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Hi, I'm a new user of 3.66. I'm finding your program quite inscrutable. I've also looked at videos, wiki, and manual from wiki. Videos are inherently less than useful due to lack of random access, unscripted presentation, and often distracting style. Manual does not seem to always match the interface. Nonstandard interface, buttons not labled and slooooow tooltips add to the frustration. Not complaints, just to say my problems.

I have a very simple need, and all of the detail in the "help" is overwhelmning and not really needed by this absolute beginner.

I would like a very simple starting exercise. All I would like to accomplish is opening RC, creating 16 bars, add 8 chords, and play them back. I would like to play it as I add each chord, with a choice of instruments. The simplest way to do this, as an example, would be very helpful to me starting out.

It seems like this basic exercise should be intuitive but it is not, so I hope someone will give me steps to achieve this please.

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See the post 'where do I start?' There's some good advice there.

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mixer9 wrote: Fri May 10, 2019 9:08 pm
I would like a very simple starting exercise. All I would like to accomplish is opening RC, creating 16 bars, add 8 chords, and play them back. I would like to play it as I add each chord, with a choice of instruments. The simplest way to do this, as an example, would be very helpful to me starting out.

It seems like this basic exercise should be intuitive but it is not, so I hope someone will give me steps to achieve this please.
I've read over your exercise description a few times, and finally got (I think) that you mean you expect RC to work like a scale filter while you play live, so you don't need to change keys/chords, RC switches those for you…right? I don't think that's possible, if so. RC's not really a live instrument (altho it changes so fast that might change, too! Plus there's lots of brilliant folk using it who constantly surprise:)

Nor do I think it's possible to switch internal instruments during playback, but I haven't tried that. I'd do that by sending MIDI out from RC to my DAW.

I, too, was quite baffled by RC when I first got it, and didn't even open it for a long while after seeing how looooong most tutorial videos on it were! Once I was ready to accept that SOME study was going to be nec., I totally fell in love with it. But that did take some effort…

As a result, I made some short, basic intro videos that were more like what I wanted to know at the start, with MY own unique goals, about things that weren't clear in the many other videos I watched. If you haven't watched those, maybe they'd work for you, too…? I hear what you said about no random access w/video…but who's got time to write a (free) book these days!?

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... Se9YtgRfwx

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Thank you for the reply. I think my need is more basic than your video. I just want instructions to enter a progression over 16 bars and be able to play it back. I realize there are probably many ways to do that. I would just like one simple example. That would be enough for me to get into the program and learn more.

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Hi mixer9,

yes, there are many ways. I'll show you how to do it.

First, if you want to work with note names rather than roman numerals, you can change that in the Master Track inspector. Generally you need to right-click on everything to open an inspector where you can set properties, and find actions associated to that object. So right click on the master track, and set 'Chord Naming' as you wish:

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If you always want to start with note letters, there is a setting under the Settings / Miscellaneous tab, look for New Composition.
If you want faster tooltips, also under Settings / Miscellaneous tab, look for Help/Pop-up Help Delay.

To make 16 bars it is the easiest to duplicate the default 4-bar lines:

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If you want a single line of 16 bars, that can be done in one of several ways. E.g.:

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You can split chords or join by Alt-clicking on the master track.
You can drop chord progressions on lines from the Chord Progression browser. The quickest way to fill this with a chord progression is generating one. If you made 4 lines, right click on 'Part 1' in the Structure Inspector, if you made one long line, right click on 'Line 1'.

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I hope this was helpful. It is more difficult to explain this than doing it.

Thanks,
Attila

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Thank you. I was able to follow this. There did not seem to be anything to play at the end of this though? Also is there an undo function? When I had my single line of chords, I was looking for a quick way to edit them. I was looking to tab through the chord names and change them. Is there a function like that? Thanks.

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You need to add phrases to have something to play.
Open the Phrase Browser, and either drag and drop a phrase in your track, or even faster, double-click inside the track to add the selected phrase from the browser. It is possible to fill a track with phrases if you drop the phrase on the track header, or use any of the following shortcuts (under Settings / Keyboard Shortcuts):

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A special shortcut (Ctrl-Shift-H) will fill the track with chords with voice leading.

Yes, there is undo, Ctrl-Z (command-Z on macOS) and you can check your changes under the History tab.

There are several ways to change chords on the master track. The easiest is if you open the Chord Palette, by clicking on the palette button:

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This has ended up being very useful to me. I was glad to discover that I can simply tab through the chords and type in names via the keyboard icon in your last graphic above. Thank you for the help with what must seem very simple. I now have an entry into your very deep program.

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I am happy to hear that! Feel free to post if you have questions.
Thanks,
Attila

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