Christopher Souvey's Blog

I just pushed out a minor update to both Musical and Musical Pro with 2 small changes.

Firstly, the Piano and Keyboard components now remove all of the temporary files they used to leave behind on the SD card. I don’t use Android’s “Music” application, so i didn’t realize that, much to the annoyance of those who do use it, all media files on the SD card are automatically added to your Media Library. Every note on the piano was being added to this collection and cluttering up the application. The next time you use the Piano or Keyboard, these should all be cleaned up.

Secondly, all future updates will now display a brief list of changes the first time the application is loaded so the people who don’t stay up to date with my blog (aka nearly everyone) will know what I’m up to and what to look for in the new version.

Usually I use the weekends to get all of my development work done and release some new significant feature for Musical. Unfortunately, this Friday, I had some oral surgery, so I’m drugged up on codeine and am supposed to spend the weekend recovering.  I’m going to try to make some progress this coming week to make up for the lost time, but don’t expect anything this weekend (and maybe a bit into next week depending on how well my mouth heals and how quickly I’m able to get off the pain meds).

A couple months ago, I made a 3D model of the Clock Tower in Santa Cruz and submitted it to Google Earth.  It has finally been reviewed and has been accepted into Google Earth!  If you want to see it, just search “santa cruz town clock” in Google Earth and make sure the 3D Buildings Layer is turned on. There is one strange part though, on the top roof level–the appears to be a small hole on one of the edges that looks into the untextured interior (a light blue color). I overlaid the original KMZ file on the Google Warehouse with the 3D Buildings Layer, and the problem does not occur in the original, so Google must be doing some additional form of compression on buildings added to the Google Earth layer. I’ve posted in the Google Earth Group to see if there is a fix for this, but other than that small inconsistency, it looks great!

As of last night, Musical has hit 50,000 downloads, and has moved into the 50-250k category in the Market.  There are currently 756 reviews with an average of 4.23 out of 5.  Thanks for all your support (and be sure to check out Musical Pro)

I got an email today about adding a play-along piano to Musical (simple onscreen piano lessons–light up key style).  Is this something you would be interested in?  Would you want a bunch of built in songs, a way to import MIDI files, etc?  Please comment on this post or email me, and if I get enough responses I will gladly implement the feature (it should only take a day or two to write).  Remember, all new updates will be for Musical Pro, available now in the Market for $2

As you all know, I uploaded a new version of Musical to the Market tonight.  I just checked my comments, and apparently my application Force Quits now when you open the Keyboard and Piano!  I tried for about 30 minutes to replicate the problem myself, but could not get it to happen (and since the Market doesn’t let you buy your own application, I couldn’t see if it had to do with the Market).

I did a bit of Googling, and apparently the issue occurs when you change the Copy Protection status on the application.  After reading how useless Android’s DRM was, I had decided to just disable with this update (particularily since it halves the size of the app too).  From what I can tell in the Google Developer Group, when you update to an application with a different DRM status, all WebViews cause Force Quit errors!  I can’t find any workaround and Google doesn’t appear to have even acknowledged the bug.

So, I have re-enabled DRM again on the application until I can find evidence that this issue is fixed, which will hopefully fix this problem.

All users who have updated OR bought the application between around 5pm and 11pm PST Sunday should uninstall and redownload Musical.  I am told that this will fix the problem (I would do this even if you aren’t having the problem, becasue if you just bought it, you will have this problem the next time I update).

And that my friends, is how I learned my lesson about DRM.  It’s a disaster.

As planned (see last post), I have released an update to the piano for Musical Pro.   The Keyboard and Piano both now support any of the 128 General MIDI instruments (including such favorites as “gunshot” and “bird tweet”).  In addition, I have added a popularily requested feature–choosing what octaves the pianos operate in.  The improved backend also seems to have made the piano load faster and be generally more responsive.

The update is already available in the Android Market as a free upgrade to all Musical Pro owners.  The download should approximately cut Musical’s filesize in half, down to around 250kb (the side effect of this, however, is that the Keyboard and Piano now require an SD card).  Much of the Piano and Keyboard are completely rewritten, so as always, feel free to email me if you encounter any problems.

I just finished rewriting the architecture of Musical’s piano system. I have not made a public release yet and the front-end isn’t yet different, but the back-end now supports any MIDI note and any of the 128 MIDI instruments. In the new few days (hopefully by the end of this weekend), I will be writing a new “Settings” interface for each of the pianos (2-octave keyboard and 3-octave scrolling) that allows you to choose which octaves you want the piano to use and lets you choose what instrument you want the piano to sound like! I hope to release this feature to all Musical Pro owners on or by Monday.

Also related to the piano, I have just gotten permission to include a nice collection of drum loops in Musical. I plan to try add them to the piano in the next week, so you will be able to choose a beat & tempo and play along. This too will be a free upgrade for all Musical Pro owners, and I will post more information in the next week or so, once I’ve started the implementation.

Finally, looking a bit further into the future, I’ve finished designing the interface for a simple melody/notation editor with MIDI export capabilities. The screen will be split between a miniature piano on the bottom and a musical staff on top, with buttons in between to choose note length, insert rests, etc. Expect more details (and possibly a preliminary release) in the coming weeks.

Oh, and I enjoy being spontaneous sometimes, so just because something isn’t on this list, doesn’t mean it won’t be coming out the next couple weeks (in fact, there will almost certainly be some surprises).

I have just released the Pro version into the Android Market for $1.99

At the moment, the only major difference is that the Pro version includes a simple tuner.  The tuner includes frequencies built in for common string instruments (guitar, violin, mandolin, bass, ukulele).  Unlike the “pitch pipe” feature, however, it allows you to enter custom arbitrary frequencies.  It still operates pitch-pipe style though (tuning by ear), but as soon as Android allows it (Cupcake, whenever that happens), I will try to make it work with the microphone.  There are also some minor interface tweaks to make room for all the new features I plan to add.

Most (if not all) future feature updates (not bug fixes) will now only be added to the Pro version rather than the Lite version (and all will obviously be free upgrades to purchases of the Pro version).  Here is a sneak peek of the some features on my ToDo list that I would like to add to Musical Pro (disclaimer: this is my personal wishlist, not guarantees, but I will try to complete as many of them as I can):

• Real Tuner (depends on when Cupcake comes out)
• Games (rhythm-based, music theory practice, etc)
• More Instruments (drums? violin? xylophone? others?)
• Circle of Fiths
• Intervals (and interval recognition practice)
• Scales
• Additional Languages (as the Android Market adds paid apps to other countries, and as I find people who will translate for me )
• Melody/Notation Editor (with MIDI export)
• Recording Virtual Instruments (if possible, with MIDI export)

If you want to try out the new Tuner, Android Market lets you download a paid app and get your money back if you return it within 24 hours.  I believe though if you do this now, you won’t be able to use this trial at a late date when I release more features, so be aware of that if you do.

Another thing to note: the price is starting at $1.99, but if I get a bunch of these new features in, I may raise the price as I see fit.  If you buy it now though at the introductory price, all upgrades are free.

Thanks for all the support, and enjoy Musical Pro!

I’m trying to prioritize features for the next release of Musical.  If you use the application and have a minute, I would really appreciate it if you filled out a little survey (its reasonably short and all the questions are optional).  Click here if you’d like to fill it out. Thanks in advance for your help in making Musical better!