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How do you work with chords?

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o0_o0_ SANTA MONICAPosts: 107

I often start composing by laying down pads to anchor my chord progressions ( even if I may not end up using pads in the final song ) and generally use chords a lot in the type of music I make, and I feel that currently the process of inputting and editing chords ( at least the way I'm approaching it right now ) so I'm curious to hear how everyone else is working and what tips, tricks and challenges are.

Some background: I often mix minor and major, and user inversions liberally. so I'm not simply picking a chord shape and transposing it up and down. I don't tend to use scales because they make it hard to borrow chords, and I generally don't find them super useful ( at least at that stage of the process ) because they change the absolute shape of chords. ( in chromatic mode, a minor is always 0,3,7 and a major 0,4,7 ) which IMHO is a better way to read a grid.

Here's the workflow I use (or would like to use):

Quickly set the track length

...to 4,8,12 bars ( most of my compositions start in that range often with sustained chords over 2 bars )
Right now I feel there are too many steps to get from 1 bar to 12 for example. Using the normal way, I need to turn the encoder enough times to add another 176 steps to my existing 16 to get to 12 bars at the default zoom level.

I know I can use the double/duplicate workflow instead, but that doesn't seem like it should be the main way, and if you don't have a number of bars that are in that same progression, you still have to deal with the encoder. Also, it seems that you can't ever tell what the absolute length of the track is, and always have to check the zoom level or make mistakes ( I often end up with the wrong length because I think I'm in 16th zoom mode, but I'm not )

Zooming to 1 bar per step

Not strictly necessary, but since I couldn't find a way to have a default note length that is not 1 step, It seems that the fastest way to lay down pads that should be 1 bar long is to zoom out so each step represents 1 bar, but right now that's only available if the track length is at least 16 bars long. Anything less than that, and a bar is still longer than 1 step, so you end up editing the length of every notes anyway

Entering the notes of the chord

At this point, I have 2 options, either program the chord in step mode, which means selecting each notes of the chord one by one, and scrolling up and down ( because with 8 vertical steps, a minor triad barely fits, and anything else requires you to scroll ) which is fine, or using the isometric keyboard, which means that you have to be in record mode, and deal with timing, quantization and you're often back to step editing all the notes anyway, so why not stay there.

Editing a single chord

To me this is the part that I haven't figured out a good workflow for. To the best of my knowledge, the only way to copy/paste a single chord is to change the zoom level until that chord is the only one visible on a single screen ( which may or may not be possible ) and you can only paste it if you can also zoom and slide to find another completely empty area.

Ideally I'd like to copy/paste/ chords while the screen shows multiple chords at a time, which would mean being able to select a vertical column, and then either slide it up and down, or copy and paste it somewhere else in the same screen.

Same thing with setting the note length of the entire chord, I haven't found a good way to do this. Ideally that could be done by selecting a column of notes, and then setting the length of all notes to

How does everyone else work when it comes to chords? pros/cons and tips and tricks?

Thanks

Comments

  • 1
    intowhiteintowhite las vegasPosts: 9

    maybe a kordbot goes back on my list :p

  • 1
    ThatGuyJayThatGuyJay Sacramento, CAPosts: 1

    This is a good question. I'm running into these challenges as well. I would love a way to enter chord steps via the iso keyboard.

    Right now I'm struggling because I have a verse in one key and a chorus in another key and it's got me stuck in "OTHER" scale. When scrolling to enter notes via step mode I get really disoriented because I don't know what notes I'm looking at unless I hit the corresponding pad on the far right.

  • 0
    KomplexKomplex Soundform RecordingsBeta Tester Posts: 82
    edited March 2022

    +1000 for chord step entry.

    My RM1x does it by jumping into step record mode. You can then scroll along the "steps" using the <> encoder and just play chords on whichever step you're on and it enters all the notes into the sequencer.

    There is another encoder which selects the note length (before you play the chord) so I guess in the Deluge you'd just drag the pads afterwards like you do normally to get the correct lengths in whichever zoom mode you're in...

    I imagine being in keyboard mode and hitting record (but not play) would allow you to scroll the play position marker and then you'd hit all your notes to enter them on that sequencer position.

    cc: @rohan I know you probably have plenty ideas and requests already but just in case you don't...^

    Post edited by Komplex on
  • 0
    kbrakbra Helsinki, FinlandBeta Tester Posts: 28

    Aside using the same tricks and stumbling upon same shortcuts and slowdowns as you (trying to avoid scale mode as much as I can as well for the reasons you outline), my method of "duplicating" chords is simply to program the same chord to another step manually on the sequencer grid - it isn't too much slower than a copy-paste would be when you have a reference on the screen, especially as at that point I kind of have the idea in my head so there's no danger of losing it if I don't work fast enough.

    I wouldn't mind being able to select, copy and paste a single time slice on a screen and not just a zoomed window, just having hard time thinking how it'd work intuitively (which doesn't mean it couldn't).

    Warning, feature suggestion time, feel free to ignore:

    Step record has been one thing I've been wishing for as well during these first months of use. A lot of my ideas start with jamming with the iso keyboard (being a Linnstrument player), and sometimes it would be great to be able to "type" the sequence in with the iso keyboard once I have gotten the idea nailed, instead of either playing live and possibly fixing any playing sloppiness manually, or changing mode and whacking the notes on the sequencer grid (where the representation is way different than on the keyboard).

    Some of the old synths have the kind of linear step input where you arm recording but not playback, then hold down notes to populate the step with them once you release the keys - after which the sequencer advances to the next position and you can "type" the next step in. There's also a "next" / "rest" button that skips modifying the selected step or inserts silence - so to get a clumsy C-Am-F-G chord progression with no inversions and chords every 4 steps, you can do like

    C-E-G -> skip -> skip -> skip -> A-C-E -> skip -> skip -> skip -> F-A-C -> skip -> skip -> skip-> G-B-D

    Aside scrolling the timeline, I guess something like this would be tremendously fast to use as well.

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