Bounce Metronome Pro rhythm player with swing, first release, version 3.1 including polyrhythmic harmonic metronome.

Hi there,

Here is the release of Bounce Metronome Pro 3.1:

http://www.bouncemetronome.com/index.htm
Though it's first release as a separate program, it's developed from Tune Smithy's rhythm player which is why the version number is 3.1.

It takes the user friendliness of my programs to a whole new level. So although it's main emphasis is on rhythm rather than pitch, it gives you a taste for what is in store with Tune Smithy itself when I release version 3.1 probably some time this summer. After that the plan is to release the main tasks for Tune Smithy as separate programs, like this one, and with the same emphasis on user friendliness and immediacy and ease of use.

I have also improved accessibility for blind users in many ways and if you are blind you'll find that there's a new main window which is designed just for use with your screenreader. I tested it with Jaws, Window Eyes, the free screen reader Thunder, and with Microsoft Narrator. I am very interested in any comments or suggestions and anything that might improve accessibility further in the future.

As you'll see here, all the features are accessible apart from obviously the ones that you can only work with visually such as the gravity bounce:
http://www.bouncemetronome.com/details.htm#main_text

It's main emphasis is on rhythms of all sorts, including swing, polyrhythms, additive rhythms etc. However, it does have one interesting microtonal feature in its harmonic metronome.

To find that, first show the swing and rhythms, and show the melodic instruments via the Options menu.

Then you can go to the Metronome menu then to the Harmonics Metronome (CONTROL+ 229)

It's an interesting way of combining rhythms with pitch, you play a polyrhythm e.g. 5/4 played with 3/4 simultaneously (those are time signatures) then the idea is to use the beats ratios as pitch ratios so you play 5/4 and 3/4 as pitches as well. Or variations on that idea.

You can also play a cycle of polyrhythmic harmonic metronomes, each one for several bars at a time - as you'll discover - there's a special option to do that in the Harmonics Metronome window.

Bounce metronome can also play irrational meters, i.e. truly irrational rhythms like PI/4 where you have PI beats to the bar so the beats drift in and out of phase with the bar.

One example I particularly like involves playing the golden ratio pitch interval, which is the furthest from just intonation in a certain sense, together with beats also at a golden ratio - so the most inharmonic possible pitch ratio and the most polyrhythmic possible rhythm played together.

To do that you would first set it to play a harmonic metronome or subharmonic metronome. Then go to Combine Rhythms (CONTROL+ 217). In that window, change to the Fractional beats per bar examples. Then try out the golden ratio preset (Alt + G).

That may relate to the discussion I dropped in on here a couple of times a week or so ago about the golden ratio. Although the golden ratio is not that far away from just intonation ratios, as it gets approached closer and closer by the sequence 5/3, 8/5, 13/8, 21/13, 34/21 and it sounds pleasant and harmonious enough to my ear, yet it's somehow in a "way out" territory of the harmonic landscape as well, being in a certain sense as inharmonic as it possibly be. Playing the two pitches using beats at the golden ratio to each other combines this most inharmonic interval, with the most polyrhythmic rhythm in a certain sense, which maybe somehow brings out the distinctive character of both the pitch and the rhythm.

At any rate I find it very soothing to listen to. Also the other golden ratio preset there 1 g g^2 g^3 where g is the golden ratio.

The harmonic metronomes are also soothing to listen to as well. Possibly they may turn out to be of interest to music therapists. This line of exploration arose from an exploration of how to play ratios of Barbara Hero's Lambdoma pitches as rhythms after she asked me if Tune Smithy could do this.

There are other microtonal features as well. If you go to the Instruments for Parts window (Control + 9) again set to the Pro metronome with melodic features, then you'll see an option to make a new tune using fractals. If you choose that option you can play your tune using any SCALA scale so any tuning you like, with the usual option to choose modes for the scales as well, as "Arpeggios" and to make your own versions, just as with Tune Smithy.

However here this is very much limited to tunes to just add a bit of melody to your rhythms to hear what they sound like melodically. It's not really intended as a fractal tune explorer as such. That will come later on, when I revise the fractal player in the same way. So for now it is just a taste of the future. The tunes you make here can't be opened in FTS 3.0 because they use new features such as the skipped rhythms, so for those interested in algo comp, you'll need to wait for FTS 3.1 before you can explore the skipped beat type rhythms and other new innovations of Bounce Metronome Pro with the flexibility of the FTS fractal composer.

There's nothing new here for those who want to do midi keyboard retuning or retune their compositions. Just gives you an idea of how my programs are becoming more user friendly. You'll see how FTS has developed when I update FTS to version 3.1 in the summer, then after that will start splitting it into separate programs all being well, like this one.

So anyway, a couple of interesting things and a taste for what you may see in the future as the rest of my programs move over to this new level of user friendliness.

Thanks for your interest, and I hope you don't mind if I cross post this to both tuning and makemicromusic as I think it will be of interest to both groups so if I post to only one of the groups then some may get left out.

If there is any follow up I'm very interested in comments, suggestions etc. After all the work of the coding I'll be letting up for a few days so may have a bit more time to follow the forums and join in discussions than I have been recently. Or contact me directly at support@...

Here is the download url again:
http://www.bouncemetronome.com/index.htm

Thanks,

Robert (Walker)

http://www.robertinventor.com

When you get around to producing software for Mac OSX, I might consider using/buying it. In the meantime you seem to be stuck in M$ hell;-)

On 15 Apr 2009, at 20:37, Robert walker wrote:

>
>
>
> Hi there,
>
> Here is the release of Bounce Metronome Pro 3.1:
>
> http://www.bouncemetronome.com/index.htm
> Though it's first release as a separate program, it's developed from > Tune Smithy's rhythm player which is why the version number is 3.1.
>
> It takes the user friendliness of my programs to a whole new level. > So although it's main emphasis is on rhythm rather than pitch, it > gives you a taste for what is in store with Tune Smithy itself when > I release version 3.1 probably some time this summer. After that the > plan is to release the main tasks for Tune Smithy as separate > programs, like this one, and with the same emphasis on user > friendliness and immediacy and ease of use.
>
> I have also improved accessibility for blind users in many ways and > if you are blind you'll find that there's a new main window which is > designed just for use with your screenreader. I tested it with Jaws, > Window Eyes, the free screen reader Thunder, and with Microsoft > Narrator. I am very interested in any comments or suggestions and > anything that might improve accessibility further in the future.
>
> As you'll see here, all the features are accessible apart from > obviously the ones that you can only work with visually such as the > gravity bounce:
> http://www.bouncemetronome.com/details.htm#main_text
>
> It's main emphasis is on rhythms of all sorts, including swing, > polyrhythms, additive rhythms etc. However, it does have one > interesting microtonal feature in its harmonic metronome.
>
> To find that, first show the swing and rhythms, and show the melodic > instruments via the Options menu.
>
> Then you can go to the Metronome menu then to the Harmonics > Metronome (CONTROL+ 229)
>
> It's an interesting way of combining rhythms with pitch, you play a > polyrhythm e.g. 5/4 played with 3/4 simultaneously (those are time > signatures) then the idea is to use the beats ratios as pitch ratios > so you play 5/4 and 3/4 as pitches as well. Or variations on that > idea.
>
> You can also play a cycle of polyrhythmic harmonic metronomes, each > one for several bars at a time - as you'll discover - there's a > special option to do that in the Harmonics Metronome window.
>
> Bounce metronome can also play irrational meters, i.e. truly > irrational rhythms like PI/4 where you have PI beats to the bar so > the beats drift in and out of phase with the bar.
>
> One example I particularly like involves playing the golden ratio > pitch interval, which is the furthest from just intonation in a > certain sense, together with beats also at a golden ratio - so the > most inharmonic possible pitch ratio and the most polyrhythmic > possible rhythm played together.
>
> To do that you would first set it to play a harmonic metronome or > subharmonic metronome. Then go to Combine Rhythms (CONTROL+ 217). In > that window, change to the Fractional beats per bar examples. Then > try out the golden ratio preset (Alt + G).
>
> That may relate to the discussion I dropped in on here a couple of > times a week or so ago about the golden ratio. Although the golden > ratio is not that far away from just intonation ratios, as it gets > approached closer and closer by the sequence 5/3, 8/5, 13/8, 21/13, > 34/21 and it sounds pleasant and harmonious enough to my ear, yet > it's somehow in a "way out" territory of the harmonic landscape as > well, being in a certain sense as inharmonic as it possibly be. > Playing the two pitches using beats at the golden ratio to each > other combines this most inharmonic interval, with the most > polyrhythmic rhythm in a certain sense, which maybe somehow brings > out the distinctive character of both the pitch and the rhythm.
>
> At any rate I find it very soothing to listen to. Also the other > golden ratio preset there 1 g g^2 g^3 where g is the golden ratio.
>
> The harmonic metronomes are also soothing to listen to as well. > Possibly they may turn out to be of interest to music therapists. > This line of exploration arose from an exploration of how to play > ratios of Barbara Hero's Lambdoma pitches as rhythms after she asked > me if Tune Smithy could do this.
>
> There are other microtonal features as well. If you go to the > Instruments for Parts window (Control + 9) again set to the Pro > metronome with melodic features, then you'll see an option to make a > new tune using fractals. If you choose that option you can play your > tune using any SCALA scale so any tuning you like, with the usual > option to choose modes for the scales as well, as "Arpeggios" and to > make your own versions, just as with Tune Smithy.
>
> However here this is very much limited to tunes to just add a bit of > melody to your rhythms to hear what they sound like melodically. > It's not really intended as a fractal tune explorer as such. That > will come later on, when I revise the fractal player in the same > way. So for now it is just a taste of the future. The tunes you make > here can't be opened in FTS 3.0 because they use new features such > as the skipped rhythms, so for those interested in algo comp, you'll > need to wait for FTS 3.1 before you can explore the skipped beat > type rhythms and other new innovations of Bounce Metronome Pro with > the flexibility of the FTS fractal composer.
>
> There's nothing new here for those who want to do midi keyboard > retuning or retune their compositions. Just gives you an idea of how > my programs are becoming more user friendly. You'll see how FTS has > developed when I update FTS to version 3.1 in the summer, then after > that will start splitting it into separate programs all being well, > like this one.
>
> So anyway, a couple of interesting things and a taste for what you > may see in the future as the rest of my programs move over to this > new level of user friendliness.
>
> Thanks for your interest, and I hope you don't mind if I cross post > this to both tuning and makemicromusic as I think it will be of > interest to both groups so if I post to only one of the groups then > some may get left out.
>
> If there is any follow up I'm very interested in comments, > suggestions etc. After all the work of the coding I'll be letting up > for a few days so may have a bit more time to follow the forums and > join in discussions than I have been recently. Or contact me > directly at support@...
>
> Here is the download url again:
> http://www.bouncemetronome.com/index.htm
>
> Thanks,
>
> Robert (Walker)
>
> http://www.robertinventor.com
>
>
Charles Lucy
lucy@...

- Promoting global harmony through LucyTuning -

for information on LucyTuning go to:
http://www.lucytune.com

For LucyTuned Lullabies go to:
http://www.lullabies.co.uk

Welcome to the Alternate Tunings Mailing List.Hi Charles,

Sorry I can't help there, wish I could :-). I've explored this a fair bit, but haven't come up with any really good solution yet.

In the past, some users have run Tune Smithy under windows on a Mac with a virtual machine, and that's the nearest I've come to a solution. It's possible Bounce Metronome might work that way.

YOU can run the virtual machine within your Mac on its desktop, at least that's how it works on Windows, I can run e.g. Linux on my desktop here, and I gather it is fairly similar on the Mac, indeed better in some ways, if you use Parallels Desktop for Mac then the windows apps integrate seamlessly into the desktop - we don't have anything like that yet for Windows as far as I know:.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallels_Desktop_for_Mac
NOT TESTED with Bounce Metronome.

The minus side is that it may or may not work. It may also be slower though modern virtual machines have a low CPU overhead and computers are now fast enough to make them more practical than they used to be - Virtual PC on my new Vista machine is probably faster then my XP laptop of a few years ago. Also there may be sound issues especially if it needs to emulate a soundcard.

So - if one has a vitual windows machine anyway or have the opportunity to try it out then it could be worth exploring. Parallels desktop itself isn't that expensive and you can download a trial version of it, the main thing is the windows software, they don't do trial versions of Windows for download though one may be able to get one on CD.

Another approach is to write platform independent code, as Manuel does for Scala - I might explore that some day and spend some time learning how to do it - but you need to decide to work that way when you begin the project, so it would involve writing a new program pretty much from scratch if I do. So, I'm not likely to attempt to duplicate Tune Smithy in that way.

There doesn't seem to be any way to convert existing platform dependent code to another operating system. So we are left with these three possibilities - running it in a virtual machine - writing platform independent code in the first place - or duplicate code for both platforms.

Thanks for your support anyway and yes, my programs are for Windows only and I should have said that in the post, sorry.

Robert

http://www.bouncemetronome.com