Setting length of whole piece and number of chords

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I'm unclear about how to do this. Please help.

Where can I set the overall lengths of a piece? (I would have thought in the structural inspector or in the master track, but I can't find it there.)

Suppose I have a piece of 8 bars and want 8 chords in it (i.e. a chord change at every bar). There's a "number of chords"-slider in the Master Track and I've set it to 8, but when I pull in a chord-progression with 4 chords, it distributes them over the whole 8 measures. Instead, I'd like to have 2x those 4 chords from my selected progression. How can I do that, please?

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This is a great question but what is the answer????

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HI Atriciousness,

at least someone else, who doesn't know either! I had already thought that my question was obviously so uncool that nobody even bothers to answer, ha.

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I notice I usually have to post twice in different topics before I get an answer.

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Used to be different ...

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Nextom wrote:I'm unclear about how to do this. Please help.

Where can I set the overall lengths of a piece? (I would have thought in the structural inspector or in the master track, but I can't find it there.)

Suppose I have a piece of 8 bars and want 8 chords in it (i.e. a chord change at every bar). There's a "number of chords"-slider in the Master Track and I've set it to 8, but when I pull in a chord-progression with 4 chords, it distributes them over the whole 8 measures. Instead, I'd like to have 2x those 4 chords from my selected progression. How can I do that, please?
Hmm... I suppose you could create a song part with one line that is four bars (which I believe is the default number of bars for a line). Drag your four-bar chord progression to the line. Hover over that line and click the "2x" or "+" button to duplicate the line. You should have two duplicate lines; each with the identical 4-chord chord progression.

The entire composition/song grows (or shrinks) with each additional song part and line you add (or delete). Selecting a line or song part, displays just the relevant bars for that line or song part. The length of each line or song part can be lengthened or shortened by dragging its end handle shown in the master track.

Hopefully, I understood your request; and hopefully, I described these steps correctly. As I am not in RC right now, I am writing up these steps from memory.
[Core i7 8700 | 32GB DDR4 | Win11 x64 | Studio One 6 Pro | FL Studio ASIO/WASAPI ]

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Thanks, tonedef.
So, the length of each part is defined by dragging that red bar. And the overall length of the whole piece is defined by the sum of its parts. Ok, why not. It's unlike any other DAW that I am working with, but why stick to conventions, ha. Let the users figure it out!

And since we're at it, maybe you can enlighten me about some other questions regarding that inspector window: I see these numbers in brackets (56, 40, 16, in my case) behind the parts and wonder what they would mean.

And the two pull-down menus on top, named Start and Length: what's the function of those? Again(!) I see here RC's tendency to double-define important(?) features at two places. And if I set the left one, Start, to anything other than Bars/Beats, the right one, Name, doesn't accept any other input. How cryptical can a piece of software be?

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Thanks, tonedef.
So, the length of each part is defined by dragging that red bar. And the overall length of the whole piece is defined by the sum of its parts. Ok, why not. It's unlike any other DAW that I am working with, but why stick to conventions, ha. Let the users figure it out!

And since we're at it, maybe you can enlighten me about some other questions regarding that inspector window: I see these numbers in brackets (56, 40, 16, in my case) behind the parts and wonder what they would mean.

And the two pull-down menus on top, named Start and Length: what's the function of those? Again(!) I see here RC's tendency to double-define important(?) features at two places. And if I set the left one, Start, to anything other than Bars/Beats, the right one, Name, doesn't accept any other input. How cryptical can a piece of software be?

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Nextom wrote:Thanks, tonedef.
So, the length of each part is defined by dragging that red bar.
The color of each line/song part varies and can be different shades of red, green, blue, brown, violet. The color of the part-sizing handle is grey.
Image
Nextom wrote:And the overall length of the whole piece is defined by the sum of its parts. Ok, why not. It's unlike any other DAW that I am working with, but why stick to conventions, ha. Let the users figure it out!
It is important to recognize that although RC has some functionality that is found in a DAW, RC, itself, is not a DAW. It is a music prototyping tool in which one can use its myriad of creative compositional tools to draft out an entire song (or small parts or ideas) and then export the parts to finish the song in a proper DAW. If you continue to think of RC as a DAW you will continue to be frustrated and disappointed.
Nextom wrote:And since we're at it, maybe you can enlighten me about some other questions regarding that inspector window: I see these numbers in brackets (56, 40, 16, in my case) behind the parts and wonder what they would mean.
Image
In the above screenshot, the top number in parentheses is the total length of time for the entire composition. The numbers in parentheses on the left are the Starting times for each line or song part. The number in parentheses for each line or song part is the total Length of time for that particular line or song part.
Nextom wrote:And the two pull-down menus on top, named Start and Length: what's the function of those?
The Start and Length combo boxes let you select the viewing format for the start and length measurements. In the above screenshot, the start and length measurements are both set to be Time. They can each be set individually from a set of various viewing formats; the measurement for length may also be hidden if desired by selecting Hide as the viewing format:
Image
Nextom wrote:Again(!) I see here RC's tendency to double-define important(?) features at two places.
It is important to realize that the evolution of RC has been driven by feedback from its users. The workflow of any two RC users can vary greatly; the developer has done his best to accommodate and support the different work styles of his many customers, that is why there is often more than one way to accomplish the same task. Development of RC is ongoing and never gets stagnant. The software is constantly being improved with new features and music composition capabilities. Sometimes, entire features (e.g. the idea tool) get a complete overhaul to support new functionality and/or address usability concerns. Every paying customer is entitled to free beta versions to test out and critique new features that are being considered for the next public release.
Nextom wrote:And if I set the left one, Start, to anything other than Bars/Beats, the right one, Name, doesn't accept any other input.
Name is always a static header; only Start and Length are settable. For me, I can always set Start and Length to whatever I want regardless of the setting of the other one. By the way, if you want to change the name of a line or song part, just select the line or song part and then right-click it to bring up the appropriate editor dialog box.
Nextom wrote: How cryptical can a piece of software be?
RC does deviate from some established norms (e.g. CUA), but once you get accustomed to its unique style, it will probably not seem so bothersome anymore. RC does allow for re-assigning many of the keystrokes used in the software.

In case you are wondering about the lack of an up-to-date user manual, if I recall correctly, the users of RC voted for a wiki based manual instead of another printed user manual, because most folks believed that a wiki (a living document) would better serve a constantly evolving piece of software like RC than a constantly outdated printed user manual ever could. That said, the wiki can be printed out as a PDF to serve as a rough portable manual. Unfortunately, the wiki documentation has fallen behind as there does not exist a technical writer on staff to keep it updated. RC user Chris Caulder volunteers some of his spare time to assist the developer with writing sections of the wiki manual.
[Core i7 8700 | 32GB DDR4 | Win11 x64 | Studio One 6 Pro | FL Studio ASIO/WASAPI ]

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Nextom wrote:I'm unclear about how to do this. Please help.

Where can I set the overall lengths of a piece? (I would have thought in the structural inspector or in the master track, but I can't find it there.)
This question makes no sense in RapidComposer. The length of the piece is the sum of lengths of parts, which are the sum of lengths of lines. You can resize a line by dragging at the right edge.
Remember, a composition is a hierarchical structure, not a single block of N measures.
Nextom wrote:Suppose I have a piece of 8 bars and want 8 chords in it (i.e. a chord change at every bar). There's a "number of chords"-slider in the Master Track and I've set it to 8, but when I pull in a chord-progression with 4 chords, it distributes them over the whole 8 measures. Instead, I'd like to have 2x those 4 chords from my selected progression. How can I do that, please?
It is easiest, and you can tell the program exactly where you want to insert the chord progression by dropping it to a selection on the timeline. This is explained in the Tips&Tricks subforum, see "Drop A Chord Progression On The Timeline"

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To specify how many chords you want for a given space, I'm using a more convenient way which is the TimeLine tools menu that you can access by right click on the Time line box, you can also here insert some bars/beats at any place to modify the length of Part/Line and some others usefull tools.

Something (tell me if I'm wrong Attila ) that I didn't find in any documentation !

Sorry for my english

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Very good point, midijl!
Thank you,
Attila

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