Having got so far with the MIDI SID project, I had this real mess of wires and boards. Then I started to add to the carnage with knobs and a display.  

The problem was that if something stopped working I couldn't be sure whether it was because I'd got something wrong, or had just jogged a connection.

Happily, prototype boards are so cheap that you can order something without worrying about the cost. This isn't even really a prototype yet, not all of the components are on the board. I just wanted the Pico, two SIDs (in this case swinsids) and the MIDI in circuit soldered firmly in place so that I could experiment with knobs, buttons and displays, and develop the software without fear of breaking it by jogging the desk!

To get you up-to-date if you haven't seen my ramblings about this, I'd love a box with MIDI input, SID chips inside, audio out, and simple controls. I'd like to be able to play a .mid file into it, or plug in a keyboard, with options for polyphonic or monophonic output. (I've done some of this using a C64 and MIDI cartridge, but it'll be good to have a standalone box.)  I'd like to try a larger version with enough SIDs to be able to map each midi channel to a voice. Maybe in time I could add the components needed to support real SIDs, but being able to use ARMSIDs would be good as they're a great replacement. (I'm not sure that it's ethical to encourage anyone to use precious real SIDs in something like this.

Quick demo of the thing working (just one channel in, one voice playing). I've got Logic Pro playing a simple tune, with a USB-MIDI converter allowing me to plug that into this board. 

If you're interested in the project, I'm going to use the hashtag #MIDISID on Twitter. 

Album art lookup using MusicBrainz - experimental free app

ScreenSleeves generally receives the album cover  art from whatever music player you're using (Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes and many others).

There are cases where it doesn't. For example when listening to an internet radio stream using certain apps, often only the artist and track name are provided. 

ScreenSleeves has traditionally had the option to look up album art online where necessary. (In fact, it had the option to *always* look up art online when using Snowtape, because the method SS used was more likely to produce the correct art than Snowtape itself.)

ScreensSleeves has used Gracenote for a few years. GN is a firmly commercial operation but they allowed me (with the actual number of requests capped) to use the service for free.  At some point recently that lookup service seems to have unceremoniously stopped. My account doesn't exist any more and there's no longer any information about the lookup / API. (Often the way when you make use of 3rd-party services.) A quick Google shows that software and even hardware that made use of CDDB for CD information no longer works since a certain date. 

MusicBrainz is a much more open music database. They allow free non-commercial use. I have discussed Screensleeves with them and come to an arrangement which allows SS to perform the necessary lookups when necessary. 

This is a good solution. I have some old and obscure albums that it doesn't have artwork for, and even the odd album that it doesn't even have in the database (I must learn how to contribute to the database). However, the search works beautifully and when the artwork is available it's very good quality. 

With this up and running in the development version of Screensleeves,  I was impressed with the quality of the artwork and wanted a way to simply perform a lookup and save the cover for my own use in iTunes.  (My personal media server uses an old version of MacOS and iTunes, because when something works I like it to remain the way it is, rather than changing at the whim of the maker.)

I've built an interface around the MusicBrainz cover art lookup that I'd written for ScreenSleeves and this is the result. 

The download is here (well done for finding it. At this point I won't publish it on the peacockmedia.software main site or anywhere else). 

If this interests you, please let me know in the comments or by email. Other apps are available but they do tend to integrate with your iTunes/Music library rather than simply allowing you to save the artwork and do what you like with it.

ScreenSleeves ready to go as a standalone app

In the last post I gave a preview of a new direction for ScreenSleeves and now it's ready to go.

Changes in MacOS Mojave have made it impossible to continue with ScreenSleeves as a true screensaver. Apple have not made it possible (as far as I know at the time of writing) to grant a screensaver plugin the necessary permission to communicate with or control other apps.

Making ScreenSleeves run as a full app (in its own window) has several benefits:

• Resize the window from tiny to large, and put it into full-screen mode.
• Choose to keep the window on top of others when it's small, or allow others to move on top of it
• The new version gives you the option to automate certain things, emulating a screensaver:
• Switch to full-screen mode with a keypress (cmd-ctrl-F) or after a configurable period of inactivity
• Switch back from full-screen to the floating window with a wiggle of the mouse or keypress
• Block system screensaver, screen sleep or computer sleep while in full-screen mode and as long as music is playing

As mentioned, Mojave has much tighter security. The first time you run this app, you'll be asked to allow ScreenSleeves access to several other things. It won't ask for permission for anything which isn't necessary for it to function as intended. You should only be troubled once for each thing that Screensleeves needs to communicate with.

The new standalone version (6.0.0) is available for download, it runs for free for a trial period, then a small price to continue using it. (Previously, the screensaver came in a free and 'pro' versions with extras in the paid version).

Screensleeves album art screensaver as a standalone app

Screensleeves has been a popular screensaver for a number of years, but the security changes in the new Mojave OS may make its functionality impossible.

Over the years people have suggested that it could be a free-standing app rather than a screensaver. This comes with some advantages - eg you can keep it minimised and floating above other windows in the corner of the screen when it's not in full screen mode.

This may be the only way to keep the screensaver alive. I've been experimenting with the idea, ironing out some issues related to the change, and using it. I have to say that I like it very much.

Here's a very quick peek at what all this means.

Vinyl Shine for Mac - follow-up

Since last week's announcement of Vinyl Shine, the app seemed to approach the point where it was usable. But then that seemed so far away from beta as it was lacking functionality.

At its core is the pop filter. That had taken a large amount of the development time and was becoming pretty effective. 

But the app surrounding it wasn't so functional. Opening a file, running the filter and saving the clean file quickly gets tedious. Even if you run the filter over a whole side of an LP at a time, you first needed to run something else to record the sound and then something else to split and add track names. 

So it seemed best to build more supporting functionality. We returned to the original aim of 'real time' filtering. Much coffee later and we have recording and real-time-pop-filtering done. Also splitting and saving individual tracks. It's becoming much more useful.

Scenario 1. Plug your record player into the computer. (USB or line-in). Simply use Vinyl Shine as a player, with the pop-filter running in real-time*.

There's a 10-band graphic equaliser applied to the playthrough / recording  with the RIAA curve as a preset. Make your own default settings too.

Scenario 2. With the pop filter on, press record and put the needle down. Record a single track or a whole side, then switch to editing mode to normalise and select and save individual cleaned and normalised tracks. 

I'm also pleased with how 'cool' it's running. With many efficiencies still to be made, its cpu use is fine.

[update 8 Jul 18] After a weekend of working on refinements and efficiencies, this is how things are running with pop filtering switched on (testing here using a 2012 Mac mini).

* ok, it's running with a buffer. It's slightly odd putting the stylus down on the record and hearing that 'needle down' sound through the speakers a fraction of a second later, but otherwise the delay isn't really noticeable. [update] there's now an option in preferences for the amount of buffering, this can help avoid glitches in the playback caused by buffer underrun. This is only for listening pleasure. Even if the underrun happens, the glitch won't appear in the recording.

routine update for Screensleeves

Yesterday Screensleeves (free and pro versions) received a maintenance update; some small updates, improvements and the odd little glitch fixed.

It's the first update in a while. But then if something's working pretty well, should it be important to do some work and release a new version? There are definite marketing advantages (exposure).

Over the weekend I had an app pulled from the App Store, on the grounds that it hadn't been updated for a while. I hate the Store and haven't supported it for a long while, and this is a minor app that I haven't sold a copy of for a long time and have been wondering whether to stop supporting anyway. When uploading apps is such a headache anyway, the obligation to do it regularly in order to avoid them dropping an app just seems like another hoop to jump through. But it did make me feel a little offended.

On the positive side, the Apple's policy does keep their store free of abandoned apps. I've seen users refer to apps as 'abandonware' if they haven't been updated in a couple of years.

New theme in Screensleeves

Welcome to the new 'Ambience' theme.

It goes against the idea of a screensaver a little to have a static coloured background (I've been toying with the idea of adding a little 'Ken Burns' to the background, but this would have little benefit if the album cover is fairly homogenous in colour.)

But there is a fade to black and repositioning of the album cover and details every 30 seconds, which existing users will be familiar with. And if you're listening to individual tracks rather than complete albums or audiobooks, then there's no problem as the coloured background will change significantly every few minutes. Plus as now, when the music stops you either get a black screen or random artwork (whichever you choose) so no problem there.

Above all, it just looks so cool. I'm so excited about it and love using it.

[Update] This theme is now available in Screensleeves Pro v5.1.  You can download and use the Pro version without paying, just certain Pro features will be disabled before you obtain a key.

Very cool new feature in ScreenSleeves

I have a Mac which is pretty much dedicated to playing my music; I regularly use iTunes (actually now more often Swinsian), Spotify and occasionally Radium for a particular internet radio station I like.

However, that mac doesn't always have a screen attached (I often use screen sharing to control the music). In any case, it's not the screen I like to have running the Screensleeves screensaver.

This problem has been on my mind for a long time. What's required is an elegant way of sharing what's playing on another computer. Without any messy setting up or messing around with passwords every time a computer is restarted or just decides it wants to be awkward.

And here it is. It's called Screensleeves Broadcaster. It's included in the Screensleeves Pro dmg, and you just need to pop it in the Applications folder of the computer that plays your music, start it (you may like to add it to your login items so it's just running whenever your computer is on).

Then install version 5 of the Screensleeves screensaver (obviously on the computer that you want to be displaying the saver). Go into its options and switch on "Listen for the Screensleeves Broadcaster" (under the Pro options). And that's it.

Version 5 of Screensleeves has various fixes / improvements, support for the Broadcaster, and it also restores support for 10.6 (Snow Leopard) which has been broken in recent versions.

Update: v5.0.1 Pro is now released, and the Broadcaster is officially released too.

Swinsian - zen-like alternative to iTunes

I'm very grateful to the friend who recommended Swinsian as a replacement for iTunes (thankfully its pretty yellow icon is more memorable than the name).

When it comes to "it just works" (which used to be the Mac way) then the team have it sussed. It was incredibly easy to import my music, with no appreciable disk space used. it just built its own library leaving the files where they were, which is exactly what I wanted. (I noticed later a Preference which allows copying of music into Swinsain's music folder). Plus it watches the music folder and just adds anything I buy via or add to iTunes.

Using Swinsian is such a zen-like experience. It's so nice to have a music player that only handles music. It does podcasts too (which I've switched off). But I hope they're not tempted to start adding more stuff and allowing it to become the nightmare that is the current iTunes.

I keep discovering nice little touches, like the 'animated dock icon'. It's no more than a dot that moves as a progress indicator, but that's really neat.

It supports many music types. Which is nice to know but I'm not sure whether anything in my collection isn't aiff, aac or mp3

There's no cover-flow which I know people still miss, but there are a number of ways to customise the display, including my favourite, the good old list with whichever columns you like. The font size in there is a little smaller than usual, which is great. (Spotify annoyed me greatly by taking the opposite approach - big spacious text so that you can't see much at a time and have to scroll lots.)

Buttons look like buttons! No symbols just printed on the textured surface of the window, or within the LCD display. Or words printed in an area of nothing that could equally be a field, a label or a button. The search box is nice and simple, it just filters your music in the display according to the word you type.

It's like having iTunes 10 back again!

There are one or two glitches - I have given up on the desktop widget which I couldn't get to work properly, also it would be nice if, when you're using shuffle, the display scrolled automatically to the track that's playing. But I'm sure these will get ironed out with time.

Expect Screensleeves support very shortly!