Chord MIDI Effect
Chordz is a VST plugin that allows you to trigger full chords by playing single notes. Each trigger note is associated with a separate chord. Each chord may consist of any number of notes. Play complicated chord progressions with one finger, with a MIDI keyboard or a drum-pad, or trigger chords from single notes added in your DAW's piano roll. Board index Ableton Forums Music and Audio Production Chord Presets Discussion of music production, audio, equipment and any related topics, either with or without Ableton Live. Jan 28, 2014 Live's chord effect allows for easy, one-note playing of complex chords. 8bitbandit has taken things a step further with Holy Scale, his new MIDI Effect Rack, which allows for custom chord progressions in multiple keys. Download Holy Scale, load it in the desired key, and determine what chord each different note plays.
Live’s Chord MIDI effect is a powerful tool. It lets you play one note and create full chords. The built-in presets are great but don’t cover the full spectrum of basic chords. Download the cheat sheet at the bottom of the page to help you build any type of basic chord with ease, Without knowing any Music Theory. But if we already mentioned Theory, Lets talk about it for a second.
Feb 14, 2012 Explore New Scales - 40 Free Presets Ableton Live's Scale device restricts all MIDI notes to a defined scale - it's a great way to ensure that what you're playing is always in line with what you'd like. Jan 10, 2014 HOLY SCALE! Is a free chord progression midi preset pack that allows you to play progressions of chords locked in a key of a specific scale. Each preset has the appropriate key labeling for. Jun 07, 2014 Chord MIDI Effect. Live’s Chord MIDI effect is a powerful tool. It lets you play one note and create full chords. The built-in presets are great but don’t cover the full spectrum of basic chords. Download the cheat sheet at the bottom of the page to help you build any type of basic chord with ease, Without knowing any Music Theory.
Theory
The Chord MIDI effect have 6 knobs. Each knob can add more notes on top of the note you are playing on your MIDI or Computer Keyboard. The knob values are “st” which stands for Semi-Tones.
Semi-Tones are the way we count the distances between two notes. The Distances are called Intervals.
We give each type of interval a name. For example:
The distance between the C note and the C# note is 1 Semi-Tone and that interval is called Minor 2nd.
So that means that the interval between G and G# is a Minor 2nd and the distance between F and Gb is a Minor 2nd and the distance between E and F is a Minor 2nd and so on.
Intervals
Here is a List of all the Intervals in one Octave (Which is actually also a name of an Interval):
Ableton Chord Vst
*Remember that “st” stands for Semi-Tones
Unison – 0st
Minor2nd – 1st
Major 2nd – 2st
Minor 3rd – 3st
Major 3rd – 4st
Fourth – 5st
Tritone – 6st
Fifth – 7st
Minor 6th – 8st
Major 6th – 9st
Minor 7th – 10st
Major 7th – 11st
Octave – 12st
Check out this list of examples for the intervals in famous melodies.
Chords
Now lets take a look at a few Chord Formulas:
Major: Root Note, Major 3rd, Fifth
Minor: Root Note, Minor 3rd, Fifth
Diminished: Root Note, Minor 3rd, Tritone
Ok now what? Now using the Interval list and this three chord formulas we can play Major, Minor or Diminished chord on any key.
For example: If we start from the C note. That’s going to be our root note. And lets say we want to play the C Major chord:
– The root note is C
– The Major 3rd is 4 Semi-Tones above C so we will end up on E
– The Fifth is 7 Semi-Tones Above C so we will end up on G
So to play C Major we play the C, E and G notes.
You can repeat this for any type of chord on any key.
“Cheating”
But what if we don’t care about Music Theory and just want some chords to play around with? We can use the Chord Effect!
If we want to play all the Major Chords we can set up the first knob to 4st (Major 3rd) and the second knob to 7st (Fifth).
Now every single note I’ll play will be the Root Note of that Major chord.
Check out the Free Download for a Cheat Sheet showing you how to set up the Chord Effect for all types of basic chords.
Bonus Tip: While focusing on one of the knobs of the Chord Effect, Hold Shift and hit the up or down arrow keys to jump the value up or down by an octave. This will give you a different Inversion of the chord.
And remember, If you like a chord save it as a preset!
Check back next week for a insanely huge package of chord presets for download.
Ableton Live Scale Presets
Ableton Live's Scale device restricts all MIDI notes to a defined scale - it's a great way to ensure that what you're playing is always in line with what you'd like. You can also use Scale to explore new scale sets, including ones you may not have experienced before. Tobi Hunke, the organizer behind the Ableton User Group in Göttingen, Germany, has released a free downloadable set of 40 presets for Scale. Learn more in this video:
Download the Scale presets here. You can also keep up with Tobi on his blog.