tutorial for using RC in logic Pro X as VST

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Hi,
New user of this fantastic software.
I am not able to find any topic / tutorial for using RC in logic Pro X as VST.
Any help here will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Ajay

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Hi Ajay,
welcome to this forum, among many creative RapidComposer users! :)

There is a Tips&Tricks subforum, where you can find a topic about that:
viewforum.php?f=285

Topic URL:
viewtopic.php?f=285&t=479779

RC will be available as an Audio Unit on macOS soon, this is on my to-do list for a while, but the implementation is getting close.

Thanks,
Attila

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Nice to hear about AU version. Please make sure to compile also as AU-MFX.
MacPro 5,1 12core x 3.46ghz-96gb MacOS 12.2 (opencore), X32+AES16e-50

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You might find some interesting tidbits related to LogicPro here: viewtopic.php?f=168&t=430489&hilit=logic
MacPro 5,1 12core x 3.46ghz-96gb MacOS 12.2 (opencore), X32+AES16e-50

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Dewdman42 wrote: Mon Dec 10, 2018 7:37 pm Nice to hear about AU version. Please make sure to compile also as AU-MFX.
+1

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Hi, I'm new to RC and wanted to see about using it in Logic. Any news on the AU version of the plugin?

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Hi doja!
The AU version is planned for this spring (March, or rather April). If all goes well VST3 will also be supported.
Thanks,
Attila

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That is great news! Please make sure you make AU-MFX version too, as that will ultimately be more useful then simple AU instrument in LogicPro.

@doja, However one problem that will still remain is that logic does not handle well a single plugin being piped to multiple different instrument channels... There are kludgy ways to set that kind of thing up using IAC loopback, etc..

The AU version would eliminate the need for a VST wrapper of course, but ultimately Logic still has that fundamental limitation that will make RC somewhat limited inside Logic as an AU-MFX plugin, except if you wanted to have a multi-timbral instrument loaded into a single instrument channel...with RC as the AU-MFX of that instrument channel...then that scenario would be very clean and elegant, with sample accuracy, etc.. You can do that now using Plogue Bidule or something similar to wrap the VST...so an AU version would avoid the need to wrap it...but still...people need to realize that Logic still has that fundamental limitation that can be make it a little limiting to work with RC on only a single instrument channel without IAC loopback...but doable.

IAC loopback is still basically sub-millisecond and pretty tight, and still good enough usually for figuring out ideas and what not, its just not strictly speaking, sample accurate. You can't do non-realtime bounces, etc. And it makes your projects a little more complicated in Logic too, usually you end up having to dabble in the environment a bit.

@doja for now, what I would try is the freely available mini-host modular plugin from image-line.

https://www.image-line.com/support/flst ... odular.htm

You can put both RC and your instruments inside that plugin and it will work in Logic.

Commercial alternatives mainly include BlueCatAudio Patchworks or Plogue Bidule. In either case you can set it up similarly as mini-host modular or you can just wrap RC in Logic's midifx slot and then handle the instrument itself and everything else as you would any other instrument in Logic, which is a bit cleaner in some ways. I prefer PlogueBidule a little bit as it provides a lot of other features that come in handy sometimes.
MacPro 5,1 12core x 3.46ghz-96gb MacOS 12.2 (opencore), X32+AES16e-50

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Thanks Atilla, look forward to it!

And thank you Dewdman42! I'm scratching the surface so far in learning what Rapid Composer can do. My thought was to have a quick way to look at structures/instrumentation/ideas etc, move things around, add bars, quickly hear melodies harmonized and then move it into the daw to get into the piece more deeply. A composer's assistant for those who can't afford an assistant, is what i was imagining, I guess.

Or conversely, take something I've roughly sketched in the daw, move it into RC and try out some variations, and when satisfied move it back into the daw. Does that sound to you like an approach that RC is well suited for?

The idea of having RC inside the DAW sounded intriguing, not sure how, but seems like it could open some interesting doors...

btw I see you on ViC (I'm Soundhound there, sad silly monicker from the early days of the interwebs that I can't seem to shake.) Nice to see you here!

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for just experimentation you can probably avoid the complexity of using it inside logic, just run RC standalone and play around with ideas there.

The advantage of putting it inside Logic when using it are as follows IMHO:
  1. it will be sync'd to the clock of Logic, sample accurately and can play along with other existing tracks in Logic.
  2. You can use Logic's built in instruments if you want, *IF* you use plogueBidule or BlueCatAudio to wrap the VST into AUMFX slot.
  3. whatever stuff you do inside the RC plugin will be saved with the Logic project just like any other plugin.
MacPro 5,1 12core x 3.46ghz-96gb MacOS 12.2 (opencore), X32+AES16e-50

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ps - I have only scratched the surface of RC also, its quite deep. I view it as something that could be very interesting if you like to develop certain patterns that can be reused across different chords, it has a lot of depth to that, but there are all kinds of tools in there to experiment around with various forms of generated motives and different things...
MacPro 5,1 12core x 3.46ghz-96gb MacOS 12.2 (opencore), X32+AES16e-50

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@Atila

IMHO what would be supremely useful in Logic, in addition to AU-MFX compatibility...would be that you have it setup so that you can have multiple instances of the RC plugin on different instrument channels in Logic...and they all connect to one instance of the RC application window, so they are separate, yet all interconnected in a way. Because basically the ideal way to use RC in logic would be to handle just one instrument per track and per RC plugin. Deal with just the patterns of that track...then on another track you'd have another RC plugin that is handling a different midi channel..and just the patterns of that channel, etc..

But they are all connected to each other through one global chord progression, etc..
MacPro 5,1 12core x 3.46ghz-96gb MacOS 12.2 (opencore), X32+AES16e-50

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Yes that could be interesting, thanks for the wrapper info. It is indeed very deep, it might be a while before I have time to really learn my way around, but seems like worthwhile effort. I'm going to have a look at midi import export and see what how much facility there is. Can this thing harmonize anything you throw at it, within the various parameters you give it etc?




Dewdman42 wrote: Thu Feb 14, 2019 7:54 pm for just experimentation you can probably avoid the complexity of using it inside logic, just run RC standalone and play around with ideas there.

The advantage of putting it inside Logic when using it are as follows IMHO:
  1. it will be sync'd to the clock of Logic, sample accurately and can play along with other existing tracks in Logic.
  2. You can use Logic's built in instruments if you want, *IF* you use plogueBidule or BlueCatAudio to wrap the VST into AUMFX slot.
  3. whatever stuff you do inside the RC plugin will be saved with the Logic project just like any other plugin.

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Yes, the VST plug-in works exactly like that. You can load multiple instances of the plug-in (which is VERY small), for each track if you want, but they still use the same composition workspace, same master track, etc. I am sure the AU version will work similarly.
I tried to 'plug-inize' RapidComposer in the early days but it was not reliable to make that big application into a plug-in. I believe that it is more useful the way it works now.

Thanks,
Attila
Dewdman42 wrote: Thu Feb 14, 2019 8:12 pm @Atila

IMHO what would be supremely useful in Logic, in addition to AU-MFX compatibility...would be that you have it setup so that you can have multiple instances of the RC plugin on different instrument channels in Logic...and they all connect to one instance of the RC application window, so they are separate, yet all interconnected in a way. Because basically the ideal way to use RC in logic would be to handle just one instrument per track and per RC plugin. Deal with just the patterns of that track...then on another track you'd have another RC plugin that is handling a different midi channel..and just the patterns of that channel, etc..

But they are all connected to each other through one global chord progression, etc..

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Hi Attila,
Today I was experimenting the vst in logic (via Bidule midi effect), I managed to play 3 instances of the plug in but strange things happened-It was like the plug in couldn t play all the voices at the same time-Say I put the piano chords first like one bar long sustained per chords-then I put let s say arpeggio 2nd track-if I play all the tracks, the piano sustain is cut-but I can hear both tracks play-Then I added a bass track -I still could hear the 3 tracks but the bass is randomly cut- As if the plug in had a limited polyphony voices

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