melody project

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

Melody project – update 8

I was too tired to podcast yesterday; maybe I will today. But I’m still really tired due to my sleep schedule being awfully messed up, so who knows.

So… about my Android melody generator project… Part of me really wants to maximize profits for this thing, so, as mentioned before I am preparing to query producers about my screenplay yet again, this time mentioning that a music box that writes infinite melodies is a true possibility. (At least, to the extent that my program can do it.) Part of me also wants to focus on the algorithmic programming of this generator, and not worry so much about creating a user interface for it, for Android or anything else. So, if a movie deal doesn’t work out (it would be a miracle if it did), I’m seriously considering just hiring / outsourcing some other person or company to program the interface. It would be less work for me, and, with experience, they’d probably do a better job than me anyway. Problem is I’m not sure how much that would cost… anyway, the point is that an actual Android app is still at least months away, because I want to give the movie idea a chance, as to me that seems like the most lucrative (though least likely) path.

By S P Hannifin, ago

Stories and code and stuff and whatever

I hit a snag in my in-progress short story Through a Flame of Blue and Green. I realized one of my scenes is purely expositional. The information given in the scene is important for the story, but there’s no action, at least no action that’s important to the story. My natural response to this snag is to just stop writing the story until I can figure out a way to make the scene work. “But wait,” I say to myself, “just skip the scene! Come back to it later!” Of course! Why didn’t I think of that? “You just did!” I say to myself. Oh yeah! Both I and me are the same! So I’ll do that… later.

I’m still working on my Android melody generator program as well, but learning to program Android interfaces is boooooooooring, so progress is slow. However, a friend of mine recently gave me some extremely helpful feedback on the screenplay I wrote last year, The Melody Box, so I’ve been thinking about sending out another round of query letters, this time mentioning that a potential film could have the tie-in of software that does what the melody box in the screenplay does: generate melodies. Seems like both products would boost interest in each other. Not sure if that will truly interest anyone, but it’s worth a try, yes? Then I’ll get back to trying to learn how to program Android interfaces.

Other than that, I’ve been endlessly tweaking my outlines for Atarius Destroy This World. There are some tricky little issues here and there. But I’ll probably start writing on Saturday or next week. I’m kind of scared to start. I’ll have to keep saying to myself: “It’s just a rough draft. It’s allowed to be awful. Just get something down.”

By S P Hannifin, ago

Melody project: the great reprogramming – update 7

Whew, I can’t believe it’s Friday already. This week I’ve been mostly learning Android programming. I played around with some OpenGL graphics programming for Android a year and a half ago, but that experience is really no help for what I want to do now. So I’ve been going through a book on Android programming and playing around with some examples. There’s a lot to learn, so I’m not sure how long this will take, but I’ve only got 8 more weeks until my leave of absence from Animation Mentor ends, so I hope it won’t take too long… even though there are features I still want to add to my melody generator, I wouldn’t mind releasing it as it is (at a small cost) if I end up running out of time. So my priority now is programming an Android interface for the program.

And that is all I have to say at this moment.

Happy Easter!

By S P Hannifin, ago

Making a list… checking it once…

There are still plenty of features I’d like to give my melody generator eventually, but there are only certain features I think really need to be a part of my melody generator before I work on getting it out there for the world to play around with (in the form of an Android app). So here’s what I hope to work on before I try selling it:

1. – A couple minor changes to the main algorithm. (And fix that bug mentioned in the last post.)
2. – The ability to write 8-bar and 16-bar melodies.
3. – The ability to compose in any key.
4. – The ability to write a melody in major or minor.
5. – The ability to let the user decide the chord progression.
6. – The ability to let the user decide the ending note.
7. – The ability to let the user decide the tempo.
8. – The ability to write a melody in 2/4, 4/4, 3/4, or 6/8.
9. – Create an Android interface for all this.

Obviously there are other features I’d like my program to have eventually (more bar amount possibilities, more time signatures, key changes within a melody, etc.), but they can wait until the program is actually out there and on the market.

By S P Hannifin, ago

1,000 computer generated melodies…

For the past couple days, I’ve been working on getting my melody generation program to output MIDI files so I wouldn’t have to convert them manually from a text file, which takes an annoying amount of time. And… I’ve done it, haha! So now I can tell my program… hey, I want 1,000 melodies, go. And it spits it all out over the course of a couple minutes. So here are 1,000 short little MIDI files my program wrote just a few moments ago, in a zip file:

Zip file with 1000 computer generated melodies

Some notes:

1. – Again, the program is currently restricted to 8-bar melodies in 4/4 time, and must start with the I chord and end on the tonic.

2. – For the sake of a little variety, I set the tempo to be a random BPM between 80 and 150, and the key signature to be random between A major and D major (it starts in C major then just shifts all notes up or down).

3. – There is one small bug you might hear in some of the melodies: the bass notes are shifted offbeat. I’m workin’ on it. Fortunately it doesn’t seem to happen often.

By S P Hannifin, ago