28 Nov 08 Bouncing beat numbers as words metronome
While working on the next upload, I’ve added a bouncing beat numbers option. The beat numbers will be able to be shown as numbers, or as number words, or as special characters, or a lyric line.
Here they are as number words:
single frame snapshont:
Bouncing number words metronome 7/4 with 5/4
Or as a movie:
Movie – Bouncing number words metronome 7/4 with 5/4
You will be able to play this with the next upload of
Tune Smithy’s rhythms and polyrhythms metronome player
Tags: Bouncing words, metronome, polyrhythm, tune smithy
27 Nov 08 First preview of the bouncing ball metronome
Bouncing Ball Metronome - single frame
For a movie of it click here: Movie and for another example: Movie 7 /4 with 5/4 and 3/4 polyrhythm
Also: 3/4 with sub beats, and 4/4 with sub beats
I’ve also uploaded them as videos on You Tube – under robertinventor (faster streaming, lower quality)
All these balls are boucing from left to right or right to left. The idea is that the metronome plays a beat each time one of the balls hits the bottom of the window.
You will be able to play this with the next upload of
Tune Smithy’s rhythms and polyrhythms metronome player
26 Nov 08 Large window with 16 time signatures
I’ve made larger versions of the time signature window for this upload – so that as you keep pressing the More button, so it goes 3 time signatures, then 4, then 8, then 16. You can play all the time signatures simultaneously or you can play them one after another to make a long bar of 16 time signatures.
Note how as the rhythm gets faster, eventually the beats are so many a minute that they sound like a pitched note.
This is really meant for the long bars as they can easily have many time signatures. I could make an even larger one for the additive rhythms with say 32 time signatures easily enough if anyone at all needs that many, if anyone does just let me know and I’ll add it in right away (simple addition).
You will be able to use this window with the next upload of
Tune Smithy’s rhythms and polyrhythms metronome player
Tags: metronome, Pitch, rhythm, time signature, tune smithy
26 Nov 08 Tempo markings Largo, Allegro etc for main window
Just added tempo markings now to the main window like this:
Metronome for 4/4 with 3/4 played simultaneously
ready for next upload which is still delayed a little more – a bit more testing to do. Hope for tomorrow now.
Tags: Allegro, Larghetto, Largo, metronome, Tempo markings, time signature, tune smithy
25 Nov 08 Metronome for 3/PI with 3/4 simultaneously
It’s taking a little while to test all the various possibilities and to get it ready for upload. Meanwhile here is one of the metronomes I did today while testing it:
Two 3/4 type rhythms at an irrational ratio to each other.
metronome for time signature 3/PI with 3/4 played simultaneously
Try clapping along with either the 3/PI (on bongos) or the 3/4 (on agogos – bell like sound) 
.
You will be able to play this with the next upload of
Tune Smithy’s rhythms and polyrhythms metronome player
Tags: 3/4, irrational meter, metronome, PI/4, polyrhythm, time signature, tune smithy
23 Nov 08 Bouncing ball metronome
For some time I’ve wondered about what to do about visuals for the metronome. I could do an animation of a conventional metronome, but that’s a bit boring in a way, not really designed for the screen, as the display is limited to the mechanics of a real metronome. I may do that at some point.
I also wondered about an animation of a conductor conducting the beat, hands moving around in patterns to follow the metronome. That’s much more flexible and could be fun to do. The challenge here is to keep the design simple and easy to follow, yet interesting.
So, today, while thinking about how to program a conductor’s hands, I had the idea of a bouncing ball – that programmer’s stalwart. It’s very similar – with the upbeat the conductor raise his or her hand and it moves in a trajectory very like the bounce of a bouncing ball, speeding up as it reaches the bottom of the beat.
So the idea is to have a bouncing ball that bounces in a series of smaller half size (say) bounces from left to right during the bar, then bounces back to the left in one big bounce at the end of the bar for the upbeat.
The nice thing about that is that you can accomodate any number of beats to the bar very simply, and can also do polyrhythms and so on with simultaneous bouncing balls – either all the balls bouncing in the same area – or a different visual area for each one. They could also be different colours, and could change colour briefly at the beat, brighten up or whatever. The background could also change colour during the bar as a way to see your place in the bar, e.g. starts red, goes through to blue at the end of each bar. Or something. The basic design is simple enough so that you can have lots of effects without complicating or cluttering the interface.
It is something I could get together for a first idea very quickly in a day or two with just two dimensional disks for the bouncing balls. Then optionally you could use any image for each one (that would be easy to do) and one could also make 3D objects e.g. spheres, and maybe it could also be linked in some way with the Lissajous 3D program – trace Lissajous patterns for the meter, e.g. 3 4 5 Lissajous 3D pattern for a 3 4 5 polyrhythm or something.
So anyway – maybe not for this upload but I’ll mull it over and may do it for the next one.
Tags: bouncing ball, conductor, metronome, rhythm, tune smithy, upbeat
23 Nov 08 Metronome for a time signature
Right now I’m working on the Rhythms and multi-beat polyrhythms metronome
for Tune Smithy
This is a new window that lets you enter your rhythm using time signatures like 3/4, 6/8 or whatever rather than a list of numbers of beats per bar. Also now it can play unusual meters needed by some modern composers such as 3/6, 3.5/4, and truly “irrational” meters like PI / 4 (the beats for the notes drift in and out of phase with the bar line beats).
This is what the window looks like:
BTW, for British readers of this blog, quarter note is the American word for crotchet – when you have the actual software to hand, the tool tip for the quarter note fields in the window explains that.
metronome for time signature 3/4 with 4 subdivisions of each beat
Then in the More version of the window you can add two more rhythms, and play them either simultaneously or one after another:
You can edit any of the time signatures to make the so called “irrational” meters such as 3/6, 4/7 or whatever, or you can even use truly irrational time signatures like PI/4 with slightly over three beats to a bar so that the beats go in and out of phase with the bar line.
Polyrhythm with three “irrational” meters played simultaneously (very hard for any performer to do):
There for instance 5/11 means each beat is an eleventh of a whole note so at a rate of 100 quarter notes a minute so 25 whole notes a minute, that that means the individual beats will flow at a rate of 275 beats per minute (11*25).
metronome for time signature 3/6 with 4/7 with 5/11
As you listen to the clip you will hear that the bar lines drift in and out of sync in the three rhythms and the beats move slowly in and out of sync, in a way that would surely be rather hard for a performer to achieve at least unless using metronomes.
Metronome with a truly irrational rhythm PI/4, surely next to impossible for any human performer to perform accurately over long periods of time:
metronome for time signature PI/4
That’s for the next upload which will probably be tomorrow, for the Rhythms and multi-beat polyrhythms metronome
for Tune Smithy.
Tags: 3/4, 4/4, 5/4, additive rhythm, beat, irrational meter, metronome, PI/4, polyrhythm, software, time signature
17 Nov 08 Welcome!
Welcome to my software blog!
This is where I’ll blog about my software ideas in progress, ideas for the future, and things that I’m preparing for the next upload of my programs for my web site: Robert the Inventor’s Software.
Comments very welcome.
Tags: Lissajous 3D, music software, tune smithy, virtual flower
