes more addicting to just have it write melodies and listen to the results than to actually spend the time using the melodies in my own work. For me, it’s a bit more like a musical toy than a tool. But that’s just a testament to how much I enjoy it. And I’m obviously quite biased.

Is it done? Does it work? Am I finished? … I am finished. It works. It is done. I am a genius. Sean, you are an unadulterated genius. You are an indisputable extraordinary — is that bug? No, it’s not. You’re a fool. You are finished. And it begins…

Careful, careful, mustn’t get excited, mustn’t overdo it. Slowly, don’t rush, you’ll get used to it in no time. Look at it! Incredible! What an app to use, what an app to write! I shall be inspired, I shall turn out symphonies and operas, measures by the ton, at last I have an app, and everyone will know, everyone in the world, everyone will know that it’s here. It is here! It is here!

By S P Hannifin, ago

Melody generator – almost done

My Android melody generator is complete (at least what will be the first version of it).  All I have to do now is put in some anti-piracy measures (though I know no method is ever 100% effective) and figure out how to get it on the Android market.  Not sure how long that will take, but hopefully less than a week.  And, as I said last time, I need to create an icon for it, take some screenshots of it, and make a little website for it, but that stuff should take less than a day to do.

And who didn’t think I could do it?  Who doubted me?  Who said it couldn’t be done?  There’s a traitor amongst us who does not belong… maybe it is Glenn Close dressed as a man…

By S P Hannifin, ago

Melody project – update 9

Whew, I haven’t blogged yet this month. Animation Mentor starts back up in less than two weeks, on June 27th, and my semester-long leave of absence will be over. I’m excited to get back to animation, but I’m not excited about free time being reduced once again to almost zilch.

Anyway, I’ve been continuing to work on my Android melody generator app, hoping to get it completed before Animation Mentor starts. It’s coming along slowly but surely…

The interface is pretty much complete, and most of the functionality is there. (The interface is nothing fancy, just Android’s default style menus and such, but I’ve been focusing on the algorithms, not fancy interfaces.) I could probably try releasing it now if I really wanted. There are just a few bugs here and there to work out, and then I need to figure out what to do to actually get it on the market. And then I need make an icon for it, take some screenshots of it, and make a little website for it.

I won’t get much done tonight, though… after work, I’ll be spending the evening at the movie theater, watching Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Extended Edition. Bwahahaha! I actually never saw FotR in theaters, so this should make up for it.

By S P Hannifin, ago

Memorial Day weekend

Hope everyone had a good Memorial Day weekend (or regular weekend). I spent the three-day weekend sleeping in, watching movies, reading, and working on a new piece of music. This is so far the only piece I’ve had time to write this year of 2011. Feels great to write some music again. After I write music, I sort of become obsessed with it and listen to it over and over a bazillion times…

Movies watched include: The Roommate (creepy and ultimately kinda pointless, but a good movie to make fun of while watching with others), The Fighter, Momento (a fun movie, but not as amazing as everyone says… kinda gimmicky… still a good movie, but all of Christopher Nolan’s later movies are better in my opinion), Gnomeo and Juliette (what producers thought this was a good idea?), Despicable Me, and Kung Fu Panda (hilarious film… will probably go see Kung Fu Panda 2 sometime soon… great 2D animation at the beginning and end as well).

Yeah, that was pretty much the weekend. Movies and music. Went by way too fast. Later today, I’m going to let the rest of my frogs go.

By S P Hannifin, ago

Roll of queries, hear my cry

Last night I sent out another small batch of query letters to producers regarding my screenplay The Melody Box, only this time I made mention of my small new site www.TheRealMelodyBox.com, showing off my attempt at programming a program that does what the melody box in the screenplay does: generates melodies. I’m hoping the potential software-movie tie-in will appeal to someone out there. It’s a bit of a long shot, but any attempt to break into the film business from the outside is probably a long shot. But it would probably be the most rewarding, I imagine. So we’ll see what happens. I hope to send out some more query letters over the weekend, and a friend suggested making a YouTube video with some of the melodies arranged into a more orchestrated piece, which I also hope to do over the weekend. Luck, be a lady…

By S P Hannifin, ago

Novel progress…

I’m about 5,200 words into my novel Atarius Destroy This World. Overall, it’s going well; the beginning always seems the most exciting. I’m coming up on the “catalyst” scene, the scene in which the main character walks out of his home to go on his adventure. It’s interesting to see the characters take shape in ways I didn’t plan in the outline. I actually changed one of the viewpoint characters from male to female; for some reason it just seems to make the character dynamics more interesting. It was originally going to be a guy named Riklorien, father of the main character Atarius, but now it is Rillorien, mother of Atarius. The plot will stay the same, just writing from Rillorien’s point of view seems more interesting, I guess because a mother figure will feel more nurturing or something. Another non-viewpoint character named Toller is turning into a sort of a comic-relief character (if you can call my corny humor comic-relief), which I didn’t quite expect, but it works. In the outline he seems more like a dark almost semi-evil character, but having him be more comical makes him more likeable. After all, he’s not supposed to be evil, he can just be a bit manipulative and determined at times. Anyway, all the characters are still taking shape, so I expect their personalities will continue to grow.

I’ve also got some query letters for film producers to send out regarding my screenplay The Melody Box, queries that mention my in-development melody composing software. I just want to create a little website showcasing some of the program’s output first so producers can take a listen if they have the time and actually read my letter before tossing it. I was going to work on the site yesterday, but lost track of time novel-writing.

By S P Hannifin, ago

Homepage redesign

If you haven’t noticed yet, I’ve redesigned my main site. It is now extremely simple, mostly just a collection of links. That’s really the only purpose it was serving before, but it was much more cluttered and clunky, and the CMS I was using (called “Dragonfly”) was out-of-date and had some problems rejecting certain IPs and newer browsers. I did have some forums there which had about 35 members, but I doubt many will miss it; most people registered, posted a few questions to me, then left forever. In case any future visitors want to do the same, I created a new forum with phpBB, though until I become rich and famous, I know that it won’t get much traffic. Now I just need to recreate a “links” section for it…

What do you think of the WizardWalk.com redesign?

  • I have never seen true beauty until this day (67%, 2 Votes)
  • It's just OK, and I don't really care (33%, 1 Votes)
  • It's pretty good, but not great (0%, 0 Votes)
  • It's kinda lame (0%, 0 Votes)
  • I have never felt so sick from just a website (0%, 0 Votes)

Total Voters: 3

Loading ... Loading ...
By S P Hannifin, ago

Death to high school English… ?

My friend Scott posted this article on Facebook: Death to high school English.

My reply:

It’s funny (in the ironic sense) that the author of the article complains so much about how bad her students’ writing is, yet she never actually defends its importance. Her reasoning behind why writing is important seems to be: “It just is.” This prevents her from seeing the heart of the problem: No one cares how they communicate subjects that bore them. Writing is not just about coherent communication, it’s about communicating something that’s important to the communicator. And that’s not something a teacher can ever decide.

I like how her friend says in reply to the question of importance: “No one asks this question about calculus, but who uses calculus besides math majors? If the question’s going to be asked about writing it should be asked about every subject.” She should read this blog! I certainly ask the question of every subject. Unfortunately she seems to have no reply for it, other than she hates it. That’s a pretty poorly reasoned argument.

By S P Hannifin, ago