In my latest TuneSage devlog, I demonstrate the generator’s ability to compose different melodic forms, custom chord progressions, and partial rerolls for selected notes! Which, as mentioned in the last post, were pretty much the final features I wanted to include before launching…
I’m hoping to launch the web app in just a week or two, between July 31st and August 7th. I want to spend a few more days honing the default generic style it will launch with, then do an overhaul of the interface, polishing up its look and feel. I’ve also got to set up user accounts, logins, that sort of thing, but that shouldn’t be difficult.
It will be a SaaS, a subscription web app, monthly or yearly. At launch, I’ll probably offer an “early adopter” price for the first 100 or 250 users, perhaps $5 a month? And then upping to $9 a month afterwards. And then the fun of seeing how long it will take to get traction! (As I continue building the tool, of course.)
I’ve recently been working on a “pop” style for melodies, but they still sound a bit generic at this point. (There are plenty of samples in the video below.) With melodic styles having a lot of overlap, I’m not quite sure how or where I’ll end up drawing distinctions. But I’m less focused on delineating styles at the moment, and more focused on broad capabilities, making sure new things it learns remain compatible with what it’s already learned. For now, it’s got two new “forms”: a 4-bar phrase that repeats, and a 2-bar phrase that repeats twice followed by a 2-bar closing. It’s also does some minor syncopation now and then, and I’ve added a setting that allows users to set the “note density” to fine, medium, or coarse. (Fine means: more syncopation, more 16th notes, sounds better at slower tempos. Coarse means the opposite: less syncopation, no 16th notes, sounds better at faster tempos.)
I also added “theme blocks”, the idea being that one can write a mockup for a whole song by stringing together multiple themes.
Still much work to do, including what I mentioned last time: allowing the user to “lock in” part of a melody and have TuneSage regenerate the rest. I need more forms, especially ones longer and shorter than 8 bars. I’d like to allow the user to generate chord progressions separate from the melody, or supply their own chord progressions.
Even with such a lot of remaining work to do, I’d really like to release the app as soon as possible, despite its initial shortcomings, just to see if anyone out there is even interested in paying for such a thing, and if so, get some real user feedback. I’m aiming for releasing it at the end of July or early August. I’m tempted to continually put it off later and later as I add more capabilities, but I could probably continually do that for years, and I’ve already spent way too many years just getting my initial music theory ideas to this current state. Stay tuned!
(P.S. I’m also making the devlog videos on YouTube to help me practice presenting, as I don’t think I am very good at it.)
