The rhythm generator generate music that is perfectly in time with the bar. You can play it using either your computer keyboard or, if you prefer, your mouse to control the widget. The tool provide quick access to rhythmically sound inspiration, allowing you to reshape what doesn’t appeal to you while keeping the parts you do.

Your rhythm recipe appear on the left-hand side of the interface. Here’s where you select a meter; 4/4, 3/4, 6/8 or 7/8 for instance. If you’ve selected 7/8, you can then specify what beat grouping you wish to use: 3+2+2 or 2+2+3 for example. Beneath this is the selection of time values that appear in the pool, quarters, eighths, sixteenths, triplets etc. Next comes inclusion of accents, ties, rests or even ghost notes into the generated rhythm. Finally, reading terrain selector determines the level of difficulty. This automatically increase (or decreases) complexity of output rhythms.

How to Use the Rhythm Tool

The dice give a random element but also allow you to bias it. Rolling shape die influences whether short or long notes appears more often. The space die is about how many note to include as well as how much silence. The weight die is about how many times there will be an accent included.

After setting up these preferences you can press the cast button which will fill the bars with fresh notation. You can press on any of the individual tiles and they will became pinned. Pinned tiles remains in position on subsequent casts allowing you to retain good ideas but continue to randomize the remaining ones.

The bottom of the widget contain performance controls. There is a fold button to stop playback. A stage button play the score back with synthesised percussion sounds. There is also pulse speed slider for adjusting tempo and a master volume control.

Use the transformation buttons if you wish to change result but don’t want to go through process of another recast. These let you move the accents around in parts of rhythm that aren’t pinned and also mirror or rotate it.

For quicker workflow there are keyboard shortcuts too. Quickly change meters by pressing corresponding numbers from 1-4. Stage your performance with P, then cast new tiles with C. Press X to rewind playback, and press M to change a random seam in the score. Unpin all tiles at once with U. Arrow keys let you move around between notation tile, while Space or Enter pin/unpins them respectively.

For example, begin with 4/4 meter and let all the time values go wild. Toss out a rhythm and see what happens. Listen for a phrase you like… And lock it in by clicking on the corresponding tiles. Next, adjust the dice biases until the accents and gaps moves relative to your locked-in concept. Play with very high offbeat pulls, too. Build some disconnected, yet completly synchronized grooves that still fit perfectly in the bar.

It is a great way to create some material to practice on or break out of any creative rut. You should of try it.

You have complete control over the structure through selective pinning and combining with random operations. The rhythm is then filled in randomly. You can adjust syncopation and density sliders to get it feeling how you like. Hit the fullscreen button if you prefer more space to work. Set your preferred tempo and hit cast to see what comes up.