Using the Idea Tool

[mark5009]

Hi, all. A bit of a rambling post where I find myself a little confused with some of the Idea Tool workflow terminology and presentation and wonder if anyone can help clarify a few things for me.

To start, I have a simple melody I've captured. For whatever reason, it is in 6/8 at 105bpm in the Cm, sounding as a Vibraphone. I then add two other tracks that I want to get "ideas" for, a piano and a bass. I then drop into the Idea Tool and get the following (love this theme from luluken! Thanks!)



So, for workflow, I put in "Use Existing Melody Track" and select Vibraphone, and here my confusion begins:

1. The Master Track shows 4 bars of 4 beats/bar. Shouldn't it pick up the 6 beats from the existing master track?

2. The tempo is at 120bpm not 105bpm. Again, not sure why, but I can change it.

3. Now add some Phrases. Set the Generator to 4 bars and add some bass and Piano Chord Patterns, and it looks like this



I'm not sure why I have "Bass Generator (24)", which seems right, and "Piano Chord Pattern Generator (8)," which seems not right. Shouldn't it read 24?

4. Then I press Generate and I get 8 1/2 bars, like this



Which seems a little odd, which means I'm not understanding something. The result when I do a "Harmonize Melody" on the other hand is, IMO, much more interesting. Are these two functions related at all?

[musicdevelopments]

Hi Mark,

1. The Master Track shows 4 bars of 4 beats/bar. Shouldn't it pick up the 6 beats from the existing master track?
2. The tempo is at 120bpm not 105bpm. Again, not sure why, but I can change it.

No, it does not pick up anything from the existing composition. You need to set your preferred length and tempo and other options.

I'm not sure why I have "Bass Generator (24)", which seems right, and "Piano Chord Pattern Generator (8)," which seems not right. Shouldn't it read 24?

Yes, good point, it should use your preferred phrase generator length, as set in the phrase browser. I fixed this today. At the moment the added generators use a default length.
Here you need to set the length of the building block phrases, typically between 4-8 quarter notes. It is not a good idea to use longer than 16 quarter notes, because repetition is important.

4. Then I press Generate and I get 8 1/2 bars, like this

Here I don't understand why you got more than 4 bars. Probably because of the very long phrases?

Thanks,
Attila