Set a Chord Progression Timeline to Limit Notes in the Sampler

Ideas & suggestions
1

Hi Fellow Renoisers–

I really like using the feature on the Sampler where you can limit the keyboard to only play notes within a given scale, like G Minor Pentatonic or something. However, I’m surprised that there’s not a way to create a chord progression timeline that can follow the changes in your song! I think it would make it a lot easier to improvise lead lines over chord changes, allowing us to find interesting melodic changes that might be outside the general key of the song. For me as a guitar player, I’m used to thinking of songs as a progression of chords, not individual notes, and it would speed up my workflow to be able to set a chord at a certain spot in the pattern and then freely add notes within that chord.

Does anyone know a way to do this? Would anyone else like this feature?

Thanks-
Ted

2

Yes, ever since we got scales I wished for what you describe. Playing within a scale is not half as interesting as changing chords while playing.

Luckily, in the 3.1 beta, we can now send program change events that lets us change the scale and key of an instrument.on the fly:
https://forum.renoise.com/t/3-1-beta-tricks/44551

You could either add a Instr midi device, or enter the program changes directly into the pattern using the special midi command syntax
http://tutorials.renoise.com/wiki/Effect_Commands#MIDI_Commands

Edit: just a quick addition, in case you are not aware of it: having a scale set does not prevent you from entering a(my) notes, the scale is applied while playing/recording.
But - if you add a phrase to an instrument, it will become possible to change the scale after recording, as the phrase will always interpret, restrict notes to the currently set scale.
This is really quite flexible, especially as we can now change keys and scales on the fly.

3

Super nice.

It seams that sending two cc commands in one track line is not possible…

so remember that you can use “Instr. MIDI Control” DSP device and automate it

…besides I wanted to bump this thread so more people are aware of this “hidden” gem :stuck_out_tongue:

4

UPDATE:
I just became aware of this tool: Note Transpose in Specific Scale.

https://forum.renoise.com/t/new-tool-3-0-note-transpose-in-specific-scale/44968

It works like the Advanced Pattern Editor, allowing you to select a group of notes andforce transpose them into a specific scale.

It solves my problem because I can just play a bunch of notes into the pattern editor, willy nilly, then go back and select them and force transpose them into a key I want. Doing that every 2 or 4 bars allows me to get a nice chord progression going with minimum effort.

Ask and you shall receive, I guess! Check it out, it’s good stuff…

Hey @DANOISE, is this XRNX similar to the new feature you describe in b3.1? Sounds like exactly the same idea…

5

Hey @DANOISE, is this XRNX similar to the new feature you describe in b3.1? Sounds like exactly the same idea…

Ah, somehow I thought you were using 3.1 already.

It’s not the same thing, no. When you are using scales + phrases, you can change the scale in realtime, while the song is playing.

Depending on what you want to achieve, either approach is valid.

6

Finally on 3.1 and excited to check this out. Thanks, @DaNoise!