RapidComposer v5 beta feedback and discussion

[foster911]

Thanks man for everything.

[foster911]

1- One of the things that should be done is keeping the previous states and settings inside the track after pressing CTRL+Z in "Show Composite Track" mode. All of my Display Options I've made or changed are ignored and reset when I press CTRL+Z.

2- The other thing is Copying-and-Pasting-notes issue in the track in "Show Composite Track" mode when Note-Editing (F2) has been selected. When you are in this mode and select notes from different tracks to be copied to elsewhere (by mouse dragging), acts like Cutting not Copying. Some parts of original materials are lost.

Appreciate a lot.

[musicdevelopments]

Can't drag a note up, but, will drag down a string. It won't drag higher than the string it's initially placed on.

If you cannot drag it up or down a string, that means there is no fret on the string which sounds the note.

The note velocity's are not visually removed when deleting, but, they go away if you close and re-open the CC view.

Good point, this is fixed now.

drag and drop stops working after enabling the edit.. (affects all tracks)

Yes, drag-and-drop never worked in note editing mode. This is fixed too.

Thanks,
Attila

[musicdevelopments]

1- One of the things that should be done is keeping the previous states and settings inside the track after pressing CTRL+Z in "Show Composite Track" mode. All of my Display Options I've made or changed are ignored and reset when I press CTRL+Z.

Hi foster911!

You were right, I fixed this annoying bug. The color setting were always overwritten. The other settings were fine. Please note that changing these settings do not add an entry into the 'undo' list, so when you change the settings, and then do some action, when you 'undo' after the action, the previous 'undo' state will be restored which does not contain the new settings... This may sound strange but I did not want to store every simple settings change in memory. But yes, there was a bug here.

2- The other thing is Copying-and-Pasting-notes issue in the track in "Show Composite Track" mode when Note-Editing (F2) has been selected. When you are in this mode and select notes from different tracks to be copied to elsewhere (by mouse dragging), acts like Cutting not Copying. Some parts of original materials are lost.

I fixed this too! Now when you Ctrl-drag notes from different tracks, everything will work well.
Many thanks for reporting both problems!
The fixes will be in v5.3, available on Monday.

Thanks!
Attila

[rockbandguy]

Could it be that there are some problems with the XML export of the guitar tab?

Following scenario:
I import a MIDI-file (Down By The Sally Gardens).
I change the meloday track to "guitar".
I export the XML file of the guitar track.
I import the XML file into Guitar Pro.
It looks like a mess.
Even BPM is wrong though it was right in Rapid Composer after import.

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[musicdevelopments]

Could it be that there are some problems with the XML export of the guitar tab?

Following scenario:
I import a MIDI-file (Down By The Sally Gardens).
I change the meloday track to "guitar".
I export the XML file of the guitar track.
I import the XML file into Guitar Pro.
It looks like a mess.
Even BPM is wrong though it was right in Rapid Composer after import.

OK, it seems I forgot to include the tempo in the MusicXML file... I'll have a fix later today.
I don't know how a guitar tab should look like in Guitar Pro. In what ways does it look like a mess? I suppose all those rest symbols should not be there. But when I import the file to REAPER, for example, it correctly shows all notes.

Thanks,
Attila

[BluGenes]

Maybe grab a copy of GP Atilla.. The demo version might be all you need to see what is what with it.. I was never into guitar tabs, but, now, this is really useful for me. I really like the Ample Sound VST's and with GP, it's actually easier to write riffs with GP for that.

Something else that RC needs is the basic key switch stuff for guitar. I think that it may be "standardized" with tabs, so, it may be possible to work up a control file for tabs.

RC would just need some way to visually represent stuff like hammer on's, vibrato, etc.

[musicdevelopments]

I downloaded the demo of GP and yes, indeed the imported guitar tab looks strange and the timing during playback is bad!
I am comparing the output of GP and the output of RC... I still think I did everything well. All positions in RC are in 1/1024 units and in theory MusicXML supports that but GP messes up everything. Please note that the MusicXML exported by RC and imported into REAPER, REAPER is able to play it back with perfect timing. The same file is played with messed up timing in GP. I am not entirely sure that GP does everything well when importing MusicXML, which is a nightmare as a format BTW!

Thanks,
Attila

[rockbandguy]

I applaud RC for adding guitar support in this version of the product. But as GP is the standard far and wide in the guitar world, support for it is essential in my opinion. People would judge by GP support and not Reaper.

My working process - and that of many other guitarists - is based on GP (at least the format - GP5, just look at Ultimate Guitar) and this should work smoothly. Otherwise it would not bring other RC users from the guitar crowd to the table - which I thought was the goal of this release.

[thebutler]

So, who is 'wrong' here..? Reaper, RC or GP.? With XML, I don't think anyone is per se.. Its all down to interpretation; there's no one perfect implementation to set the 'standard', as I understand it.

So, for now, maybe someone could send an XML file generated from RC to the devs at GP to examine.? Perhaps they can offer advice for improvements in the XML export format/protocol from RC or, look into what they can improve inside GP when importing XML data ( from RC).

And it's not limited to just GP of course; there's other notation apps/DAW's that support TABS and notation (for guitar - interpreted from the TAB). Over time, more testing will be needed and results added to 'app compatibility lists'. Allows folk to make more informed buying decisions.

BTW - thanks Atilla for v5.3 - have not dived in yet; will have a look end of the month hopefully.

[musicdevelopments]

Thanks for the comments! Just give me 2-3 days and I will improve the compatibility with GP.

Thanks,
Attila

[thebutler]

Thanks for the comments! Just give me 2-3 days and I will improve the compatibility with GP.

Thanks,
Attila

I must admit that with these last few big releases from you (since v5.0) I have been much more of an 'observer' of progress, rather than an active 'user'.!

I haven't had time/inclination/energy of late, to keep up with all the goodies you've included recently, to have fun and experiment with RC, like I used to. Life gets in the way more and more...

But please, don't take that as disheartening; I'm more than happy to support your work (I have Fyler too), because I genuinely believe in RC and its capabilities and in you Attila, as truly one of the good guys, single-handedly supporting musicians creative needs across the world.!!

[rockbandguy]

Thanks for the comments! Just give me 2-3 days and I will improve the compatibility with GP

I sent You a bunch of files to get hold of the problem via mail, as I am not able to upload them here, Attila. F. e. a XML File exported from GP for comparison and more.

[BluGenes]

Hey, while those great fixes are being done, maybe we could discuss a new issue that now is kind of new, but, sort of related in terms of a work flow to the new drag and drop.

Ok, so, with the new ability of drag and drop and import and with the definable key switch ranges, the ranges are not locked globally, sort of speaking. bear with me...

So, now you have a bunch of cool midi in RC and discover that if you copy anything into a new track, you lose the locked range for the key switches, meaning, if you move the midi up or down, the key switches change too.

So, this is the problem I see.. what is the best solution here? Maybe a range in settings, like always use the range upper A6 and up, and lower C2 and lower as always a key switch range? Range per track? Of course you would to use a check box style on or off as well.. hehe, looks like a new filter in code there bud..

anyways, really having fun with the guitar stuff myself. For the moment, I am building a lick library, etc., for RC. This includes using GP to copy licks out, etc.. then tweaking them and cleaning a bit and loading those into RC phrase library using a couple of different guitar VST's, Ample Sound stuff and some Kontack stuff.. etc.

I guess that turned into a new hobby by itself.. lol

great work Atilla! Thanks!

[musicdevelopments]

Thank you, everyone, for the kind words and encouragement!

As an update this is how Moonlight Sonata looks like exported from RC, imported into GP:



I hope this is how it _should_ look like, but it plays back perfectly in GP.
Previously it was really messed up but now I started to get to know the secrets of MusicXML...