Why are DAWs so lacking in note context-menu editing ?

[koalaboy]

Having just tried all of the DAWs I own (no Logic, as not mac-based) I realise that not one of them has the option to right-click a note and turn it into a chord, with the selected note as the root.

This seems, in hindsight, such a simple idea that could easily be possible. Select a note, right-click and choose 'create chord'->'Major'->'7th' or whatever.

I know that FL has some cool tricks elsewhere (it's horrid for right-click though) and Reaper has a bazillion configuration options, etc... but none of them seem simple to customise in this way.

Is there anything I've missed, and/or which DAWs have the ability to add a macro on a context menu ?

I realise that 'Chord Pallette' in the new Live 12 update (and likely others) may remove the immediate need, as that has a lot of potential, but it seems that there is a gap here.

[jancivil]

topic title misleads

[koalaboy]

topic title misleads

Not really, but clarified for you.

[pdxindy]

This seems, in hindsight, such a simple idea that could easily be possible. Select a note, right-click and choose 'create chord'->'Major'->'7th' or whatever.

There are so many different chords. By the time you go through a couple sub-menus, you can just create the chord.

[cryophonik]

This seems, in hindsight, such a simple idea that could easily be possible. Select a note, right-click and choose 'create chord'->'Major'->'7th' or whatever.

There are so many different chords. By the time you go through a couple sub-menus, you can just create the chord.

Not to mention all the inversions and different available voicings for the chord notes. This is what your keyboard is designed to do.

[koalaboy]

Not to mention all the inversions and different available voicings for the chord notes. This is what your keyboard is designed to do.

Which is fine for those who have a keyboard handy and/or know the voicings. There are other ways as well, but it would be really useful to have them on a context menu for me, and I suspect others.

[pdxindy]

Not to mention all the inversions and different available voicings for the chord notes. This is what your keyboard is designed to do.

Which is fine for those who have a keyboard handy and/or know the voicings. There are other ways as well, but it would be really useful to have them on a context menu for me, and I suspect others.

You asked why DAW's don't have this as a built-in function. Perhaps because it would take longer to pick from among so many chords and voicings that it would be easier to draw in the chord.

I suggest getting Scalar 2 if you want help with chords.

[xbitz]

https://helio.fm/ knows it

[rod_zero]

There are several tools to make chords out of a single note, and much more than that, really no need for a DAW to do this implementation it would be so cluttered and useless.

So you place a note, take2 minutes to select a chord form the context menu and then again if you don't like how it sounds? and the following one? are you going to waste that much time?

Scaler, Chordjam, and many other tools exist for the task of fast composition with little need for music theory, and they obviously work differently because you need much more than just selecting a chord.

[jancivil]

Well, you can make Cubase Pro do it, and I would not say that it's deficient or anything close to lacking in "note-context editing". There's apparently no preset made for you but there are these:

Screenshot 2024-01-05 at 2.28.01 PM.png

available by right-click and "Logical Editor". Explore them in actual Logical Editor and it should be quick work to make it add the parts of a chord, instead of "add octave to" etc. so long as you understand the logical construction.
This presupposes you grasp how a chord is built. If not you need to learn.

[pough]

Like this?

[koalaboy]

Like this?

Like that. I guess that's Tracktion Waveform - time to demo.

Well, you can make Cubase Pro do it, and I would not say that it's deficient or anything close to lacking in "note-context editing".

I'll have a look at the logical editor, assuming I can then assign my own presets to a context menu.
Cubase, like Reaper, has a lot of capability, but so much is hidden away and requires hoops to become accessible... for instance, why can't I easily double-click in a track to create a new clip to edit ? Many other DAWs do this now, as it's makes it accessible.

FLStudio would also be great, if it adopted right-click menus, but unfortunately it's still stuck with the 'unique' mouse UX after all these years.

[jlgrimes11]

I would guess having so many chord options would take up screen real estate as what chords should be first. Inversions, note ommissions, the spread/density of the chords. 

It probably isnt easy to come to a good consensus on what should be emphasized. 

[jonljacobi]

Not to be controversial, but if you learn all this stuff yourself, you'll find that you can work more quickly without aids and the satisfaction level you experience when you complete something will go through the roof. Besides which, one person's handy must-have feature is another person's feature bloat.

[jancivil]

Like this?

What does "Minor Dominant Ninth" even mean?
The name in the rest of them does the normal thing of stating the triad's quality first, then an extension. Given this case, it will be a mistake: dominant harmony is never a minor quality harmony, ie., with a minor third. Gm to Cm for example is not dominant to tonic, which depends on ^7 to 8. This is the whole basis of harmonic or the ascending form of melodic minor.

If the mistake is to have deviated from the normal order as established only for the one chord, that 9th isn't going to make anything 'dominant'; there is no such interval as a dominant ninth. The name does not work any way you look at it.
There are two things which make a dominant 7th chord: the major 3 and the minor 7. If it doesn't function as a dominant, the name is wrong (if the person who wrote that wanted the chart to be a teaching moment they would write "Major/minor seventh" or maybe the person's knowledge is limited) but the weight of common currency is liable to overwhelm that objection.

I'm with jacobi, learn to stand on your own two feet.