Rhythm Generator Plug-in

How to get there

Choose Plug-ins > Scoring and Arranging > Composer’s Assistant > Rhythm Generator.

What it does

The Rhythm Generator plug-in creates up to 6 single voice staves containing rhythmical patterns. These staves are added to an existing file starting at measure 1.

Each pattern is build by combining up to 3 sieves, or filters, that are applied to a steady signal of sixteenth note pulses. For example, a sieve value of 2 will place a sixteenth note every other pulse starting with the first, and a value of three will place a sixteenth note every third pulse. All other pulses will become sixteenth rests.

The plug-in consists of 6 sets of controls, one for each staff that can be created, and 2 controls affect all the staves that are created.

• Staff. This check box must be checked in order for a staff to be created.
• Sieve (1,2,3). The value in these spin-controls indicate how often a sixteenth note pulse will appear in the created staff. Possible values are 1 through 16.

For example, a 2 in any single Sieve will create a note every other sixteenth pulse starting on the first pulse. This would yield a sixteenth note on pulses 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, and 15.

If 3 is selected for the Sieve value, then a note would be created every three pulse, yielding a note on pulses 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, and 16.

If you choose 2 for one Sieve and 3 of another Sieve, then you would get a combination of the just mentioned pulses. So, in the first measure a note would be created at pulses 1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11, 13, 15, and 16.

• Offset. This value controls the first pulse that will receive the first note created by a Sieve.

As an example, if you choose 2 for a Sieve value and enter 2 for the Sieve Offset, then the first sixteenth note will appear on the third pulse. In the first measure this would yield notes on pulses 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, and 15.

• Invert. Checking this check box will invert the results produced by a Sieve. This will cause notes to appear in place of rests, and rests in place of notes.

For example, if the Invert check box is checked and a value of 2 is chosen for any single Sieve a note will be created every other sixteenth pulse starting on the second pulse. This would yield a sixteenth note on pulses 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, and 16.

• Random. Values entered in this field will cause notes to be created in a random fashion. As the entered value increases, the number of notes created goes down.
• Instrument. The General MIDI name chosen from this drop-down list will be used for the name of the created staff. This choice will also determine the pitch of the created notes, which will be the General MIDI defined pitch for that instrument. Note that the MIDI patch and channel needed to play these staves must be set in the ScoreManager found on the Window menu.
• Number of Measures. The value entered here will determine the length of the generated staves.
• Group Resulting Staves. Checking this check box will cause the created staves to be grouped with shared barlines. The default name of the group will be
• More Info · Reset · Cancel · OK. Click More Info for a reminder of what input this plug-in requires and a brief summary of what the plug-in does. Click Reset to set the plug-in to minimum default values. Click Cancel to dismiss the dialog box without making any changes, or Click OK to make the selected changes.

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