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Question: Why can't I hear low notes, especially the pure sine waves?

Answer: Efforts were made to balance the timbres so that sounds would be equally loud in every register, but it is impossible to account for the quality of speakers being used. Laptop speakers, for example, are notorious for weak bass response. The best solution may be to use headphones or connect external speakers.

Question: What to do about distortion?

Answer: The most common source of distortion is when the signal being produced exceeds what the system can safely output. Efforts were made to calibrate the application so that volumes would always be within a safe, non-distorting, range. However, it may be possible to overdrive if maximum main volume, maximum note volumes, maximum duration times and louder timbre choices are set. Another possibility is that less expensive speakers may have frequency bands which are easily overdriven. Lowering the main volume or the volume of individual notes, or changing durations or timbre choices may all help reduce distortion.

Question: What to do about drop-outs?

Answer: Drop-outs usually indicate that the cpu is not able to process enough audio data in the time allocated for its playback. If the background skin is being animated, turning that off might help a bit. Also, you might check if there are other programs running consuming the cpu which might be turned off. Tone Circle Drone was designed to be efficient enought to allow several copies to run simultaneously. However, at some point every system will reach a limit.

What to do when the timing is off (e.g., lagging or uneven)?

Answer: The timing accuracy of Tone Circle Drone should be quite reliable, with an accuracy to the nearest 1/44100th of a second! But two things may throw this off. One is that due to a hiccup of some unknown sort, the synchronisation point between the sound and the mouse controls may slip, and the sounds will lag behind the control gestures. If this happens, try stopping and starting the playback. If that doesn't work, try closing nd reloading.

The second thing that may cause the sounds to be uncoordinated pertains to intermixing sounds that have a clear start and ones that fade in. The exact point of volume where the fade-in is perceived as the start of the beat is subject to interpretation. For example, if you are listening to speakers with a weak bass response, a lower note will take longer to reach the volume at which it is sounds like is the start of the beat than if the same timbre were used at a higher pitch. The fade-in factor also can make the transition between the flash of the active tones seem to anticipate the beat relative to the flashing of the skipped nodes. The reason for this is that the glow of the node on the dial tracks the volume of the tone that is playing. Since the fade-in starts in anticipation of the beat, the glow will also fade in with its first appearance anticipating the beat.

Question: Can I play more than one Tone Circle Drone application at a time?

Answer: Yes! The cpu and memory demands of Tone Circle Drone are light enough that several can play at the same time on most pc's and laptops. But the total number of copies that can play at once without performance issues will vary, depending upon the capabilities of the computer.

Question: Is there a way to coordinate the timing between two Tone Circle Drones?

Answer: No. Any coordination will have to be done manually. Note that there is a slight lag to account for, when you press start, so if you are trying to start exactly at a certain time or beat you will have to anticipate a bit with the button click.

Question: Can I copy a Note from one application instance to another?

Answer: Yes! You can use [Ctrl+C] for copy and [Ctrl+V] for paste. These commands work across multiple instances as well as within a single Tone Circle Drone. You can also copy a Tone to another position by clicking and dragging the mouse from the source to the target node. But this technique only works within a single application.

Question: Can I trigger a chord to play all at once instead of as an arpeggio?

Answer: No. The closest approximation is to set the number of tones to 12, and to arpeggiate the desired chord tones at the start of the loop, and set the lengths to hold for the duration of the loop.

Question: Is it possible to code Mean-tone intonation systems?

Answer: An approximation of the various mean-tone systems is possible. A problem with the mean-tone systems is that the calculations for these pitches result in values that require fractional cents. The Cents field can only accept integer values. When I made this coding decision, I based my decision on the knowledge that studies have shown it difficult to judge the relative pitch of tones played in sequence if they differ by less than 2 cents. However I've since realized that than when played at the same time, even smaller differences than 2 cents can be perceived by the beating that occurs. I hope to change the Cents field to allow fractional values for a future release.

Question: Are quarter-tones supported?

Answer: Yes and no. While a quarter-tone Tuning selection is not offered on the drop-down panel, it is easy to create. For the desired quarter tone, set the Tuning to Equal Temperament, and adjust the Cents value to 50. At 100 cents per semi-tone, 50 gives the quarter-tone value. Consider, also, starting with a droneset that includes a full octave of semitones, and using the group editing to move them all to +50 cents, Equal Temperament, and then using this set as a copy source when building drone patterns that have quarter tones.

Question: Is it possible to create a Tuning for reuse?

Answer: Yes and no. It is possible to save and later reload a DroneSet of up to 12 tones, and use that as a starting template or copy source. But there is no way at this time to add to the dropdown list of available intonation systems.

Question: Is a future release scheduled?

Answer: Not at the moment. For future releases, a lot will depend on user feedback, as well as the demands of other projects.

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