Interesting piece. What’s supplying the actual sounds. Numa Player must be the piano. The strings from EW Opus I assume. What’s the glass rubbed synth? And the images are created how?
Normally it costs €99, but yesterday they had an offer for €19.8 (-80%) and I bought it. There are very few hours left until the offer ends. I hope you arrive on time.
Yes, Numa Player is the Piano, and EW Opus, the Strings. The synth is a Moving Pad from the new Synth Forbidden Planet, also from EW Opus.
I made the song in Rapid Composer. I used a progression I had made in Scaler and dragged the chords onto the RC chord line. There I changed ideas several times, but the string voice was fixed from the beginning with a Chord Generator. Anyway, there are 3 voices that I send to Scaler (in Reaper) so that they can be sent from there:
midi channel 2 (the chords) to an instance of Opus Orchestrator (Strings Longs). In turn, midi channel 1 (another RC track) is sent to 2 instances of ChordPotion (using the Piano Sessions Ballad 2 and Ballad 5 presets). One of the ChordPotions goes to other instances of Opus Strings, and the other to Numa Player.
As for the synthesizer, it is a Pad (moving pad) from Forbidden Planet (also from EW Opus). This picks up RC channel 3, which I generated with a Melody Generator
These 3 midi channels are sent to a preset that I selected in VS (Imaginando) separating the 3 layers of images that move with the pulses of the midi channels. Speeds, brightnesses (and many more things) can be adjusted on VS image layers. Naturally, it is very intuitive to use. In fact, I’m learning to use it (I bought it yesterday, and I’ve already been able to put it into practice in this video). I hope to make better videos, adjusting speeds and transitions between layers better. I’m liking it, and the offer was irrefutable
I leave here the Scaler file to be able to use it directly without RC. I insist that I used it only to send the chords to RC
Emociones Ab.xml (11.6 KB)
Another couple of years, another RC sale…
Currently, it’s 110USD. The deal lasts until Saturday, November 30.
I might finally “bite the bullet”.
(Unfortunately, I’m not teaching, these days. So I wouldn’t benefit from an educational discount.)
This thread and other mentions of RapComp on this forum have been on my mind. In many ways, RC5 does what I wish Scaler 2 could do. Even if it were just for a few of the features, it could be worth something close to the current price, for me.
It’s just that…
I find the toolkit particularly difficult to comprehend. It’s close to inscrutable, for me. As a big fan of rapid playflows, I’m confronted with convoluted workflows. Sure, the app allows for many workflows… if you tame it. And, yes, there are multiple user-created videos which can give me ideas about ways to leverage different tools in the kit… assuming I have similar things in mind to what they present.
The user guide reminds me of the kind of manual we had to pore over, back in the 1990s and before.
Of course, there are many points in Interaction Design which afford rethinking.
As both a Learning Professional and a User Experience Researcher, I can’t help but feel like the learning curve decreases RC5’s value.
Having said all this, I’m hoping to find enough guidance among RC users to achieve the results I want to accomplish. And eventually move into the kinds of playflows I enjoy so much.
And y’know what might have tipped the scale? Realizing that I could drag a chord progression from Scaler 2 to the RC “Master Track”. Wish Logic Pro allowed for the same gesture. (It sounds like LP’s chord track does accept MIDI clips… just not those coming from Scaler 2?)
…also…
Re-reading parts of this thread, after some RC experiments, I’m getting a better grasp of things. For instance, hadn’t noticed the Quick Start Guide. While I’ve come across easier guides to use, it does sound like a more useful starting point than most of the documentation around the program.
In terms of installation, since the demo version works well, I don’t expect issues. Really hope it’s the case.
In terms of key features… Several are mentioning fingerpicking, and that could indeed be fun, when it works well. So far, I haven’t heard much in terms of RC’s generative work that satisfies my needs.
I’m more interested in voice leading, which isn’t transparent in Scaler 2. (To reiterate on previous comments, my favourite voice leading approaches from “theory plugins” come from Tonality, which is only available as AUv3 at the present time, and Suggester, which is both AUv3 and Mac.)
I should also be enjoying the features which are also available in MIDI Mutator.
As for currency exchange… It was also a concern, for me. (I’m paid in CAD.) As it so happens, I did some Open Education work for friends in rural Michigan and I got some USD in my PayPal account in the process. In that case, I don’t even have to wait for my next paycheque or credit card cycle.
So, unless I wake up with a very negative opinion of RC5, I’ll probably make the purchase tomorrow.
They have a light version as well. Seems to have most of the stuff for even less money:
RapidComposer Demo Version
I have the full version and, whilst I like it and use, it the user interface drives me nuts. It’s the least intuitive interface I’ve ever seen. It’s like it was designed by someone who has never used any other software package. Even after using it for a good while I still have to refer to the manual and videos to do some stuff.
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Thought about the light version. Ended up with the full one, partly because the features I felt I might use most are among those which are part of the full version. Besides, it was a kind of “might as well” situation. If I am to invest any time and energy in this system, I’m probably better off with the full package, especially if that’s what’s most explicitly documented. (The light version is so undocumented that I wasn’t at all sure what I’d miss. Not that great a sign.)
Even with the full 5.4 version, though, there’s the problem of a mismatch in documentation. Especially with the “quick start guide” that @jjfagot suggested. Don’t get me wrong, I do appreciate the suggestion. It’s just that each step is slightly different from what’s described. The buttons don’t look the same or aren’t position in the same place. And it’s really a textbook-case of the thing we avoid in instructional design. For a simple example, because the same term can mean different things, it’s remarkably easy to confuse parts of the interface with one another. So, it feels like those pre-IKEA instructional manuals to build a piece of furniture… “translated from Korean by the developer’s accountant’s friend”, as our MIDI Studio teacher used to say (in 1989).
Was going to say that I’ve never observed something as bad. It’d be an overstatement, as I did some computing in the 1980s and 1990s. And I’ve had frustrating experiences with electronics kits or with government forms (and I currently work in the Public Service). So, I can focus on not having encountered something like this with software during this century.
Now… Letting some of the frustration subside, I’m getting just a bit of insight into a basic way in which it can work. Create a chord progression, add phrases which will follow that progression, tweak the phrases with different tools… Some of the phrase-creation process is semi-generative. And there’s flexibility in the scales and chords used.
This part is fairly similar to other plugins and apps, including Captain Plugins, Orb Composer (or is it Orb Producer?), along with several others. Piano Motifs also works a bit like this, though it doesn’t work with a “piano roll”.
A key advantage, though, is that RapComp does more with voiceleading. In general, it sounds like it’s more “aware of transitions between chords”.
I also like the fact that we can extend or shrink phrases at will and they take the shape of the chord structure. That part’s really clever and possibly unique.
People have commented on the fingerpicking. That might be particularly fun with a nicely-crafted guitar plugin. GeoShred Studio’s the one I have in mind. RC5 has yet to scan it (crashed early during the VST3 scanning process and it skipped over many of the plugins I have). Of course, I can use RapComp itself as a plugin and easily route the MIDI to GeoShred. I might start doing that soon, especially if I can use an external screen.
I don’t feel buyer’s remorse. I was warned. Knew what to expect. Still surprising how little consideration there apparently has been for the most basic principles of usability. Almost funny. If it weren’t so frustrating.
At this point, RapComp features prominently in a type of New Year’s Resolution of mine: “Jazzing Up 2025”.
I also ended up getting a year of Open Studio Jazz. My intention, there, is to “Learn Jazz Piano” using a grid controller (especially the Exquis). While it’s very close to the memeworthy aspiration of “learning piano”, what I have in mind is much more specific. I’ll be learning Jazz Theory through practice… while avoiding pianocentrism.
Much of that will be about phrases. In fact, I’d like to build my own database of phrases, scale- and chord-specific. As much as possible, I’ll perform those phrases, focusing on expressiveness (MPE, breath, etc.). Possibly, I might find a way to add them to RC5’s phrase browser. And adjust them to different contexts.
(I might also do some patching and coding, with Plugdata, Lua, Max, JavaScript, etc.)
So… Thanks gang for the nudge. If it weren’t for this forum and especially this thread, I might not have bought RapidComposer 5.
I agree with Enkerli “So… Thanks guys for the push. If it wasn’t for this forum and especially this thread, maybe I wouldn’t have bought RapidComposer 5”. Buying RP5 has given a new push to my favorite passion. Being advanced in age, music is still my great love that has accompanied me for many years. Thanks to everyone for your suggestions.
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Thanks for sharing!
Of course, Scaler itself is part of our toolkits. As is clear from this thread, there’s complementarity between Scaler 2 and RC5.
That could make for interesting demos, tutorials, and discussions.