Random rhythm and harmonizer example

This section documents the demo example.

1. I prepared the tracks for the song and assigned names and channels for drums, bass, piano and melody. Then I generated the drums with the random rhythm generator.

2. open the random rhythm generator and load the file demo.rhy. Lets take a look at the adjustments for the instruments:

   The first kick drum defines high probabilities at beat 1/4 and 3/4 - this makes the basic groove. The probabilities at 3/16 and 9/16 are a little lower, so the kick drum will not play these beats always. The velocity ranges from about 70 to 100, so the loudness of the beats varies.

   The snare drum plays at 2/4 and 4/4 but probabilities are less than 100%, so it will play most of the time but not always. The velocity is about 80 .. 100, so the snare is loud always, there is not much dynamic.

   The third entry, closed hi-hat, plays at 2/8, 4/8, 6/8 and 8/8 - the probabilities are 100% and velocity is high - these beats are played always and all of them are loud.

   The ride cymbal plays most of 1/4, 2/4, 3/4 and 4/4 and sometimes on 16/16. Also it plays at 9/16 - just to make things more interesting.

   The next entry, snare drum again, plays with low probability on all 1/16 timings - so not all of them are played - the probabilities would lead to about every 2nd 1/16 would be played. For every beat that is played, the generator selects a length from the length field. Valid length values are 1/16, 2/16 and 3/16 where 1/16 is chosen most often because it has the highest probability. When a length greater 1 is selected, then the generator will not produce a beat on the following 1/16 step, because the previous note has not finished. Anyway, the velocity is very low compared to the other snare drum entry. Together both snare drum entries produce a loud and steady beat from the first entry and a lot of low-velocity fillings from the second entry.

   The last entry, closed hi-hat again, is similar. It does not play on the timing positions where the first closed hi-hat plays its loud and steady beats. It plays at the other timing position in between with a very wide range of velocity - so some of these in between beats will be dominant while others will sound like background.

3. To produce the rhythm I selected bar 5 to 20 on the drum track and then clicked on the 'gen' button. This gives demo1.mid

4. next I recorded 2 bars of a bass line and some chords. I quantized this and set the velocity to 90. Last I choose repeat copy to duplicate the material to the full length of 16 bars. This is demo2.mid.

5. next I recorded a melody and did some corrections in the pianowin editor. This is demo3.mid.

6. last I wanted some more interesting harmonies. To reproduce this step you may open the harmony browser and load the file demo.har.

   The first 4 chords are from the original recording Am7 and D7. These are step II and V from G major. So I chose Gj7 as the next 2 chords to establish that scale.

   The next 6 chords are a minor II-V-I move, which leads to Bbm7 in the scale of Ab major - notice, that the V was taken from the harmonic scale. The last chords are a V-I move in Ab major.

7. to perform the transposition, transpose every track on its own. Mark the bass track in the trackwin and select transpose in the harmony browser (the button where the arrow points from the rectangle to the note). Then do the same for piano and melody. This should result in demo4.mid.

   demo4.mid is not perfectly transposed, but it could serve as a starting point and you could correct some notes in the pianowin editor. The pianowin editor can show the chords and scales in colors, look at Pianowin Menu Events for details.