10/17/2020 Phrase Morphing Tutorial

MusicDevelopments

Phrase Morphing Tutorial

In this tutorial using phrase morphing is presented

In this tutorial using phrase morphing is presented. This powerful feature means

that when you place a 'source' and 'target' phrase in the composition, the phrases

between the two will be composed automatically by RapidComposer so that there

is a smooth transition from the source phrase to the target phrase.There are

several options to control this transition. Usually there are many possible

transitions, if you don't like the one o ered by the program, pressing 'Regenerate'

will create a di erent transition.

Step 1: Start a new

composition.
Press Ctrl-N/Cmd-N

OR

Press the 'Files' button: .

Click on 'New Composition':

Close the panel.

Step 2: Add a new line.

Press the 'Structure' button: .

Select 'Line 1', and click on the bottom 'plus' icon as shown on the image:

You will see this:

You can close the panel as it is not needed now.

Step 3: Zoom out the timeline.

www.musicdevelopments.com/phrasemorphingt.html 1/8
10/17/2020 Phrase Morphing Tutorial

Ctrl-click on the timeline, and drag the mouse horizontally until you see 8 bars:

MusicDevelopments

You should see this:

Step 4: Select 'Nylon Guitar' as

the instrument.
Since we will work with acoustic guitar patterns, select 'Nylon Guitar' as the

instrument.

Right-click on the track header to open the track inspector.

Select 'MIDI: GeneralMIDI' as the instrument, and 'Nylon Guitar' as the preset. You

can use the included GeneralUser GS soundfont.

Note: you can choose a di erent instrument, but make sure 'Use Guitar Chords' is

checked in the 'Track Hints' menu. This means that acoustic guitar chords will be

used in this track.

Step 5: Add the source phrase

at the beginning.

www.musicdevelopments.com/phrasemorphingt.html 2/8
10/17/2020 Phrase Morphing Tutorial

We will make a transition from 'FingerPicking4' to 'FingerPicking1' in this example.

Press the 'Phrase Browser' button: .

MusicDevelopments

Move the phrase browser to the center of the window because we will add one

phrase to the beginning and another to the end of the track. Click on

'FingerPicking4', drag and drop it to the beginning of the track:

Result:

Sometimes it is easier to double-click on the workspace to add a phrase. So you

may double-click at position 1 on the workspace to insert 'FingerPicking4'.

Step 6: Add the target phrase

at the end of the track
Now click on 'FingerPicking1', drag and drop it to the end of the track (at beat 29):

www.musicdevelopments.com/phrasemorphingt.html 3/8
10/17/2020 Phrase Morphing Tutorial

MusicDevelopments

Result:

Step 7: Add the Phrase Morpher

between the source and target
phrases
Method 1: drop the 'Phrase Morpher' at beat 5

Now click on 'Phrase Morpher' in the Phrase Browser, drag and drop it immediately

after the rst phrase (at beat 5):

www.musicdevelopments.com/phrasemorphingt.html 4/8
10/17/2020 Phrase Morphing Tutorial

MusicDevelopments

Result:

Method 2: pressing the 'Morph Between 2 Phrases'

button

Select the source and target phrase. Right-click on any phrases to open the

Phrase Inspector. When exactly two phrases are selected, you will nd a 'Morph

Between 2 Phrases' button in the Phrase Inspector:

www.musicdevelopments.com/phrasemorphingt.html 5/8
10/17/2020 Phrase Morphing Tutorial

MusicDevelopments

Pressing that button will automatically insert a Phrase Morpher between the two

phrases:

The phrase morpher is added between the source and target phrases, and is lled

with generated notes.

You can press the 'PLAY' button to listen to the track.

Step 8: Change options and

regenerate
Once you set up the phrase morpher, you can transpose or completely replace

the source and target phrases. The phrase morpher will be automatically

recalculated in these cases. Phrase Morpher has a few parameters that in uence

the way notes are generated.

Right-click on the Phrase Morpher to open the Phrase Inspector. Click on the

small 'magic stick' icon at the top of the inspector to show the generator

parameters.

www.musicdevelopments.com/phrasemorphingt.html 6/8
10/17/2020 Phrase Morphing Tutorial

MusicDevelopments

Options and explanations:

Horizontal note movement control. Specify if you allow notes

moving in time and if so how they are quantized. Notes moving in

Quantization:
time will change the rhythm, so if that is not what you want it is

best to disable this option.

Vertical note movement control. Specify if you allow notes moving

Vertical vertically (becoming higher or lower notes) and if so how they are

Movement: handled. Moving notes can be snapped to scale notes or

semitones.

Pair Note When checked adding a target note and removing a source note

Additions And will happen at the same time as much as other conditions allow.

Removals: This results a smoother transition.

Handle Chord
When checked chord notes with no o set will be added/removed
Notes
together.
Together:

Specify if transposition is applied to the generated phrases. When

Apply
checked the highest note of the source phrase will approximate
Automatic
the highest note of the target phrase. This setting is ignored
Transposition:
when guitar chords are used.

If you change any of the above options, the preview is updated. In this tutorial we

disabled the 'Vertical Movement' and 'Pair Note Additions And Removals'

options. You can press 'Regenerate' if you want to see another transition:

www.musicdevelopments.com/phrasemorphingt.html 7/8
10/17/2020 Phrase Morphing Tutorial

Pressing 'Apply To Selection' will replace the phrase in the composition:

MusicDevelopments

If you close the Phrase Inspector you should see something like this:

Step 9: Done!
Congratulations, you have completed this tutorial! Please note that you can still

edit the generated notes in Note Editing Mode, however the Phrase Morpher will

turn into an ordinary phrase.

www.musicdevelopments.com/phrasemorphingt.html 8/8