Strumming with AGML2

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Hi,

I am using AGML2 with Ableton Live 11. I want to use the Strummer so that when I play the chords manually on my keyboard, they play that way in the program. For example, if I play a C Major chord, it should actually play C Major; if I play an f minor, it should actually play an f minor. How do I do this? Right now, it only works by programming C Major to play by holding the note C on my keyboard, for example, or C# Major to play by holding the note C#. But what if I want to play C Major, c minor, C Major 7, C7, etc, all in the same song? It would be so much easier and more intuitive if I could simply play the chord on my keyboard and have AGML2 strum it.

Thank you,
Joe

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I would love this too. I seem to remember Ample used to be able to do that. I just spent an hour inside the program, reading the manual, and watching youtube videos and the entire vst seems to have abandoned keyboardists and live players. I don't want to sequence a pattern or tell it what chords to play, I want to play the piano chords with my left hand and hit a few keys for upstrokes/downstrokes while I figure out what it is I want to play. I want the program to strum it for me, and change position of the chords to be more like how a guitarist would play that chord. I thought this program used to do that, no? Maybe I was thinking of a different VST.

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forthegoodtimes1 wrote: Tue Apr 04, 2023 6:20 am Hi,

I am using AGML2 with Ableton Live 11. I want to use the Strummer so that when I play the chords manually on my keyboard, they play that way in the program. For example, if I play a C Major chord, it should actually play C Major; if I play an f minor, it should actually play an f minor. How do I do this? Right now, it only works by programming C Major to play by holding the note C on my keyboard, for example, or C# Major to play by holding the note C#. But what if I want to play C Major, c minor, C Major 7, C7, etc, all in the same song? It would be so much easier and more intuitive if I could simply play the chord on my keyboard and have AGML2 strum it.

Thank you,
Joe
@inanimatecrbnrod

If I understand you correctly, you can enable chord detection mode in Strummer and play any chord you like. Please refer to section 1.5.2 of http://www.amplesound.net/en/Guitar_Strummer.pdf

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Liang[AmpleSound] wrote: Thu Apr 06, 2023 8:46 am @inanimatecrbnrod

If I understand you correctly, you can enable chord detection mode in Strummer and play any chord you like. Please refer to section 1.5.2 of http://www.amplesound.net/en/Guitar_Strummer.pdf
This is exactly the problem - I can play any chord I like, and the engine will detect something completely different :( I don't want to guess how to trick the detection into playing what I already played before the engine interpreted it. There is no interpretation necessary:

Eb G Bb
Eb G A

This is a simple bit of chromatic movement, and Ample can't do it. Or maybe it can - but whatever I need to do so that it actually plays the chords shown above? Whatever that is - it's not what I played, and I would so rather the engine just played my input. Perhaps a third setting, "input", would work for this. These are such great, quality-sampled guitars and I never use the strum engine for anything because it's like the instrument "doesn't listen". Learning its detection "language" feels unnecessary when the information I am providing with the keyboard is already perfectly coherent, and is exactly what I want.

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E_Anderson wrote: Thu May 28, 2026 3:23 am
Liang[AmpleSound] wrote: Thu Apr 06, 2023 8:46 am @inanimatecrbnrod

If I understand you correctly, you can enable chord detection mode in Strummer and play any chord you like. Please refer to section 1.5.2 of http://www.amplesound.net/en/Guitar_Strummer.pdf
This is exactly the problem - I can play any chord I like, and the engine will detect something completely different :( I don't want to guess how to trick the detection into playing what I already played before the engine interpreted it. There is no interpretation necessary:

Eb G Bb
Eb G A

This is a simple bit of chromatic movement, and Ample can't do it. Or maybe it can - but whatever I need to do so that it actually plays the chords shown above? Whatever that is - it's not what I played, and I would so rather the engine just played my input. Perhaps a third setting, "input", would work for this. These are such great, quality-sampled guitars and I never use the strum engine for anything because it's like the instrument "doesn't listen". Learning its detection "language" feels unnecessary when the information I am providing with the keyboard is already perfectly coherent, and is exactly what I want.
You can turn off strummer, try keyboard mode, and turn on hold pedal, play any chord you want and see if it work as you expected.

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Liang[AmpleSound] wrote: Thu May 28, 2026 9:04 am
E_Anderson wrote: Thu May 28, 2026 3:23 am
Liang[AmpleSound] wrote: Thu Apr 06, 2023 8:46 am @inanimatecrbnrod

If I understand you correctly, you can enable chord detection mode in Strummer and play any chord you like. Please refer to section 1.5.2 of http://www.amplesound.net/en/Guitar_Strummer.pdf
This is exactly the problem - I can play any chord I like, and the engine will detect something completely different :( I don't want to guess how to trick the detection into playing what I already played before the engine interpreted it. There is no interpretation necessary:

Eb G Bb
Eb G A

This is a simple bit of chromatic movement, and Ample can't do it. Or maybe it can - but whatever I need to do so that it actually plays the chords shown above? Whatever that is - it's not what I played, and I would so rather the engine just played my input. Perhaps a third setting, "input", would work for this. These are such great, quality-sampled guitars and I never use the strum engine for anything because it's like the instrument "doesn't listen". Learning its detection "language" feels unnecessary when the information I am providing with the keyboard is already perfectly coherent, and is exactly what I want.
You can turn off strummer, try keyboard mode, and turn on hold pedal, play any chord you want and see if it work as you expected.
Thanks for the reply. This takes care of the chord detection behavior, definitely - but I've wound up just using a midi plugin to create the typical 'strum' behavior, where I play chords on left hand, and the right hand triggers those left-hand chords in an up- or down- strum pattern. This way I'm able to play whatever voicings in the left hand that sound good or right to me, without having to translate it into strictly literal guitar voicings using any kind of interpretation.

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