AUTHORING GUIDE
SO YOU WANT TO MAKE A VIDRHYTHM! If you re reading this document, it means that you re interested in creating a custom user-generated song for VidRhythm, the ios video-music sensation from Harmonix. In the coming pages, we ll do our best to explain how to compose MIDI sessions and create the additional files you ll need to make a really fun and functional song.
VIDRHYTHM AUTHORING STEP 1: WHAT WORKS FOR VIDRHYTHM? SETP 2: COMPOSING IN MIDI STEP 3: SCENE AUTHORING (OPTIONAL) STEP 4: EXPORTING YOUR FILE STEP 5: CREATING YOUR METADATA STEP 6: SHARE YOUR CREATION!
STEP 1: WHAT WORKS FOR vidrhythm? Before we get into crafting your video-music magic, here are some brief suggestions about what makes a good song for VidRhythm. A good VidRhythm song: > Is around 1 minute long > Can be expressed in 6 audio samples > Has a strong song structure with defined sections (verse/chorus) > Is engaging to the target audience of 8 and older > Keeps the listener AND viewer interested with plenty of audio and visual variation > Has the catchiest melodies and the dopest beats! This is the point where we remind you that you shouldn t create or distribute any songs that you don t own the rights to. Make your own music and get creative!
STEP 2: COMPOSING IN MIDI: Creating your MIDI session The majority of the work in creating a VidRhythm takes place inside a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW). Some common examples of DAWs that do MIDI authoring are Sonar, REAPER, ProTools, and Logic. There are countless others. If you re looking for one to get started, we recommend REAPER (reaper.fm), a free to try and relatively inexpensive DAW. Any screenshots or references here will be for REAPER and we ve even created a handy template session, packaged along with this.pdf in the.zip file you downloaded from VidRhythm.com. Before you do anything in the session, pick your tempo and time signature. VidRhythm can handle pretty much any tempo or time signature you throw at it! Since they re short, VidRhythm works best when you stick to one tempo and time signature. SESSION SETUP: If you open the template session up, you ll see we ve labeled the 7 tracks available. The first 6 tracks are our 6 audio samples, and the last track is our Events track. More on that later. To begin, save your own session from this template and ensure your tracks are labeled: > SAMPLE 1 > SAMPLE 2 > SAMPLE 3 > SAMPLE 4 > SAMPLE 5 > SAMPLE 6 > EVENTS
STEP 2: COMPOSING IN MIDI (CONTINUED): The template already has this set. If you aren t working from the template, you should investigate how your DAW handles MIDI track names. Most DAWs allow MIDI track names to be entered from an arrangement or project view, and the MIDI will be exported with those names. REAPER does not: simply typing a new name in the left column of the arrangement view will not change the track name upon export. If you re working in REAPER and not using the template, you must open the text event editor and add a track name event for each MIDI track. Note: For some DAWs, the track name is simply contained in a track name event. But in REAPER, simply typing a new name in the left column of the arrangement view will not change the track name upon export. You must open the text event editor and edit the contents of the track name event for each MIDI track. Double check to see how MIDI track names function in your DAW. These track names are read by the VidRhythm software only. They will not be displayed in the app, and need not correspond to the sample names you will enter in the property list web form. More on that later. AUTHORING: Non-Pitched Samples: non-pitched samples include drums, spoken words, claps basically anything that isn t meant to be sung to the guide note! If you re authoring a non-pitched sample, place the notes on C3 (MIDI note 48). This is the default value that VidRhythm uses for all non-pitched samples to playback as recorded.
STEP 2: COMPOSING IN MIDI (CONTINUED): Non-pitched samples are shifted based on their variation from C3 (MIDI note 48). You can double your kick drum down an octave or make a handclap cascade from a high pitch to a low pitch by changing the value above or below C3 (MIDI note 48)! Pitched Samples: pitched samples include singing, melody lines, bass notes anything meant to be sung to the guide note and translated. Pitched notes are played back as authored! You can compose to your heart s content and write melodic lines in any key. Unlike non-pitched samples, which always base their unaltered playback on a C3 (MIDI note 48) value (and aren t recorded to a pitch), you can set the root note of your pitched samples. This determines the note at which the sample plays back at normal 100% speed and is essentially the key of the song. You ll set this value later, but it s good to keep in mind while you re authoring. Later on, you ll also need to set the guide note: the note that folks will hear when they tap Chirpy the Guide Note. It s good to keep this pitch above MIDI value 60 so that folks of all voices can sing it naturally! While you can set your guide note to any value in that range, we recommend you match it to the same pitch (in a different octave if necessary) to the root note.
STEP 2: COMPOSING IN MIDI (CONTINUED): Other notes: > Samples have a maximum length of 1 second when played at the root note. You can stretch out a MIDI note to longer than 1 second if the note is transposed to a lower note than the root. > Samples do not loop - so compose accordingly, avoiding sustained notes that are too long for the sample. > Velocity data will control volume of a note in the conventional way. > Note on/off messages will start and end samples in the conventional way. > Panning is controlled by CC10 CC value 0 is hard left and CC value 127 is hard right. VidRhythm supports polyphony within a single track, so you can use chords in your song. However, video is not linearly "polyphonic" - a sample track will trigger video corresponding to the most recent note-on, so overlapping notes will have their video cut-short by the next note. TIP: If you need to conserve your samples, you can use pitch shifting of nonpitched samples to double up. For example, transposing your bass drum up five steps could turn it into a tom-tom.
STEP 2: COMPOSING IN MIDI (CONTINUED): MORE ON AUTHORING: Composing for VidRhythm is actually pretty straightforward just author the MIDI for each sample on its own track. A handy way to check your progress in REAPER is to ensure that the VST ReaSamplOmatic5000 is enabled and has the appropriate sample loaded. We ve included a few typical samples you might find in a VidRhythm session. To change the sample, just click the drop down menu and locate another sound! For all pitched samples, you can select Jeff_C3, in which illustrious Audio man Jeff Allen sings the fundamental C3 (MIDI note 48) note for you with his dulcet tones. Note If you re not hearing anything when you play the session back, make sure the ReaSamplOmatic5000 plugin has samples loaded in it (you ll sometimes need to browse for these files they should be in the same directory as the template session). This will allow you to preview the audio as you might hear it back with samples in the app!
STEP 3: SCENE AUTHORING (OPTIONAL): If you re just in it for the music, the EVENTS track (track 7) is easy to work with. All you need to ensure is that: > The TRACK NAME MIDI event is still at 1.1.00 > The text event name [end] is placed 2-3 seconds after the last note in your composition > The text event [scene scn.6.f0.s] is still at 1.1.00. Assuming that you don t want to go down the rabbit hole of scene authoring, proceed to step 4. VidRhythm will take care of the rest! If you do want to control both the audio AND the video, read on! SCENE AUTHORING: Scene authoring (placing markers to tell the app which samples to display and in what order) is done by inserting text events into the EVENTS track at appropriate times. These text events give you control over 3 values: > Scene Number: the number of samples that appear on screen > Focus Number: a yes/no value that determines if a sample is more prominent on screen > Simple/Complex: If samples appears on screen once or multiple times Scene Number allows you to tell the app how many video samples will be utilized in a given scene. In any video with Scene 1, the app will show 1 sample. Scene 2 would show two of the samples, and so forth. The numerical value pertains to the TOTAL number of samples played back.
STEP 3: SCENE AUTHORING (CONTINUED): Focus Number allows you to call out whether a video sample should be larger and more prominently displayed than the rest. With a focus number, the numerical value is either 1 or 0. A f.0 means all samples will be the same size; f.1 means that one sample will be more prominently displayed than the others. Note: since all frames are the same size for scn.1 and scn.2, they should always be marked f0. Lastly, there are complex and simple values. Simple values play back 1 Video Box per sample. Complex values will cause the samples to multiply, resulting in a tiled effect of the same sample. See the graphic below for more information. ALL TEXT EVENTS SHOULD BE ENCLOSED IN BRACKETS. Otherwise, they will not be read correctly. Text events for scene authoring use the following rubric: [scn.#.f#.s] or [scn.#.f#.c] For example, to display 4 samples on screen with no focus (equally sized), you would choose Scene 4 (for 4 samples), Focus 0 (to ensure nothing is highlighted) and simple: [scn.4.f0.s] Things can get even more tricky when you start assigning specific videos to specific spaces on screen. We ll do our best to explain here, but if you re MIDI squeamish, now s the time to skip to Step 4!
STEP 3: SCENE AUTHORING (CONTINUED): Still with us? Great! Remember that there are 6 samples in your session? In the EVENTS track, these 6 samples are assigned to a range of the first 6 octaves of MIDI. This means: > Sample 1 = C1-F1 (MIDI note 24-29) > Sample 2 = C2-F2 (MIDI note 36-41) > Sample 3 = C3-F3 (MIDI note 48-53) > Sample 4 = C4-F4 (MIDI note 60-65) > Sample 5 = C5-F5 (MIDI note 72-77) > Sample 6 = C6-F6 (MIDI note 84-89) The note values you place in those octaves determine which video screen the samples show up in. This means: > C values = video screen #1 > C# values = video screen #2 > D values = video screen #3 > D# values = video screen #4 > E values = video screen #5 > F values = video screen #6 So, if you re trying to assign the first sample to video screen #1 in an arrangement, you d place a MIDI note in the first octave (which corresponds to the first video sample) on the C value, MIDI note 24, which corresponds to video screen #1). If you wanted to put it in screen #3, you d stay in the first octave, but place the note on the D value (MIDI note 26) to select video screen #3. If you wanted to put Sample #4 in video screen #1, you d place a MIDI note in the fourth octave (which corresponds to Sample 4) on the C value (MIDI note 60).
STEP 3: SCENE AUTHORING (CONTINUED): With this combination, you can determine exactly which samples appear in the video arrangement you ve selected in the text event! NOTE WELL this means that you can never have a note doubled in another octave. You could have multiple notes from C1-F1, since this would just mean placing the first sample in multiple frames, but you could not have C1 and C2 at the same time, since this would mean VidRhythm would try to push two samples to the same video screen. This may result in a crash. Be careful to not have any notes doubled in other octaves! Scene authoring can be time consuming and tricky, but it can also make a video really pop! Give it a try!
STEP 4: EXPORTING YOUR FILES When you re all done authoring your musical madness, we can begin the exporting process. We need to generate 4 files total, and 2 of them happen from within your DAW: your MIDI file and your MP3 preview. NOTE: AT THIS POINT, YOU WILL HAVE TO CHOOSE A SONG NAME FOR YOUR FILE. THIS SONG NAME MUST BE IDENTICAL IN ALL VIDRHYTHM FILES TO FUNCTION IN THE APP! We use songname below as a placeholder don t actually call your song songname! The MP3 preview for VidRhythm consists of a 10 second mono audio file, compressed to mp3 format at 24k/16bit. Select the section that best represents your song, and head to FILE > RENDER in REAPER to export your audio. Here you ll be able to set a time selection, choose file specs, and name your file songname.mp3 TIPS: Be sure to normalize the audio file so that it is clearly audible from your device s speaker. Consider adding fade ins and outs to the audio file so that it sounds nice! Your MIDI file is easy to export as well. In REAPER, simply go to FILE > Export Project MIDI. There, make sure that you ve selected entire project, All MIDI Items, Multitrack MIDI File, and enable embed tempo map. Then, name your file songname.mid and save it! You re really close! Only 2 more steps!
STEP 5: CREATING YOUR METADATA: Last but not least, we need you to create the metadata property list file for your song. This lets us know what the name of the track is, who the author is, what each sample should be called, and a handful of other information. We ve made a handy web form on http://www.vidrhythm.com/ugc to help generate this file! Property List Web Form Generates The Following: Artist Name: maximum of 30 characters Genre: maximum of 10 characters Song Name: maximum of 30 characters Sample Description: maximum 40 characters. Describe what kind of sound the player should make (e.g. Make a cymbal sound, like TSK! ). Sample Name: maximum of 10 characters. Name of the sample. I.e., Bass Drum Root Note: As mentioned in pitched notes above, this is where you set the root note for pitched samples the value at which samples play back unaltered at 100% speed. Guide Note: As mentioned in pitched notes above, this is where you set the MIDI value for the note that users will sing along to Chirpy the Guide Note with. We recommend mirroring the note of the Root Note, with octave adjustments to place it in a range around MIDI value 60! Values lower than MIDI value 50 are sometimes too low to hear and MIDI values in the high 70s are shrill. Save your file from here as songname.plist. Last but not least, find songname_filters.plist packaged with this.pdf in the.zip file you downladed from VidRhythm.com and rename it to match your song s name. Do not edit this file, as it can cause crashes in the application when altered.
STEP 6: SHARE YOUR CREATION! 1. songname.mp3 Your 10 second audio preview 2. songname.mid your MIDI data, mined from the ore of awesomeness 3. songname.plist your metadata, generated on VidRhythm.com s web form 4. downloaded and renamed from VidRhythm.com TEST YOUR SONG BEFORE YOU GO SENDING IT TO OTHER PEOPLE! It s easy to test (and it s the same process to import a song as an end user!) 1. Open itunes and connect your device. 2. Click on your device and head to the apps tab 3. Scroll down to File Sharing and select VidRhythm in the apps below 4. documents pane 5. You re all set! We can t wait to see what you all create! Fire up the MIDI machines and let s make some video music! Love, Harmonix