How to create new phrases using phrase editor from scratch?

[frimpiso]

Hi,

sorry to be asking these basic dummy questions but I could not find an answer in the manual or the videos.

How can I create a new phrase using phrase editor?

When I start RC fresh, the phrase editor is empty and I can just enter my phrase and save it using "save as".

But then what? How can I then create a new phrase?

My old phrase seems to be stuck in the phrase editor. I cannot just press a button like "create new phrase" to clear the phrase editor and start with a new phrase.

I also cannot create a new phrase from the phrase tab in Composer View. I was sort of expecting a "+" button to add a new phrase into the list of existing phrases, but nothing like that seems to exist.

So what can I do? Or am I missing a good resource/manual to get me going with the basic stuff?

I love RC, but I am struggling a bit with the user interface ...

Thanks for your help

Jens

[tonedef71]

How can I create a new phrase using phrase editor?

When I start RC fresh, the phrase editor is empty and I can just enter my phrase and save it using "save as".

But then what? How can I then create a new phrase?

My old phrase seems to be stuck in the phrase editor. I cannot just press a button like "create new phrase" to clear the phrase editor and start with a new phrase.

For me, the Phrase Editor is the tried-and-true go-to feature of RC. It is useful to create new variations of an existing phrase, simply by making a few changes, and then re-saving the phrase with a new name.

When I want to start over and create a completely new phrase from scratch, I simply select all of the notes in the grid with the CTRL-A key combination (on a Windows PC); alternatively, right-click the grid, select the gear icon at the top of the pop-up dialog, and then click the "Select All Notes" button from the menu:


From there, press the delete key on your keyboard to erase all of the notes, and then you may create a completely new phrase. I suppose I have long gotten used to this workflow and hadn't thought much about needing to do it any other way.

[BluGenes]

Yea, just like he said, the phrase editor is for working with an existing phrase. To create a new phrase from scratch, use the "Note Edit" mode of the composition. As soon as you add one note, that becomes the new phrase.

When you switch back to "Phrase Editing" you then edit the phrase in the phrase editor and also edit the name and properties with the phrase inspector.

[BluGenes]

Or, you could add notes to the phrase editor, copy to the clip board, then in the composition, right click the edit area and from the dialog, paste the phrase.. (this is probably the easiest and fastest)

[frimpiso]

Thanks! However, I am still a bit confused.
So I can create and edit phrases in both the composition and the phrase editor.
When I create a phrase in composer using the "note edit" mode. I cannot get this phrase into the phrase editor. When I mark the new phrase in composition and then click on the phrase editor, the phrase is empty.

Which resource would you recommend to study these RC basics. The official user guide does not really help.

Thanks

Jens

[frimpiso]

OK, double clicking does the trick!
But when I do this twice, RC shuts down and I loose all my work (Windows 10 64 bit).

[BluGenes]

OK, double clicking does the trick!
But when I do this twice, RC shuts down and I loose all my work (Windows 10 64 bit).

then you found a bug! I'll pass it along.. thanks!

[musicdevelopments]

Ouch! I would like to fix this. I could not reproduce this on Windows 10.
Will you write down step by step what I should do to make it crash?
It is better to create phrases in the Phrase Editor, but of course creating one in the composition should also work.
I made a simple phrase in note editing mode, then switched to phrase editing, and double-clicked on the phrase, multiple times. There was no crash here. I tried v4.7.0 and the latest beta version too. If I can fix this, I'll upload v4.7.1.

Thanks!
Attila

[frimpiso]

Thanks Attila!

I just tried to reproduce it and it did not crash. I will keep an eye on it.

By the way, it there a way to merge phrases in the composition?
I could not find any way to do this.

[BluGenes]

By the way, it there a way to merge phrases in the composition?
I could not find any way to do this.

One way is to glue two phrases together.. select a couple phrases, then from the inspector (right click a phrase), look for "Glue" (found on the tab with the gear cog), which should be the short cut "J" (for join). Either click from the inspector or use the hot key..

[frimpiso]

Perfect, thanks @BlueGenes!

[frimpiso]

Sorry to be bothering again, but I encountered something strange when transitioning from Composer to Phrase Editor using the double-click (see attached images):

When I generate a V7 chord in Composer and adapt the rythm to 4/4, I get the following chord (as expected:

composer_pattern.jpg

When I double click on this phrase, I am taken to the phrase editor. But suddenly there are three additional notes in the phrase: the 9, the 11 and the 13.

phrase_editor.jpg

However, these three additional notes are not being played, when I play the phrase in phrase editor.

What am I doing wrong? The phrases should be exactly the same.
And why are the additional notes in the phrase editor not played?

Thanks

Jens

P.S.: When I enter the Note Editing mode in Composer, I am also seeing the additional three notes which are not played back.

[BluGenes]

yea, not gonna go into detail here, but, suffice it to say, it's working like it supposed to. The composition editing is separate from Phrase Editing. When Phrase Editing, think of it like a "sand box" to play in.

What you see in the composition, is based on what the properties of the notes are. One of the properties is "Ignore non existent chord notes". In the phrase editor, you will see everything, in the composition, you won't, only what the properties allow.

[frimpiso]

OK, interesting behaviour.

Does this only happen when I use the chord generator?

[BluGenes]

Yea, was about to edit that.. that is correct, chords behave that way..