66 replies to this topic

[Tekker]

Hi all,

I'm going to be working on my capstone project over the course of this year (my last year of college, YEA!!!) and we have to come up with some kind of project and develop it (my major is computer programming). I talked with my teacher today and he wants us to find a user base for our project, so what better place than here?

The class I'm in now is essentially practice for going through the steps of developing a project and the actual development will be the next two terms. For our actual project we must talk with the potential users find out what they want and work with them to get a list of requirements for the project. Then after we create it the users will use/test it and report back, so it's mimicking a real-world development project.

Would anyone here be interested in being a user for my project? I think it goes without saying that want to keep it music related. I was thinking I could either make some updates to my chord progression generator (such as have it play the progression) or come up with some completely new idea (keeping it on the simpler side, so I can actually do it).

While the actual development won't start until next term, my teacher said we could start getting together a list of users for our projects and work on coming up with an idea. So if you'd like to sign up (there's no limit, so the more the better!) and if you have any preferences for a project (either updating my existing chord progression generator or 'other') then reply here and let me know.


PS. Hopefully the music lounge is appropriate place for this since it is music related.

Thanks,
-tkr

[knight46]

I would love to help Tekker, count me in.

[Tekker]

Great, thanks knight. Do you have any ideas for an application? Keeping it on the simple side... (I don't think I could write a full blown recording app. )

-tkr

[carol m]

Count me in too Tekker - are there lucky door prizes? (a joke).

You may not want me though, your random or chord prog app crashed my Mac and I haven't been game to try again given my history with trashing PC's - my pc is sitting there watching me right now and daring me to start it up again - no way. It's much better at being a bookshelf than being a computer.

[Tekker]

Carol, I think my original old one used a newer version of Java that isn't available for Macs. The one I have up now uses an older version of Java that should hopefully work on the mac. Would you be willing to try again and see if it works?

But even if it still doesn't work on the mac, that's an issue between Java and macs. I have tried it on several different PCs and they have all worked. So I think you'll be safe to try it on the PC.

-tkr

[carol m]

Tekker said:

So I think you'll be safe to try it on the PC.
-tkr

As the TV Batman once said, "It's out of commission, Commissioner" - that still amuses me - I'm so juvenile.

That PC has lost half of XP, all of IE and runs constantly at 50% PC Useage with nothing open. I will have to reformat it at some point - some time as yet to be determined in the (far distant) future.

Actually... maybe you know if I have to delete everything on it before I re-format? It's important to get rid of everything on it and have a really clean re-install of XP Prof and Word.

[Tekker]

carol m said:

Actually... maybe you know if I have to delete everything on it before I re-format? It's important to get rid of everything on it and have a really clean re-install of XP Prof and Word.

Reformatting essentially does the same thing as deleting. Neither one actually removes the information off the hard drive, they just remove the links to the data so the OS can't find the files anymore (but they're still there). So you should be fine with only reformatting the drive, that will give you a clean install of XP since the OS won't know the files are there. As a side note, this is why if you sell a computer that you have done any banking or have other sensitive info on (social security numbers, credit card info, etc) then you want to remove your hard drive before selling the computer.


Since the PC is out, can you give it another try on the mac and see if it works?

-tkr

[carol m]

Sure - which of your software tools is most likely to work?

[Tekker]

carol m said:

Sure - which of your software tools is most likely to work?

Hopefully both with work...

The strumming pattern generator is a simpler program so give that one a try first. However, I don't think the problem is with my program but with the java platform itself. So if the java platform isn't compatible with macs, then no program I write will work on a mac.

Hopefully it'll work this time.... If not, I may have to try one of the java programming forums to get this figured out.

-tkr

[carol m]

The Random Strumming worked fine. The Random Chord gave me the blank square with the red cross. I right clicked in the empy box and opened the Java Console which was also an empty box with 'clear' and 'copy' options at the bottom. I clicked clear and nothing happened. I typed X and nothing happened. Neither program crashed my Mac.

Ding! "Was this information useful?" - usually I am the one that gets this smarmy message from Windows after a BSOD - now it's your turn, but in this case it's a genuine question.

[Tekker]

carol m said:

The Random Strumming worked fine. The Random Chord gave me the blank square with the red cross. I right clicked in the empy box and opened the Java Console which was also an empty box with 'clear' and 'copy' options at the bottom. I clicked clear and nothing happened. I typed X and nothing happened. Neither program crashed my Mac.

Interesting, mine had more options. But go ahead and try closing the entire web browser (if you have multiple windows open close them all) and try opening it again and see if it works.

It's good to know at least one of them is working. I get the feeling the reason the other isn't working is because the last version that was loaded wasn't compatible and it still has that old version in the cache/history. If re-opening doesn't work, then you can also try clearing cache, cookies, etc and see if that does anything.

-tkr

[starsailor]

I'd be into this Tekker, if it helps, will help us too as you're apps. are user friendly, just floating a couple of ideas, maybe a power chord generator or a scale generator ? also was having a chat with another new member and they hit a bit of a brick wall with partial chords, I don't know if there's any way to do something there for beginners, Keith Richards uses a lot of them and it can be a bit difficult getting your head round them and power chords when starting out, don't know if there's any mileage in these suggestions but thought I'd throw a few out there.


All The Best

Chris

[carol m]

If we're throwing in ideas, how about having sound of some sort on the strumming app. I don't know how difficult that would be, but even a one chord midi with a metronome and the strums on the beats that are strummed would be brilliant so you could hear the rhythm/beat. One sound for the down strum and a different sound for the up strum.

And...... if you could change the speed of the playback for slowing down/building speed you could make a fortune - I'm assuming you don't already have one - I'd only expect 10%.

[X4StringDrive]

Count me in if you like, any thoughts of an arpeggiated option in your random chord progression generator and/or a possibility of inversions?...my brain works so much easier with visuals and at my age straining the brain only takes nano-seconds{lol}. I/we appreciate your hard work and generosity..best to you in your future endeavors!

[Tekker]

Great! Thanks everyone.

starsailor said:

maybe a power chord generator

I'm not sure if a power chord generator is needed as it is only the root and the fifth to get a power chord, so there's only so many different ways you can play them.

If you're talking about a chord progression generator using power chords, you can play the chords generated with the generator as power chords instead of major/minor chords.

Quote

a scale generator ?

A scale generator would be interesting, but I don't know that a 'random' scale generator would sound very good... It would probably sound as good as the chromatic mode on my chord progression generator. lol

Quote

also was having a chat with another new member and they hit a bit of a brick wall with partial chords, I don't know if there's any way to do something there for beginners

Do you mean omitting certain notes from the chord?

carol m said:

If we're throwing in ideas, how about having sound of some sort on the strumming app.

That's a good idea. I've also thought about combining it with my chord progression generator to get a "random song generator". Then hit play and hear the chords and a strumming pattern.

X4StringDrive said:

Count me in if you like, any thoughts of an arpeggiated option in your random chord progression generator and/or a possibility of inversions?!

You can play the chords in my chord progression generator as arpeggios by picking one note at a time. Inversions could be doable, maybe add a slash and a bass note. Even if I end up not doing my chord progression generator as my project, I could still try to add this feature at some point.

-tkr

[johnnydoxx]

Hey Tekker in my pre-retirement life I was a computer programmer and systems analyst for 30+ years. Will be glad to give any advice, help, etc. that you find a requirement for.

[Andy S]

Tekker,

If you still need another person, I'm in. Just let me know what I need to do.

Andy S.

[Tekker]

Thanks Andy. Yep, the more the better!

At the moment all there is to do is let me know if you'd be interested in the project and post any ideas you have on a program (or updates to one of my existing programs) that you'd like to see.

When I get more details on the process then I'll post them here.

-tkr

[X4StringDrive]

Well, you've brought chords and strumming...what are your thoughts on some sort of percussion generator..maybe an intro with adjustable measures and ability to put in fills etc...kinda round out the tools needed to create a semi-basic tune

[Tekker]

X4StringDrive said:

Well, you've brought chords and strumming...what are your thoughts on some sort of percussion generator..maybe an intro with adjustable measures and ability to put in fills etc...kinda round out the tools needed to create a semi-basic tune

I've actually had a similar idea. My main instrument is drums, so I've been trying to think of some kind of drum app I could do. But I think this may be another instance were 'random' patterns won't really give great results. You usually have three (or more) drums being used to make a rhythm and if all three are random and not relating to each other in any way, the results would probably be very strange. Trying to find applications where random patterns sound good isn't easy. The chord progression works because I'm limiting the chords to a certain key (unless you're using the chromatic mode) but there's not really a way to constrain drum rhythms like that.

Just for fun, I just tried using the strumming pattern generator three times (for the hihat, snare, and kick) and got the following rhythm.

1 e & a 2 e & a 3 e & a 4 e & a
X____X__X X ____ X X X ___ X - hihat
X X__X _________ X____X_X - snare
X X__X X___ X X X___ X X__ X - kick

That's certainly different. lol

I'm not sure how I could make it so that it does not generate really weird rhythms like that while still keeping it 'random'. Plus my program would only display the beat (and at best play it back) but you'd want to be able to record it and use it in your songs. If you already played drums, then this would be fine as you could just play and record the drum part. But if you don't play drums, you'd have to manually input each note one at a time into some drum software. So I think a drum machine or drum software with pre-programmed drum beats may be better for this task.

-tkr