New RC video up: RC Basics, a beginner-user's perspective

[David]

More to come, aiming at the total noob and prospective user…
https://youtu.be/Wyeltb5IMqs

[musicdevelopments]

Great video, David, thank you! A perfect introduction to RC.
I am always fascinated when I see someone mastering RapidComposer.
As I see, the strength of RapidComposer is that it supports all kinds of workflows. If you ask 10 users, they all use the program differently, in their own way, which is good.

Thanks!
Attila

[HiEnergy]

Thanks for making this video, David!
The outcome sounds a bit random at times, but some interesting workflows hidden inside.
Well done!

[David]

Thanks for making this video, David!
The outcome sounds a bit random at times, but some interesting workflows hidden inside.
Well done!

Thank you, for commenting AND for your own videos, very useful!
—Random is as Random does:)

[David]

…A perfect introduction to RC.…
Thanks!
Attila

Thank YOU—couldn't have wished for a better response from the Maker himself:)

[krazydude2]

David,
Thanks for an excellent perspective on using RC especially for Noobz like me.
Your videos are very clear and intuitive.
Would be great if you could put up a video on Chord Progressions and also your methods for using RC to generate a song ? Very interesting to see the way you work.

Also could you please help on your steps in setting up the IAC driver in logic with a vst?
Just cant seem to get this to work.Dont know what i am doing wrong.
I would prefer using logic as my main DAW with the awesome possibilities of RC.
Atillia, we would love RC as a MIDI fx if possible.
Thanks
Aj
Mac Book Pro with Touch Bar
Logic Pro x 10.3
RC 3.64

[David]

Hi Aj, glad you found this useful:)

If you could be more specific about what you're looking for in a Chord Progression tutorial I MIGHT be able to help; remember I'm a Noob with RC myself:)

I'll certainly try to outline how I've so far managed to make a few songs with RC and Logic in a later video. One very easy way has been to make some short, basic parts in RC with Phrase Gens that respond to the key-press "g" to randomize when they're selected in the timeline, then record these playing into Logic hitting g a few times as they loop in RC, then editing the resulting recording in Logic. Or turning some variations on or off while the composition loops, same idea…

So, you're not getting IAC recording to work, right?
I assume you've seen how to turn on the driver in the Audio MIDI Setup app on the Mac (if not, here's some links: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_ ... +mac+logic).

Here's how I set up the preferences in both RC and Logic:


There's no doubt smarter choices to make in each case, but these are working fine here. IOW, it just works, no further action needed, besides choosing MIDI: General MIDI for the track:



I run RC standalone, so there's no vsts involved, just AUs in Logic.

Re: Logic MIDI FX, I'm a huge fan—on a mission to collect them all, in fact:)—but the problem with them is that they don't render their results automatically to the Logic track; you still have to either drag MIDI out from them to the track if they allow that (such as RC does), or use the excellent MIDI Freeze FX (https://www.gearslutz.com/board/apple-l ... reeze.html). If you're recording from another app with IAC, you get exactly what's coming out of the app, first time, no extra steps. So, while I'd certainly welcome a RC MIDI FX on general principles, and would probably find some interesting new workflows with it, I'm not sure I'd switch to using it in place of what I already do.

My favorite MIDI FX, btw, is currently Blue Cat's Patchwork, which lets you host vsts inside Logic, including RC, so for about $100, you can already do this. This is how I access Kontakt's amazing MIDI-out resources, for example. But I still prefer running RC standalone…

[David]

Here's a good video tutorial about IAC set up and recording MIDI FX in Logic, if you don't have the Freeze plugin (seems to be down:(

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSBdNPdMtkk

[krazydude2]

Hi David,
Thanks so much for your help.
As always, your workflow is concise and very easy to follow.
Re : IAC set up
I am not getting the input tab in the logic pro x midi settings preferences as indicated by you.
https://i.imgur.com/06SKHOy.jpg
It does not show up. Am i missing a step / setting in logic somewhere? I checked advanced settings in logic and all my settings are checked. Is it a version feature? I am on LPX 10.3
I am able to sync RC with Logic pro x (Logic as master) but not the other way around (RC as master).
Hope that is clear??
I have the MIDI freeze midi fx and i use it regularly with Xfer Records Cthulhu (which is awesome btw)
Re : Chord Progression
I would love to see your workflow with chord progressions in a song (the way you use RC for chord progressions / melody generators / phrases etc starting from scratch) .
I think your workflows are very easy to follow.
Thats why i say it will be awesome to get a tutorial on a song from scratch.

Also can you put up a workflow for Blue Cats Patchwork using RC inside Logic. I could buy the same if thats required.
I saw some of the you tube videos for Blu Cats Patchwork but it seems quite complicated for a noob like me.

Appreciate your help.
Thanks in advance

Cheers
Aj

[David]

Hi Aj,

From some quick googling (https://support.apple.com/kb/PH13358?locale=en_US) it seems the Input tab might only show up if Logic detects that some input options are available to be selected, which suggests that maybe you haven't correctly created (or turned on) any IAC Drivers…?

I've been set up for years with this working (and most of the IAC tuts I find googling are quite old, too, so this isn't anything recent), so no memories about any details or troubles I might have had back whenever; and I honestly don't think I had any, just followed the generic steps to create the IAC drivers, and everything else fell into place as expected after that—sorry! In your place I think I'd just walk through those same steps again after a restart, and maybe have better luck?
https://www.google.com/search?client=sa ... 8&oe=UTF-8

I don't have either app synced to the other…I'm still happiest doing all that stuff manually, one by one.

Re: Blue Cat, it can be used in quite complex ways, but I use that also in a very simple way, just load it as a MIDI FX on a Logic instrument track, then open one vst in the first slot, making sure that the vst settings, if any, are set to send MIDI (it's an option for Kontakt for instance; don't recall I had to set anything special in RC for it to work…). There's a dropdown on the slot where MIDI I/O is set, like so:



…so I do that, and that's it! I saved the first set-up that I got working as a channel strip, so from then on I open that and just swap in new vsts, changing nothing else, and it's been working great ever since!

And yet again, sorry to say I have no particular Chord Progression workflow, just more or less randomly dragging stuff in or generating random progressions, though I'm more likely NOT to do it randomly, and my selections for dragging in are often based on either progressions I already know, or come from lists of tried and true ones from various places and apps, plus I have a preference for sus and add chords, and switching the occasional maj to min and vice versa regardless of whether they're "right", and from there on, it's all just happy accidents and converting obvious clinkers by ear alone. I'm no kind of a trained musician, but I have been working at doing music with real and virtual instruments for a bit over 50 years by now, so maybe I've developed some smarts I'm not really conscious of depending on…? Basically, I'm as surprised as anyone else when I happen to stumble on something that "sings":)

Wish I had more to offer!