December 5, 2024: v5.4.2

• New option in 'Melody Generator v2': 'Use master track scale'. When used, scale relative notes are created from the master track scale, rather than the chord scale
• Fixed scale lookup in 'Melody Generator v2' and when using 'Auto' scale
• An issue with random number generation fixed
• [macOS, plug-ins] Fixed: the 'Save composition?' window made the plug-in host non-responsive
• Other bug fixes

November 11, 2024: v5.4.1

• File search fixed in the file browser
• 'Clear search' button added to all browsers
• Recent search items can be cleared in the browsers
• Improvement: when the search field is closed, the search text is cleared
• Optimized audio waveform rendering which became many times faster for long audio files
• Fixed audio display for large zoom ins
• Fixed crashing bug when assigning a MIDI key as a shortcut
• Fixed track duplication when soundfonts were used as the instrument
• [macOS, plug-ins] Fixed: 'Extend composition length?' window made the plug-in host non-responsive

October 29, 2024: v5.4.0

• Audio to MIDI conversion added. 
• Extended audio file support: WAV/AIFF/FLAC/MP3/OGG audio files can be imported.
• Drag audio files directly to tracks or outside the tracks.
• One-click replacement of composition chords. Enable the new 'link' button in the progression browser.
• 'Create composition from progressions' button added when right-clicking on multiple progressions in the Progression Browser with voice leading option.
• New export option: 'Export phrases from selected track as MIDI...'. Each phrase is written to its own MIDI file which is named according to the phrase name.
• When dropping an audio or MIDI file that's longer than the composition, you'll be prompted to extend the composition to fit the file.
• Shortcuts added for 'Convert audio phrases to MIDI', 'Export phrases from selected track as MIDI...', 'Export tracks as MIDI files...'
• 'Save selected phrases (replace mode)' added to overwrite phrases in the library.
• 'Set up structure' menu item added in the structure inspector and to master track inspector (with global keyboard shortcut: 'E').
• Split phrases at line/part boundaries added to timeline inspector with keyboard shortcut.
• Improved phrase renaming: use special tokens {chords}, {chordsr}, {chordst}, {line}, {part} when renaming multiple phrases.
• A new 'info' button explains the usable tokens when renaming phrases or tracks.
• New setting: 'Line naming' (Auto/Manual). Rename lines is allowed when 'Manual' is selected.
• Bug fixes and stability improvements.

October 14, 2024: v5.3.4

• The phrase browser is updated in the background
• New setting: 'Line naming' (Auto/Manual). Rename lines when 'Manual' is selected
• Improved MusicXML chord import (more fail-safe and diminished chords recognized)
• MIDI import improvements (skip empty tracks, fix 1 beat shorter files)
• Preprocessing guitar phrases before converting them to tab (checking for polyphony greater than the string count and fixing it)
• When dragging selected phrases as MIDI, the file name is set based on the first phrase, as well as the title and track name will be set to the same name
• When dragging a track as MIDI, the title in the MIDI file will be set to the track name
• Fixed: percussion generator presets did not work
• MusicXML export fixes
• Stability improvements

September 27, 2024: v5.3.3

• The allowed minimum distance between chord notes is set to 0 when selecting a tuning with more than 6 strings (to allow the same chord note to appear more than once)
• Fixed crash when selecting 10-string guitar tunings

September 23, 2024: v5.3.2

• [macOS] Trackpad and Magic Mouse scrolling implemented
• [macOS] Momentum scrolling enabled
• Scrolling (both trackpad and mouse-wheel) extended to areas that were not scrollable before (chord rules, chord palette)
• Mouse-wheel scrolling works everywhere with Shift-scroll to scroll horizontally
• Two crashing bugs fixed when enabling "Use 'Auto' scale" and clicking on "Begin new part here"

September 16, 2024: v5.3.1

• Improved MusicXML file compatibility with Guitar Pro
• Pedal steel guitar tunings added for 8-string, 10-string, 12-string
• UI rendering optimized for tracks and phrases
• Fixed: no more duplicated parameter IDs in the VST3 plug-in

September 9, 2024: v5.3.0

• Guitar tab view of tracks implemented. The finger positions are calculated by a smart algorithm.
• Exporting guitar tab as a MusicXML file
• Guitar chords displayed on the master track with preview and fingering choice
• Fretboard added for chord fingering editing
• Guitar preview instrument and options added
• When using guitar chord voicing, the chord fingering is computed by a smart algorithm and not taken from a library anymore
• Forward notes to other tracks by multiple rules ('Note Forwarding' tab added in the track inspector). Now you can set various criteria to route notes from a single source track to multiple target tracks
• Piano keyboard layer added (size and key range configurable)
• A small but good quality guitar soundfont is included in the installation package
• A better quality piano soundfont is included in the installation package
• Fingerpicking generator improvement: enter string pattern. Strings are 6 (lowest) to 1 (highest): use space to separate the events, you can use multiple strings at once: e.g. 6 53 4 21
• MIDI import options displayed when dropping a MIDI file (track selection, trim silence, import MIDI CC's, define key-switch range)
• New setting added: MIDI Import / "Display MIDI import options"
• New way to import a MIDI file: "Merge MIDI file with the current composition"
• Track selection when dropping a single MIDI file on the phrase browser. Improved phrase naming: MIDI file name + track title.
• "Export chords as MIDI" menu item added in the file menu, with shortcut
• "Mouse wheel over tracks" setting added (full window scrolling/track notes scrolling). Note: Alt-mouse wheel always scrolls the track notes, Ctrl-mouse wheel always zooms the track notes, Shift-mouse wheel always scrolls the window horizontally
• Reworked 'Preview' and 'Locations' pages under Settings
• Improved chord notes coloring with 22 colors used for 22 semitone offsets
• User guide updated

May 21, 2024: v5.2.3

• New velocity randomness option in the Melody Editor
• New MIDI import option: "Merge MIDI file with the current composition"
• Optimized, faster UI rendering when the phrase library had 40000+ items
• Fixed screensaver which was always disabled regardless of the settings
• [macOS] An error message is displayed with instructions when the program has no access or cannot find the Documents folder.
• [Plug-ins] Fixed crash during closing, when the rhythm processing window was open
• [macOS, plug-ins] Pop-up menu position fixed
• [macOS, plug-ins] Stability improvements

April 22, 2024: v5.2.2

• New troubleshooting window if you start RapidComposer with CAPS LOCK on.
• User guide updated
• Fixed track 'envelope' button which was not working properly
• Fixed empty chord rules editor
• [macOS] Fixed crash under latest macOS Sonoma when an alert was displayed
• [macOS] Stability and compatibility fixes on macOS Sonoma

April 15, 2024: v5.2.1

• 7-bit CC LSB values can be used from 32 to 63
• The space between tracks can be bigger, maximum 16 pixels (Settings / User Interface / Track separator height)
• The maximum frequency in the MIDI CC function generator is 8.0 (cycles per quarter note)
• Dragging phrases to percussion tracks will not transpose the phrase
• Fixed occasional black parts when inspectors are opened in separate windows
• Fixed: empty chord palette

April 8, 2024: v5.2.0

• 'Song View' implemented that displays the composition line by line, showing the chords and optionally the notes
• Reworked rhythm processing in the MIDI Mutator: non-destructive options added
• Melody section added to the MIDI Mutator
• Fully reworked rhythm processing under the Rhythm tab in the Phrase Inspector: many non-destructive options added in a separate inspector
• New setting: selection between "conventional notation" and "alternative notation" when showing scale degrees
• "Modify existing phrase by AI" added to Phrase Editor
• The folder track optionally shows all notes of the included tracks
• Chord builder menu added to master track chords
• Option added to save multiple selected phrases as rhythm into the rhythm browser in the Phrase Inspector
  
• Saving phrases/rhythm into the library is many times faster
• In the chord builder it is possible to select multiple notes by holding down the Shift or Ctrl keys when clicking
• The 'DAW view' button moved to the editing mode menu
• Keyboard shortcuts added for forward/rewind
• Keyboard shortcut added for collecting all scales for the selected chords. The scales are displayed below the master track.
• Keyboard shortcut added for opening the VST/VST3 editor for the selected track
• UI improvements when using high DPI
• Stability improvements

March 12, 2024: v5.1.4

• Fixed: due to server configuration changes, update checking stopped working

February 26, 2024: v5.1.3

• Fixed: using VST3/VST instruments for metronome works well
• Fixed: metronome did not sound during recording in the Phrase Editor
• New snap and grid settings: 3/32, 3/16, 3/8, 3/4 (existing 3/4 snap fixed)
• Small UI rendering fix when multiple buttons displayed
• [macOS] Reverted to old locking mechanism due to rare unexplained crashes

January 30, 2024: v5.1.2

• Fixed occasional hanging when loading another composition with plug-ins
• [macOS] Fixed text editing issues

January 23, 2024: v5.1.1

• Reworked and clarified prompts and a simpler syntax used for phrases when communicating with GPT models
• Improved interpretation of GPT replies 
• Fixed a bug when longer phrases were used in the Idea Tool ('Add New Part' mode)
• Minor UI improvements

January 15, 2024: v5.1.0

• AI suggestions implemented in various places in the program. An OpenAI API key is required to use this functionality. It is possible to get suggestions for chord replacement, chord progressions, chord rules, scales, phrases, tracks, song structure...
• AI chat window added to ask music composition related questions. RapidComposer will extract and display musical suggestions from the reply, ready for inserting into the composition.
• "Bend up", "Bend up+reset" and "Bend up+release" presets added to CC browser (and used in GPT guitar solo/licks suggestions)
• Phrase Editor CC editing menu: "Insert CC browser selection"
• UI improvements in the Chord Selector, "For Chord Progression" tab
• New idea track option: "Remove used phrases from list"
• Fixed: in Digital Performer 11 the RC VST3 plug-in failed validation scan
• Phrase Editor: fixed rubber-box selection when editing note CC's
• 'AI Suggestions' chapter added to the user guide
• Stability improvements

December 27, 2023: v5.0.8

• Fixed when melody generators were used as ghost copies (track variations were not applied on them)
• Fixed wrong velocities when editing phrases in the inspector during loop preview
• Improved searching in the browsers; you need to press Enter to start searching
• Fixed 'save cc envelope to browser' button in the Phrase Editor
• [macOS, plug-ins] Fixed rare font size problems on retina screens
• Reworked low-level locking

December 4, 2023: v5.0.7

• Chord naming selector inserted in the 'properties' bar
  
• New MIDI import option: "Throw away redundant CC events"
• Fixed 'Save plug-in state in history' when it was turned off
• Stability improved when loading plug-ins and during undo/redo
• Fixed crash because of a race condition when selecting an instrument in the menu

November 28, 2023: v5.0.6

• In the Melody Editor adding a new section will select Motive 'A' by default rather than adding an empty 'rest' section
• Minor fixes in the Melody Editor
• [macOS, VST3] Fixed plug-in window resizing in Cubase

November 13, 2023: v5.0.5

• A VST3 plug-in initialization issue has been fixed when using Synthogy Ivory 3 VST3
• Crash fixed when saving a track template
• [macOS, AU] Fixed a 'black window' issue when re-opening the plug-in window in Logic Pro X.

November 8, 2023: v5.0.4

• Fixes for wrong chords displayed under the 'Scale Degrees' tab in the Chord Selector
• Fixed: when editing 'Notes To Use', octave/scale/semitone offsets did not update the values on screen

October 31, 2023: v5.0.3

• Memory usage optimized: loaded phrases reserve considerably less memory with less allocations
• Fixed a minor issue with random number generation
• Fixed chord progression generation using rules: sometimes out-of-scale chords were created
• Fixed soundfont paths when soundfonts were not located in RapidComposerV5/Soundfonts
• [Plug-ins] RapidComposer plug-in offers playback instrument selection on the MIDI Mutator page

October 23, 2023: v5.0.2

• A warning and a suggestion is displayed when the operations result in an empty rhythm pattern in the Rhythm Lab
• Fixed: MIDI CC's in phrase ghost copies were not updated when the CC's were edited in the original phrase

October 19, 2023: v5.0.1 (macOS only)

• [macOS] Fixed display and window resizing issues in the RC AU and VST3 plug-in on retina screens

October 16, 2023: v5.0

• New flexible rhythm generator: 'Rhythm Lab' makes several old rhythm generators obsolete
• All phrase generators use 'Rhythm Lab' by default. Default settings were revised.
• New phrase generator: MIDI Transformer (full edition only). Drop a MIDI file to this phrase generator (in the inspector) to create a new phrase of similar style.
• 'DAW view' added with optimized display for working in the composition globally as in a DAW. Select and move phrases in multiple tracks, use rubberbox selection in multiple tracks, drop multi-track MIDI files, etc.
• Ghost tracks added, with 'unghost' option. Ghost tracks contain all phrases of the original track, rendered with or without the original track variations
• VST/VST3 FX plug-ins can be added to instruments. Plug-in handling was reworked internally.
• Blacklisting implemented for crashed plug-ins during scanning. Scanning options menu added.
• Variation presets implemented
• CC envelope browser added. Save and reuse your favourite envelopes
• Contributed phrases are installed too, and loaded in a few seconds
• Velocity editor added to 'Manual Editing' and a velocity bar is displayed in notes. Velocity can be directly changed when moving or resizing notes.
• Reworked/simplified phrase resizing. Shift-drag edge to scale, Ctrl-drag edge to repeat/crop. Dragging the edge means scaling for normal phrases and setting generator length for phrase generators
• Scales may contain additional notes, so the special "major set", "minor set", "major/minor set" and similar scales are properly represented
• Lots of UI improvements
• Separate folders created for each file type under Documents/RapidComposerV5: no more DB folder
• [Plug-ins] UI rendering and event handling fully reworked in the plug-ins
• [Plug-ins] It is possible to set up loop in the RC plug-in, independently of the host
• Lots of internal rework, optimizations and bug fixes