How do I use the Melody Editor with modal mixture?

[neurozero]

Hello, I'm trying out RapidComposer, but I'm having trouble getting it to generate melodies that harmonize well with borrowed chords and secondary dominants. RC is an impressive tool in many ways, so I hope I'm just missing something.

I'm using this test progression, similar to the Hotel California progression:
I - V6 - IV/IV - IV6 - IV/♭III - ♭III6 - V6/V - V
aka
I - V6 - ♭VII - IV6 - ♭VI - ♭III6 - II6 - V
aka (in C major)
C - G/B - B♭ - F/A - A♭ - E♭/G - D/F♯ - G

Half the chords contain out of scale notes. In the master track, I set the scale for the third, fifth, and sixth chords to C minor and the seventh chord to G major, and thought that should bring out some great harmonies. However, in the Melody Editor there is no such fine grained control. I've copied all the chords over, but there's no way to specify the chord scale, and everything I get out of it sounds like a toddler mashing a piano.

The changelog says the Melody Generator v2 no longer uses the master track scale, but I don't know if that is even the same thing as the Melody Editor or if this even used to be possible. I hope it's possible even now and that I'm just doing something wrong. The very best music (imho) tends to venture far outside its nominal key, and I very much want a tool that can help me write stuff like that.

[Mykyndryd_]

Hi Neurozero. In the melody generator (v1) ensure that the climax note is not something is going to be dissonant with the chord at that point (choose no climax). That seems to largely work for me. In the melody generator (v2) experiment with the scale tone usage. The problem tends to be where there are more than one short note in the bar (or section where the chord appears). If the results are 'almost' right, it might be worth just manually editing the odd stubborn note or, harmonising the master track against the melody, or, split the chord and pick something else for the troublesome note.

Hope that helps. Cheers. Mike.

[neurozero]

Thanks Mike. I think I was confusing the Melody Generator with the Motive Generator, which is what I was trying to use through the Melody Editor tab. I see now in the manual that the Melody Generator "is the only phrase generator that uses the actual master track scale and chords". It does indeed come up with lines that don't clash, but other than a few rules regarding steps and leaps, they're just sequences of random meandering notes with no theme.

It seems like my options here are to use the Melody Generator to get usable yet uninspired lines or the Motive Generator to get unusable albeit thematic lines. Unless‒again‒am I missing something?

[Mykyndryd_]

I didn't make any key changes by the way. You can try making the rhythm less populated (good melodies tend to be quite sparse and get the rhythm from the accompaniment).

It depends if you want your piece to be melody driven. If so, my go to method is to use the Markov melody generator (again, easy on the number of notes) and then harmonise its results. I find one or two bars of generator and then develop whatever it gives you from there works well.

I used the Melody Generator (v1) in this short clip. I moved one note up manually in the melody but it didn't need it just sounded better. I would develop this by duplicating the part but ending on C for example.

https://youtu.be/ccwzq13518A

Cheers. Mike.