My apologies if this has been suggested, but I can’t find it through searching the site.
One feature I always depended upon in Logic (not that I’d want renoise to go that way) is the note/chord display. The note/chord display is a tiny field in the Logic transport that displays the notes you are inputting manually whether the sequencer is playing or not. For example, if you tap a C-4 it will display “C-4”. If you hold A-4, C-4 and E-4 it will display the chord name “Am” (A minor), add a G-4 and it will change to “Am7” (if I’ve got this right!) etc etc etc. It even tells you what dyads you’ve put in, and displays the names of all the possible chords they could belong to. This is a really good feature, especially for people who know something about music theory but not enough to know what a comprises such-and-such a chord.
Of course, it’s possible 1.9 already does this in some fashion? I don’t know. But I would love to see this feature.
Slightly off topic, but I would love some sort ‘chord-mode’ so that when you press a midi note or a QWERTY key, this is used as the root-note for the chord of your choice.
Edit the pattern and enter chords of up to 6 notes by simply selecting the type of chord and hitting the root note.
The chord list should allow for 3-4 inversions of each chord too.
My music theory is pretty basic, so I spend quite a lot of time just semi-randomly playing chords until I get the right ones.
‘Chordator turns incoming notes into full chords of up to 6 notes. Now you can play bombastic power chords and complex harmonies with just one key press :-)’
Looks interesting but you still have to choose the notes manually… would be cool if it had a little database of all common (and not so common) chord types, maj, min, maj7, sus9 etc etc…
About showing chords instead of notes, I really don’t get the point here. If I’m getting this right you mean for example when you enter the notes C-4, E-4, G-4, B-4 in a track it would smartly change to CMaj7? What’s the use in this? And what would become of the octaves? How would the name of the chords fit in the format of the trackers’ columns? Are you using renoise for educational purposes?
Also from music theory point of view I think it would be more helpful to see the forming notes of a chord rather than its name, because each note of a chord can be a clue in organizing harmonies, while chord names are just names (you have to re-change them to their forming notes in your mind in order to use them in the process of composing). Personally I adore the way trackers deal with music: very fundamentally and assembly-wise.
About other suggestions made in this topic I’m with you guys.
I would suggest an additional chord panel within the Advanced Edit window.
You enter the basenote of the chord in the pattern column, e.g. “D-4” and then you check one of the radiobuttons in the advanced edit chord menu:
[x] Major
[] Minor
[] Sus4
[] 7
[] Maj
[] …
[] etc
and somewhere (appropriate) on the screen Renoise would just INDICATE which notes to enter for forming that chord. In this above case, where the user has checked for a major chord, Renoise would suggest:
D-4, F#4, A-4
as the notes involved in forming a D-major chord. The composer would then just enter the notes and/or also inverse the chord (into A-3, D-4, F#4 for example)
This is really so simple that anyone could implement it in Renoise, had he access to the code, here’s a pseudo-code for it:
Read the current note at cursor
Store in variable X
Establish a keyboard array of notes, C-0 to C-9, where each note has a corresponding number
Check If Chord_flag is set in Advanced Edit window
If Chord_flag is set, then check which chord the user has chosen
If it is Major, then Chord_notes = X, X+5, X+7
If it is a Minor, then Chord_notes = X, X+4, X+7
If it is…
Display Chord_notes
etc
It would speed up the workflow. I’d like to see more of this type of features – stuff that enhance the workflow in in the pattern editor. I think the user would have to select the notes (mark them) for the reverse chord recognition to apply: otherwise it would probably just consume resources.
Yeah, just to clarify, and add to what vadarfone said: I am not suggesting that the note display on the tracks themselves change to chord displays. In fact that would be an entirely idiotic idea (unless it was disable-able, in that case, there might be SOMEONE who wants it).
I just mean a little field that tells you what the notes you are holding down mean in terms of chords.
And, as someone suggested, it would also be wicked to hold or input a note, right click it, select “use as chord base”, and then select one of several chords from a drop down to insert across the necessary number of adjacent subtracks (this feature would add-subtracks where necessary).
i.e. right click on a C note in the tracker, select “use as chord base”, then choose from Cmaj, Cm, Cmaj7, Cm7, Cdim, Caug, etc etc etc. This would be useful if you were “covering” material, or employing a known chord progression without having to get out a music book to see what notes constitute an F#maj7, etc.
Personally, I think the display field would be useful for lots of people. The input idea might appeal, I don’t know what others think.
Ok, so what you are talking about is actually a chord entering system, like what Transcender has suggested here. This of course would be time-saving for those not fluent enough with chords. Yet there would be more details to be discussed in order to implement such a feature.
Ok. As long as you know that noone has actually suggested showing chord names instead of notes.
Can we add: Showing chord’s name in a special display field when multiple notes are depressed: GOOD
to your list? Then we can all have a drink and get on with life knowing that this conundrum is settled.