melody project

That book on melody…

I started writing a book on melody back in 2008, I think it was. Maybe even a bit before then. But then I got sidetracked programming melody generators, namely my Android app and my online version. I learned quite a lot from these endeavors, so I’m glad I spent time with them before continuing my book; it made for fantastic research. I still plan on creating a desktop version of the melody generator, but there’s a lot of interface programming to learn. I really hate interface programming!

In the meantime, I’m returning to writing that book on melody. I’m starting it from scratch, though I have plenty of notes to work from that I made while programming the melody generators, so I have almost all the content I need. It’s just a matter of sorting it out and presenting it in an easy-to-follow way.

For now, I aim on having it done by the Fourth of July, and then releasing it as soon as I can after that. It will most likely be a self-published ebook, though I’m not yet sure how I’ll sell it. I’ll worry about that later.

And now I better turn off my computer… big storm above…

By S P Hannifin, ago

Computer generated sea chanteys!

How often have you been sitting there thinking: “Oh my gosh! I wish I had some new sea chantey melodies to play on an instrument and/or write lyrics to!”  Probably more times than you care to count, eh?

Well, fear no more!  The sea chantey melody generator is finally here!  That’s right; in less than a second, the sea chantey melody generator will generate hundreds of sea chantey melodies for you, filled with those catchy memorable sea chantey melody patterns.

Here is a sample of 100 sea chantey melodies as generated by the generator.  Feel free to write lyrics for them and add them to your collection of sea chantey goodness.

The sea chantey melody generator is available for just 5 easy payments of $50,000.

Seriously, though, I’ve been working on getting my melody generator to compose in “styles” and sea-chantey-style was my first experiment.  I look forward to trying some other styles.  As usual, the melody generator is restricted to 8-bar melodies in 4/4 time, a restriction I still haven’t programmed my way out of, but trying to get the generator to work with styles has been a more interesting endeavor recently.

By S P Hannifin, ago

Melody Generator for the web progress…

Finally fixed this blog’s recent comment-spam problem by adding a CAPTCHA plugin.  Duh.  Why didn’t I think of that before?

Anyway, my Melody Generator for the web is slowly coming along.  It mainly consists of two pages.  First, the "Compose Melody" page:

mgw2

Above you can see all the functionality the melody generator should have.  Right now, none of those options actually work, except for the “Melody name” field and the “Compose melody” button.  The rest still needs to be programmed, which is what I’ll be working on for the next few weeks or so.  After you hit the “Compose melody” button, the melody plays as a MIDI file at the top.  If you like the melody, you can download it right away, or you can save it to your Library.

And that’s the second page, “My Library”:

mgw1

The library section should be pretty self-explanatory; you can go through your list of saved melodies and download them, play them, or delete them.  You’re allowed to save up to 5,000 melodies, though if you actually compose that many, you are probably somewhat insane.

After I finish programming the functionality for the melody generation options, I’ll have to program some user-settings (such as the ability to change your password).  Not sure how long it’ll take, but I’ll keep the blog updated.  Maybe.

By S P Hannifin, ago

Web-based melody generator?

Grrr, my poor blog here has recently been getting overly abused by the WordPress comment spambots (of the “You, sir, have valuable information here, I will check back for more of your posts” variety) of which quite a few are slipping past WordPress’s Akismet plugin. I don’t want to have to moderate all the comments to prevent the spam from showing up, but if it doesn’t die down, I might have to do that, at least temporarily… for now, I’m just manually deleting the spam. How annoying…

Anyway, about that melody generator… I’ve heard some interest from people who don’t have Android and therefore can’t use my melody-generating Android app, so I’ve been hoping to make a web-based version of the program for some time now. And since I recently redesigned the algorithm to be much more efficient computing-power-wise, I think it should now be perfectly feasible for a server-side program to handle it. I don’t plan to abandon the Android update I’ve been working on, but it may be delayed a bit; a web-based melody generator just has a far larger market. So I’ve been working on that for the past couple days, really brushing up on my web development scripting skills. It will still be a lot of work, but I look forward to seeing how it will turn out.

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

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