#1617

If you are able to get an approximation of what you want in VCV rack then you will have the idea what you want/need.

#1618

Chord progressions aren’t necessary. Most music in the world doesn’t use them.

Alternatively, the beautiful thing about modal music is that when all chords in your piece are constructed from the notes a single scale, then they all sub for each other. This is probably the best way to create a generative harmonic bed in modular that makes sense for singing tonal melodies with.

8 Likes
#1619

Just my view - chord generator modules are stupid. They sound canned and not musical at all. There is no free lunch.

Much better to follow ElectricaNada’s suggestion with Rene or something, or like mdoudoroff says use a keyboard polyphonic sequencer with polyend, or better still rearrange/cut up midi clips of progressions in Ableton that are actually played and recorded. Personally I think that Irjule device sounds a bit flat in the dynamics and articulation department, but you can still play the thing with your fingers for real and presumably edit the velocities manually. Which makes it far superior to a chord generator module.

3 Likes
#1620

I’d agree that most chord generator modules sound canned. Chord progressions with good voicing are extremely complicated, and even with dedicated research, effort, and more time and processing power than you’ll typically find in a module, it’s difficult to reliably algorithmically generate chord progressions that sound good. If you’re willing to sacrifice algorithmic generation, and instead have an expansive control surface and manual chord sequencing designed for this purpose, the Sinfonion (there’s a whole playlist of videos in this series, but this one is probably the most relevant for you) may be a good bet.

1 Like
#1621

This is really helpful. Thank you. I think you hit the nail on the head that I’m looking for something that will generate ideas that I will then work to refine.

I’m gonna check out NDLR and pyramid.

The guy at Patchwerks in Seattle today said the harmonics input on plaits May work to generate chord progressions from marbles. I’m gonna try that tonight on vcv.

#1622

But then I’d need 4 oscillators right? To make a 4 note chord?

@Joseph Second time Rene has been recommended today. What is polyend?

#1623

Yeah, the harmonics knob (and CV input) controls the chords used as such:

and then the v/oct input controls the root note (which may or may not be the bass note – the “timbre” knob/cv input controls inversion)

You can get a lot of chord progressions this way. Making them sound any good at all with a random/semi-random CV would be quite hard, specifically it’d be difficult for any chord progression that is made of both minor and major chords (which is… most chord progressions, probably). If you wanted all minor chords, you could attenuate the CV range such that it only ranged the knob between over m->m7->m9->m11 or something

Most all pitched oscillators in eurorack output a single pitch, yes. Plaits is one of the more popular ones out there that has a chord mode, but you could probably find a few others, like the Doepfer A-111-4

#1624

That’s correct, or use an oscillator that has multiple v/oct inputs, like the Xaoc Odessa w/ Hel Expander, or Mutable Instruments Edges. Another option is to sample some chords / chord progressions from a VST or other hardware synth and then sequence them as samples from a sample player module like the Expert Sleepers Disting.

#1625

I concur here completely. You definitely don’t need to build your chords in a progression (even if the track is in a fixed key) out of diatonics, but every chord cannot equally well follow every other chord in a traditional musical context, or rather only few will sit comfortably. Additionally, every chord won’t fit well in every key centre in every voicing. If you randomly choose chord colour and root note you’ll at least need your melodic parts to adjust their quantization to be compatible.

Adding non diatonics tend to be by way of borrowing from parallel scales, extensions including chromatics, or substitutions (e.g tritone substitution and alternate dominants). Add to that the capacity to voice arbitrarily and even within the realms of conventional music theory you have a lot of choices. Randomly exploring the entire space of possibly playable melody and harmony without such structure because “you’ll know when it sounds right” is a very inefficient strategy.

1 Like
#1626

Check out Telharmonic for harmony in a single module.

2 Likes
#1627

Silly question perhaps: I noticed 16n can be fed power through USB and noticed that uO_c and TSNM, all based on teensy microcontrollers, all seem to work perfectly fine with power fed through the micro USB cable attached to said teensy.

To make some more space I was thinking of making a small skiff with these 3 and simply having a USB hub and powering them through that, would this have any side effects and would the USB cables be able to deal with the current required for all three modules?

#1628

Quick note - the Qubit Chord v2 has a mode (Free Poly) which allows you to use each of the four oscillators independently - each with their own 1v/Oct input. So combined with a poly sequencer (midi or, as mentioned above, 0-ctrl or pressure points could do it) you’ll have more freedom than you would with just a chord-generator. The fun then becomes how you send chords to the module. As @chalkwalk noted, it’s a design process, and it can be fun! Do you have iOS? For example, you could have your keyboard trigger the sending of chords from an iPad/iPhone to a midi-cv module and then into the Chord module, allowing you to switch through pre-programmed chords on the fly - which might suit your jam partner hopes.

All of that said, after a couple of days with your above setup you’ll likely be looking for more modules…

1 Like
#1629

Depends on how you build the o_c - most people cut the trace so that it cant be powered from usb (to prevent possible damage when powere via eurorack psu and usb)

#1630

But if I can power it, seems to be working, from just the micro USB cable I should be safe? Tested and works, I’m just worried if I attach all three modules the current will be too high for the cheap micro-USB cable or something, unsure how these are rated.

#1631

just wanted to add here, unrelated to modular; the best solution i’ve found for creating chords and nice melodic patterns in general after failing with an akai mpk49, ableton, chords in vcv rack, arturia keystep is the combination of a launchpad pro (with the nativekontrol arsenal scripts preferably, but not necessary) and a digitone. it works like a Push 2. you pick a scale on the launchpad, pick a layout which can be more guitar oriented and you can select the number of octaves within a page (8x8 grid) and a root note, then on the digitone, you can either go through and one by one add notes on top of one another, or my preferred method, is to hold down a trig where you want to place your chord, and then play the chord on the launchpad (which are laid out isomorphically/very easy to construct and play) and it is locked into that step. it is really fun and super quick to make chord progressions this way. i really enjoy doing it now and i used to hate trying to make them before i figured this out. it’s a fast, two handed motion: one finger holds down the dt trig, the other plays a 3-4 pad chord on the lpp

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the polyend medusa also does this with analog + digital oscillators plus gives you the ability to detune each of the oscillators per step to manually create chords. it also has the built in polyend scale modes and p locks, but i found it kind of hard to make a wide range of musical patches with that synth. the elektron model cycles has a chord mode that is pretty similar to plaits, where you select the chord type, then transpose it. the octatrack has 4 notes per step so you can design chords with the encoders per trig + a quantized arpeggiator.

what i think i’m saying is,i don’t know about doing chords in eurorack, but as far as hardware gear, elektron seems to be the best way. i’m sure the squarp sequencers are very easy to use but maybe less playable. the kordbot seems a little too pre-planning oriented in a way that reminds me of using those scaler-type chord plugins in ableton. i havent used the riemann generator in ornament & crime yet because i dont have any vco’s but one fun thing to do with chords in vcv rack was to use the riemann chord sequencer with an lfo on the clock input and send that out to a polyphonic vco
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sorry if this is completely useless and off topic

3 Likes
#1632

You can power the teensy from usb but the output opamps expect +/-12 (less the diode bridge drop)… just be careful powering the module off usb and eurorack - if you havent cut the teensy trace, you can damage it…
(Also the Teensy 3.2 has a fuse-limited low current draw - cant remember what it is off the top of my head but it’s not huge so I wouldnt worry about the cable)

#1633

I wonder the possibilities to use clouds as a summing output mixing stage while being able to blend in clouds effects to taste. Can the 2 ch structure work like that when summing to mono?

I tend to use clouds not so much in the basic grain modes but rather in the resonator without striking. The intended use is a bit of a additive synthesis filter replacement; traveling through spectres of the sounds but also having a way of dialing it all back to simple 2-1 summing.

Mainly planing to use it with Just Friends, wish to blend in sounds from norns or other line sources.
Advices?

1 Like
#1634

Is it possible to use the midi/cv converter in the 0 coast and send it to chord from there? Or is a midi to cv module the only way to connect iOS to chord v2?

#1635

Not useless, just a lot to unpack, I appreciate the response

#1636

Does anybody here know anything about the Arcaico Invictus? It’s a pretty cool looking quad function generator capable of reaaallly long attack and decay times, but I can’t find any info about it anywhere. The only demo I’ve seen doesn’t really get into the details and I haven’t seen it discussed anywhere online.