How about a "chord track" in T2?

[Think77]

You probably know what it's like; you make a lot of music in a lot of different projects. And sometimes when you've finalized your latest project... you suddenly remember that you cannot remember how it was all built up chord-wise (and partly structure-wise as well), and unless you're very good at listening to a track and "extract" the chords and harmonies, it often becomes pretty hard to figure out. Or time consuming anyway. And you certainly cannot remember the structure and chords of those projects you worked on last month, not to mention those of last year.

It may just be me, and maybe you shuld always make some notes on a paper or something: "1. verse: Cmaj - Fmaj - Fsus4..." and so on. But why not implement a simple chord track in T2, so that you just type in the current chord for a bar - and then you can forget everything about pens and papers?

By the way: this is no lie - since I made the switch from Cubase SX, I've been making about 3-4 times as much music as before. It's really amazing. Just wanted to share my enthusiasm

[jplanet]

Hi Think77 - I also made the switch from Nuendo, and I'm also "finally" composing music as opposed to getting stuck on every project.

There's a sneaky way that you can accomplish this, I've used this trick to put notes on my timeline:

- Create an emty track
- Insert a new empty audio or midi clip
- Name the clip with the chord's name
- You can move/resize/duplicate to your heart's content
- The clips' names will show on the timeline, giving you an easy to refer to chord track.

[Think77]

Yes, that's also the solution I've been using in Cubase. However, I'm sure that there must be a better solution.

I guess this is a rather technical question by nature: Would there be a way for a "chord track" to extract the chord information from the MIDI tracks (or even the audio tracks) and automatically come up with an editable track having the chords already typed in at each bar? As far as I can figure out, this should be be possible...?

[jplanet]

Would there be a way for a "chord track" to extract the chord information from the MIDI tracks (or even the audio tracks) and automatically come up with an editable track having the chords already typed in at each bar? As far as I can figure out, this should be be possible...?

It's very complicated and resource consuming. Cubase does it to some extent, but it's a very buggy feature. Programs like Finale and Sibelius "try" to transcribe notation/chord charts/tablature or whatever from MIDI files. It's not that accurate, and I've found that it takes longer to get the settings close enough and edit what it messes up than to just write a chord chart myself.

That is not to say that I'm good at transcribing, just that the software tends to do a really shoddy job of it. there is so much that is subject to interpretation, software can't tell a C6 from an Amin7.

[Rock]

I've been thinking a great deal about this for like 2 years... I am always running back and forth between band in a box, tracktion and Virtual Guitarist which has a little chord readout on it. WIsh I could program...

[AD80]

Yes, I think someway to display your chords would be great. I know Logic displays the chord as you play it in the transport, but I dont know if you can lable chords automatically.

[rpc9943]

this is like so... i dont know. very surface very complex for really no good usage at the moment, right? I mean.. we're talking about this stuff but it wont really be implemented, think about all the more necessary features that must happen... instead maybe find a vst coder to code that up then it can apply to any host etc

[AD80]

this is like so... i dont know. very surface very complex for really no good usage at the moment, right? I mean.. we're talking about this stuff but it wont really be implemented, think about all the more necessary features that must happen... instead maybe find a vst coder to code that up then it can apply to any host etc

Nobody in this thread mentioned WHEN it should be implemented. Its just an idea.

[Rock]

I wish the proposed chord clips could have the option to output MIDI. You need to have the ability to input rhythms, hits, holds, breaks, and rest. Need to be able to switch from letter labled chords to numbered chords and have the ability to transpose. You also need to be able to display the chords in a large window that is easily viewable from a distance with someway to see the coming chords before they occur.

[cellular]

Something related that i have been thinking about for a while is a chord palette. Imagine you have a list of common chords (X, Xm, X7, Xm7, Xm7#5b13 etc) ready to be dragged into your midi track. The chord would take the line you dropped it on as it's root note, and use the length from your note settings, just like when you draw a note. The chord could then perhaps be retained as a chord, which means you change the length, start time and velocity jointly for all notes in the chord, and it could show it's name in the midi editor or above the track, and the chord could be converted into regular midi notes at any time. Or it could just become regular notes as soon as you drop it. The chord palette should be editable, perhaps by entering the notes based on the major scale (1,3,5 for a simple major chord for example). You could also have buttons to do first, second etc. inversions of the chords, or have the inversions as separate entries in the chord palette.

Hope that makes some kind of sense. I think this would be very useful. If it's not implemented in tracktion, perhaps somebody could make a vst with similar functionality? Valley's MChord (Which is very useful, thank you very much for making it!) could perhaps be adapted to this?

[AD80]

Something related that i have been thinking about for a while is a chord palette. Imagine you have a list of common chords (X, Xm, X7, Xm7, Xm7#5b13 etc) ready to be dragged into your midi track. The chord would take the line you dropped it on as it's root note, and use the length from your note settings, just like when you draw a note. The chord could then perhaps be retained as a chord, which means you change the length, start time and velocity jointly for all notes in the chord, and it could show it's name in the midi editor or above the track, and the chord could be converted into regular midi notes at any time. Or it could just become regular notes as soon as you drop it. The chord palette should be editable, perhaps by entering the notes based on the major scale (1,3,5 for a simple major chord for example). You could also have buttons to do first, second etc. inversions of the chords, or have the inversions as separate entries in the chord palette.

Hope that makes some kind of sense. I think this would be very useful. If it's not implemented in tracktion, perhaps somebody could make a vst with similar functionality? Valley's MChord (Which is very useful, thank you very much for making it!) could perhaps be adapted to this?

I agree. FLStudio has something similar I think and its handy. It would be very cool to have this in Tracktion or something like Mchord with drag and drop to tracktion.

[Think77]

Something related that i have been thinking about for a while is a chord palette. Imagine you have a list of common chords (X, Xm, X7, Xm7, Xm7#5b13 etc) ready to be dragged into your midi track. The chord would take the line you dropped it on as it's root note, and use the length from your note settings, just like when you draw a note. The chord could then perhaps be retained as a chord, which means you change the length, start time and velocity jointly for all notes in the chord, and it could show it's name in the midi editor or above the track, and the chord could be converted into regular midi notes at any time. Or it could just become regular notes as soon as you drop it. The chord palette should be editable, perhaps by entering the notes based on the major scale (1,3,5 for a simple major chord for example). You could also have buttons to do first, second etc. inversions of the chords, or have the inversions as separate entries in the chord palette.

Hope that makes some kind of sense. I think this would be very useful. If it's not implemented in tracktion, perhaps somebody could make a vst with similar functionality? Valley's MChord (Which is very useful, thank you very much for making it!) could perhaps be adapted to this?

Actually, that would be great. To have the option to simply drag'n'drop the chords from a pallette onto either a dedicated chord-track or a MIDI track that controls Virtual Guitar vst or the like. It's a terrific way to easily build up a control track + get an overview of the chord structure of the project + EXPLORE MORE CHORDS than you would usually use. Looking at the pallette you could say to yourself: "Hmm, let's try an Am6add11 - wonder how that would sound as opposed to an F9!". And you could immediately hear the result (using an arpeggiator or some plugins that have support for such rather advanced chords).

[rpc9943]

they could make a vst that does all this. dont bug jules

RonC

[braj]

I'd like this a lot, I also always find the Logic chord thing in the transport helpful in figuring out weird chord names. That would be nice to have as well (if the logic for chord recognition gets included anyway).

Something as simple as a 'sticky note' tab along the to or bottom of the screen where you can write any notes would work for me though. Resizable so you could include as little or as much info in the timeline as you want, either just a chord name at the appropriate areas or a description of the automation etc.

[rpc9943]

think about vst's like stepchild etc where you drag the midi in. think about it. it'd be fine to have in a vst. go ask some devs

RonC