Feature requests

[como baila]

1. Copy all setting from any inspector at once to any other inspector. I'm not sure this would work between all generators, but at least from like to like, i.e., one instance of a chord generator to another instance of a chord generator.

Why? If you setup lots of parameters for a phrase in one section of the song, but have generated a different phrase (meaning note/ chord content) somewhere else, but want the same inspector settings, i.e., variations like velocity generator, etc., etc., it would be wonderful to simply copy the settings of the inspector you had 'tweaked' to other instance in the project. It should not be an issue copying those parameters between phrases.

2. Ability to save inspector parameters independent of phrases in a library.

Why? Same as above. You spend a lot of time massaging something and would like to be able to reuse it in the future.

Como

[musicdevelopments]

(1.) is a good feature although it is probably easier to copy the generators with Ctrl-drag. I'll think about it how this could be achieved the simplest way.

(2.) is already implemented. You can save the phrase as a generator preset if you press 'Save' in the phrase inspector/generator properties. That way the generator parameters are saved, and you can reuse it as a phrase generator.

Thanks,
Attila

[como baila]

Thank you for your response!

(2.) is already implemented. You can save the phrase as a generator preset if you press 'Save' in the phrase inspector/generator properties. That way the generator parameters are saved, and you can reuse it as a phrase generator.

Yes, I recognize that what I was thinking of actually doesn't make sense for phrases. I'd imagined pasting parameter from one phrase inspector to another WHILE keeping the phrase already generated. That would of course be of little use, since until I generated something with those parameters, it would have no effect.

However, it would make sense to create an independent library of presets for the variation inspector I think. In that case, I wouldn't want to be generating new chords or melody, but subjecting them to the influence of the variations. For this I don't think a saved generator would work, as I don't want to change the basic phrase, I just want to 'massage' some of the parameters.

As you point up, saving a 'tweaked' generator with preferred phrase and variations would certainly be the way to go to bring a principle of unity into a composition.

It would still be useful to be able to copy the current parameter settings from one phrase or variation inspector to another while you are generating your composition. I think I have noticed that sometimes copying a phrase from a generator phrase turns it into a normal phrase that has lost its generative ability.

If all the phrases are still 'generators,' copying the parameters will permit them to continue to generate new phrases with common preferred parameter settings.

[VariKusBrainZ]

So was a solution arrived at for drums?

Im trying to figure out out to use it with VST drum plugins, Drumatic4 as an example.

It looks like RC still handles drums by creating a single track for each drum sound.

But there doesnt seem to be a way to point several tracks that have been assigned different drum notes to the track that is hosting the plugin.

There doesnt seem to be anything in the latest beta
Any ideas?

Perhaps a new Instrument option under the track propeties that can point to another track that hosts the VST drum plugin.

Id like to see a Drum Generator like the one in Jasmine Style Enhancer, load it with drum orientated variation generators and it would be killer
Ive emailed Attilla with this suggestion

[themixtape]

Don't worry... there are 50+ simple drum phrases included in the extra downloadable content (for registered users).... rock/pop, funk, techno, hip-hop, and R+B, that are general-midi-mapped. I made them all this past week.

You can do the same with EZdrummer and stuff like that... just drag your Grooves from the Grooves tab, and place them into the RC composition... it takes you to the MIDI Import tab, from there you can deselect "analyze" and "convert" (but leave "import", then put a tick mark next to "Add imported tracks to current composition". To extend the groove out, you'll need to copy/paste (you can't yet "drag it out" like you can in a DAW). In the future, we'll try to make this a bit better... such as, dragging in the grooves from EZDrummer and having the MIDI appear right there in the Composition.


In the meantime, for those who don't have EZDrummer or want to keep things simple, in the new version of RC coming out Monday, we included three Soundfont drumkits that I made a few weeks ago-- an Urban kit that has 4 presets (only 4 instruments per preset-- kick, closed hat, snare 1 and snare 2)... a dance kit that has a nice 808-style kick and a fat 909 snare... (just 1 preset), and an acoustic soundfont that has 16 instruments in 1 preset (kick, snare, snare 2, sidestick, ride, crashes, toms, etc). All of these kits adhere to General Midi drum mapping (kick on C, closed hat on F#, open on A#), etc. etc.

So you are able to add basic drums to your Compositions if you'd like. As we all know, RC is not a DAW, so having crazy drum editing options isn't really its strong suit... it's mainly for composing harmonic and melodic phrases that fit perfectly to chords.

[themixtape]

If I were you, I'd probably run RC as a VST inside your DAW (for melodic/harmonic phrase stuff), and routing the MIDI as you wish to different VSTs or a multitimbral one.

and then just simply keeping your drum sampler (Superior 2.0, EZDrummer, anything else) on a different track in your DAW so you get the best of both worlds. That seems to be absolutely the quickest and best workflow, for adding drums to a Composition.

In fact, this is how I use it most often.

[VariKusBrainZ]

@mixtape

Thanks for those ideas, using midi files is a good work around, Im still digging into RC, thanks to your vids

Ive have been using RC as a VST as you mentioned but thought it would be goog if it had its own internal solution.

[como baila]

I've sent these first two feature requests to Attila, but thought I'd add them here to see what others think about them. I also have two more.

1. All 'Variations' added to a phrase in the variation inspector should have a little 'activate' or 'deactivate' check box so that you can remove the effect of the variation without having to actually remove it from the inspector. This would make it easier to audition different combinations of variation in place without having to remove them and start all over with a variation's parameter adjustments to try different combinations of variations.(I haven't checked if this is possible, but it would also be great to move a selected variation in the inspector up or down to change the order of the variation processing.)

2. Any ghost, generator or phrase, could be locked to the variation setting of the original. Now ghosts essentially contain the notes, but variation settings in the original generator or phrase do not affect them. I like this behavior, but I would also like the choice to be able to 'send' the variations through from the original to the ghosts at times. This could be accomplished by a check box in the original variation like 'send to ghost,' and a global check box in the variation inspector of a ghost to 'receive from master/ original' ... or perhaps by some other similar scheme.

3. I don't know about you ... but I find that while there can be lot of tweaking in the variation inspectors, there are some useful combinations and settings of the variations I'd like to be able to quickly replicate ... both for assigning to another phrase in the project or saving for future use. For this I'd like to also see a global 'Variation Inspector Preset' function which would save the entire variation inspector contents and parameter adjustments.

4. I'd also like to see a preset saving scheme for the variations on an item by item basis. I'd especially love this for the Velocity Generator so that I could quickly adjust velocity of phrases playing simultaneously on different tracks to create dynamics within those passages and have some track voices rise while others fall, etc.

I find the 'micro' level of RC at the phrase by phrase level outstanding (though I'd like to see more CC Controller options and especially CC 74, cutoff, and CC 71, resonance/ tone variation). I think the area for the greatest potential improvement in work flow is in the 'macro' area where schemes from the inspectors can quickly be applied across multiple phrases and multiple tracks.

I'd appreciate others' thoughts on these ideas.

[VariKusBrainZ]

@como baila

Totally agree with all those points, I was going to request the same things.
These feature are all available in another program I use, similar to RC

[musicdevelopments]

Very good feature requests, thank you!! These are not difficult to implement.

You can easily add new control change options: open GeneralMIDI.rcCTRL in a text editor and add the following at the end of list:

Code: Select all

,{name="Cutoff"; num=74; default=0; },{name="Resonance"; num=71; default=0; }

Please leave the semicolon as the last character.
You can add any number of CC's to the list.

Thanks,
Attila

[como baila]

Very good feature requests, thank you!! These are not difficult to implement.

You can easily add new control change options: open GeneralMIDI.rcCTRL in a text editor and add the following at the end of list:

Code: Select all

,{name="Cutoff"; num=74; default=0; },{name="Resonance"; num=71; default=0; }

Please leave the semicolon as the last character.
You can add any number of CC's to the list.

Thanks,
Attila

Thank you, Attila! And thanks again for the 'keys to the kingdom' CC Control code!

Como

[petearch]

I've found some great Soundfonts that work well with RC. A couple of suggestions that would be nice:

1. The ability to define a directory for Soundfonts (similar to the already available 'Custom Phrases'). This is so that it would not be necessary to re-load them all to the default directory if RC needed to be re-installed for any reason.
EDIT: I've just discovered you can already do that by selecting the Sounfonts tab in Settings, and then Scan Soundfonts ...

2. A directory structure when selecting Soundfonts. Currently all the Soundfonts are displayed as one big long list. It would be great if they could be in some sort of category structure (defined in folders inside the Soundfonts directory). For example, Brass, Woodwinds, etc.

[musicdevelopments]

1. Yes, it absolutely makes sense to have a custom directory for soundfonts too.
The Soundfonts directory (in .../AppData/Roaming/RapidComposer) behaves like that: you can drop any soundfonts in it, next time you run the program, the new soundfonts are available without having to 'Add' them first.

2. I have also lots of soundfonts, and this is on my to-do list. You can be sure it will be added sooner rather than later.

[petearch]

Number 2 is great! I just added a load of Soundfonts and then deleted them again because I couldn't be bothered to keep scrolling down the list, as it takes ages!

Thanks for this Attila

[como baila]

Number 2 is great! I just added a load of Soundfonts and then deleted them again because I couldn't be bothered to keep scrolling down the list, as it takes ages!

Thanks for this Attila

LOL! I requested the same thing from Atilla about 2 weeks ago. I'd like to see both a text search box ... that removes all soundfonts from the list except those that contain the string you are looking for, and the recognition of a hierarchical folder structure to put them where you want them and be able to quickly navigate to nested folder of choice.

Alternatively or also, I'd like to see a vertical scroll bars instead of the little 'up/ down' triangles. Scroll bars are much faster to work with.