Bounce Metronome Blog

07/02/13

Monday 18th February 2013 - upload for Bounce Metronome

 

18th February 

  • Adds Indian Notation to the drop list of note systems you see if you select Note Names 
  • Many improvements in the Bounce on Lyrics Metronome Type.
  • Adds SHIFT + RETURN to pause and resume a rhythm.
  • Improved version of black on white and white on black skins. Especially fixes some bugs in the white on black skin (e.g. it had the help and tool tipos still shown as black on white).
  • Easier to make folder into a skin slide show with new option: "Make FOLDER into SKIN SLIDE SHOW" to More (twice) version of Skin window

Many minor bug fixes 
See Change Log and Bug Fixes.

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05/02/13

Tuesday 5th February 2013 - "Mind boggling", and syncopated polyrhythms are easier to make - & new go silent briefly capabilities

Youtube Video

Polyrhythm 3:2 played as 2/6 : 3/4 - Nicely Mind Boggling but Simple Beginner's Polyrhythm - this is easier to make with the new upload - just set up a 3:2 polyrhythm and press the "Make Mind Boggling" button

This upload adds some new options to help with the "African style syncopated polyrhythms" and the "Mind boggling simple polyrhythms".

In the Go Silent Briefly (Ctrl + 260) window, you can now set it to go silent for half a measure (say) or any fraction of a measure. You can set it to fade out to silence and fade back in again (both sound and visually).

Also added support for custom note letters such as the ones for Indian note names in To Show, Sustain and controller (Ctrl + 123)

Also improved the layout of the Gradually Changing Tempo (Ctrl + 42) window, and added in some more options.

Also fixed several bugs in the Tempo and Rhythm Progressions (Ctrl + 245) window which only show up with some combinations of the settings in that window mainly to do with progressions that mix rhythms with different note values such as 4/4 and 3/16 etc, and fixed a fair number of other bugs (mostly minor).

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23/01/13

Sloth canons, Tune Smithy Fractal Tunes, and the connection with Per Nørgård's music

Youtube Video

One of the Tune Smithy fractal tunes - it is a sloth canon type melody - if you take every sixth note in the tune you get the original tune again

You get all the Tune Smithy fractal tunes as a bonus feature with the Pro metronome.

You may have seen the fractal tunes which you get in Bounce Metronome and Tune Smithy which are based on an endless strict sloth canon:: Fractal Tunes - hear your rhythms played with an endless continually changing melody line.It's a minor feature in Bounce naturally, since the focus is on rhythms, but it's actually the first of its features to be programmed. When I first wrote Tune Smithy in the late 1990s, it was to find a way to play these sloth canon type melodies on a computer - and Bounce originated as the polyrhythm metronome task in Tune Smithy..

So, anyway, I have just been told that the Danish composer Per Nørgård uses an endless self similar (fractal like) strict sloth canon structure in some of his compositions such as his Symphony number 2. He first discovered his sequence in 1959, so long before I got the idea of making sloth canon sequences for Tune Smithy.

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23/01/13

How Steady is Your Tempo? Can you keep a steady tempo for polyrhythms?

Youtube Video

Try 4:3 silent independently at different times in each rhythm 

 This is good fun, harder to do than it seems, latest of my "Go silent briefly" videos. You have to play in the pocket with the rhythm, and keep going through the silences, are you still in the pocket when the sound comes back on again? It should help with steadiness and independence and sensitivity to musical time. 

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09/01/13

Minor Update (January 9th 2013) - Bounce Metronome

This is a very minor update. Added option "Show decimal part of tempo in strip" in the More several times version of Set Tempo Dial Range, Tempo Names and Design (Ctrl + 252). Also has some minor bug fixes

See Change Log To update just get the lastest from the download page and install on top of the existing installation.

 

30/12/12

Hide Bounce - Minor Update (December 30th 2012)

This adds an option to the Opts and Visuals drop menu: "Hide Bounce". This hides the Bounce windows and options throughout Bounce Metronome.  Makes it easy to hide them when you don't want them and show them again when you need them.

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17/12/12

Tempo and Rhythm Progressions - Minor Update (December 16th 2012)

To find out what's new in version 4.3 of Bounce, see Bounce Metronome 4.3 Release.

Youtube Video

Time signatures for 51 measures of Stravinsky's "Sacrificial Dance" from Rite of Spring

Latest update 16th December 2012. This makes it much easier to work with rhythm and tempo progressions, e.g. for a song with time signature changes, say 8 measures of 5/4, then 4 measures of 2/4, then 16 measures of 4/4 or whatever. The video shows a more complicated example - the time signatures for 51 measures of Stravinsky's "Sacrificial Dance" from Rite of Spring - noted for its complex pattern of time signatures.

To get it visit the download page

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25/11/12

Bounce Metronome for Mac and Multi Platform - update

Update of my post earlier this year.

The most frequent question I get asked about Bounce is: is there is a version for a Mac, or will there be one in the future? The answer is No, and Maybe. Find out more and add your name to the wish list here:  /Mac, Mobile and other Multi Platform FAQs

Mac musicians - this is for intel Mac, not iPad or iPhone - check out the  Kick starter to get Bounce Metronome running on an Intel Mac (now fully funded). You can now download a Bounce for Mac Beta

Also there is a lot of enthusiasm for an app for mobile devices (including Android). That's easily understandable since a metronome is an ideal thing to turn into an app you can carry about with you in a pocket.

Sadly though, I can't do this easily. There is no way to convert the existing Bounce for technical reasons as it is coded for Windows only. I wish there was! I have researched into it but there really seems to be no solution to this..

So, instead, I plan to explore the idea of a multi-platform app that can also run on iPad, iPhone, Android, Windows, a simpler version more designed for use on small portable devices. If this works then I might then develop it later into a more complex multi-platform program. 

I plan to explore the possibilities a few months from now.  Would need to program it again from scratch, and if it works out, first version would probably be a few months later.

If that then is a success, expect it to be some years of full time coding before it reaches the capabilities of Bounce on Windows, as it is the result of many years of coding. It is possible it might go faster because I know where I am headed, on the other hand, I would have a new language to learn most likely and need to learn about new expectations of Mac users.
22/11/12

Bounce Metronome 4.3 Update (part 2)

To find out what's new in version 4.3 of Bounce, see Bounce Metronome 4.3 Release.

Latest update 21st  November 2012. For those of you intersted in CSound - done some work on that part of the program, should make it easier to find out what to do and how to use it. This is likely to be especially useful for the harmonic metronomes - will have a go at some youtube videos using some of the CSound instruments to show what it can do.

Also improvements in the way it handles example projects - getting ready for idea to add example projects to download, or possibly in the installer, for videos on the bounce metronome resources page and on youtube. It doesn't have those yet, but hope to start to add them soon.

Also added a new option to the Go SILENT briefly and Tempo Cycles (Ctrl + 245) you can now set it to go silent briefly in one part only - or to go silent at different places in each of the parts of the rhythm. Similarly for the option to hide the bouncing balls.

To get it visit the download page

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21/11/12

Update to Video Resources - Bounce Videos for Wikipedia (HD versions)

Youtube Video

Tresillo over two -  for the wikipedia article: Tresillo (rhythm)

 You might be interested in the new video section with HD youtube versions of the videos that I've contributed to wikipedia to illustrate some of the articles about rhythms and time signatures. See Videos for Wikipedia - Video Resources