The chord progression you create in Chord Chart is not a complete musical part, but rather a sequence of chord changes required by the song. (Imagine a guitar player brilliantly changing chords with his left hand, but with his right hand hanging without touching a single string.) To turn a chord progression into a real musical part you have to fill it with rhythmic content, i.e. to create rhythm to play the chords of the song.

There are 3 ways of creating the rhythm with Rhythm'n'Chords plug-in:

• Selecting appropriate prerecorded pattern from the built-in Rhythm Library

• Creating rhythm pattern by drawing MIDI events with a pencil tool to a Cakewalk track using Stroke Map;

• Manually (live) entering rhythm pattern from an external MIDI keyboard (see Playing with a MIDI keyboard ).

See also:

Using Rhythm Library

Rhythm Library window

Creating Rhythm Track

Pattern Bank

Creating Rhythm Pattern

Stroke Map

Strumming

Bass and Strum

Arpeggio

Articulation and dynamics

Push Chord change

Guitar techniques and effects

Creating User Pattern Libraries

Rhythm Source

Repetitive rhythmic constructions reflecting harmonic content of a piece are very important elements of guitar accompaniment parts. It's natural to expect some pre-recorded small patterns to be used in MIDI guitar parts, in the same way drum patterns are used. However unlike drum patterns, guitar patterns have to deal with different note pitch. If a drum pattern can be copied many times from one song to another without the loss of harmonic content, the guitar pattern can't be processed this way since it's necessary to adjust it to the key and chord progression of every song.

This problem no longer exists with our new Rhythm'n'Chords plug-in. Separate chord and rhythm assigning lets you create and use rhythm patterns in guitar parts, which don't have harmonic content and therefore can be copied and moved between songs (of course, only style and tempo are considered). Rhythm patterns are recorded as MIDI notes in accordance with the special Stroke Map (see the Stroke Map chapter ):

Strum rhythm pattern

Arpeggio rhythm pattern

A pattern created with the Strokes has only rhythmic content, but not harmonic one and can be used with any chord. Creating guitar accompaniment parts with Rhythm'n'Chords plug-in and a built-in Rhythm Library of pre-recorded patterns will require only 2 steps:

1. Creating chord progression in Chord Chart window;

2. Selecting rhythm pattern(s) and assigning it to Rhythm Track of Chord Chart.

Rhythm Track is located under the staff and is built of separate rhythm patterns (yellow boxes graphically reflecting their content):

Rhythm patterns are created as specially pre-recorded 1-, 2-, 4-, 8-measure rhythm phrases, which contain various guitar techniques, like strumming, muting, picking, plucking, bass and chord, slow strum, etc.
When you start Cakewalk the plug-in performs a chord progression using guitar techniques, recorded in rhythm patterns, assigned in corresponding measures of the Rhythm track.

Patterns in the Rhythm Library are gathered in Style sets (Basic, Pop Ballad, Samba, FlamencoPop, etc.) within Volumes (STANDARD, OLDIES, WORLD, POP SLOW, ROCK-8 BEAT, LATIN POP, etc,).

The Rhythm Library contains a number of factory default patterns (Standard Volume). Additional Volumes of guitar Styles are available from MusicLab Web site.

Having assigned a chord progression you have to find the appropriate rhythm patterns for performing your guitar part and assign them to the plug-in's Rhythm Track. To provide convenient way of finding the needed rhythm pattern among numerous ones present in the Library 2 search tools have been developed:
- Adjustable Tree view lets you group rhythm pattern Style sets according to various attributes, such as Volume, Kind, Meter, Feel, Texture, recommended Patch;
- The Style Filter allows to select rhythm patterns according to various attributes, such as Meter, Tempo group, Feel, Texture and Style set name.

To open Rhythm Library press corresponding tab of the plug-in's window or rightclick on the Rhythm track and select Rhythm Library in the pop-up menu:

The Rhythm Library page will appear:

In the center of the Rhythm Library page you see the yellow Rhythm view field graphically presenting guitar "Strokes" contained in the current pattern. Strokes are presented as bars of various lengths, whose size depends on the duration of the Stroke (similarly to the Piano roll note events). For your convenience different Stroke types are presented as differently colored bars and their vertical position also depends on the Stroke type (green bars present Normal strums, red ones present Muted strums, blue ones present Slow strums, light green bars present Top strums, brown ones present individual "string" picks.

Above the Rhythm view field you see the combo box, giving you access to Tree view window containing all the style sets of the Library. To the right there is additional search/selection Style Filter further helping you quickly find the needed rhythm pattern.
Below the Rhythm view field you see a combo box with the list of rhythm patterns selected with Tree view and the Filter.

The Tree view combo box allows to group the rhythm Style sets of the Library for conveniently viewing and selecting. You may choose the way of grouping Style sets in the pop-up menu by pressing the Group by button to the left of Tree view combo box:

Open Tree view combo box and select the group or subgroup with rhythm Style sets you need:

Now all the patterns of the selected group will appear in List combo box and the first pattern will be seen in the Rhythm view, ready to perform your chord progression.

To limit the number of rhythm patterns in the list and quickly find the appropriate one you can use the Style Filter:
a) Select the musical attributes of the patterns you need to find (for instance, Meter "4/4", Tempo "90-120", Feel "16th", Texture "strums") and the Filter will hide all the patterns not requiring those parameters from the List combo box,
b) Type the word (for instance funk) in the Name combo box and Tree view will only display Style sets containing this word in their name:

Play Cakewalk and audition your list of selected patterns along with the song. Try each pattern by selecting it from list combo box with a mouse or cursor keys. You will hear the pattern whose content is displayed in the yellow Rhythm view.

Playing the Style demo song

If you want to get a more complete impression about the sound of rhythm patterns, you can use our Style demo songs supplied with our plug-ins located in each of the Style folders. We recorded some drum, bass and other instrument parts along with Rhythm'n'Chords assigned to a track, so that you could audition the characteristic patterns more efficiently. Open Rhythm Library page and select the Style demo song you want to hear from the Demo song pop up menu.

Play all patterns selecting them in the Rhythm Library window while song is playing. If you like the Style set, remember it's name use it while working with your song.

a) Drag the pattern from the Rhythm view of the Library to the appropriate measure on the Rhythm Track.
b) Doubleclick an empty Rhythm Track. An empty measure will be selected and the Pattern Properties window with blue Rhythm view field and combo box with the list of selected patterns will appear. Select a pattern from combo box with arrow buttons or cursor keys and it will be automatically assigned to the Rhythm Track:

Copy the pattern to as many measures as you want by simply dragging its right border. The required number of copies (cycles) will be set automatically.
Click on the Rhythm Track to make it activate (it becomes yellow) and start Cakewalk. The plug-in will play the pattern assigned to the Rhythm Track

Standard editing
You can edit the patterns assigned to the Rhythm Track using standard commands (cut/copy/paste/delete/drag & drop/undo/redo).
Quick navigation in Rhythm track can be performed by pressing Tab and Shift+Tab.

Special editing
a) Pattern can be copied by dragging its right border (the length of a pattern will change with measures and beats, Ctrl dragging allows to lengthen or shorten a pattern without snap).
b) The Pattern Properties window (doubleclick on a pattern in Rhythm Track, or rightclick and select from the pop-up menu) allows you to edit the velocity of a pattern, as well as change selected pattern by selecting another one clicking arrow buttons or pressing cursor keys on the keyboard without opening the Rhythm Library.
c) You can split the cycled pattern at the end of the cycle by right-clicking and selecting Split pattern command from the pop-up menu.
d) You can cut the pattern by Alt clicking on it or by assigning other pattern to any part of the cycled pattern.

You can save your Rhythm Track within the Cakewalk song, as well as export and import it as a separate plug-in document with Export/Import Chart commands on the plug-in's tool bar.

In case you have complete collection of pattern Style sets (including add-on Volumes), your Rhythm Library may contain up to 2000 patterns and even more. To help you work more efficiently with such a large number of patterns we have developed special Pattern Banks, allowing you to select and group your patterns into your own custom sets (banks) and use them independently of the Rhythm Library.

There are 3 types of Pattern Banks: SongWork, SongUsed, and User Bank, every one of which has its special function. You can cycle-audition and drag & drop patterns to the required measure from any type of Banks.

The Bank window is located in the right hand side of the Plug-in window. You can open it by clicking on a button with notes on Plug-in's toolbar:

You can select the required Bank in combo box in the Bank window:

The SongWork Bank allows placing individual patterns from the Library that you may want to use with the song later. You may drag & drop all appropriate patterns to the SongWork Bank while auditioning them from the Library. The SongWork Bank is automatically saved with the song in a Cakewalk document. A new empty SongWork Bank opens every time you assign the Plug-in to a new track.

The SongUsed Bank shows the list of patterns used in the Rhythm track of current song. Any new pattern assigned to the Rhythm track from the Library will automatically be added to the SongUsed Bank.

The User Bank allows to group individual patterns taken from various Style sets of the Rhythm Library and create your own pattern sets in the Plug-in for future use with your other songs. To create a new User Bank right-click in the Bank window and select New Bank or Save Bank As from the pop-up menu:

Type in the Bank name in the edit box and press OK:

Your new Bank will be saved in the Plug-in under a specified name. You may fill it with the patterns you like by dragging & dropping them from the Library or copying & pasting them from another Bank, so that you can use your Bank for more convenient work with your other songs. You can create as many User Banks as you like.

Any type of Banks allows you to audition patterns along with the song. Selecting a pattern will make the appropriate Bank active and will cause cycle-playing the pattern, while the Rhythm Track and Library will be grayed out.

Double-clicking a pattern opens the Pattern Properties window with full name and graphical representation of selected pattern, as well as all its attributes (Style set, meter, feel, texture, Volume):

You can cut, copy, paste, and delete patterns in SongWork and User Banks using standard commands.