I'm a music and 3D software developer, author of Tune Smithy, Bounce Metronome, Lissajous 3D, Virtual Flower and Activity Timer. Recently I've been spending perhaps half my time writing science blog articles with a strong focus on planetary protection, and careful and responsible space exploration respecting Earth as our "pale blue dot", a place to cherish, and the only place in our solar system where humans can live without protection from a vacuum or a hazardous atmosphere. You can help support me to continue both of these ventures, the science blogging and the software development.
It's about protecting the most potentially vulnerable places our solar system from the effects of invasive microbes from Mars, for instance places where there could (amongst many possibilities) be early life that got out competed by DNA life on Earth long ago. Also making sure Earth is kept safe from microbes we might return from other places in our solar system, perhaps even based on a different biochemistry. As far as I know it's only the second book written on planetary protection for the general public It's now 1800 pages and growing. My first full length (more than novel sized) kindle book was :Case for Moon First, about the Moon as the cool place for space geeks in the 2020s. The idea is, no need to risk trashing Mars, let's go to the Moon which we already know how to go to. I was surprised to find that in many ways it is actually much better than Mars, for humans, and then went on to go into details about lunar gardening and all sorts.
If you wonder how anyone could be a gardener on the Moon - well it's not a patch on Earth of course, even Bouvet Island, glacier covered, the most remote island in the world, is a far easier place to live than the Moon. But the Moon is sunny at the poles, 24/7, year round, except during solar eclipses, and for a few days of the year when the sun dips below the horizon. It also has ice nearby in the permanently shadowed craters, which for humans in space is probably more valuable than gold or platinum right now. If we can use it, it could make the poles of the Moon the "des res" of the solar system outside of Earth.
I also answer questions on Quora where I've been one of the top writers for the last two years, and my answers there now amount to around 450,000 words or 1000 pages. I write on many other topics. See the list of my answers on Quora A selection of my Quora answershave been featured on Business Insider, Forbes, Huffington Post, Newsweek, and Slate and I have andmy own blog on Science 2.0
I was invited to David Livingston's "The Space Show" after I wrote "Ten Reasons Not to Live on Mars, Great Place to Explore"in August 2013. Since then I've been invited back four more times. See Robert Walker at The Space Show. This is a guest interview lasting usually one to two hours in which he and his listeners ask questions about some topic to do with space and often human space exploration. None of it is prepared in advance so you never know what you are going to be asked. You get challenging and searching questions by email or phone. He gets a mix of top names in the space industry and science bloggers, authors etc like myself. Most of my visits there have been connected with planetary protection in one way or another.
I'm not paid for any of this. I have switched off ads on my Science 2.0 posts - as much as I am permitted to (you don't see any at all if you are logged in) and don't take any income from the few that I can't switch off.
My only income is from kindle books. In 2016-7 I earned $275. Of that, $50 was for my bookDoomsday Debunked, all the proceeds of which go to suicide prevention charities (currentlyBefrienders Worldwide)
MUSIC AND 3D SOFTWARE
I have many enthusiastic buyers of my software, but it's a niche market. My most popular programs appeal to microtonalist composers and musicians who work with complex rhythms and polyrhythms. The musician's market is dominated of course by the big players like Sibelius, Finale, Kontakt, Cockos Reaper, Cakewalk SONAR, FL Studio, Ableton LIve, Propellorhead Reason, Steinberg Cubase, Apple Logic, Avid Pro Tools, etc.
My metronome particularly would appeal to a wide audience of musicians, if only they could find it. But you wouldn't believe how many metronome programs there are out there if you haven't looked, including many free ones you can use online in your browser. So how can you advertise to reach the small percentage of musicians who have been searching for just exactly what my Bounce Metronome can do? I tried ads on google, youtube, and facebook, and do get a few sales, the problem is that with all this competition from other music software, you end up spending more on advertising than you get back in sales.
This is about Bounce Metronome:
Tune Smithy also might appeal to a wide audience with its ability to make "tunes as intricate as snowflakes". Both Tune Smithy and Bounce Metronome were featured with reviews in "Sound on Sound" by Martin Walker. Here ishis review of Tune Smithy.
"Ever stuck for inspiration? ... According to its advertising material, it "plays tunes as intricate as snowflakes", which is certainly an intriguing prospect — but FTS goes a lot further than generating random sequences of MIDI notes. ... The most important additional feature is its ability to retune any MIDI synth to a completely new scale tuning. It does this using standard pitch-bend data to create notes that sit 'between' those of normal equal-tempered tuning. ... There's a huge number of scales to choose from. The default list contains 32 options, including standard 12-tone equal temperament, plus 15-tone to 31-tone equal tempered, just temperament, and various ethnic and folk tunings, such as Gamelan from Indonesia and Java, Japanese Koto, West African Xylophone and Indian Raga. Further drop-down lists cover historical and modern twelve-tone scales, bagpipes, Idiophones, and even wind chimes. So if you want to play a keyboard in the authentic tuning that Bach or Mozart would have used, you can.
"... The final stage in the journey is the Fractal Tune — a combination of Scale, Arpeggio and Musical Seed, plus a choice of one or more instruments across multiple MIDI channels. Using the Play button now generates continuous, ever-changing tunes based on your settings. If you want impressionistic flurries and cascades of notes, try 'rushes blown in a storm' or 'echo effects in rests'. More extreme examples include 'Fibonacci rain shower', the unsettling 'Paleolithic field recording', and 'bird calls with Afro-Caribbean percussion'.
Don't go away thinking FTS can only generate avant-garde meanderings for classical and jazz buffs. Although many of the offerings are 'off the beaten track', they may still inspire new songs, while others, such as 'string quintet' and 'shakuhachi and koto' are gently melodic, and still others (such as 'resting in the shade') create floating backdrops. You can also explore the more rhythmically-based offerings, such as the improvised 'percussion medley' and 'non-repeating bongos'."
"Have you ever found it difficult to play along with a standard click track? Bounce Metronome Pro (www.bouncemetronome.com) is a PC application supporting all time signatures, swing, and lots of clever stuff like paradiddles, polyrhythms and gradual tempo changes. Its secret is incorporating various visual options such as 3D bouncing balls, animated drumsticks and conductor's baton graphics. Rather like those used in karaoke machines, their rise and fall incorporates a 'gravity bounce' that feels like having your own conductor to help you keep in time.
I found it reliable enough to abandon audio clicks altogether and use as a silent metronome, which also makes it useful for deaf musicians. Studio owners could display it on screen in their live rooms to keep players in time without them requiring headphones, while a special screen reader is available to blind musicians too. ... "
This is one of my fractal tunes along with a video by Torsten Stier (not using my software, it uses Mandelbulb) - the two go well together. None of this is composed. I just gave the program a small seed, tweaked the parameters, and the rest all comes out of the maths of the fractal, just as the visuals here come out of the maths of a visual fractal. When the video finishes - it cuts off rather suddenly, it goes on to more of my fractal tunes accompanying other fractals.
And this is one of my favourites, an endless tune for solo violin. All of this music is generated from the tuning which you hear first, which is a bit unusual as it doesn't repeat at the octave and even more unusually, it is a scale that goes up for a bit, then down, then at the repeat it goes up a bit further, then down, not so far, and continues like that on and on.
Then after you hear the tuning, you hear a short phrase played in the tuning - of course if you shift a melody around in this tuning its entire shape changes. Where before it went up, maybe now it goes down. After that the piece begins. Everything you hear is generated from the material you heard at the beginning as a mathematical fractal. There is no additional composition involved at all.
It's closely related to the "infinity series" of the Danish composer Per Nørgårdthough I hadn't heard of his work when I invented it and then wrote the program. It's only long after Tune Smithy was finished that I discovered that he'd invented an almost identical sequence.
I did hardly any work on Tune Smithy for years as I worked on Bounce Metronome. But while working on the kickstarter I ported it to the Mac as an early stage alpha. This automatically has all the updates I made in Bounce Metronome including many new types of rhythm, and ways to silence and then play individual parts, more advanced tempo and rhythm changes and so on. But it's not well integrated yet with the earlier fractal tunes.
I need to work on this for several months, estimated. I also need to work on the microtonal sections of Tune Smithy useful for composers who retune microtonal music. When I wrote Tune Smithy originally, then it was one of the few microtonal retuning programs available anywhere in the world. There was my program and one other (by Graham Breed) for Windows, SCALA for Linux, and Li'll Miss Scale Oven (now discontinued AFAIK) for the Mac.
Now there are numerous microtonal retuning programs. Even multiple programs devoted to retuning Turkish music. I still have a few people who use Tune Smithy for microtonal work however and even with all these new programs, there are a few things it can do that no other program can do as yet, or they can't do it so easily.
So, there's plenty of incentive to return to Tune Smithy. I also wish to do more work on Bounce Metronome which always has a "to do" list a mile long of wishes from its users. Some time also I want to do work on smaller multi-platform apps, but that would be a new development for me and probably need a few months work on it to get started.
In 2016-7, I earned $2,781 from the music software. Keen buyers, but it's a niche market.
AMATEUR MUSICIAN AND COMPOSER
I'm an amateur musician and composer. Not trained in any way - "Robert Walker" is a common name and I have no connection with the composer "Robert Walker" with a special interest in gamelan music.
Though coincidentally I also like Gamelan music and for one year I joined a Gamelan "orchestra" in Oxford - anyone can, if you walk off the street they let you play one of the gongs).
So I've added this at the first reward level for musicians. If you aren't a musician, choose any other of my kindle books.
AN INCOME FROM PATREON COULD MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE
The reason I'm able to get by is because I live in the UK and the government has"working tax credit", to encourage small businesses and those with a small income to continue to work. I get around $3,513 in working tax credits on condition that I workat least 16 hours a week (because I'm over 60).
That's it, a total of $6,520 (approx) for last year (the original figures are in pounds as I'm in the UK but I've converted them to dollars here). I live a simple life with few costs and I have my own house through an inheritance from my mother. But as you can see, a small income from Patreon could make quite a difference.
I will continue as before, blogging, writing, selling my software. If you wish to become a patron, then think of it as a way to show your appreciation and thanks and to encourage me to keep going. Though to be honest, I'd continue blogging and writing my music software anyway :).
It may also make some things easier such as buying books or traveling if I need to go somewhere, or buying computer gear if that's needed.
I work roughly half time on each at present, sometimes in projects that last for weeks or months, such as my longer books, and major updates of my software programs. At other times, it is something I finish in a day or two, or in hours, such as new blog posts or minor features and bug fixes. I plan to continue in the same way in the future.
YOUR SUPPORT
You'll be helping me to continue to write these blog posts, as well as developing the music software, spending about half my time on each.
As thankyous, I've added unlock keys for my software and kindle books.
This is a video of Lissajous 3D, which you get at the first reward level.
You can run it as a screensaver for your computer, and this video gives an idea of what the screensaver is like. Or you can use it to make your own Lissajous 3D patterns which you can also export as videos from the software.
The music in that video is one of my own compositions - actually, not written music in that case. It's an improvisation I did many years ago in real time and not recorded as midi, so this is it :). It's in a microtonal tuning, retuned usingTune Smithy.
The transition effects were done using Windows Movie Maker - which comes free with modern versions of Windows.
If you are an early adopter, please be patient as I set up the rewards which I'm still working on. And any suggestions do say!
