Chord constructions where rhythmic actions are taking place without changing the sounding chord notes are very common in various accompaniment chord textures. A characteristic example of such textures is a guitar chord accompaniment, when a guitar player strums, picks individual strings or combines these techniques to create a rhythm pattern with his right hand while holding the same chord with his left hand. Then after changing the chord he still performs the same actions with his right hand to create repetitive rhythmic background of the accompaniment within the required harmonic progression. This example of guitar technique illustrates the main principal of work with the Rhythm'n'Chords plug in, that supposes separate representation of harmony and rhythm, where:

• harmony is a chord progression reflecting harmonic base of a piece,

• rhythm is a sequence of strokes without pitch parameters, which serves for performing chord notes to create a music part.

In traditional music notation the pitch and rhythmic characteristics of the notes are combined, so you have to write each and every chord in the rhythmic line:

Traditional notation:

If you separate pitch characteristics from rhythmic ones in this example, you'll get the following:

A chord without rhythm pattern:

Rhythm pattern without chord:

Separate representation of rhythm and harmony is often used in rhythm guitar parts notation as the most convenient for reading and performing. Harmony is written in chord symbols (chord changes only), while rhythm is presented as single-voice rhythmic line:

Separate notation:

/In this case a guitar player himself has to construct every chord considering melodic position, intervals and number of voices. Some guitar techniques, like down- and up strums, muted strums, and other nuances, like dynamics (accenting), articulation (legato, staccato) are often indicated in rhythm notation./

The same principle of chord texture creation is used in the Rhythm'n'Chords. Chords are assigned in the Chord Chart view window with standard chord symbols:

Chord Chart:

In conjunction with user selected symbols the program automatically constructs guitar chords and links them into a smooth chord progression, finding the closest chord inversions.

Rhythm is assigned to a CakeWalk track in the Piano Roll window in standard note events. A special Stroke Map transforms note events into Stroke types, performing various guitar techniques and effects (the Stroke names are located in the left part of the window):

Rhythm Track:

As a result of the plug-in's work you get a ready to use guitar chord part you can play in real time just by playing the sequencer, or you can export to a Cakewalk track by selecting Apply MIDI Effects command:

A selection of resulting strummed guitar part:

The principle of separate rhythm and harmony representation used in the plug in lets you quickly and efficiently create guitar parts. Having assigned chord scheme of the song and copied an appropriate rhythm pattern in the rhythm track you can immediately get an accompaniment guitar part of any harmonic and rhythmic complexity.

Problem: The following real-time features don’t work properly: chords auditioning; playing user patterns from CW track or MIDI keyboard; selecting output device and channel from CW track properties; indicators and song position cursor in Chord Chart.

Solution: These features are available only with supported Cakewalk builds. Check http://www.musiclab.com/downloads for Rhythm'n'Chords update which supports your Cakewalk product. Version 2.031 supports SONAR® 1.0-1.31, Pro Audio 8, 9, Home Studio 9.

Problem: Writing user patterns in a MIDI track or playing pattern from the external MIDI keyboard cause buffer delay and occasional sound glitches while using DXi output device (software synths)

Solutions: 1. Drag the edited pattern from MIDI track to the Rhythm Track of the plug-in (i.e. use pattern as the internal rhythm source - DXi with internal rhythm source works OK)
OR 2. Use non-DXi output device for a MIDI track

Problem: The RnC plug-in (as any other plug-in) requires a considerable resource power. Therefore only a limited number of Plug-ins can work simultaneously depending on your computer's configuration and using a large number of plug-ins simultaneously may restrict the number of available audio tracks and effects to be used.

Solution: Use the Archive option for muting audio tracks; alternatively Apply MIDI Effects command to remove the Plug-in from the track; also you can close RnC Chart View Window to free additional resources.

Problem: Time signature in the Plug-in is assigned independently from Cakewalk.

Solution: To match the time signatures set the appropriate values in Chart/Insert/Meter Change.

Problem: There are no Stroke names appearing in the Piano Roll view or among the event names in the Event List view window

Solution: Import our instrument definition file Rhythm'n'Chords GS.ins located in the RnC plug-in's installation folder into the Cakewalk (using Define Instruments and Names Dialog).

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