RapidComposer v4 beta feedback and discussion (locked)

[sj1]

Possible Suggestion: Add a one letter display (e.g. S C B or A) to the phrase title, and/or to the Phrase Inspector dialog to show the the phrase type ( Scale, Chord or Bass Note Relative, or else Absolute).

This would augment the 'Note Mapping' display in the Phrase Editor to make that information more widely available, and also perhaps to reveal if RC's different parts are not on the same page in this respect.

[musicdevelopments]

Right, there is a small problem that I am trying to fix.
This is multitrack MIDI file, the longest track is 560 quarter notes long. For some reason the phrase length is set to 560 qnotes, this is a problem.
BTW the easiest way to make the chord notes 4 times longer is in the Phrase Inspector, Size tab, setting 'Scale' as the resize mode, then typing 4 times the length. There is no need to drag the phrase edge.

So far I was not able to reproduce the non-working "Convert to relative form". In v4.3.0 I found that after "New Composition" and dropping again Three.mid on a track, pressing "Convert to relative form" does not work, only the second click has an effect. I am investigating this.

Thanks,
Attila

Also, as can be seen, the file above imports with 4-chords-per-bar. When I try to drag the phrase (from the right) to the right in order to expand it to one-chord-per-bar, The dragging is takes place practically microscopically. Expanding the phrase from 8 bars to 32 bars (which would accomplish the goal) takes a double digit number of attempts at dragging as each one only moves the phrase a small increment before the mouse leaves the screen.

Is this fixable?

Is there another, better, quick and accurate way to get from 4-chords-per-bar to one-chord-per-bar?

[musicdevelopments]

Good idea, but that is why different types of notes are colored differently, if you selected the right color scheme for the notes. This works well even if chord and scale notes are mixed.

The 'Note Mapping' menu in the Phrase Editor has two uses: the selection is used for the next note created, and it can also convert notes to another mapping when you make a selection.

Thanks,
Attila

Possible Suggestion: Add a one letter display (e.g. S C B or A) to the phrase title, and/or to the Phrase Inspector dialog to show the the phrase type ( Scale, Chord or Bass Note Relative, or else Absolute).

This would augment the 'Note Mapping' display in the Phrase Editor to make that information more widely available, and also perhaps to reveal if RC's different parts are not on the same page in this respect.

[sj1]

Right, there is a small problem that I am trying to fix.
This is multitrack MIDI file, the longest track is 560 quarter notes long. For some reason the phrase length is set to 560 qnotes, this is a problem.

Ah, yes, I suppose that file is a bit of a laboratory, with the different tracks of different lengths, incl. a couple of very long ones.

Are the individual track lengths supposed to be in the file already computed for RC's use by the exporting program, or is RC examining each track and figuring out the length on it's own?

[sj1]

BTW the easiest way to make the chord notes 4 times longer is in the Phrase Inspector, Size tab, setting 'Scale' as the resize mode, then typing 4 times the length. There is no need to drag the phrase edge.

But dragging the phrase edge is so obvious and easy!

Seriously though, thank you for pointing out the Phrase Inspector method!

[sj1]

So far I was not able to reproduce the non-working "Convert to relative form". In v4.3.0 I found that after "New Composition" and dropping again Three.mid on a track, pressing "Convert to relative form" does not work, only the second click has an effect. I am investigating this.

Here's a video so you can see what I've seen:

https://www.screencast.com/t/FN9wuoHyWchw

[lovemusic15]

This is great for anybody who makes modern day music irregular rhythms gives you some really great results.

Attila is there anyway or is there a reason why this can't be applied to the melody editor. I noticed that even if you go into variations and add apply rhythm or rhythm mapper it doesn't change anything in the Melody editor. ( motive generator)

[musicdevelopments]

Now I realized I made a design mistake. I wanted to make everything flexible and non-destructive, including resizing phrases. But that made things so complicated (unfortunately not just for me but also for the users). Having an 'original' and a 'resized' length is wrong, there should be only one length. I don't know when I can get rid of this, hopefully sooner than v5.0

Thanks,
Attila

BTW the easiest way to make the chord notes 4 times longer is in the Phrase Inspector, Size tab, setting 'Scale' as the resize mode, then typing 4 times the length. There is no need to drag the phrase edge.

But dragging the phrase edge is so obvious and easy!

Seriously though, thank you for pointing out the Phrase Inspector method!

[musicdevelopments]

Attila is there anyway or is there a reason why this can't be applied to the melody editor.

Hi lovemusic15,
I have already attempted to add this rhythm generator to the Melody Editor. I found it was not that easy but I'll return to it soon.
Thanks,
Attila

[sj1]

Pretty much any design winds up having some amazing things that an be accomplished with a few lines of code, and other seemingly simple things that require code edits on every item in the hierarchy to effect.

Flexible and non-destructive is a worthy goal. It might be worth discussing in more depth before casting it aside.

In the current case, the 'original' length is taking that very long value from the import process, but maybe that can be intercepted and set right in the first place at import time.

Of course, I merely speculate ...

[musicdevelopments]

RapidComposer v4.4b2 is available!

Improvements:

• Fixed an issue when 'rendering phrases with variations' for scaled phrases
• Fixed a MIDI file drop bug when the first track was shorter than the other tracks
• Fixed a bug when restoring the mouse cursor shape
• Chord popup was displayed wrongly on retina displays

[sj1]

RC v4.4b2 - Consistent observation: After initial selection of Phrase, Convert to Relative Form - Replace Master Track Chords does not work, no matter how many times I click on it.

However, if I then click in a blank area of the Composition to de-select the Phase, and then click on the Phrase to re-select it again, Convert to Relative Form - Replace Master Track Chords works on the next try.

IOW, it works on every other section cycle.

[sj1]

RC v4.4b2 - A phrase resized from one-chord-per-beat to one-chord-per-bar, when next successfully converted to MT chords still converts at one-chord-per-beat (rather than one-chord-per-bar).

[sj1]

RC v4.4b2 -the right-edge phrase drag now works nicely (in the visual sense) as expected relative to current zoom, but somehow in dragging out 28 one-chord-per-beat chords from 7 bars to 28 bars a small offset gets introduced so the result does not line up correctly as 28 one-chord-per-bar chords.

[nexeu]

I see a big big change in ver 4.3.0 for mac, and the resolution is way much better. But, it still has some bugs. The Chord Selector and its icons are too small, and the drag button is not working at all. Some columns of chord selector is minimised by default. Would be nice if it's already expanded to a certain size.

And there are some slight issues as follows:

- The scroll bar is too thin. For mac, the scroll up/down direction is opposite of window, so it feels a lil weird to follow window format of scrolling which is the opposite for other apps. Also, most of the Mac redo shortcut is (command + shift + z).

- Space shortcut for play button isn't triggering well.

- The "phrases loaded" notification pop up could be slightly bigger.


So far that's pretty much of what I encountered. Thank you so much for such big improvements.

Best,
Hsu Pyae Naung