[7/8/2008]
multi-core support has finally been added to help speed up detection processes. so for those of you lucky enough to have more than 1 processor or core in your computer, your key/bpm/beat intensity/replay gain detection speeds should speed up proportionally. go grab the latest version!
[6/17/2008]
i've been busier than ever in "development mode" these past few months. as far as re2, many bug fixes have been issued. significant improvements have been made in the area of id3 tag writing. several elusive bugs were identified that had been affecting tag writing for a while, but it should be much more reliable and consistent now! additionally, new features to support v2.3 tags for serato and traktor users have been added. you can also export information directly to the traktor database. in short, you should have no problems getting key and other information from re2 into other programs... in addition to bug fixes, the main development efforts have been on some very cool but still top secret technologies which will be revealed later this year... so stay tuned!
[2/25/2008]
new audio decoding abilities have been added to rapid evolution, thanks to the quicktime libraries for java! what does this mean? if you are a windows or mac osx user and have quicktime installed, it means rapid evolution will be able to process a lot more audio files, and a lot more quickly too! previously there had been occasional mp3s and mp4s that rapid evolution simply could not process (i.e. detect the keys from, and play, etc). however, it's now the case that rapid evolution should be able to process ALL your files. the built-in media player is also more responsive and usable thanks to these new libraries. so go grab the latest version and enjoy!
[1/28/2008]
it's been a while since i posted here in the news section. just wanted to let everybody know what we've been up to! a lot of bugs have been resolved the past couple months related to the new user interface changes, but everything should be at a stable point at the moment. in the coming months new audio decoding libraries will be researched to try to reduce the number of audio files rapid evolution isn't able to read/detect from due to one reason or another. creating a more robust tag writer will be another goal... this should be a big year or mixshare though, as there are some big plans for the future, but can't be discussed just yet ;-) be excited!
[11/24/2007]
the user interface of rapid evolution has gone through another major overhaul, now looking much more professional than ever before. there are still more improvements to come, but the latest release 2.9.0 is already available with some nice visuals! here are a few screenshots of the progress made so far (from different skins):
[10/24/2007]
the site has continued to grow as more and more users are downloading rapid evolution and utilizing the mixshare music server (which is overloaded at times!). new versions are constantly being released to fix user reported bugs and improve the overall usability of rapid evolution... one of the most recent useful features is the ability for rapid evolution to organize your songs nicely into directories at the file system. if you have any feedback which can improve the site or software please speak up in the forums!
[8/17/2007]
want that skill they call "perfect pitch"? well, rapid evolution can now help you out with that! new "ear training" functions have been added to the MIDI keyboard. read about it in the ear training section of the rewiki.
[8/1/2007]
the key detection algorithm has been undergoing some improvements lately! first of all, the capability to detect more advanced keys and modes has been added. it can now detect: ionian, aeolian, dorian, phrygian, lydian and mixolydian. see the music theory section of the rewiki for explanations of these "modes". knowing the types of keys will allow for more accurate harmonic matching and additional compatible song matches that are not covered by traditional harmonic mixing theory. this new behavior must be enabled and is still in an experimental phase... also, an option has been added to detect start and end keys differently. with all of these changes the accuracy has even slightly improved! still more to come...
[6/29/2007]
the development pace of RE2 has picked back up again since the mixshare server has been reworked and since returning from a honeymoon! keep an eye on the change log to see what's being done...
[5/6/2007]
the mixshare server backend has been completely redesigned! the old code utilized a relational database which wasn't scaling well with the growth in users, and was therefore causing instability and data loss over the past 6 months. however, the new code has been successfully deployed and should be faster, more stable and more scaleable than the old code! with those problems put behind, more focus can be put on adding new features and of course, the rapid evolution client... :-)
[3/23/2007]
support for mp4/m4a/aac files has been added, although it is limited to windows and osx machines. however, this should allow bpm/key detection of these file types. furthermore, enhancements to the bpm detection algorithm have made it faster and more accurate. enjoy!
[3/15/2007]
the id3 tag reading/writing capabilities of rapid evolution have been completely redone. re2 now supports id3 v2.4, 2.3, 2.2, 1.1 and 1.0. this means it should have no problems reading the metadata off your mp3s. enhanced functionality allows all song properties in re2 to be read from and written to the song tags!
[3/2/2007]
the website is currently being overhauled, but mainly just under the covers. the old ugly frames have been ditched in favor of enlightened css code! :-) however, during testing it seems older versions of internet explorer might have problems with the new code. let it be known that internet explorer 7, and the latest versions of firefox and opera all work well. firefox is preferred, but to each their own, i suppose...
[2/4/2007]
a wiki has been created specifically for rapid evolution! this will be the central location for information about the program, replacing the existing user guide. the wiki will make it easier to update and keep the information current. it will also allow the community to contribute and share information. as the feature set and uses of rapid evolution continues to expand, this wiki will become an important asset. it will also contain information on topics such as music theory and harmonic mixing...
[1/10/2007]
happy new year! the user interface and usability of rapid evolution have improved in the past few releases (a few nasty bugs were fixed), and will be a continued focus in the coming releases. the site has been growing, thanks to a lot of new ableton live users. also bringing traffic is the fact that rapid evolution's creator has been in the top 20 of the netflix competition for some time, and hopefully these state-of-the-art machine learning algorithms can be applied to the mixshare server's data to provide some interesting features... the possibilities are endless!
[12/12/2006]
another new feature was released today! re2 now allows you to arrange your styles in a flexible hierarchy, which really helps those who want to create a lot of styles or profile their songs in detail. you can read more here... here's a sample screenshot from the ableton live skin:
[11/16/2006]
the forum was upgraded today, and offers some cool new features! please check it out and partake in the community ;-) there have been several improvements to rapid evolution, including an entirely new ableton live skin with rounded borders! the online music database has also been expanded to be able to add songs as well as browse styles in a hierarchical tree. many more features are being developed!
[9/6/2006]
some major performance enhancements have been made recently. you can really feel the changes, especially if you have a large collection of songs. more optimizations are on the way as well. a new major focus has been on improving performance, reducing memory usage, and improving usability!
[8/23/2006]
it's been a busy week! another cool new feature has been added--album cover browsing! this is now a choice as a filter type, and gives you a nice graphical way of browsing your music:
[8/17/2006]
an entirely new way of searching has been introduced into re2! it has been deemed "filtering" and is very customizable. it allows you to drill down to your songs based on properties you choose (for example, styles, artist then album). with large collections this search method tends to be much faster! in general, this adds even more flexibility to the way re2 can be used, feedback is appreciated!
[6/28/2006]
things are getting better here every day! recent improvements include an upgrade of rapid evolution's database file format to be user-friendly and XML based. also, a cross-platform installer has been created (finally!) which makes setting up RE2 (including creating shortcuts) much easier. improvements have also been made to the key and bpm detection algorithms' performance and memory usage, and progress bars have been added for batch detection processes. enjoy!
[6/10/2006]
there have been improvements made to the key detection's performance. as of version 2.2.17, it is effectively more than twice as fast as it used to be! the accuracy has not been affected... go check it out!
[5/18/2006]
there's a comparison being done in terms of key detection accuracy for the known programs that do this (rapid evolution, mixmeister, mixed in key), it started over at mixingonbeat. i have carried out side by side comparisons, and i'm pleased to say i had a breakthrough idea for rapid evolution's key detection during this process! the latest results show that rapid evolution is clearly the most accurate--please see this thread for details, here's a summary:
rapid evolution 2 (@ highest quality) 65 correct (71%) +17 compatible (90%) 9 incorrect (10%) rapid evolution 2 (@ lowest quality) 61 correct (67%) +19 compatible (88%) 11 incorrect (12%) mixmeister pro 6 53 correct (58%) +14 compatible (74%) 24 incorrect (26%) mixmeister pro 5 52 correct (57%) +12 compatible (70%) 27 incorrect (30%) mixedinkey 40 correct (44%) +26 compatible (73%) 25 incorrect (27%)
[5/10/2006]
the new mixshare server code has been up and running smoothly for almost a month now! you should notice improvements to the quality of the information already. however, there's a lot more data to go through and clean, so as usual, expect more to come... :-)
2 new "simple" skins were added today as well, which are very similar to the existing ones except the main screen has been simplified to reduce clutter and show only the popular functions. feedback is appreciated, enjoy!
[3/27/2006]
the transition to the new mixshare server code will be taking place over the next couple of weeks. it has MANY improvements over the existing server, with the ability to offer much cleaner search results and more accurate information. the improvements to the quality of the song data won't be immediate, however, as it will require some review of the information that's out there. after that, i'll be taking a look at revamping (or completely redoing) the current web interface. so if you have any comments or suggestions about all of this please go visit the forum and speak up!
[2/17/2006]
i'm pleased to announce that the id3 tag reading/writing abilities of rapid evolution have just gotten much better. the new id3 tag library performs faster, and appears to be more compatible with other applications (such as serato scratch). you have the ability to use the old id3 tag library as well, as some problems with it were fixed too.
in addition, there has been much progress made on the new mixshare server! it should be much more robust than the current one, and offer improved searching and web-based capabilities. expect more to come!
[1/9/2006]
plans for improvement are now set on the central mixshare server. specifically, the quality of data and ability to search without duplicate or erroneous results. this is quite a task, as there is a large amount of (conflicting) data submitted, and could entail some major changes to the backend server. however, it will be best in the long run to get a good system in place now. if you have any ideas or feedback on this subject please post in the forum!