Translate single MIDI note to trigger a chord?

I have a Studiologic MP117 foot controller.

It’s OK for bass lines, but when I play chords I can only play 2 part harmony.

Is there a way to translate single MIDI notes into several notes, so it could trigger full chords?

I’ve lusted after one of those :smiley:

How complex do you want to be.?

You (presumably) want to allocate a root note to a specific chord.

So that’s ok for Majors but then how do you do minors or do you want it to play in a specific key?
How far into Dim & Augs might one go?

I believe one could program a lot of that up in MIDI maps ( I’d love to see a write up of how one would do that… :- ). So you would be loading different MIDI defaults for each snapshot you set up.

So a snapshot to play C major scale
note C chord C C E G
note D chord Dm D F A

Then all you are left to do is the choice of your bass sound for the snapshot.

The 12 Step from Keith McMillen did this to an incredible level, sadly it’s membrane triggered pads never really seemed to hack it.

I’d LUV to hear some good zynth bass from pedals.

1 Like

Hi @ttblum!

Currently in Zynthian you can use the “clone channel” feature for getting chords. Follow these steps:

  1. Create a layer in channel 1
  2. Create a second layer in channel 2 with the same instrument that layer 1.
  3. Clone layer 1 to channel 2. This kind be done by bold clicking on layer 1 from the layer list.
  4. Transpose the layer 2 (or 1) the number of semitones you want.

This procedure can be repeated for N layers :wink:

Of course, you only will get some useful chords in such a way, and probably not the chords you need, but it’s “funny” :wink:

For getting the functionality you want we need to implement a decent harmonizer, and of course you should “tell” the machine exactly what chord you want. You can do it by fixing the scale/mode or by adding the “chord-type” while playing: You could use some keys from the keyboard/pedals for doing this.

Kind Regards,

Hi,

I would like to take up this topic again!

Is there now a plugin available to do that, like a Chord Memorizer, single key chord,…???

I know, the X42 Midi Chord do that, but how can I store the chords in presets/banks/snapshots?

Sincerely
Marco

zChords (Lv2) ? “plays chords using white keys”
zchordz-mar-21-2020

Would you want a pedal that generates predictable auto accompaniment chords. (could be a micro-controller based ‘filter’.


Yamaha Smart Chords Table 2014

Sweetwater says " A surprising number of hit songs are actually “co-written” by the auto accompaniment algorithms built in to some keyboards."

Thanks a lot MaxMaxis,

I have a Pedalboard with 13 Keys.

Now, i want trigger different keys with different chords, 1 Preset for 1 song
Is it possible?

It doesn’t matter wich key i take on the 13keys, (par ex. the key E can be a F#m7)

Greetings
Marco

Hi @therebell3110

I can’t find a method to do what you want so I have written a new plugin. I am just testing it then will add it to the Zynthian testing branch. It works like this:

  • Add Multi-chord LV2 to a layer (either as a MIDI filter to affect MIDI in to MIDI out or as a MIDI effect to an audio engine)
  • By default MIDI passes through unaffected
  • Select a preset, e.g. Major Triad
  • Each single note played will play the configured chord, e.g. a major triad
  • Manually adjust the note parameters: three notes per chord
  • Each single note played will play the configured chord which may be 1, 2 or 3 notes

There are three notes per chord and a chord for each of the 12 notes of the octave, e.g. you can configure MIDI ‘C’ to play C Major then configure MIDI 'C#" to play A minor. Each of the three notes of the triad is configurable from one octave below to one octave above the incoming root note. If you set a note the same as the first note in the triad then it is not played, e.g. if you set C1 to ‘C’, C2 to ‘E’ and C3 to ‘C’ then two notes ‘C’ & ‘E’ will play when a MIDI ‘C’ is received. The scale repeats at octave intervals allowing the same 12 note configuration to be played in any register.

I think this will provide what you asked for. Tell me if there are any changes you think worth adding. I will complete my testing and add it so you can test it. I am aware that 3 note chords may be limiting but there is a lot of manual configuration required so I stopped there. We could change later if it proves useful.

2 Likes

I think, this might work. I hope it
Thanks in advance!
Greetings from Belgium

the thing is to have an accompaniment with my feet when i play a song with the guitar. I cannot switch on the pedalboard during a song

Maybe the LeStrum would be helpful for you?

Hi Baggypants,

i used to try to write a small program with an arduino and midishield but my knowledge was too poor and i couldn’t find a person who had the time to write it for me, i have now switched to raspberry

[image]

There are numerous apps and plugins that can do that like:

  • Chordz - VST
  • CTHULHU
  • Captain chords

but not for linux rasp zynthian
until today i did it with my ipad and the app chordpolypad which worked fine, but i don’t want to use the ipad in future

No, I meant this controller

I have submitted a pull request to add my new plugin to testing. We will have to wait and see if it passes quality checks and validation and whether it warrants including in this sprint (which is supposed to be a bug fix sprint to improve stable release). You can try it out by selecting add_riban_lv2_plugins branch, updating, searching for new plugins and rebooting. You can follow progress and report issues and feature requests for the plugin on my GitHub page. I’ve already added a feature request for variable velocity levels per note. I didn’t add it in the initial version because I was worried how many controls it has.

2 Likes

This is now merged into Zynthian testing branch. Opt into testing and update and you can enjoy this plugin. I have added some more features today:

  • Chord notes can now span -12 to + 12
  • Chord size now up to 4 notes
  • Note range validated to ensure correct notes in chord
  • Velocity of each note in chord can be configured

@therebell3110 I hope this solves your problem. Once you have configured the plugin you can save a snapshot and the settings get saved then restored when the snapshot is loaded. There are only two presets currently configured: major triad and minor triad. We could add more presets although the real benefit of this plugin is for custom configurations.

3 Likes

Cool, i’ll test it this evening!!!
thanks…

I have problems with the midi out routing :

Pedal Midi in (1 note) - Multi Chord - Midi out (no signal)

How have you created your layers?

Art Ideas for the Plugin

(Bear in mind I don’t know enough music theory to be dangerous)

Chord Plug
Based on this Free Clipart


from Free Clipart

FYI, this is what I’ve come up with so far using the Chordz and pizmidi VST plugins:

http://blog.toddblum.org/2021/02/mapping-single-notes-on-keyboard-to.html

Chordz has randomized velocity and timing, which is nice. My algorithm has an automated damper pedal, useful for playing foot controllers where you don’t have enough feet to play a damper pedal also.