Rapid Evolution
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| Rapid Evolution | |
|---|---|
 Screenshot of Rapid Evolution 2.9.0 |
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| Developed by | Jesse Bickmore |
| OS | Any OS that supports Java |
| Genre | Music Software |
| Website | Mixshare |
Rapid Evolution (also known as RE) is a powerful freeware software tool for DJs, providing advanced filtering and searching features suitable for musicians. It can analyze audio files and automatically determine many properties, such as the musical key, beats per minute (BPM), beat intensity and replay gain. It currently supports the following file types: MP3, MP4, WAV, FLAC, OGG, AAC and APE. It helps DJs to organize and profile their music, and ultimately assists in the process of mixing music by utilizing song metadata to be able to show harmonically compatible songs and songs of a similar style. It allows DJs to save and remember which songs are good matches (like a personal, digital mixing journal) and to even plan entire mix sets.
One of its popular uses is to assist in a DJ technique called harmonic mixing. Once the musical key and BPM is known for a set of songs, DJs can use music theory (such as the Circle of Fifths) to identify songs that are harmonically compatible. The act of mixing harmonically can help eliminate dissonant tones while mixing songs together. Since identifying whether songs can be made harmonically compatible can be quite complex (once features such as pitch lock are introduced), the software assists DJs by being able to show them which songs in their collection can be made harmonically compatible with any particular song. It can also assist DJs in the act of beatmatching by showing which songs are in a compatible BPM range, and the percent of BPM difference.
Rapid Evolution is created and released through Mixshare.com. The metadata generated by Rapid Evolution is shared through the central servers at Mixshare.com, which can be browsed online. There are currently over 1 million songs added to the database sharing information such as key, BPM, styles and ratings.
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[edit] History
Rapid Evolution was originally developed for the Windows environment and released in 2003. Starting in version 2.0 it was switched to run on the Java platform, allowing it to run in virtually any environment. It is still actively developed and the developer is quick to respond to questions, address feature requests, and fix bugs.
Several improvements to the key detection algorithm have been introduced over the years. Rapid Evolution is the only program which can detect advanced key modes, such as aeolian, ionian, dorian, phrygian, lydian and mixolydian. To date, there has only been one serious comparison of key detection accuracy (including programs such as Mixed In Key and Mixmeister). It was shown that Rapid Evolution is the most accurate. [1]
[edit] Community Interest
Rapid Evolution, being a freeware program, does not employ the marketing tactics that other commercial software does. Therefore, it is mostly by word-of-mouth that DJs hear about the program. However, those that do find Rapid Evolution usually cannot praise it enough [2], and are surprised that freeware software can offer so much more functionality than commercial software competition. Due to its vast feature set, Rapid Evolution tends to be suited more for experienced DJs versus beginners. However, much effort has been made to make the program simpler and easier to use.
