A super-busy day today. I was due, at 13:30 for a Fall in Green rehearsal for the Midsummer event in Congleton Library on Wednesday, so my main jobs of the morning were to print the sheet music, prepare the synth programs and the script, and perhaps practice, but upon checking my email I had a report about SFXEngine from my brilliant tester Rodrigo; a few (minor) bugs and some suggestions for changes.
One of the changes was to add some way to arrange the Modulator List, and this feature is already in Prometheus, and flagged off in SFXEngine, so that was relatively easy to add, plus a "Recently Opened" option in the menu (I've never made anything like that before) and a great suggestion to stop the update problems when the manual was open. I also took the opportunity to add the code for 'Genus Decals', so that's all set for a first update (this feature won't be active on launch day because it changes the look of the screenshots and video too much). I also added the option to automatically detect an ".spj" and ".spg" file extension (for sound project, sound program) when opening, so now a double click on a project OR file in Windows will (should!) open it.
All of this took all morning, and every change creates work elsewhere. The manual needed updating too, as now all of the Modulator List screenshots are out of date.
At the same time, I had to work on the house fences, which mum has been working hard on for the last week. Several needed moving, and later, a new block of wood making to fit to an edge, but this needed screwing in, as well as some carving for the shape.
It was soon 12:30 and time to eat. Then I had to prepare the Fall in Green show. The rehearsal went well, and lasted until 15:30 or so. Then it was a matter of carrying down the amps, and other things for the performance. This is quite a small one, but still requires two amps, mic and keyboard stand, synth, some CDs for possible sale, props, two music stands and the sheet music itself. Plus costumes and signs.
Then the knob and inserts for the easel head arrived, so before finalising the SFXEngine manual, much less preparing the builds, I decided to drill out the main holder and assemble it. All went reasonably well and the new bolts worked brilliantly. Here is the head so far:
The only flaw is that overtightening the main friction knob will pull out the hex nut you can see in the first image. I can add a piece of wood there to both hold it and improve the aesthetics. I can now design alterative surface holders at whim. Overall this saves about two minutes of work each morning as I find and clamp the right piece of wood for the back of my painting surface, but it is perhaps more than that, as that wood can sometimes slip. This head should be better (caveat: it is untested).
After that, fixing up the fence and fitting it outside, then dashing back to the computer to compile new version of SFXEngine (now v1.27), and uploading to Steam.
A manically busy day then, and one that remains too hot and too filled with grass pollen for my comfort. Every summer makes my head, eyes, ears and throat feel swollen. I normally hide inside in the dark with windows closed, but I couldn't do this today. Onwards we march.
