I downloaded the demo (full) and I'm lost.

Where do I start? I added Tyrell as VSTi and wanted the one track, the C F G C chords played back by tyrell...

Can someone guide me to a step by step start from null help?

Read this thread: Where's the tutorial?

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=323935

Go to the webpage and follow through this intro to program features.

http://www.musicdevelopments.com/rapidcomposer.html

Read the 'User's Guide.

http://www.musicdevelopments.com/readme.html#usage



The key to getting around the interface is to realize that there are three main windows ... you can collapse all but the main one by the little 'i' and 'b' at the bottom of the sequence window.

The window at the far left is the 'inspector' window where you make all adjustment to what is in your sequence track ... including selecting instruments, adding midi 'macros' called 'Variations' to effect/ change any phrase selected in the sequencer, etc. Notice that each of the tabs at the top of that window have nested subtabs to find various things.

The middle window is the 'browser' window. It contains all the content for the program including the phrases, chord progressions, chords, etc. It also uses the tabs across the top for navigation. For anything to play, you must select a phrase from the phrase pane in the browser and either highlight and drag it into the sequencer or, alternatively, highlight/ select it in the pane, then right click in the sequencer time line where you want to place it, which opens a context menu with the first choice at the top the name of the selected phrase. Now simply left click in the menu to paste it into the time line.

The main window is pretty self-explanatory. It also has tabs besides the primary 'compose' ones for other program functions. In the compose window if you click on the solid bar in the 'line,' by default a 4 bar 16 beat segment, you can 'divide' so you can add more chord changes down to a single beat. If you click on the name of the chord, a chord palette will open with two different possible views and different options for how you want the color schemes to work. If you click on the little icon at the beginning of each segment in the chord line (just to the left of the chord name), you'll get a little drop down menu of chord substitutes. As far as the phrases go, see the tutorial on the developers webpage, "Working with phrases."

http://www.musicdevelopments.com/tutorials.html

This is the 'heart' of the program.

Make sure your audio and midi are set correctly in the sub tabs in the inspector window at the left ... choose 'settings' tab.

If you found the place to add your VSTi you should be good to go as soon as you select it as your track input. Click on the pink box with the label for 'Track 1,' by default piano, at the left of the main window, which is the large window on the right. Now the 'track' window for track 1 will open in the inspector window (you may have to click a second time to get the specific track to open as opposed to a short listing of all the tracks in the composition). You should now see some parameters. At the top is a drop down box showing the name of a piano soundfont. Click on that and then you can select Tyrell. I don't know if Tyrell is multitimbral ... but for one track that shouldn't be a problem.

My preference is to use soundfonts to learn to get around with the program. They are stable, no latency and you can find some great free GM banks on the web. While hosting VSTi may be a plus for some people, I'm more interested in sketching out a composition to place in my DAW. Anyway, the developer is working on a VSTi midi plugin, which will be here shortly.

Hopefully, this will take you from 'zero to sixty.'

Como
Last edited by como baila on Mon Aug 01, 2011 2:12 pm; edited 1 time in total

thanks a lot!

Thank you Como for the elaborate reply.

New users are adviced to read these short chapters:
http://www.musicdevelopments.com/readme.html#phrases

It is vital to understand that notes are not absolute notes in RapidComposer but parameters (e.g. "Lowest chord note", or "Highest chord note+2 scale steps"). This allows you to create phrases that work with any chords and scales.
Of course one can work with absolute notes as in other DAWs, and absolute<->parameteric conversion is possible anytime.

There exists no step-by-step tutorial yet, but if you have any specific question, we try to answer it here.

Attila

Hey Como, all your links are not.... links but text. And the above link is not working at all.
As this is a sticky please correct this!

Yikes! You mean there is a difference between "u" and "URL"?

Thanks!

PS ... You'd think one of the other 200+ people who read this thread before you would have told me.

Good lookin' out!

Como

I am working on some YouTube tutorial videos for RC... it's going to take a while to get everything going, but I figure they are necessary!

I've been emailing with Attila letting him know that I am doing this and he is most grateful.

I'm trying to think of what needs to be covered and to what extent--

Video One-
getting familiar with all the functions of the program. How it works, what everything does, and how you can come up with cool chord progressions right off the bat

Video Two-
using MIDI with RC-- inputting chords from your keyboard... changing the voicings of the chords by playing the keyboard, using VSTs, etc.

Video Three-
coming up with a multi-track idea (piano, bassline, guitar part), layering, etc.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated, everyone! Thanks!!

-Chris

Wow! That would be amazing! I am very grateful for that.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Attila

I'm rally looking forward to these. I downloaded the mac beat and it looks very promising but even though I have knowledge of music theory and DAWs, I'm pretty lost.

I think this is necessary for most of us, I've messed with the program a little bit on and off for a couple months and I don't know how to use the program at all still.

Something I can suggest you can do is, make a full song using as many features of the program as possible and explain each feature along the way.

Also, right now I don't understand the meaning of the colors in the phrase editor or progression editor and what the colors symbolize in each category, like tonality, chord suggestion ect... (Like i don't know really what the green or blue or whatever symbolize exactly)

Hi,

about the colors in the editors:
- green: chord note
- blue: note on the scale
- red: note not on the scale

Chord colors:
- red: major (happy)
- blue: minor (sad)
- green: sus2, sus4
- yellow: diminished
- aquamarine: augmented
- white: fifth
- black: other disharmonic triplets
The color of other more complex chords are mixed based on the triplets in the chord. E.g. if there is a minor and major triplet in the chord, it will be purple. Generally the more bluish the color, it is more minor, the more reddish it sounds more major. Lighter colors are harmonic, darker colors are more disharmonic. I hope it makes sense.

Thank you for your questions!
Attila

Is it possible to quantize or snap midi notes to the grid automatically after I have recorded a phrase via my midi keyboard?

Well, not in the phrase editor.
Quantize is a transformation (can be found under Variations) that you can add to a phrase or to a track. Due to the non-destructive nature of the application, your original phrase is preserved, and you can add Quantize and other variations to it if you want to process it.

I realized it would be useful to have quantize in the phrase editor, so I added to my to-do list.

Thanks,
Attila

The only thing stopping me from buying this program is a lack of video tutorials, or explanation, or a good manual. I think a song needs to be made from start to finish showing most or all the features of the program in the process of making it.

+1