Designed from the ground up for music composition. Used by thousands of composers since 2010. RapidComposer is a unique, non-destructive, phrase-based music prototyping software designed for composers, songwriters and musicians of all musical styles
Latest News: September 9, 2024: RapidComposer v5.3 released, the biggest update with many new features for
guitarists.Detailed list of features:Advanced tools for phrase editing, phrase generation, phrase morphing, phrase grouping, motif development, chord progression editing
Master track with chords (using note names or universal notation) which all phrases automatically conform to
Chord suggestions, chord progression generation with optional borrowed chords, chord progression rules editing, chord voicing editing and assigning to tracks and phrases
Guitar chord fingerings displayed on the master track, offered by a smart algorithm, editing guitar chord notes, guitar chord preview
The built-in AI assistant is able to suggest chord replacements, chord progressions, chord rules, phrases, and even song structure and tracks depending on the genre and/or mood you specified. (An OpenAI API key is required for usage)
Easy chord entry from Chord Selector, Circle Of Fifths chart, MIDI keyboard, or computer keyboard. Chord Selector offers 'Chord List', 'Scale Degrees', 'Palette', 'Chord Builder', Tonnetz' and 'Circle Of Fifths'.
Included rhythm generators: Rhythm Lab, Schillinger's Interference, Polyrhythm, Subdivision, Euclidean Rhythm, Smooth Rhythm, Modern Rhythm, Modern Random Rhythm, Modern Irregular Rhythm, Modern Rhythm Patterns, Retro Rhythm (older ones still available: Generic Rhythm, Probabilistic Rhythm, Simple Intervals, Toggle Intervals)
Included phrase generators: Arpeggiator, Bass Generator, Chord Generator, Dyads Run, Generator, Fingerpicking Generator, Generic Generator, MIDI Transformer, Modern Chord Pattern Generator, Ostinato Generator, Phrase Container, Piano Chord Pattern Generator, Piano Run Generator, Strings Staccato Generator, Strum Pattern Generator, only in the full edition: Melody Generator, Motive Generator, Percussion Generator, Random Melody Generator, Phrase Morpher
Included variations: Add Chord Notes, Add Interval, Adjust Note Lengths, Apply Rhythm, Audio Gain, Delay Notes, Double Note, Double Phrase, Expression, Extract Rhythm, Humanize, Join Notes, Limit Note Range, MIDI Echo, Make Monophonic, Mirror Horizontally, Mirror Vertically, Permute Chord Notes, Quantize, Remove Note, Remove Short Notes, Rests, Rotate Notes, Simplify Phrase, Spread Out Chord Notes, Staccato-Legato, Strumming, Swap Chord Notes, Swing, Transpose, Triple Phrase, Velocity, Velocity Generator
Melody generation, melody auto-harmonization using 2 methods
Melody Editor tab: Melodya functionality integrated (full edition only)
Piano roll with scale and chord notes shading, and smart arranging of overlapped notes in two styles.
“DAW view” that enables working in multiple tracks at once, like in a DAW
“Guitar tab view” that displays notes on strings and frets (editable) with MusicXML export
“Song view” to display the composition line by line
In-place non-destructive phrase-level and note-level editing
Editing percussion tracks using drum maps
Sophisticated MIDI CC editing and recording. Editing with events or curves (exponential or exponential S-curve). MIDI CC's can be attached to tracks, phrases and notes. MIDI CC browser.
Articulations can be assigned to phrases or even individual notes. Articulations are stored in easily editable text files. Free articulation editor (R-Tic) is available.
Extensive scale, chord, chord progression databases.
Rhythm drag-and-drop between phrases or from rhythm browser, applying a rhythm pattern on a phrase,
Taggable instrument browser of all MIDI, VSTi, VST3 and SF2 presets in one place
Integrated Idea Tool that can generate a multi-track composition, offering 3 different workflows (full edition only)
Unlimited undo (simple list or version tree with branches)
Fully customizable user interface (all colors and font size) with preset themes
Fully customizable keyboard shortcuts
MIDI drag-and-drop tracks or composition to DAWs. Batch convert MIDI files to phrases, rhythm patterns or chord progressions
Virtual instruments and effects (VST 2.4 and VST3 plug-ins) support
SoundFont (.SF2) support
Standalone, VST3 versions (64-bit) provided for Windows, standalone, VST3, AU synth, AU MFX versions (64-bit Intel and Apple Silicon) provided for macOS. The plug-in versions of RapidComposer is usable in DAWs that support plug-ins with MIDI output.
CHANGELOGS
September 9, 2024: v5.3.0
Guitar tab view of tracks implemented. The finger positions are calculated by a smart algorithm.
Exporting guitar tab as a MusicXML file
Guitar chords displayed on the master track with preview and fingering choice
Fretboard added for chord fingering editing
Guitar preview instrument and options added
When using guitar chord voicing, the chord fingering is computed by a smart algorithm and not taken from a library anymore
Forward notes to other tracks by multiple rules ('Note Forwarding' tab added in the track inspector). Now you can set various criteria to route notes from a single source track to multiple target tracks
Piano keyboard layer added (size and key range configurable)
A small but good quality guitar soundfont is included in the installation package
A better quality piano soundfont is included in the installation package
Fingerpicking generator improvement: enter string pattern. Strings are 6 (lowest) to 1 (highest): use space to separate the events, you can use multiple strings at once: e.g. 6 53 4 21
MIDI import options displayed when dropping a MIDI file (track selection, trim silence, import MIDI CC's, define key-switch range)
New setting added: MIDI Import / "Display MIDI import options"
New way to import a MIDI file: "Merge MIDI file with the current composition"
Track selection when dropping a single MIDI file on the phrase browser. Improved phrase naming: MIDI file name + track title.
"Export chords as MIDI" menu item added in the file menu, with shortcut
"Mouse wheel over tracks" setting added (full window scrolling/track notes scrolling). Note: Alt-mouse wheel always scrolls the track notes, Ctrl-mouse wheel always zooms the track notes, Shift-mouse wheel always scrolls the window horizontally
Reworked 'Preview' and 'Locations' pages under Settings
Improved chord notes coloring with 22 colors used for 22 semitone offsets
User guide updated
May 21, 2024: v5.2.3
New velocity randomness option in the Melody Editor
New MIDI import option: "Merge MIDI file with the current composition"
Optimized, faster UI rendering when the phrase library had 40000+ items
Fixed screensaver which was always disabled regardless of the settings
[macOS] An error message is displayed with instructions when the program has no access or cannot find the Documents folder.
[Plug-ins] Fixed crash during closing, when the rhythm processing window was open
[macOS, plug-ins] Pop-up menu position fixed
[macOS, plug-ins] Stability improvements
April 22, 2024: v5.2.2
New troubleshooting window if you start RapidComposer with CAPS LOCK on.
User guide updated
Fixed track 'envelope' button which was not working properly
Fixed empty chord rules editor
[macOS] Fixed crash under latest macOS Sonoma when an alert was displayed
[macOS] Stability and compatibility fixes on macOS Sonoma
April 15, 2024: v5.2.1
7-bit CC LSB values can be used from 32 to 63
The space between tracks can be bigger, maximum 16 pixels (Settings / User Interface / Track separator height)
The maximum frequency in the MIDI CC function generator is 8.0 (cycles per quarter note)
Dragging phrases to percussion tracks will not transpose the phrase
Fixed occasional black parts when inspectors are opened in separate windows
Fixed: empty chord palette
April 8, 2024: v5.2.0
'Song View' implemented that displays the composition line by line, showing the chords and optionally the notes
Reworked rhythm processing in the MIDI Mutator: non-destructive options added
Melody section added to the MIDI Mutator
Fully reworked rhythm processing under the Rhythm tab in the Phrase Inspector: many non-destructive options added in a separate inspector
New setting: selection between "conventional notation" and "alternative notation" when showing scale degrees
"Modify existing phrase by AI" added to Phrase Editor
The folder track optionally shows all notes of the included tracks
Chord builder menu added to master track chords
Option added to save multiple selected phrases as rhythm into the rhythm browser in the Phrase Inspector
Saving phrases/rhythm into the library is many times faster
In the chord builder it is possible to select multiple notes by holding down the Shift or Ctrl keys when clicking
The 'DAW view' button moved to the editing mode menu
Keyboard shortcuts added for forward/rewind
Keyboard shortcut added for collecting all scales for the selected chords. The scales are displayed below the master track.
Keyboard shortcut added for opening the VST/VST3 editor for the selected track
UI improvements when using high DPI
Stability improvements
March 12, 2024: v5.1.4
Fixed: due to server configuration changes, update checking stopped working
February 26, 2024: v5.1.3
Fixed: using VST3/VST instruments for metronome works well
Fixed: metronome did not sound during recording in the Phrase Editor
New snap and grid settings: 3/32, 3/16, 3/8, 3/4 (existing 3/4 snap fixed)
Small UI rendering fix when multiple buttons displayed
[macOS] Reverted to old locking mechanism due to rare unexplained crashes
January 30, 2024: v5.1.2
Fixed occasional hanging when loading another composition with plug-ins
[macOS] Fixed text editing issues
January 23, 2024: v5.1.1
Reworked and clarified prompts and a simpler syntax used for phrases when communicating with GPT models
Improved interpretation of GPT replies
Fixed a bug when longer phrases were used in the Idea Tool ('Add New Part' mode)
Minor UI improvements
January 15, 2024: v5.1.0
AI suggestions implemented in various places in the program. An OpenAI API key is required to use this functionality. It is possible to get suggestions for chord replacement, chord progressions, chord rules, scales, phrases, tracks, song structure...
AI chat window added to ask music composition related questions. RapidComposer will extract and display musical suggestions from the reply, ready for inserting into the composition.
"Bend up", "Bend up+reset" and "Bend up+release" presets added to CC browser (and used in GPT guitar solo/licks suggestions)
Phrase Editor CC editing menu: "Insert CC browser selection"
UI improvements in the Chord Selector, "For Chord Progression" tab
New idea track option: "Remove used phrases from list"
Fixed: in Digital Performer 11 the RC VST3 plug-in failed validation scan
Phrase Editor: fixed rubber-box selection when editing note CC's
'AI Suggestions' chapter added to the user guide
Stability improvements
December 27, 2023: v5.0.8
Fixed when melody generators were used as ghost copies (track variations were not applied on them)
Fixed wrong velocities when editing phrases in the inspector during loop preview
Improved searching in the browsers; you need to press Enter to start searching
Fixed 'save cc envelope to browser' button in the Phrase Editor
[macOS, plug-ins] Fixed rare font size problems on retina screens
Reworked low-level locking
December 4, 2023: v5.0.7
Chord naming selector inserted in the 'properties' bar
New MIDI import option: "Throw away redundant CC events"
Fixed 'Save plug-in state in history' when it was turned off
Stability improved when loading plug-ins and during undo/redo
Fixed crash because of a race condition when selecting an instrument in the menu
November 28, 2023: v5.0.6
In the Melody Editor adding a new section will select Motive 'A' by default rather than adding an empty 'rest' section
Minor fixes in the Melody Editor
[macOS, VST3] Fixed plug-in window resizing in Cubase
November 13, 2023: v5.0.5
A VST3 plug-in initialization issue has been fixed when using Synthogy Ivory 3 VST3
Crash fixed when saving a track template
[macOS, AU] Fixed a 'black window' issue when re-opening the plug-in window in Logic Pro X.
November 8, 2023: v5.0.4
Fixes for wrong chords displayed under the 'Scale Degrees' tab in the Chord Selector
Fixed: when editing 'Notes To Use', octave/scale/semitone offsets did not update the values on screen
October 31, 2023: v5.0.3
Memory usage optimized: loaded phrases reserve considerably less memory with less allocations
Fixed a minor issue with random number generation
Fixed chord progression generation using rules: sometimes out-of-scale chords were created
Fixed soundfont paths when soundfonts were not located in RapidComposerV5/Soundfonts
[Plug-ins] RapidComposer plug-in offers playback instrument selection on the MIDI Mutator page
October 23, 2023: v5.0.2
A warning and a suggestion is displayed when the operations result in an empty rhythm pattern in the Rhythm Lab
Fixed: MIDI CC's in phrase ghost copies were not updated when the CC's were edited in the original phrase
October 19, 2023: v5.0.1 (macOS only)
[macOS] Fixed display and window resizing issues in the RC AU and VST3 plug-in on retina screens
October 16, 2023: v5.0
New flexible rhythm generator: 'Rhythm Lab' makes several old rhythm generators obsolete
All phrase generators use 'Rhythm Lab' by default. Default settings were revised.
New phrase generator: MIDI Transformer (full edition only). Drop a MIDI file to this phrase generator (in the inspector) to create a new phrase of similar style.
'DAW view' added with optimized display for working in the composition globally as in a DAW. Select and move phrases in multiple tracks, use rubberbox selection in multiple tracks, drop multi-track MIDI files, etc.
Ghost tracks added, with 'unghost' option. Ghost tracks contain all phrases of the original track, rendered with or without the original track variations
VST/VST3 FX plug-ins can be added to instruments. Plug-in handling was reworked internally.
Blacklisting implemented for crashed plug-ins during scanning. Scanning options menu added.
Variation presets implemented
CC envelope browser added. Save and reuse your favourite envelopes
Contributed phrases are installed too, and loaded in a few seconds
Velocity editor added to 'Manual Editing' and a velocity bar is displayed in notes. Velocity can be directly changed when moving or resizing notes.
Reworked/simplified phrase resizing. Shift-drag edge to scale, Ctrl-drag edge to repeat/crop. Dragging the edge means scaling for normal phrases and setting generator length for phrase generators
Scales may contain additional notes, so the special "major set", "minor set", "major/minor set" and similar scales are properly represented
Lots of UI improvements
Separate folders created for each file type under Documents/RapidComposerV5: no more DB folder
[Plug-ins] UI rendering and event handling fully reworked in the plug-ins
[Plug-ins] It is possible to set up loop in the RC plug-in, independently of the host
Lots of internal rework, optimizations and bug fixes
