Get Started

GET STARTED · 1 / 4

Introduction

RhythmHelper is a rhythm-focused MIDI editor for designing patterns that other tools make tedious — polyrhythms, polymeter, nested tuplets, and dense layered grooves.

It is not only a drum tool. It generates MIDI data that you route to any instrument in your DAW. Each block carries any chord or single note. You can drive a piano, a synth lead, or a chord pad.

What RhythmHelper Does

RhythmHelper shows multiple rhythm parts on one screen, color-coded by note, with per-lane time signatures and simple keystroke tuplet division. You compose by placing blocks — a kind of unit that carries one or more MIDI notes — on parallel lanes. The plugin emits MIDI to your DAW's track, and you can route it to any sound source.

What It Does Not Do

• It does not generate rhythms automatically. RhythmHelper is an editor, not a pattern generator. You shape every block intentionally.
• It does not produce sound on its own. Route its MIDI to an instrument (sampler, synth, drum library) inside your DAW.
• It does not accept real-time performance input. MIDI keyboard input is supported only for per-block note entry; you cannot play a pattern live.

GET STARTED · 2 / 4

Use Cases

Anything that is fundamentally rhythmic fits, regardless of instrument.

Use case examples

GET STARTED · 3 / 4

Installation

RhythmHelper installs as a VST3, AU plugin on macOS; and VST3 on Windows. After installation, your DAW finds it among your other plugins.

Supported Platforms

• macOS: 12+, Universal binary (Apple Silicon + Intel).
• Windows: Windows 10+, 64-bit.
• Plugin formats: VST3, AU (macOS only)

Installing

1. Download the installer (macOS) or ZIP (Windows) for your platform from your purchase confirmation email or Downloads page.
2. Install the plugin for your platform:
   • macOS: Run the installer.
   • Windows: Extract the ZIP and copy the .vst3 folder to C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3\.
3. Restart your DAW so it rescans the plugin folder.
4. Find RhythmHelper in your DAW's instrument or MIDI-effect plugin list, depending on how your DAW classifies MIDI generators.

DAW Routing Quick Reference

Insert RhythmHelper on a MIDI or instrument track. Set its output to the destination instrument (the exact steps depend on your DAW). See Workflow: MIDI Output to DAW for per-DAW recipes.

GET STARTED · 4 / 4

Your First Sound

Five minutes from cold start to hearing a pattern. We will set up one lane, place four blocks, route to a drum sampler, and press generate and play.

1. Insert RhythmHelper

Create a new MIDI (Instrument) track in your DAW. Insert RhythmHelper. The plugin window opens.

2. Add a Lane

A new project starts with one empty lane. Set its MIDI channel to any channel you like using the channel selector on the left edge of the lane. The default channel is 1.

A fresh project with one lane. FIG. 01-02

3. Place Four Blocks

Double-click in the lane at each beat to add a block. You now have four equally spaced blocks across one bar.

4. Set Each Block's Note

Click the first block or select all blocks. Click The "Pitch Editor" button opens the "pitch editor", which is a piano roll style MIDI editor. You can add or change the notes that you want to play at the timing of the blocks. If you select 1 block on the lane, you can use MIDI Keyboard to directly input notes. And you can aloso use left and right arrow key to move the focused block to input notes.

Place four blocks on the lane and open Pitch Editor. FIG. 01-04

5. Route to an Instrument

In your DAW, route RhythmHelper's MIDI output to an Instrument. Check the MIDI channel of the instrument matches the channel of the lane.

6. Press "Generate" and Play

Press "Generate" button and start playback in your DAW. The pattern plays. Adjust block timing, swap notes, add more lanes. The Pitch Editor and Inspector handle every nuance from here.

Core Concepts

CORE CONCEPTS · 1 / 3

Block Model

A block is a container for one or more notes occupying a span of time on one lane. This is the fundamental unit to create any complex rythm.

1. 1
   Lane — the horizontal track that carries blocks across time.
2. 2
   Block — a container occupying a span of time. Its duration is shown by its width.
3. 3
   Pitch Editor — the piano-roll view that shows what notes the selected block plays.

Lane,Block,Pitch Editor FIG. 02-01

CORE CONCEPTS · 2 / 3

Tuplets & Nested Tuplets

Most DAWs treat tuplets as a settings exercise. RhythmHelper turns them into simple keystroke — select a block, press s key then a number. The block divides into equal sub-blocks within the same overall duration. Apply again to any sub-block to nest. The visual example is shown in FIG. 02-02-02 and FIG. 02-02-03.

1 2

A block before and after a quintuplet split — s + 5 keystroke divides it into five equal sub-blocks of preserved total duration. FIG. 02-02-01

1. 1
   Source block — the original duration is preserved.
2. 2
   Number to divide into — equal divisions.

Example of tuplets FIG. 02-02-02

Example of nested tuplets FIG. 02-02-03

CORE CONCEPTS · 3 / 3

Per-Lane Time Signature

Each lane can carry its own time signature. For example, a drum lane in 3/4 can sit alongside a guitar lane in 4/4. Or a marimba lane in 15/16. So you can easily experiment your polyrhythm or polymeter ideas.

In most DAWs, time signature is a global setting on the timeline. Every track shares it. To experiment with polymeter ideas, you have to struggle with lots of similar-pattern-editing to align with the downbeat, which results in hard-to-read patterns and frustration.

A lane in RhythmHelper has its own time signature and bar grid. The lane's blocks display against that grid; the DAW timeline keeps whatever signature you set globally for visual reference, but the lane is internally consistent. FIG. 02-03 shows three lanes at 3/4 and 4/4 and 7/8.

Three lanes with different bar lengths — 3/4, 4/4 and 7/8 — phasing against each other. FIG. 02-03

Block Editor

BLOCK EDITOR · 1 / 9

Overview

1 2 3 4 5

FIG. 03-01

1. 1
   Lane header — name, MIDI channel, time signature, mute/solo, and default note for a new block.
2. 2
   "+Lane" Button — add a new lane.
3. 3
   Lane body — where blocks are placed. Also Loop range can be selected here by dragging its bar number area. And time signature can be changed by clicking around the bar number.
4. 4
   Velocity lane — per-block velocity for the currently active lane.
5. 5
   Pitch Editor — edit notes of selected blocks using piano roll like interface. It does not express rhythm - it only edits pitch of notes. So you can edit notes for one block after another while listening to the rhythm.

BLOCK EDITOR · 2 / 9

Creating Blocks

Blocks appear by double-click. A new block snaps to the lane's current grid resolution and lasts until the next grid line. You set its notes afterwards in the Pitch Editor.

BLOCK EDITOR · 3 / 9

Editing Blocks

You can move, resize, copy, split (divide), and delete blocks with mouse drags and simple-key shortcuts. None of these operations touch a block's notes — only its position and duration on the lane.

Move

1. Simply drag a block to move it along its lane (or to an adjacent lane).
2. You can also select multiple blocks by dragging a box around them, and then move them.
3. Moving interval can be set to the duration of the block you select by holding command key. You can move the block not along with the grid but with the block's duration.

Resize

1. Drag the left or right edge to change duration — the snap behavior matches the lane's current grid resolution.

Split (Divide)

1. You can split a block by number or ratio. Pressing s will show textbox for number or ratio. For example, you can split a block into 3 equal parts by typing "3" and pressing enter. You can also divide a block by ratio by typing "3:2" or "5:2:7" etc.

Divide a block by typing "2" or "2:3" and so on. FIG. 03-03-01

FIG. 03-03-02

Merge

1. Select multiple blocks, then press m key to merge them.

Copy

1. Hold alt while dragging a block to copy it to the drop position.

Delete

1. Select a block and press delete to remove it.

BLOCK EDITOR · 4 / 9

Selection

RhythmHelper supports single, additive, and rectangular selection.

Selection Modes

1. Click a block to select it alone.
2. Shift+click another block to add it to the selection.
3. Drag from an empty area on a lane to draw a rectangular selection.
4. Click an empty area to clear the selection.

What Multi-Selection Enables

A multi-block selection unifies the Pitch Editor into a bulk-edit mode (only selected blocks of a single lane). You can also drag the whole selection along the timeline as a group.

BLOCK EDITOR · 5 / 9

Splitting & Tuplets

The conceptual explanation is in Tuplets & Nested Tuplets, and operation is in Block Editing; this section showcases some use cases in the editor.

When you want to Split into 19 small blocks

1. Press s and then 19, then the block will be split into 19 equal blocks.

FIG. 03-05-01

FIG. 03-05-02

Or suppose you want a tuplet that divides the last three of a four-way split into five.

1. Split the block into four, merge the last three sub-blocks, then split the merged block into five.
2. Or split the block 1:3 first, then split the "3" portion into five.

FIG. 03-05-03

BLOCK EDITOR · 6 / 9

Pitch Editor

The Pitch Editor is a piano-roll style editor that sets the notes you want to make the block play. Selecting multiple blocks turns it into a bulk-edit surface — e.g, change four blocks' notes at once. When 1 block is selected, MIDI IN and Left and Right arrow-key navigation let you dictate notes for each block rapidly, without considering rhythm or timing.

Pitch Editor FIG. 03-06

How to Use

1. Clicking "Pitch Editor" button below opens the Pitch Editor on the right side.
2. Select multiple blocks of 1 lane. You can edit notes of all selected blocks.
3. Double-click in the grid to add a note of that pitch.
4. delete key to remove the note.
5. drag the notes to change the pitch or alt+drag to duplicate the notes to other blocks.
6. Rectangular selection is supported in pitch editor. You can select multiple notes by dragging the mouse in the grid.
7. With a single block selected, press the left or right arrow key to move the selection to the adjacent block; the Pitch Editor follows. And you can dictates the notes with your MIDI keyboard.

BLOCK EDITOR · 7 / 9

Velocity Panel

The velocity panel shows per-block velocity for the active lane. Drag a bar to change its block's velocity, or sweep mouse-drag across bars to shape a dynamic accents.

FIG. 03-07

BLOCK EDITOR · 8 / 9

Lane Management

Each lane is a horizontal track with its own MIDI channel and time signature. Add lanes for separate kit pieces, instruments, or rhythmic layers, etc.

Adding and Removing Lanes

1. Click the + Lane button at the bottom of lane header area to append a new empty lane.
2. Right-click a lane header and choose Delete Lane to remove the lane and all of its blocks.

Per-Lane MIDI Channel

1. Click the channel number in a lane's header to choose the channel.

All blocks on the lane emit MIDI on the new channel from the next "generate" and playback.

Default Note

1. Right-click a lane header and choose Default note to set the default MIDI note number for the new block of the lane.

Lane Color

1. Right-click a lane header and choose Lane Color to set the color of blocks in the lane.

Mute / Solo

1. Click the mute or solo button in a lane's header to mute or solo the lane.

BLOCK EDITOR · 9 / 9

Transport

Playhead

The vertical line in every lane represents the playhead. It moves under DAW playback. So, it may jump according to the DAW's playhead movement. You cannot drag the playhead inside plugin window; the DAW is the master.

Loop Markers

1. Click and drag along the transport ruler to set a loop range — loop range markers (selected range will be dim colored) appear on the timeline. The minimum loop range is 1 bar. To delete the rage, click and drag the loop markers.
2. Playback may jump according to the DAW's playhead position jump. If the DAW doesn't loop and the plugin's lanes have loop range set, the lane's loop range will be repeated without jump.

FIG. 03-09-01

Time Signature Changes

1. Right-click the ruler's bar number at the top of each lane to bring up the time signature change menu.

FIG. 03-09-02-01

FIG. 03-09-02-02

Workflows

WORKFLOWS · 1 / 2

Drag to DAW

To hear a pattern, routing is MIDI output to an instrument in your DAW. Or you can export the MIDI directly into the DAW's track by drag and drop from "Drag to DAW" button.

WORKFLOWS · 2 / 2

Save & Load Projects

You can save and load .rhy project files independently. Use this to share patterns between sessions or to seed new tracks from a library.

Saving

1. Click the Save button in the bottom menu bar.
2. Pick a location and a name; the file is saved with a .rhy extension. The current state of every lane, block, and note will be saved.

Loading

1. Click the Load button in the bottom menu bar.
2. Pick a .rhy file. The current pattern is replaced by the loaded one.

Reference

REFERENCE · 1 / 2

Operation Reference

A reference grouped by action. Windows keyboard input uses Ctrl in place of command for macOS.

Blocks

Splitting & Tuplets

You can also run these commands from the right-click context menu.

Selection

Pitch Editor

REFERENCE · 2 / 2

Preferences

Plugin-wide settings that shape editing defaults and regeneration behavior. Open them from the gear icon menu.

Help

HELP · 1 / 2

FAQ

Common questions answered quickly. For symptom-based problem solving, see Troubleshooting.

Why is RhythmHelper silent?

RhythmHelper is a MIDI generator, not a sound source. Route its MIDI output to an instrument plugin in your DAW. See MIDI Output to DAW for per-host recipes.

Can I play a pattern live?

No. RhythmHelper is an editor, not a performance instrument. MIDI keyboard input is supported for per-block note entry. You cannot drive playback from a live performance. However, you can still use combination of loop range, mute/solo, and edit and "generate" to "perform" live edits with this plugin.

Does RhythmHelper have its own tempo?

No. Tempo is the DAW's responsibility.

Does bouncing MIDI preserve polymeter?

Note timing is preserved exactly; per-lane time signatures are flattened to absolute tick positions in the bounced MIDI. The polymetric "feel" plays back identically; the visual time-signature changes will be lost.

How is the plugin licensed?

RhythmHelper uses offline-friendly license model. After purchase, you receive a .license file by email.

HELP · 2 / 2

Troubleshooting

The plugin loads but no MIDI reaches the instrument

Confirm RhythmHelper is recognised as a MIDI processor / MIDI generator and the host is routing its MIDI output to your instrument. Some DAWs may hide the plugin under the MIDI FX category instead of the instrument list.

MIDI keyboard input is ignored

MIDI IN is active only when exactly one block is selected. Click any single block to clear a multi-block selection and re-click a single block.

A tuplet split is rejected with an inline warning

The split would have produced too short sub-blocks. Splits resulting into too small sub-blocks are not allowed.